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^ fa) tHe fttumSn^ nf a. CoHtgt £«• i^ Celoiy"

Anonymous Gift

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A
D OWN-EAST YANKEE
Fromihe Di^ictof IHaine

8y 'Windsor Daooett

xv

JOHN NEAL
(From a portrait in the Maine Historical Library)

A
DOWN-EAST YANKEE
FROM THE
DISTRICT OF MAINE

BY
WINDSOR DAGGETT

PUBLISHED BY
A. J. HUSTON, PORTLAND, MAINE
1920

Copyright, 1920, by
Windsor P. Daggett

Go 2~^, \"S

CONTENTS PAGE
A Down-east Yankee from the District of Maine .... i
Selections :
Smutty Faces  1 8
Daylight  20
Men of the North  21
A Boy's Reveries  22
Sketches of the Five Presidents  24
"Neale"  28
John Neal, of Portland  30
The Tabernacle Speech, Broadway, New York  41
The Old Assembly Room  52
Thomas Shaw of Standish .  57
His Diary  58
1776  66
On a Shaker and His Wife  72
Boating  75

ILLUSTRATIONS
John Neal  Frontispiece
The Broadway Tabernacle  Facing page 41
The Old Assembly Room  52
Elizabeth Arnold (Poe)  52
Thomas Shaw House, Standish  57
The Melancholy Shipwreck  62
The "Ocean Ranger"  75
"Dan Scribner"  75

PREFACE
This book has aimed to recall and perpetuate some of
¦ those things that are crowded out of
time too soon.

"YANKEE NEAL"
A DOWN-EAST YANKEE FROM THE DISTRICT
OF MAINE
The First American Writer to Rep
resent "The United States of North
America" in the British Quarterlies

b

3ES

^S

N 1793, on Free Street, Portland, was born a Yankee
"from the District of Maine." His parents were
Quakers, of venerable Quaker stock. The father
was a school teacher. The father died within a
month after the birth of his son and daughter, for
there were twins. The mother was to open a pri
vate school as a means of support, and by diligence, and with only
moderate comfort, was to rear her children, John and Rachel Neal.
On August 25, 1814, John Neal was twenty-one years old. He
had finished school at the age of twelve — a schooling of no conse
quence — where he learned reading, writing and arithmetic, but no
geography, grammar, or science. Into the other nine years he had
crowded six different jobs as clerk or dry-goods dealer, and had en
joyed two ventures as a traveling penman, drawing master and
miniature artist, which enterprise he had learned from a traveling
sharper. Neal had a pleasing and honest versatility, but no money,
no prospects, and no settled ambition. In his twenty-first year, he
met a friend — perhaps the inspiration of his life — a man who had
all the refinement of ordered education that Neal lacked, and who
needed perhaps all the impulse and cruder vigor that Neal had.
This friend was John Pierpont, poet, Neal's lifelong counselor and
fellow spirit. This friendship led to a business partnership in Bal
timore in 1 815, which ended in dismal failure. Then real life
started for both.
Pierpont, at thirty-one, with scholarship, grace, and experience,
turned to theology. Neal, at twenty-three, uneducated, but with
headlong energy and will, turned to law. He had four hard years
CO

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
ahead of him. That did not matter. He was "a down-east Yankee
from the District of Maine," and he relished the contest.
John Pierpont, of genial temper, was a graduate of Yale. Neal
was instinctively a reader of books and a lover of language. The
artistic contact was soon formed, with Baltimore as a favorable
background. Pierpont saw Neal's genius. Neal's soul was soon
stirred with a consciousness of ability and with a sense of opportu
nity at his door. Dire need egged him on. He would earn his liveli
hood as a student by the energy of his pen. He had earned $200
making miniatures without knowing how, — why not make books
with the same facility? And he went to work
Byron's Third Canto of Childe Harold had just appeared. The
editor of the Portico wanted a review, and asked Pierpont to fur
nish it. When Pierpont in modesty refused, Neal volunteered. His
services were accepted. He read every page, every line of Byron's
works, and reviewed them all, in less than four days. His criticism
was so long that It ran In six Issues of the Portico, beginning In
October, 18 16. These papers attracted attention, and immediately
brought Neal a literary post — the Baltimore Telegraph — which in
sured him his living as a student.
Seven years elapsed before he sailed for England. Within that
time he studied law, gained admittance to the bar, and established a
lucrative practice In Baltimore. He had published a commendable
volume of poems, a five-act tragedy, and five novels In the United
States, two of which had been republished In London. His writings
had paid In actual money, and had made him talked about In two
continents. There was enough favorable comment to go to a man's
head, especially when such a miracle had been accomplished In a
delirium of hard work which at times reached a point of exhaus
tion. And It was hard work.
First, he was a student of law, under the guidance of Gen. Wil
liam H. Winder. Knowing that he had everything to learn and
everything to unlearn as well, he applied himself with titanic en
ergy. He worked from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, Including
Sundays and holidays, reading at the rate of three hundred pages a
day, copying perhaps at the rate of fifty pages a day, turning off
emergency jobs, writing or compiling, that took from two to four
months at a stretch, composing three thousand line poems at white
heat on the margin of his time, writing original essays and editorials
as a matter of course, sandwiching In a novel for hot weather diver
sion, and filling every gap with general reading in literature, meta-

"YANKEE NEAL"
physics, and political economy. This was "Jehu O'Cataract," as
his fellow Delphlans called him, — uneducated, unschooled, impetu
ous, high-tempered, and Irrepressible; twenty-three years old in
years, but only an adolescent youth In mind, in body, and in the ex
citement of self-discovery. He had the energy, the will, and the
endurance to do everything he undertook, and to do it by the clock.
Hoffman's "Course of Legal Study," intended for five years'
study, he covered In fifteen months, making ordered notes and di
gests of Important cases. Reeves and Gould's Law Lectures, which
he could own only by copying a manuscript, he copied. And he
copied for seventy-five days, fifty pages a day — in legible hand.
Then there were such odd jobs as writing Allen's History of the
American Revolution, which was a third part Neal's ; a task that in
volved serious reading of American History and two months' writ
ing under constant pressure. There was the Index to Niles's Reg
ister requiring the reading and sifting of the first twelve volumes of
that publication. This was a slave's work, done at the rate of six
teen hours a day, for a period of four months; and the relaxation
from strain was found in writing for pleasure. "The Battle of Ni
agara," and "Goldau" — poems to astonish the critics — came in the
fleeting moments between work and sleep. This compression was
madness, but It gives the picturesque character of John Neal. In
the preface of Keep Cool, he wrote, "/ shall write as others drink,
for exhilaration." This Is a haunting line, so much so that one can
hardly comprehend the creative workings of Neal's mind. He
wrote, at twenty-three, In a sort of ecstasy. In his whole being, he
felt a trembling and a glowing fire, until the very page before him
"grew luminous." In fact, it was the only way he could write.
When a boy of ten, with the Arabian Nights before him for the
first time, he crept off to the attic of the house where he was staying,
and forgot to eat for the whole day, so lost was he in the book. In
writing "Niagara" after a long day on the Niles's Index, he became
oblivious to the heat of his hickory fire until night after night he
baked beneath his clothes until his legs were caked with blisters
from severe burns. Such excitement was dangerous excess, as Neal
came to realize when from complete exhaustion he fell to the floor
Insensible. He took warning, resorted to exercise and better hours,
as he habitually did when he found himself depleting his reserve
too fast. Throughout this time, his editorial work on the Balti
more Telegraph and other papers was not only voluminous but con
spicuous, for whatever he attempted he put through.
d:]

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Such was Neal's life as a student. Notwithstanding his obstacles,
Including his breeding as a Yankee trader, he was admitted to the
Maryland bar. The rest of his Baltimore experience equaled the
first : a flourishing practice, general study, quarrels, and authorship
on a new scale. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, and
Swedish, were the languages studied and made "familiar." He
brew, Latin, Greek, and Saxon were made workable by means of a
dictionary. Novel writing was then to be tried In different styles.
The fervor and exhilaration that came from "Niagara" and
"Goldau" was to find its climax In Logan, or the Mingo Chief, pub
lished in 1822, in two volumes. It was a prose rhapsody of sur
charged language, dealing with apparitions and the passion of
death. The Mingo chief "breathes upon the heart of man, and it
dissolves In silence." Neal never knew what It was about, but he
liked the language.
Neal's reading on the American Revolution, in preparation for
the writing of Allen's History, filled him with another fervor. This
was touched off when Cooper's Spy appeared in 1821, and it found
expression In Seventy-six, published in 1823. Logan was eight weeks
in preparation. Seventy-six took twenty-seven days. His rate of
composition was phenomenal. Randolph was published In 1823,
and was followed by Errata in the same year. Between October,
1 82 1, and March, 1822, he wrote for publication no less than eight
large volumes.
Notwithstanding the amazing quantity of this work, the quality of
it, especially as It was valued In Its day, is also interesting. The criti
cism of Byron which appeared in the Portico was the work of a
prodigious mind. It surprised Pierpont, and It passed as current
criticism with the well read. Neal's first story. Keep Cool, Is best
described by himself. "In writing this story," he said, "I had two
objects in view: one was to discourage duelling; and another was —
I forget what." And again, "Much to the credit of my country
Keep Cool is forgotten ... or looked upon as a disgrace." In so
far as the story adheres to a plot, the hero is Insulted, he fights,
under what anybody would call a justification, kills the insulter, and
Is never happy for an hour afterwards. "Niagara" Is a poem of
about three thousand lines. The first draft was turned off within
forty-eight hours after the poem was suggested by Pierpont, and It
was finished for presentation within less than a month. In spite of
crudeness and obscurity, it stands today, a real poem. "For rush
and vividness," says a present day authority (Walter C. Bron-

"YANKEE NEAL"
son), "the following account of a night attack by a troop of Amer
ican horse equals almost anything in Scott or Byron :
" 'Tis a helmeted band ! from the hills they descend,
Like the monarchs of storm, when the forest trees bend.
No scimitars swing as they gallop along:
No clattering hoof falls sudden and strong :
No trumpet is filled, and no bugle is blown :
No banners abroad on the wind are thrown : . . .
But they speed like coursers whose hoofs are shod,
With a silent shoe from the loosen'd sod : . . .
Away they have gone!— and their path is all red,
Hedged in by two lines of the dying and dead ;
By bosoms that burst unrevenged in the strife —
By swords that yet shake in the passing of life—
For so swift had that pageant of darkness sped—
So like a trooping of cloud-mounted dead —
That the flashing reply of the foe that was cleft.
But fell on the shadows those troopers had left."
The poem exceeded Pierpont's expectation of what Neal could
do, as well as the expectations of his other friends, and a rush of
congratulations and reviewer's praise was quite enough to override
any criticism of the poem's faults. Neal could but feel that his star
was rising. As fervor, grandeur, and action were the meat of
Neal's soul, "Niagara" must have made him happy. "Goldau"
was In the same category, but was not an American subject. The
burlesque title-page to the first edition — "By Jehu O'Cataract" — -
was a handicap to the volume, which Neal handsomely corrected in
the issue of 1819.
Although Otho sold for $100 the same as the Poems, it attracted
less attention. It was written for Cooper, but was extravagant melo
drama, and In technical treatment was not adapted to the stage.
Logan has already been mentioned. It was an unusual piece of
work, and according to a recent critic, raises the question whether
absurdity carried to the nth does not equal genius. It was widely
read, favorably reviewed, published in England soon after It ap
peared in America, and was republished there in a cheap edition as
late as 1840.
Seventy-six, sometimes considered Neal's best novel, was his
Allen's History novelized. The story moves with "astonishing
vivacity." In fact it goes so fast that the old man who narrates the
events hardly finishes his sentences. This was partly Neal's theory
1:53

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
of making novels like conversation. In spite of its crudities. It had
elements of strength that gave it standing even in England.
It should be remembered that Neal belongs to an early period of
American literature. Keep Cool burst headlong into print In 1817,
before well written books by American authors were in order. Irv-
Ing's Sketch Book did not appear until 1820, and Cooper's The Spy
until 1 82 1. Neal's forerunners were only sporadic writers of his
own order, perhaps with more even talent, but with less genius.
Neal attracted attention, showed versatility of strange mixture, and
gave promise of still greater surprises, If not of greatness.
Then another volume came from the press, called Randolph,
"By the author of Logan and Seventy-six," which books had been
published anonymously. Randolph Is a sort of divlnlng-rod to
Neal's character. The story in the form of letters was a vehicle
for comment on public men — novelists, poets, painters, statesmen.
Neal was by rights a journalist, critic, and controversialist. His
interests were broad to the point of being universal, and his layman'
judgment on a variety of subjects from art to politics was a credit
to his originality and common sense. He was capable of prejudice
of a rather dangerous sort, especially if that prejudice was inspired
by any sense of sham or duplicity. Sham was his anathema. As
might also be expected, a man of his force was not unduly modest
or retiring. And with a royal ambition that was happy only In
the presence of great personalities and men of character, he some
times showed the arrogance of the newly-rich-In-knowledge. This
was not a supercilious weakness with Neal. It was somehow in
grained with his strength. And so at thirty years of age — without
an apprenticeship or a laurel from his fellow-men — he sat in judg
ment on the world. Even the Delphlans came In for little dabs of
cold truth, fellow-workers of all grades were subject to unsugared
remarks, and men of prominence and reputation were not immune
from bold sayings from Neal's pen. This sort of thing Is danger
ous. Unless backed by a spirit of acknowledged kindness and re
lieved by a touch of pleasantry, It rankles first and last. It frightens
men away, and huddles them together in self-defence. This sort of
arrogance with Neal was exceedingly honest; he was cognizant of
it, but it was an arbitrary part of him. Not till his rugged years
and martial stride were things of the past, could be unbend to the
softness that was In his heart. Throughout all his life he paid the
price for that wilful presumption of which he was capable.
1:63

"YANKEE NEAL"
The real bone of contention In Randolph was the statesman, Wil
liam Pinkney. Neal's criticism of Pinkney was not only extravagant,
but lU-tlmed. The whole eight pages which continually dinned at the
lesser qualities of the man seemed to spring from the rather harm
less fact that Neal did not like the statesman's elocution. These
eight pages were In bad taste, and even while they were being writ
ten, Mr. Pinkney died. Yet, such was the perversity of Neal's
temper, he would not change a line, but disposed of his embarrass
ment in a foot-note by declaring that what he had said must stand,
because It was the truth.
Neal was challenged to a duel by PInkney's son. By refusing to
fight, he was posted as a coward. The posting probably attached
no harmful stigma to Neal, but the eight pages did. The whole
affair created a stir in Baltimore. It set the teeth of the, writing
fraternity against him for the rest of his life. This accounts for
much of the contradiction that one may read in attempting to judge
the character of this picturesque and really delightful person. Neal
was too honest ever to complain. He took his medicine, knowing
that he deserved It. This was his obstinacy, and yet his candor and
good faith.
Errata, a story purporting to be the confessions of a coward,
followed soon after. This, too, was to get Neal into hot water,
for some of the narrative based on his boyhood experiences was
considered offensive to persons in Portland. The result was an
organized persecution of Neal when he returned to that city In 1827.
While Neal's friends of long standing must always have under
stood him and almost gratuitously have excused his faults, Ran
dolph must have had an irritating effect In Baltimore. It was high
time for Neal to get restless; life was getting tame. He was really
established as a lawyer, which in Itself was an Irritation. The de
mands of practice required a single-minded attention to business.
The tricks of the law did not appeal to Neal by nature. His career
as a writer was being shuffled off the boards. The Randolph affair
must have brought this confusion of feeling to a focus. Neal needed
a new world to conquer, and England was waiting.
This much has been said to give a line of judgment Into Neal's
makeup. If this article Is Intended to accomplish any one thing,
It is to show that he was not only a man of picturesque quality, but
a man of consequence and of vigorous influence in his day — espe
cially vigorous In those leaping and bounding years when he and his
country were comparatively young. He was not only a Yankee of
1:73

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
the New England limit, he was an American of the most ardent and
pulsating force. He preached "Americanism" in every other
breath ; and just as he could rap his fellow-men for their discipline,
he could also boost for their encouragement. He urged that Ameri
can ideals be adopted, that American art and standards of art be
cultivated, that American books and American subjects be written,
and that American pride be taken in all that belonged to this coun
try. He wrote his novels because of his impatience over America's
laggard contentment with importations and her neglect of char
acter and manners that were nearer home. That Is entirely the
explanation of his down-east stories, such as The Down-easters and
Rachel Dyer. And be It remembered that while his novels belong
to a forgotten past, his editorials have much of the fire of the present
hour. In the preface to Keep Cool he wrote these lines in criticism
of his country's dependence on ideas from across the sea:
For a long period, we must be content to have our science,
and religion, and broadcloths, and politics, and snuff boxes manu
factured for us on the other side of the water. We say for a
long time, because It cannot be otherwise, until the year nineteen
hundred and some odd, when we have ascertained, by astro
nomical demonstration, that the Americans will be qualified to
make their own horn books. . . .
The time will come when the production of American science
and genius will bear some proportion to the scale of their in
spiration. . . . Our posterity will wonder that we could
ever have doubted the everlasting charter of greatness that is
written upon our barriers, — our cataracts, our rivers — and our
mountains. This was written In 1817. Passages like this make one wish
that Neal had confined his life to journalism and developed his
genius there. He was a journalist in Baltimore, and from his facile
pen turned off volumes of editorials and essays on these subjects.
He had a genuine appreciation for art, and I dare say that his
own claim that he did more for American art in his journalistic
writing, than anyone else of his time, is justified.
All Neal's life, after he finally settled down, shqwed his aptitude
as a citizen of public mind who was a constant and far-reaching
influence, without holding office. He could not be tied. The great
Injustice to John Neal has been this. He has always been passed
on as a man of letters, as if that were the sum total of his work.

"YANKEE NEAL"
Change as he did from novelist to lawyer, from lawyer to editor,
there was a great stick-to-lt-lveness to Neal In the vigor of his pen
and In the subjects on which he wrote. He was never Idle. He
wrote anonymously for early magazines that have been forgotten
and for daily papers of the hour. That Is not building a monument,
except as the pieces are dug out from the ruins of time. One period
of Neal's most engaging picturesqueness and of his Yankee daring
was when he sailed for England — ambassador to the British, of
American literature.
"What sent me to England ?" Neal asked. He had better answer
In his own words : "All that I remember with certainty, is, that just
when my law-business had begun to give me a handsome support,
and my literary labors, to yield a fair contribution, I happened to
be dining with my friend, the late Henry Robinson, of Baltimore,
an Englishman by birth and early education — one of the worthiest
and most honorable and generous men I ever knew. The conver
sation turned, I know not how, upon American literature, and he,
being full of admiration for the 'Edinburgh' and 'Quarterly,' asked,
In the language of the day, 'Who reads an American book?' I
know not what I said In reply; but I know how I felt, and that,
finally, I told him, 'more In sorrow than In anger,' that I would
answer that question from over sea ; that I would leave my office,
my library, and my law-business, and take passage in the first vessel
I could find — we had no regular passage then- — and see what might
be done, with a fair field, and no favor, by an American writer.
Irving had succeeded ; and, though I was wholly unlike Irving, why
shouldn't I? Cooper was well received; and I had a notion, that,
without crossing his path, or poaching upon his manor, I might do
something, so American, as to secure the attention of Englishmen."
That was typical of Neal, "a word and a blow." Great trans
actions were disposed of in a moment. Though he did not become
a Cooper or an Irving, he did something American, not only In the
fearlessness of his action, but In the earnestness and nature of his
purpose. He sailed December 15, 1823, within a month after his
talk with Robinson. He landed In Liverpool, January 8, and soon
after was settled in London. His lodgings, by way of poetic justice,
were the two rooms in which Irving wrote the Sketch Book — two
rooms on the first floor of a house In Warwick Street, Pali-Mall.
As usual, Neal's mission to London was a momentary inspira
tion — an impulse. He carried a manuscript under his arm and a
head full of ammunition. He had to wait, however, to know his
1:93

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
method of procedure. He soon found that the British newspapers
were not open to an American ambassador of Americanism, such
as Neal. His unpublished manuscripts as they stood were not ac
ceptable to the British market. His foothold must be the quarter
lies, there he would get his grip. He had known the nature of his
purpose from the first, he could now make out a program of cam
paign. His creed was this :
My chief object from the first was to bring together — not to
segregate, alienate, or embitter — two great nations, with a com
mon literature, a common purpose, and a common Interest. To
do this effectually, I must write as an Englishman, or, at least not
as an American ; being always careful to say the truth, and always
to acknowledge the faults of others, especially of my country
men. Neither by practice nor by nature was Neal the suave and courte
ous conciliator to soothe injured feelings or throw balm on troubled
waters. Neither was Keep Cool or Seventy-six the sort of writing
to recommend their author as a plenipotentiary of American culture
in a foreign court. Possibly Pierpont himself and all the Delphlans
would have questioned Neal's fitness for the self-imposed mission,
especially with the smoke of Randolph and Errata stili lurking In
the air. But little Neal cared for the opinions of others when his
mind was made up. As a matter of fact — and Neal knew It — he
had his lucid Intervals. And all in all he had some fitness for the
task. Whatever his Idlosyncracies, he had a steadfast character
when It came to principle, a striking and superior personality that
was quite at home with great minds. No one has ever questioned
the Intellectual power of that restless mind. And In spite of those
twenty-one years of Yankee wandering, he had lived richly In terms
of deep experience in Baltimore, elbow to elbow and cheek by jowl
with writers, lawyers, editors, and statesmen who were close to the
pulse of American life In art and politics. What was more, Neal's
patriotism had a goal and a mission. He had profited by criticism
from those whose criticism he respected; he had learned something
by experience. Altogether he knew his faults, his dangers, and his
weaknesses. He also knew the Importance of defending his coun
try and of coming off the field of conquest with some added glory.
He went to work with great concern and self-restraint. Neal always
put through whatever he undertook. His will never failed him.

"YANKEE NEAL"
It by no means failed him in London. In fact, In the retrospect of
a century, his record grows with significance.
Neal's best contact in London was with Blackwood's Magazine,
Sir Christopher North, editor. His "Sketches of the Five Ameri
can Presidents, and of the Five Presidential Candidates, from the
Memoranda of a Traveller," was an article so restrained, yet so
smoothly and adroitly written, that It seems as If Neal must have
prayed over this Initial contribution to a British paper. It appeared
in Blackwood's Magazine, the May number, 1824, over the signa
ture, "A.B." It was the first article by an American to appear In a
British quarterly. Such a timely piece of news, written with con
vincing straightforwardness, with internal evidence that the writer
knew his story — this was something new across the water. Neal's
article was copied widely, and not Improbably Into other languages.
As evidence of its good standing, It brought Neal five guineas — a
handsomer price than It would have brought in America; and It
gave him immediate standing with Sir Christopher North, the
Blackwood's editor. It led to Neal's being a regular monthly con
tributor to Blackwood's for nearly two years beginning with that
date. All his topics but one were on America and American affairs.
His articles varied In merit and Importance. Some of them stirred
contention over minor matters, such as Charles Mathews' imper
sonation of a stage Yankee. On the whole they showed Neal held
In constraint by the dignity of his position, or with subtle and some
what well designed Innuendoes, aiming to kindle the better under
standing by playing up to both parties.
His second article was "Speculations of a Traveller Concerning
the People of North America and Great Britain." This was an
Informal chat pricking the common misapprehensions that arose
between the two countries— full of gentle persuasion toward a spirit
of good will. It closed with this sentiment :
What, then, should keep us asunder? We only want to know
each other, intimately and truly, to become one great brother
hood. ... If this subject be seriously Investigated, it will
be found that the two governments, and the two nations, after
all, are more essentially the same, In all that constitutes the source
of attraction, aflinity and attachment among nations, than are
any two republics, or any two monarchies, under Heaven.
Then followed further "Speculations . . . with Parallels."
This article was more colloquial in tone — more In Neal's down-east

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
vein. It touched less Important matters of speech and the every
day traits of Yankee character. It lost some of the dignity which
Neal had maintained to date, by making the daring insinuation
about the "high-spirited Virginian or Carolinian, declaring about
Liberty" In the very presence of his slaves, a part of whom bore
"a striking resemblance to the white children of the same family."
The article doubtless had Its Interest and Its value at the time. In
August, Neal's is the leading article, — "Peculiarities, State of the
Fine Arts, Painting." This was a subject In which Neal was much
at home, for he had often threshed It out In Baltimore. He wrote
with unvarnished disappointment at conditions in America, but with
perfect loyalty. It was an article replete with Information on Amer
ican artists, and was given with all the weight of Intimate knowledge
and personal observation. Some of his pungent comment made It the
more readable. Trumbull's pictures of the American Revolution —
the first three — he considered among the most unaccountable fail
ures of the age. "One of the three Is contemptible; one tolerable;
and the other nothing extraordinary." More to the point, Neal
maintained that "a serious versatility" — a truly American quality —
was illustrated In American painters. The article itself showed
Neal's versatihty of a serious nature. His personal judgments on
pictures described were given with intimate knowledge of detail and
subject matter. He closed his discussion with this succinct state
ment: The information that I have given was wanted; does not
exist in any accessible shape to any other man living, perhaps ; and
may be depended upon.
The September Blackwood began a series of five articles on
"American Writers," the subject that cost Neal his popularity at
home. These articles covered a total of eighty pages, and dealt
with over a hundred authors, — Benjamin Franklin, ex-presidents,
and Neal himself. From first to last, Neal took a freer hand in
these articles, across the sea, than he did when writing Randolph,
with the exception that he at no time dropped to the bad taste of
the Pinkney case. In fact, Neal appeared to feel that he should
write with as much detachment as if he were a traveler of a foreign
tongue. Even Pierpont gets this blow on the "Airs of Palestine,"
which, as a matter of fact, was largely responsible for Neal's
"Niagara" : "It Is tame, badly arranged, incomplete, and worse

"YANKEE NEAL"
than all, afflicted with plagiarism, imitation, and alliteration." Pier
pont Is admonished to publish some sermons, "else he will be for
gotten." These were curt remarks to be addressed to a somewhat
distinguished clergyman, settled over the HoUis Street Church,
Boston. Whether this Blackwood criticism is the source of the
only break In the lifelong friendship of these two men, is not
explained, but true It Is, there was a break for about a twelvemonth
overseas, which was mutually healed by letter. Paul Allen, another
friend of Neal, got off with this description : "Mr. Allen is a showy,
eloquent prose-writer — who never thinks, and, If he can help it,
never reasons. . . . His prose Is full of poetry — his poetry
miserably full of prose." William Cullen Bryant was thirty at
the time. Neal's estimate of him was concise: "Mr. B. is not and
never will be a great poet. He wants fire — he wants the very rash
ness of a poet — the prodigality and fervor of those who are over
flowing with Inspiration." He disposes of Mr. B. as a "sensible
young man . . . who knows how to handle a few plain ideas
In a very handsome way."
Of Channing, Neal wrote: "This gentleman, without any ques
tion, may rank among the first sermonisers that ever lived. Such of
his writings as have been published are remarkable for simplicity,
clearness, and power. The diction Is of the heart — not of the
schools. It is, as It were, a language of his own — a visible thought."
The "American Writers," with Its hundred comments, ranging
from a paragraph to several pages, as in case of Franklin, is an in
teresting record. In 1824 it was an Illuminating piece of exposition
to British readers, and as an unvarnished tale of what Neal con
sidered to be the true condition of things, it very nearly hit right.
Its effect on Neal at home was another question. He was treading
on corns, and corns are particularly sensitive away from home.
Besides, who was this upstart but John Neal, filling his pockets on
British favor while denouncing his countrymen? "The press-gang,"
Neal says, ''the whole paperhood of America, were baiting and
badgering me, at every turn, without my knowledge at the time,
because, forsooth, In dealing with our American authors, and paint
ers, and poets, from recollection, I had told the truth of them."
Randolph and the "American Writers" in Blackwood must be kept
in mind to understand John Neal and the literary flings and dis
comforts that were hurled at him by the writing fraternity of his
country. He never stood In with the gang.
ni33

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
In October, "Men and Women," written in Neal's best style, ap
peared. This Is treated on another page. In December, "A Sum
mary View of America" was an article of thirty-six pages — the
longest article ever published in the magazine up to that time. It
was a featured article, with an Introductory note by Christopher
North. This article, which Is a review of a "Summary View . . .
by an Englishman," Is a piece of concise writing, moving from topic
to topic with faultless decision and steady purpose. "In short,"
wrote the editor, by way of preface, "this Review of a single book
on America contains more new facts, more new reasonings, more
new speculations of and concerning the United States of America,
than have as yet appeared In any ten books upon that subject. This
Is enough for us, and this will be enough for our readers." Every
phase of American life reviewed in the book is re-reviewed by Neal.
All the misunderstandings and misstatements are quickly corrected
and explained. There Is nothing rankling or equivocal in the pro
cess, rather a disposition to agree with the author wherever possible,
but a surgeon's lancet to probe the untruths. It was a readable
budget of Information, marked with good sense. Neal said that he
killed off the author so that he was never heard of afterward.
A fourteen-page article appeared In September, 1825: "North
American Politics, By a Genuine Yankee." Under this date, Neal
throws off his disguise as an Englishman, a traveler, or what not,
and signs himself "N," without disclosing his name. Neal ex
pounds his firm belief In the Inevitable separation of the States,
although he believed It would be a matter of many years before the
break came. He summarized his argument in the contention that If
coalition escaped every other disease, "It will be destroyed, one
day, or other, by slavery . . . or by the growth of new states."
The Missouri question would continue to arise until there was seces
sion and rebellion. He seemed baffled at the outcome of the
catastrophe Involved, for he saw no outside enemy, that would force
the Union together in self-defence. This article concluded Neal's
writing for Blackwood's. Ten years late he made this reference to
the magazine and its editor. "Blackwood, Is by far the boldest and
best Magazine ever published; and not only the first British Maga
zine that ever allowed an American fair play, within its entrench
ments, the only Magazine, or Journal, in Europe, an American can
be sure of."
One of Neal's "disguises" which landed an American article in
the Oriental Herald for July, 1825, Is rather amusing. He affects

"YANKEE NEAL"
the genteel writing of a literary paper: "I am an untravelled
Englishman; yet, as the natural result of very early and endeared
associations, I have been always conscious of an attachment to the
various fortunes of Anglo-America, such as might be rather ex
pected from a native citizen." He then refers to an "interesting
event" — the landing of the Pilgrims In 1620 — which event had just
been celebrated In the United States. After a brief history of the
Pilgrims, he gives a full account of the commemorative exercises,
and ends his letter by quoting the thirty toasts that were delivered at
the celebration — quite American In tone.
For the London Magazine of 1826, Neal wrote three articles,
entitled "Yankee Notions." They were well named, for they show
Neal In a burst of good humor unraveling his mind. The papers
start out to give his Impressions of the British, but two of them
are really confessions of his own attempts to be a writer. In the
Monthly Magazine, he published a series of "Letters from the
United States of North America" — discursive letters on general
topics. The European Magazine, edited by Walker, rejected Neal's
papers as "too partial to the United States to be well received."
Walker published "The Five Presidents," however, from Black
wood's. With the Westminster Review, Neal had much trouble. He
found Its editor, Mr. John Bowring, "the busiest of busybodles,
and the slipperiest." In January, 1826, Neal's "United States"
made a fine showing In the Westminster Review, with Its array of
subtitles — ^The Message of the President, Webster's Address at
Bunker Hill, Everett's Plymouth Oration, Charles Sprague's Fourth
of July Oration, and Everett's Concord Oration. With these
speeches for a starting point, Neal wrote twenty-eight pages on
American affairs Including an arraignment of the militia system,
which line of attack Neal was to follow up after his return to
America. The Westminster article was compact with live Issues
and Information. The article, however, made Neal say that the
style of the North American authors is usually the rant and unmean
ing vehemence of a strolling Thespian, when placed beside the calm,
appropriate, and expressive delivery of an accomplished actor.
This was the work of John Bowring. When Neal found that this
sort of thing was to happen In spite of protest, he withdrew his
manuscripts from the Westminster Review, notwithstanding that he
was engaged at good prices.
For three solid years Neal was writing for British monthlies and
D53

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
quarterlies, and he sa.w to It that "The United States of North
America" was given space. In July, 1825, Neal's Brother Jonathan
was attractively published in three volumes in London and Edin
burgh. The novel showed Neal's "Intellectual power," If not his
skill as a writer. On November 2, 1825, he dined at the Hermitage,
Queen-Square Place, the guest of the aged philosopher and writer
on jurisprudence, Jeremy Bentham. Neal took the fancy of this
whimsical recluse, and for eighteen months not only lived at the
Hermitage, but was the Intimate pupil and secretarial assistant to
the great teacher of utilitarianism. Two of the most delightful
things that Neal ever wrote are his sketches : his biographical sketch
of Jeremy Bentham in Principles of Legislation (Boston, 1830),
and his sketch of his friend, John Pierpont, in the Atlantic Monthly
for December, 1866.
By the spring of 1827, Neal's work In London was done. The
thing he had set out to do, he had accomplished. He had put the
truth about America, as he saw It, Into British quarterlies. He had
published an American novel abroad. He had doubtless been dis
illusioned, both about British editors and about himself. His con
tact with Jeremy Bentham had swung his interest back to law. His
literary spree was over. He was thirty-four, and was getting ready
to settle down. After a trip to Paris, he sailed for America ; and
arrived in Portland, Maine, about the first of July, 1827.
With Randolph, Errata, and "American Writers" to his charge,
Neal found a murky atmosf)here In his native city. A woman friend
of the family "condoled" with his mother over the fact that her
son had returned. Upon discovering this attitude, Neal decided to
settle In Portland. He engaged two rooms, and opened his law
oflice on Exchange Street. After a year there was a marked change
of feeling In Neal's favor, for he was found quite comfortable to
live with.
In January, 1828, he established The Yankee, a literary weekly
which he edited and published. On October 12, 1828, he married.
Although he continued to be a writer and an editor, his life from
that date belongs essentially to his family and to the city of Port
land. He retired from the practice of law In 1850. There re
mained the active Interests of business, public life, and general
magazine writing, with here and there a book. In 1869, he pub
lished his autobiography. Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat
Busy Life. He died In Portland, June 21, 1876, eighty-two years
old. ni63

"YANKEE NEAL"
"My whole life has been one scene of uninterrupted adventure;
often very desperate and wild; and always voluntary." There is
always the ehxir of life in Neal's remarks about himself. There
Is never a whimper. "I was never an Idler, never a spendthrift, never
a speculator; but I never neglected any business for another, and
never changed but for good reasons." As he looked back over
his writing at the end of his life, he could say that he was ashamed
of it — "yet proud of it, nevertheless, when I consider how few
could have done it, so well, in the same little time; without educa
tion, aid, or help, of any sort."
It is with John Neal, the "Yankee from the District of Maine"
that this sketch has to do — the "Yankee Neal," as he was called in
London, who put the "United States" into print where It had never
been printed before. He flashed his youthful brilliance. He never
quite caught up with it or conquered It, and so he sometimes wore
the stamp of failure In the minds of his contemporaries. A certain
recklessness in his personality tended to obscure the more durable
qualities of his mind and heart except to that inner circle of friends
— and the family — that understood him. He was an alert and strik
ing figure to the end of his days. He loved Portland — "brave,
generous, beautiful Portland" — and he contributed good citizenship
to the restoring and beautifying of the city. He never made an
apology for his life or rebelled against it. He could say In his age,
"I have been favored."
A reformer is seldom popular, and John Neal was a reformer.
He liked the friction of progress, and a stunt to do. His books
may lie covered with dust and the newspapers for which he wrote
may be forgotten — though the things he advocated live ; but for the
first time in history, the British magazines from 1824 to 1827 bore
many headings, The United States of North America : those
headings and the articles with them were planted there by the head
long Yankee from Maine. Let his private life belong to the local
history of Portland, but let his patriotism and his wisdom, in 1920,
belong to his country.

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These selections from the works of Neal are intended to show that
"serious versatility" which was his — that striking
quality he found in Yankee character.
SMUTTY FACES
{From "Randolph")
ABOUT this time — you will not forget, that I was a clerk in the
jl\. mystery of selling tape by the yard — a man came to my
native town to teach writing, in twelve lessons. He was a precious
scoundrel — an Ignorant and presumptuous fellow, without educa
tion or principle; — but he did write a wonderfully beautiful hand,
and made some pretensions to drawing — nay, almost overpowered
us, I remember, once, with the picture of two red-cheeked angels,
in a whirlwind of fire and smoke, with blue wings, and a great gold
pen in their jaws.
With this man, I enlisted — to see the world; having the most
magnificent designs and adventures In view. . . . Well, I con
tinued my career, till I found It necessary to claim a part of my
salary. . .
I borrowed a few dollars of a relation and started to seek my
fortune, in this part of the world. I determined never to return,
till I was able to buy a dose of arsenick, at least, with my own money,
honestly earned. I arrived In an open boat, at Bath. . . .
From Bath I went to Hallowell, and opened a writing school. But
— I thought of drawing, and added that to It. The thing took
tolerably ; and I then came up the river. But let me tell you how I
have managed to get the reputation that I have. If anybody know
more of the art than I do, I am sure to pump all his knowledge out
of him, and apply it to my own; amusing him all the while, as
jugglers do their prey, by talking about Titian, Rubens, Raphael,
coloring, conception . . . chiaro oscuro, etc., etc., as fast as
I can — and that, you know, must be tolerably fast. This will gen
erally take his breath away; and, people are always kind enough
to conclude that, whatever Is Inexplicable In my style of language,

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Is something superior to their understanding. On some occasions,
I confess, that I have been hard run; and that I have not always
been able to keep my countenance. You know how sore people are,
when they cannot guess for whom a picture has been taken ; and how
delighted they are, when they happen to guess right. I took ad
vantage of this. I always painted profiles; and If there were a big
nose, or a wen, or a wart, or a long chin, that was enough for me — if
not, I was fain to content myself with a cocked hat, or a pair of
spectacles — the likeness of which, I could not miss ; and all the world
could see, at a glance. I contented myself then, with the outline
only : and that, I took care, to show to somebody that knew who had
been sitting. This would always resemble the person, if he were
devilish ugly — ^your pardon, miss — and, having once got an opinion
of this kind, the money was my own. I knew that no blundering of
mine, could ever destroy a likeness, once acknowledged : and, there
fore, I went on, working as fearlessly with my India ink, as If I
were blacking a pair of boots; and the expression was, generally
worthy of the work. Nay, I have laughed, time and again, till the
tears came into my eyes, on looking at my own pictures, as they
darkened and darkened, like negroes, drying before a slow fire,
after the reiterated washes that I had given them.
And once — I must tell you this — there was a captain of the
United States Army, at Hallowell — a prodigiously ugly man — with
a nose like a coffee-pot — no, bigger than that — ^llke a pump-handle.
I made a likeness of that feature — for, It was Impossible to miss
it — and I had a half mind, when I had finished the nose, to stop —
for I knew that all the world would acknowledge it; but, at last, on
second thought, I concluded to put a chin, and some other things, of
the same sort, to It — for he might be unreasonable, you know — and
I liked to give everyone his money's worth; — and so, I put some
other features to it, at my leisure — giving myself no trouble about
them being his — the nose was big enough for me — for I had con
stantly dreamt of it ; nay. It had haunted me in the day-time, from
the hour that I began its likeness — like the spectre of something
that had been unfairly dealt with. Well, I finished the likeness—
and such a likeness ! — by Jupiter, there wasn't a dog in the house,
that wouldn't have yelled out at the sight of it. He came to get it.
I could hardly keep my mouth shut, though I bit my lip, till the
blood came. He grew black in the face, while he looked at it — and
the likeness grew, every moment, more striking. Had his rage con
tinued till this time, the resemblance would have been perfect. He
D93

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
considered — ^knit his brows — and, I am sure, that that balancing in
his mind, was, whether he should break my head, or burn his own;
— and then he paid me for It, lest I should show It — which would
have made him the laughing-stock of the whole town; — and, I am
equally sure, that he put It behind the backlog, while I was putting
his money into my pocket.
On another occasion, a beautiful woman — rather of a doubtful
character, though, I am told — came to sit to me. In one of the cold
est days of winter — the depth of January. I kept her, with her
teeth chattering, till she was the color of raw meat, that had been
frozen and thawed, several times — In a thin muslin dress, for a
whole day — and then packed her off, some dollars lighter, with a
pretty picture, to be sure; or, rather, with the picture of a pretty
woman, with a smutty, dismal face — but no more like her than It
was like my own mother. But I had seen something of women be
fore — and I caught, instinctively, what I have since learnt. Is the
perfection of the trade. She wore a breast-pin; a collar of lace,
richly embroidered; and an open-work muslin frock. All these, I
copied faithfully, with all their flourishlngs, flings, and furbelows.
The effect was surprising — every body knew the likeness of the
breast-pin and ruflUe — and every body concluded that although he
was unable to see the least likeness, I won't say of the woman her
self, for to that I did not even pretend, but of humanity — ^yet, that
the fault was In him, and not in me — for hadn't I proved that I
could paint the likeness of a breast-pin and ruffle? — and why, then,
could I not paint the likeness of a woman? — her face? — and
features ?

DAYLIGHT
{From "The Battle of Niagara")
AND now the daylight comes! — slowly it rides,
^ In ridgy lustre o'er the cloudy tides,
Like the soft foam upon the billow's breast ;
Or feathery light upon a shadowy crest ;
The morning breezes from their slumbers wake,
And o'er the distant hill-tops, cheerly shake
Their dewy locks, and plume themselves, and poise
Their rosy wings, and listen to the noise
Of echoes wandering from the world below:
The distant lake, rejoicing in its flow:

SELECTIONS
The bugle's ready cry : the labouring drum :
The neigh of steeds — and the incessant hum
That the light tenants of the forest send :
The sunrise gun : the heave — the wave — and bend
Of everlasting trees, whose busy leaves
Rustle their song of praise, while Ruin weaves
A robe of verdure for their yielding bark;
While mossy garlands — rich, and full, and dark.
Creep slowly round them.
The shadows deepen. Now the leaden tramp
Of stationed sentry — far — and flat— and damp
Sounds like the measured death-step, when it comes
With the deep minstrelsy of unstrung drums:
In heavy pomp — with pauses — o'er the grave
When soldiers bury soldiers ; where the wave
Of sombre plume — and darkened flags are seen —
And trailing steeds with funeral lights between :
And folded arms — and boding horns — and tread
Of martial feet descending to the bed,
Where Glory — Fame — Ambition lie in state.
MEN OF THE NORTH
{From Stedman's "American Anthology")
MEN of the North, look up !
There's a tumult in your sky ;
A troubled glory singing out.
Great Shadows hurrying by.
Your strength — where is it now?
Your quivers — are they spent?
Your arrows in the rust of death.
Your fathers' bows unbent?
Men of the North, awake !
Ye're called to from the deep;
Trumpets in every breeze —
Yet there ye lie asleep.
A stir in every tree;
A shout from every wave ;
A challenging on every side ;
A moan from every grave:

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
A battle in the sky;
Ships thundering through the air —
Jehovah on the march —
Men of the North, to prayer !
Now, now— in all your strength;
There's that before your way.
Above, about you, and below.
Like armies in array.
Lift up your eyes, and see
The changes overhead;
Now hold your breath and hear
The mustering of the dead.
See how the midnight air
With bright commotion burns,
Thronging with giant shapes,
Banners and spear by turns.
The sea-fog driving in.
Solemnly and swift.
The moon afraid — stars dropping out —
The very skies adrift;
The Everlasting God,
Our Father — Lord of Love —
With cherubim and seraphim
All gathering above.
Their stormy plumage lighted up
As forth to war they go;
The shadow of the Universe,
Upon our haughty foe!
A BOY'S REVERIES
{From "Errata")
LOOK where I would, these brilliant creatures were incessantly
J In play among the stars, which were reflected in the depth be
low me, as if heaven had been showering them down like blossoms
into the habitation of the waters.
Ah, I cannot describe the stillness that was about me. It was
awful. It was like that of death. The sky was bluer than I had ever

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seen It, and much further off, It appeared to me, and the solemn
stars were multiplied in the water till my head ached with the temp
tation of their Influence ; and I was on the point, child that I was, of
plunging after them. Do not smile. Many drowned women and
children have felt the same fascination, I have no doubt, drawing
them as It were by a song and a spell into the bosom of the deep;
and I have felt it more than once, neither as a woman nor as a child;
but on this night it was more like an attraction, an irresistible, secret
allurement, a delightful influence, winning and persuading me into a
voluntary self-destruction. It was more like some unknown affinity
operating upon my blood, upon the spiritual part of me, like a
charm, than like what I have felt, as a strong hand, pressing me into
the water by main force. At one time — the time that I allude to — ¦
we were upon the high seas, a few starved and desperate men . . .
and were drifting, with our helm lashed down and topsail flying in
the wind far and wide, like — O, unlike anything ever seen upon the
waters ! — more like a floating hospital of lunatics and murderers,
than a gallant ship, well-manned and obedient to the helm, and out
upon the ocean, instinct with spirit, as if It had a soul and a will of
its own. ... I was lying, I remember, In the hot sunshine upon the
half-burnt deck, with my head over the side of the ship, gasping,
giddy, and sick, and deadly faint, looking blindly down into the sea,
and ready to give up the ghost with every sick, Impatient sob, when,
all at once, there was a terrific explosion below me — a strong light
flashed Into my brain — my veins tingled — my blood was all in con
fusion — and the great deep heaved and roared, and broke up and
vanished! Vanished like a dream from my sight. And where It
had been there came a dizzy wildness of beauty, and flowers, and
greenness. The winds blew and the trees rustled all over, and the
birds flew about and the flowers fell, and everywhere, through the
short thick grass and out of the old rocks, which were spotted with
shining moss — the greenest In the world — the waters gushed and
bounced, and sparkled and rattled, and then wandered away singing
the self-same tune that the birds were all singing, In a labyrinth of
brightness, with a reality so unspeakably tempting that I had well-
nigh leaped down into the bosom of the apparition. ... I at
tempted to stand upon my feet, they said, and threw up my arms
with a cry of transport, just as the vessel heeled — and I should have
been overboard but for the dwarf, who plucked me back and held
m.e like a giant. 1^31

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
SKETCHES OF THE FIVE AMERICAN
PRESIDENTS AND OF THE FIVE
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
{Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1824)
IT is a great mistake to suppose that the policy of the American
government will not be materially Influenced by the character of
the next President. All nations are more or less determined in their
course of dealing, at home and abroad, by the moral and intellec
tual character of their magistrates, whatever may be their title,
rank, or authority. The Americans always have been so, and always
will be so, whatever they may imagine to the contrary.
A bird's eye view of the successive administrations of Washing
ton, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, will establish this proposi
tion in part; and, as we are justified in expecting like effects from
like causes, and that what has been will be again, if the first part of
the proposition be established, the latter would seem to be a legiti
mate Inference.
I have no disposition to meddle with the domestic economy of na
tions ; nor with what is considered the tea-table politics of any coun
try; but it Is pleasant to observe the Influence of both upon the great
human family, and to show ourselves wiser than our neighbors, in
tracing any effect to a cause that has been perpetually overlooked
by other men.
This Is one of those cases. The character of the American gov
ernment, from the day of Its first organization, has been little else
than the character of the man highest in office for the time. And
yet, the politicians of Europe would tell us, that It Is a matter of no
moment to the world, whether Mr. A, B, C, or D, Is to become the
next President of the United States ; and the Americans, themselves,
have never suspected, and will never admit, that the character of
their chief executive oflicer Is, really, the character of the govern
ment. For my own part, I do not scruple to say, that I could tell under
whose administration any Important law had been passed or any im
portant treaty had been entered into by the American people, on
hearing It read for the first time, although the date were not men
tioned, solely from my knowledge of the five successive Presidents.
Washington, the first President, made the government like him
self, cautious, uniform, simple, and substantial, without show or pa
rade. While he presided, nothing was done for effect — everything
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SELECTIONS
from principle. There was no vaporing, and no chivalry about
it. Whatever was done and said, was done or said with great de
liberation, and profound seriousness.
Mr. Adams was the second President. He was quite another
sort of man. He was more dictatorial, more adventurous ; and, per
haps, more of a statesman. But look to the record of his adminis
tration, and you find the natural temper of the man distinctly visible
in all the operations of the government, up to the very moment
when he overthrew himself and his whole party by his hazardous
political movements.
The cautious neutrality of Washington, which obtained for him,
in the cabinet, what had already been awarded to him in the field —
the title of the American Fabius — was abandoned, by Mr. Adams,
for a more bold and presumptuous aspect, bearing, and attitude.
The quiet dignity, and august plainness of the former, were put
aside for something more absolute and regal. The countenance of
the American Government under Washington, throughout all its
foreign negotiations, and domestic administrations, was erect and
natural, very strong, simple and grave. But, under Mr. Adams, al
though It appeared loftier and more imposing, and attracted more
attention. It had a sort of theatrical look, and was, in reality, much
less formidable.
Then came Mr. Jefferson. He was the third President. He was,
undoubtedly, a man of more genius than either of his predecessors.
His talent was finer, but not so strong. He was a scholar and a
philosopher, full of theory and hypothesis. And what was the char
acter of his administration? Was it not wholly given up to the
ory and hypothesis, experiment and trial? He turned the whole
of. the United States Into a laboratory — a workshop — a lecture-
room; and kept the whole country in alarm with his demonstra
tions in political economy, legislation, mechanics, and government.
Hence it Is, that, to this day, it is difficult to determine whether his
administration, on the whole, was productive of great benefit or
great evil to the American people. The most extraordinary
changes, transmutations, and phenonema, were continually taking
place before their eyes ; but they were, generally, unintelligible, so
that he left the country pretty much in the situation that his fame at
Montlcello is at this moment — altogether transformed from Its nat
ural state — altogether different from what It was, when he took It
In hand — a puzzle and a problem to the world.
1:253

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
To him succeeded Mr. Madison — the fourth American Presi
dent. He was altogether a different constitution — loquacious, plau
sible, adroit, and subtle. Out of his administration grew the war
between his country and this. It has been a question much agitated
among many sensible men, and respectable politicians, whom I have
known in different countries — ^whether Mr. Madison, whose temper
was neither quarrelsome nor warlike, really wished for, and pro
moted and expected the war, or not? I have heard the same ques
tion warmly debated among his countrymen and friends. They
had, probably, never seen, or had overlooked the significance of a
paper in the "Federalist" (a work produced by Mr. Hamilton,
Mr. Jay, and Mr. Madison, In defense of the constitution then
about to be adopted by the American people) — written by Mr.
Madison himself, when a young man, In which he shows, plainly
and convincingly, how vast an augmentation of patronage, and, of
course, power, the President of the United States would derive
from a state of war. No man saw It so clearly at the time — no man
remembered it, after the debate was over, so distinctly, and no man
could have profited by it more resolutely than did Mr. Madison,
when he came to be what, when he foretold the evil, he had no more
Idea of being, than he has now of being an Emperor — the President
of the United States, with ample power to fulfil the prophecy.
The next, and the last of the American Presidents, Is Mr. Mon
roe, a remarkably plain, sensible man— yet honest, and, but for this
last message of his, which is wholly unlike anything that he has
ever written, or said, or done before, I should be Inclined to think
of a very prudent, cold, and phlegmatic temperament. Yet, what
is his administration, but a history of the man himself — or rather a
Taiography? If all this be true, have we no interest In understanding the true
character of the five men, out of whom the next President of the
United States will be chosen?
My opinion is, that we have, and that we ought to have, and
therefore I shall give a sketch, first, of the President now In oflSice,
and then, of the five candidates, out of whom one will be chosen to
succeed him.
Mr. Monroe, the actual President at this time, is an old-fash
ioned-looking man, whose manner Is a compound of natural, strong
simplicity, and artificial courtesy. He is very awkward, and very
affable; with a countenance and address so distinguished for sub-
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stantlal good sense, and downright honesty — like that which we
oftentimes meet with In humble life among the uneducated, that if
you should encounter him, accidentally. In the company of men of
the world, without knowing him, you would take him for a sensible
man, quite unaccustomed to such society, and altogether above the
folly and affectation of imitating them. But, let some one tell you
that this sensible, uneducated man, is no less a personage than the
President of the United States, and you would be likely to discover
something almost awful In his plainness of manner; something, be
fore whose quiet rebuke the grandeur and beauty of courtly bear
ing would fall away, like affectation. Yet, is it not so? Mr. Mon
roe is really an awkward man; and so are most of the candidates, at
this moment, "all, all awkward men."
And yet his acquired courtesy, and a sort of farmer-like or repub
lican cordiality, which, being tempered with much gravity and re
serve, induces you to think that more Is meant than said, operate
upon those who see him, very like that insincere, graceful, and flat
tering manner, which we look for in the European courtier; and
have made it a common remark throughout the United States, and
particularly in the city of Washington, that an unsuccessful appli
cant will come away better satisfied with Mr. Monroe, than a suc
cessful one will from Mr. Adams, the present Secretary of State.
I paid this gentleman (Mr. Monroe) a visit once, on the very
evening before he was to send a message to Congress. The front
of the house, which Is really quite a palace, was entirely dark: there
were no lamps lighted, no servants in waiting, and I had to find my
way as I could among the marble pillars, and over the broad pave
ment of the great hall Into the private study of the President. I
was quite struck with the appearance of everything that I saw there;
—the man himself — the furniture — and the conversation, were all
of a piece, and rather out of keeping, I thought, with the marble
chimney-piece, and magnificent ceiling and carpeting. There were
a couple of common candles, tallow, I dare say, lighted upon his
table, and the furniture, though costly, was very plain and substan
tial. In fact, there was an air of rigorous economy about aU the
decorations of the room, except those which were furnished by the
Congress : and the economy, too, not of a chief magistrate, so much*
as of a private gentleman, who had neither the power nor the dis
position to be more prodigal. . . .
1:273

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
"NEALE"
{From "Randolph")
IT Is Impossible to know this man well. I have taken a good deal
of pains to understand his character, from those who have seen
him, every day, for many years ; but no two of them seem to have
the same opinions of him. By some he Is thought to be all that Is
bad — short of being an outlaw; by others, all that Is noble and high
of heart. The majority, by a thousand to one, are of the former
opinion. I confess, that he Is continually baffling me, in my esti
mate, not only of him, but of his talents, they are so various, contra
dictory, and capricious. Yet, I do believe that he has great power,
and a good heart, which, if it be not dampened by a continual dis
appointment ; and kept down by a mighty pressure, at the hazard
of crushing all its principles of vitality, will either purify Itself, at
last, in its own fires, or be consumed to ashes. Nay — there are
those who expect to see it fall in, every hour, alleging that It has
been many years. Inwardly consuming.
He is a Yankee, too — a self-educated man — born In Massachu
setts or Maine — whose whole life has been a tissue of wild and
beautiful adventure. He was born of poor parents; put apprentice
to a shopkeeper, without education — ran the gauntlet, It Is said,
through half a dozen professions ; and, finally, at the< age of twen
ty-three or four, sat himself down to study the law, without, at that
time, understanding the rudiments of English grammar.
He is about five feet, eight or nine — well made — light brown
hair, light complection; small clear, serene, blue eyes — large mouth
— very high forehead — stooping In his gait; — about thirty now,
with a settled expression of haughtiness, and proud discontent — In
his very tread-look, and tone. His eyes are full of It — his forehead^
is full of It — his voice — nay, everything about him, gives note of an
unquiet spirit, continually In her Incantations. Rouse him, and you
hear his voice, like an alarum In your blood. He Is certainly un-
amlable — and, in the opinion of women, very ungenteel; — exceed
ingly positive, loud, abrupt, and Imperious ; and yet, I am told that
no human creature is gentler — or fuller of frolick — or more at
home with them that have long known him. His contempt for this
world is more natural than that of any other man, whom I ever
knew ; yet even his, I am sure, is partly affected. Else why that con
tinual effort for the notice of the world? Why so ambitious? —
studiows? — headlong? . . . Whenever you see an ambitious man,
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you may be sure, that you have misunderstood him, or that he lied,
when he talked about a carelessness of the world's opinion. They
say he is overbearing and quarrelsome; and, If so, of course, he Is
cowardly. The public opinion Is very much against him; — but the
most that I can learn of evil In his character, except what Is to be In
ferred from general prejudice, I should be Inclined to think had
grown out of his haughty temper, his vanity; his unwillingness to
soothe and conciliate, what he calls the rabble; and a wounded and
impatient spirit, sore with continual buffeting — gored Into warfare
— and determined never to yield.
I ask then if he is melancholy — low spirited — or troubled with Ill-
health, like other men of a literary or poetical habit. But I am told
that he is never melancholy; never low-spirited — that he Is never
more than serious, angry, or stern ; — sustained by Inexhaustible ani
mal spirits . . . and never sick. If such be the case he may do
something to redeem himself, after all. Let him learn a little dis
cretion, subdue his hot temper . . . hurry less In his manifestations
of feeling, and — who knows if he may not die a very decent sort of
man.

There swaggers John Neal . . .
In letters, too soon is as bad as too late;
Could he only have waited he might have been great.
—From Lowell's "A Fable for Critics.'

[;293

JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
The First American Lecturer to Advocate
THE Rights of Women
(Broadway Tabernacle, 1843)
IN the annals of Woman Suffrage, John Neal has been relegated
to foot-notes. He has been snuffed out as a "silent influence."
This Is a grave Injustice. John Neal was a genius; true it Is, he
scattered his genius Into many channels at a loss. But of all men,
he was active, and of all men vigorous, and he was not silent. His
potent work in the cause of women, preceded the organization of
Woman Suffrage, preceded the more orderly years of our literary
and public life, for which reason the records of his work are all but
lost. Out of the picturesqueness of his activity, there remain, how
ever, the fragments of a teeming mind, — fragments that are an im
perishable evidence of John Neal's wisdom and foresight.
He was an influence in a growing and formative period of the
history of his country. He was known In two continents ; his writ
ings were in the daily press, In every American magazine, and re
currently in every magazine that reached the masses. His was the
very pen to jog people out of their ruts and to set them talking. In
1843, the announcement of his lecture filled the Tabernacle In New
York, the largest auditorium in the city. Men were few at that
time who chose the subject. Yet, it was a subject familiar to him.
The official history of Woman Suffrage begins with this sentence :
"The prolonged slavery of woman Is the darkest page In human his
tory." That sentence is a faithful epitome of John Neal's address
at the Tabernacle, New York City, January 24, 1 843. It is a signifi
cant fact that Neal's first published book was dedicated to "His
Country Women," that one of the most spontaneous articles he
wrote for Blackwood's Magazine In London in 1824 was "Men
and Women," — an article prompted by his admiration for Joanna
BalUie and his unwavering belief that the genius of woman Is In
every way equal to the genius of man. It Is a significant fact that
John Neal's last novel was entitled True Womanhood, and that the
last pages of his autobiography are a summary of his contentions on
n3o3

JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
Woman's Rights. It Is also significant that his Tabernacle speech,
together with his editorial campaign that followed it, came in 1843,
midway between the Inception of the "Property Bill" proposed by
Judge Hertell In 1836 and the passage of the Property Bill which
made history In 1848. John Neal was not a silent influence.
On no subject did he have greater conviction than on the Rights
of Women. No subject dawned on the mind of his wild youth or
unfolded In the later years of calm and maturity with greater clar
ity than did the subject of Woman Suffrage. And no subject was
rubbed into the public mind, buttressed by vigorous evidence that
is now the accepted evidence on the subject, as was Woman's
Rights, from the time he first declared his views in Portland,
Maine, July 4, 1832, until he finished the last page of his auto
biography In that city in 1869.
To examine the records of John Neal's activity in the cause of
Women Is to know that he was a man of supreme conviction and of
determined force. However thoughtlessly people Hstened to, or
read, his arguments, on account of prejudice, his arguments were
there, food for reflection. His personality was there to launch the
agitation. In Baltimore, about 1823, when Neal was thirty years old, he
first saw the light. He was making his first speech in public. The
Missouri controversy was under discussion at a debating society.
As all the argument was settling against slavery, Neal jumped to his
feet to make a legal argument in its defense. "If minors could be
held to a qualified bondage, so that their earnings went to their par
ents, for twenty-one years . . . why not for life ?" "Who shall be
the judge, when it is asked how long an apprentice, a child, or a
wife — and here the great question of woman's rights and woman's
wrongs, with all its tremendous bearings, in all their magnitude,
opened upon me, as by a ffash of lightning — when It shall be asked,
how long they shall be rendered by law incapable of acquiring, hold
ing, or transmitting property, except under special conditions, like
the slave?"
He carried this idea to London, in 1824, where it grew upon him
. with force and conviction while he was laboring to convert the aged
Jeremy Bentham to his views, as he assures us he did before he left
London in 1827. And with Neal's tremendous energy and acute
mind, there is no knowing what his casual influence was in the circle
of the great and opening minds of his companions. The subject in
one form or another was up for discussion. At the London Debat-
DO

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Ing Society, "made up of Oxford and Cambridge graduates, young
and middle-aged barristers, and members of parliament," Neal,
with John Stuart Mill among others, prepared questions for de
bate. Among Neal's questions are these: "That the Intellectual
powers of the two sexes are equal," and "That slavery may be justi
fiable." This second question, reminiscent of his Baltimore debate
was apparently intended to Introduce an exposition of woman's
rights. The Blackwood's article of October, 1824, with the title
"Men and Women" is sufficient proof that Neal's mind was on the
qui vive for the equality of woman, and that all Neal's claim as to
his agitation of the subject during his London residence from Janu
ary, 1824, to the spring of 1827, may be taken at face value. It is
worth a moment's speculation to picture Neal and John Stuart Mill
together. Mill was just a walking syllogism to Neal's mind — he was
about eighteen when Neal met him — and devoid of all that spon
taneous enthusiasm which to Neal was the breath of life. Yet, they
were together on Neal's Sunday walks and on his botany expedi
tions over London. They must have talked freely. Twenty years
later, Neal was to be expounding the Rights of Women at the Tab
ernacle, New York City, and a few years after that, Mill was to be
champion of the cause in Great Britain.
Tht Blackwood article — "Men and Women" — was timely, and
it rang true. It made no point of suffrage, but it was an eloquent
declaration on woman's genius and equality. It went beyond the
accepted standard of woman's ability. It was nobly written, and its
sincerity was contagious. It discloses. In a way, Neal's whole atti
tude toward woman, and his idea of education :
"I am for treating women like rational beings ... I would
have women treated like men of common sense."
His article was devoted to this contention, "that women are not
inferior to men, but only unlike men. In their Intellectual proper
ties." He challenged the prevailing notion that women have less
Imagination than men. He drives his point home with close reason
ing and ample illustration, and comes to this conclusion: "Wait until
women are educated like men — treated like men — and permitted to
talk freely, without being put to shame, because they are women : —
wait. Indeed, until there have been as many female writers, as there
were male writers, before Shakespeare and Cervantes appeared;
and, so far as the imagination, alone, of either is concerned, I do not
scruple to say, that they will be fully equalled by women."
This article was occasioned by an "Essay on Celebrated Writers"
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JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
In Blackwood's, which began with a tribute of praise to Joanna
Balllie, whose works Neal admired. His article on "Men and
Women" was addressed to the editor of the magazine: "Dear
North, Heaven be praised! — the cause of woman has at last found
a serious defender {m Blackwood's) . . . I am glad."
One of the pleasantest evenings of Neal's life, by the kindness of
Lady Bentham (wife of Sir Samuel Bentham), was spent in the
company of Mrs. Balllie. And we may Infer that that evening was
the outcome of Neal's Equality article in Blackwood's Magazine.
Neal returned to Portland in the summer of 1827. In 1828, he
established and edited The Yankee. Here again he touched upon
his perennial subject under such headings as "Parties and Women,"
"Rights of Women," "Capacities of Women," and others of this
sort. It was In 1832, however, that one of Neal's more momentous in
spirations came. At this time he made his first public speech on the
subject of women — a date that marks the beginning of his career as
a popular advocate of Woman's Rights. Speaking almost im
promptu, filling the vacancy of an orator who had disappointed his
audience, Neal stood In the pulpit of the Second Parish Church of
Portland, July 4, 1832, to talk on Freedom. Freedom, to Neal, in
evitably Introduced the subject of slavery, and slavery — to Neal —
was not confined to the negro. And so when Neal approached the
subject of slavery, his ready-and-walting illustration was the status
of woman. Her Inability to hold property as men do, her Inability
to vote, though she pay taxes,- — these were the very illustrations of
taxation without representation which the fathers had struggled
against. And so he argued; but this was strange talk — just fire
works — for 1832. The Portland Evening Advertiser had only this
to say: This subject was discussed in a very amusing and original
manner, but we suspect the fair are well satisfied with their present
influence, notwithstanding Mr. Neal's objection that men make all
the laws for the other sex, and give them no voice in legislation.
The paper reports, however, that the oration was listened to with
great attention.
This address led to others on the same subject. Lecturing was a
common and growing practice at the time, and Neal's activity In this
direction Included tours outside the State. But all this was merely
preliminary to a more dynamic agitation and unfoldment of the sub
ject for which Neal was to be responsible.
In 1843, Neal was editor of the Brother Jonathan, a popular
n333

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
weekly in New York; and in this particular year, he was having a
free hand at the editorial desk. Popular lectures at the Tabernacle
under the auspices of the Mechanics' Library Association were the
vogue of the winter, and every subject of the day was there brought
before the people. The lectures were attended by all classes of the
population, including the idle listener along with the more alert.
Horace Greeley could be heard on Capital Punishment, and men of
equal note spoke on topics of the day. On January 24, 1843, John
Neal lectured there on the "Rights of Women." The novelty — If
not the daring of the subject — created a mild sensation. The Tab
ernacle, according to the New York Herald, was "crammed to the
ceiling. Such a display of feminine grace and loveliness has seldom
before blessed that Sanctuary. The subject announced for the lec
ture was an exciting one, and the ladies seemed determined to
muster all their forces for the occasion. Even John Neal seemed
somewhat discomfited when he rose In the full blaze of that fas
cination and becoming beauty." Neal spoke without notes, basing
his argument on his fundamental contention that woman's position
analyzed to the last degree puts her in the bondage of a slave. He
put great stress on his "taxation without representation" idea, made
ironical force out of his questions, "Are women people?" and "Are
women citizens?" indicted men as tyrants, assured the women that
he had more faith In them than he had in man, treated the whole
subject in bold outline with the large satire of a dramatist, came to
a stop, took a glass of water, and sat down. The Herald, In un
friendly attitude, says the lecture was surprisingly brief, which prob
ably means that It was less than an hour. It Is not unlikely that
"even John Neal" was somewhat awed to find himself before an
audience of such magnitude, displaying earnestness on a subject
with which his audience was not In sympathy — a subject, In fact,
which they hardly took seriously.
Whatever the momentary effect of the Tabernacle speech, it led
to much discussion. The Herald in sarcastic vein found the lecture
nothing short of entertaining. The Tribune devoted a first column
editorial to the lecture, which editorial admitted that it was colored
with the "Inveterate masculine prejudice" of the reviewer. After a
merry reference to the " 'Pantalette Invinclbles' or the 'Bustle Gren
adiers' whose appearance would be quite martial In times of peace,
but who would fail 'mounting guard' In a January snow-storm," the
editor went on to say that "this whole theory of 'The Rights of
Women' is too absurd to argue against."
[343

JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
The newspapers of the city had their individual comment to
make, and the literary magazines followed suit with theirs. But
Neal was undaunted. The next week, he was again at the Tab
ernacle, booked for a lecture on "General Reading." Whether he
premeditated this move or not, he used the opportunity to answer
his reviewers and meet every objection they had made to his argu
ment. Again the Herald gave Neal as unfavorable a report as
possible, but committed itself to this significant remark, that Neal
repeated "with all the gravity of a man in earnest, as solemn truths,
the grotesque and absurd doctrines which his former audience had
charitably received as meant for little else than the jokes of a man
fond of humor and fantastic notions."
This shows what a solitary figure Neal was, standing before a
Tabernacle audience of from two to three thousand persons in
1843. This Is an early date, for suffrage did not have Its historical
birth until June 12, 1840, at the World's Anti-slavery Convention
in London. The woman's rights movement was not to have its first
meeting until 1848 at Seneca Falls, and this same Tabernacle was
to be the scene of the "Mob" Convention, ten years later, when the
disturbance for two days was to make it impossible for the news
papers to report adequately the proceedings of the meeting. The
Herald, which laughed at the solitary speaker in 1843, was also to
see only "comic history" In the Mob Convention ten years later.
To be sure. Judge Hertell and Judge Hurlburt had made them
selves heard in smaller gatherings in behalf of the Property Bill,
but let the "Fighting Quaker," John Neal, come in for his due
for standing his ground In dead earnest before the multitude.
The sort of opposition recorded In the Herald was the very thing
to multiply Neal's energy. He was not silenced, but was just be
ginning to drive his subject home. On February 8 he met Park
Benjamin (editor of the New World) and Col. William Leete
Stone on the Tabernacle platform to answer their arguments on the
question, "Do Women Enjoy All the Political Rights to Which
They Are Entitled?" This "debate" as it was called, was probably
a failure as a serious discussion, as such exhibitions are likely to be,
and must always have been, before a Tabernacle audience. Neal
points to the fact in his Wandering Recollections that his opponents
monopolized all the time of the evening, allowing him only forty
minutes and no time to reply.
There was an Interesting incident in connection with_ this pro
gram The night before the debate, Horace Greeley, in an edi-
[353

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
torlal, printed a letter from a correspondent. He withheld the
woman's name, but referred to her as "one of the chief ornaments
and Instructors of the gentler sex in our country." In view of Mrs.
Farnham's answers to Neal's arguments that were to appear In the
Brother Jonathan the following summer, It is not improbable that
the author of the letter to Greeleyvwas Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham.
The letter read as follows :
Mr. Greeley: I have just heard that you are to appear to
morrow evening as the champion of Women. May I suggest
whether it Is not best to challenge for them first those rights
which they most need, and by privation of which they are most
aggrieved? These seem to me to be the right of an oppressed
wife to her children, and her separate right to a portion of her
husband's property — certainly to that which she acquired either
by Inheritance, gift or her own efforts. You cannot but have ob
served how cruelly the present law operates upon the Industrious
class of women, their stinted earnings and patient savings being
so often at the mercy of brutified husbands.
I confess I have no desire that my sex should acquire political
privileges, so called. I think, with a sagacious friend of mine,
'that in gaining the rights of men they would virtually surrender
the rights of women' — the office of peace-maker — ^the power to
strike harmony out of discords — all the gentler domestic in
fluences — all the work of the Inner temple."
Mr. Greeley corrected the misapprehension that he was to have
anything to do with the debate, then commented on the letter by
saying — "Its suggestions are every way so truthful and judicious
that we cannot refrain from submitting them to our readers. . . .
If our champions of the Political Rights of Women would only ad
dress themselves directly to the removal of the flagrant wrongs
under which they suffer, the fruits of their labors would be earlier
and less equivocal In character. It is not necessary to the redress
of these grievances that our women shoulder muskets or cast bal
lots. All that is required is simply that they know their wrongs and
firmly, mildly petition for their redress. Let them do this and the
evils from which they suffer will vanish forever." This was Hor
ace Greeley In 1843, who, within ten years, was open to conviction
that stronger measures than a mild petition, were necessary. And
If our correspondent was Mrs. Farnham, she, too, was to change
her view in the course of time.
D63

JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
The Tabernacle meetings had set Neal into the harness at a
steady gait. He was an editor, and was more at home at his desk
than on the platform. The discussions and the opposition had
brought Neal down to the whole bed-rock of solid facts and Issues
that a general lecture Is likely to pass over. He now had a tena
cious hold of his subject and a dogged determination to make both
men and women see that economic and legal conditions concerning
women were bound to force very drastic reform which in the course
of time must lead to woman suffrage.
On June 17, Neal's lecture on the "Rights of Women" was pub
lished in the brother Jonathan, where It took wing to a still wider
public than the lecture had reached. Following this publication of
the lecture, the Brother Jonathan carried on a sort of debate be
tween Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham and John Neal, which ran from
June to August. Considering Mrs. Farnham's standing as an ex
ponent of woman's superiority and the prominence of Mr. Neal,
these exchanges of opinion must have been widely and seriously
read, and the subject under discussion must have taken on a more
two-sided aspect In public opinion. Both discussed the subject with
great detail, and submitted their views with marked seriousness and
courtesy. Mrs. Farnham stuck to her favorite conviction that woman had
her "distinct sphere of action," that outside the working classes she
enjoyed much comfort, and that all she needed to right her wrongs
was the moral influence of her sex. Some of Mr. Neal's answers
to her argument, show the workings of his mind. He replies :
"But woman's declaration of rights, you say. Is, 'I am a wife and
a mother ! To be these Is my freedom, to be other is slavery.'
"But suppose she happened to be neither, — according to your own
definition, she Is a slave. We have some hundreds of thousands of
women In this country who are neither wives nor mothers — nor
ever will be — would you leave them nothing to console them ? . . .
"You maintain that woman Is unfitted by nature to enjoy them
(political rights), — and you prove that she does not understand
them, nor desire them. So much the worse for her 1 This is the
very thing that we complain of. There are countless millions of men
upon the earth who do not understand what we call liberty,— who
are wholly unacquainted with It,— who are unfitted by nature to en
joy It,— and what then? Shall we leave them in their blindness and
helplessness, and go on the other side? Or, when we see their
hands groping about in the darkness,— and their eyes straining
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A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
after the unknown God, — shall we not lift our voices for their en
couragement, and shout to them to be of good cheer, and that help
Cometh I . . .
"You admit much, when you acknowledge that woman 'suffers by
bad legislation,' that she is Insufficiently protected In her property
rights ; that all her earnings may be taken from her 'by the villainy
or jnisfortunes of her husband', that she Is a 'nonentity in the eyes
of the law,' — much — very much ! — but still more, when you acknow
ledge that men are responsible for these grievances.
"Do you not see that by these very admissions, you answer your
own arguments, respecting the identity of interest between men and
women?" Neal's closing words to his adversary show to what extent he had
sifted his subject and come to an angle of vision: "Allow me . . .
to pray that you will never lose sight of the great object we both
have In view. Much of the difference of opinion between us, you
see, has grown out of a misunderstanding. You have argued this
question, and so have others, just as if I wanted to oblige women, by
law, to take the field In person — to carry the Senate chamber by
storm — to leave their households, their husbands, and their little
ones to shift for themselves — while they were declaiming In the
grogshops, or thundering in the Capitol: when, as you see now, and
must have seen before. If you had not read my first essay with set
tled misapprehension of my purpose, that all I wanted was a sol
emn recognition of woman's entire equality with man, as one of the
people, as one of the inhabitants — as one of the citizens of this great
Commonwealth of Nations." There was nothing fantastic In
Neal's views on the subject. He believed that women had the right
to participate In government so far as their inclination and fitness
for activity led. The point he drove home was this : Woman needs
the vote as a reserve power, at least, and without it, she cannot pro
tect those interests which are essentially hers.
Mrs. Farnham wrote another paper to conclude the discussion.
In closing, she regretted that a man of Mr. Neal's ability should de
vote his energy to a subject of such "pernicious Influence." She
begged "a woman's right" to the last word, which Mr. Neal heeded
like a gentleman.
Neal's steady gait continued. He reported at length the woman
suffrage news, never missing a full report on legislative action that
aimed at better conditions for the working or the married woman.
Some of his editorials are startlingly modern in tone. For in-
D83

JOHN NEAL, OF PORTLAND
stance: he picks up an advertisement for "Washing, Washing"
where prices are exceedingly low, and on this suggestion, writes
a straight-from-the-shoulder editorial on the impossible wages
women receive, and the impossible hours they work. He quotes an
other circumstance where eight hundred women in Philadelphia
apply for a privilege of making shirts at I2j4 cents apiece. He
makes striking comparisons between men and women as to these
prices and conditions of labor, and then with that scathing vehe
mence of which he was capable he writes : "Eight hundred women
may starve — or lie down in the gutter, and be trampled on — or rot
In the cellars of Philadelphia, for all the men would care — while
that sex to whom all the employments, all the honors, and all the
profits of society are open — are always employed — and always at
prices which enable them to live decently and sometimes like gentle
men, by working at the utmost ten hours a day."
On October 21, an editorial in the same vein is occasioned by the
Meeting of Tailoresses and Seamstresses in Boston, with the same
stress on the low wages paid women and the injustice of It all. In
December is another report of recent legislation and of the more
encouraging support that the press is giving the cause. Later,
comes a two-page editorial headed "Rights of Women — Acknow
ledged !" in which the legislative action of Georgia and North Caro
lina Is reported, and then Neal takes a retrospect of the year: "We
arrogate nothing to ourselves — we claim nothing for the Brother
Jonathan — nothing for the New World — In which journal our
glove was flung down for the first time, less than three years ago.
We only ask to have it remembered, that they (the women) may
not be discouraged hereafter."
Neal refers to the New World in which his glove was thrown
down for the first time. He was a contributor, if not an assistant
editor, of that weekly when it started. Park Benjamin, who op
posed Neal in the debate at the Tabernacle, was the editor. On
August 8, 1840, a comic editorial on "Female Legislators" (apro
pos of the London Convention) appeared in the New World. This
was not the work of Neal. In contrast to this, in 1841, May
8, the New World featured Judge E. P. Hurlburt's essay "The
Rights of Women," which was read before the Mechanics' Insti
tute; and an editorial addressed "To the Lady-Readers ofthe New
World" gave its Indorsement to the Hurlburt article. It Is a good
guess that John Neal was responsible for the printing of the Hurl
burt essay and for the editorial that went with it.
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A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
In his Tabernacle speech, printed In the Brother Jonathan, Neal
said : "We have faith in woman — much more than we have In man.
If the truth must be told. And It shall be no fault of ours, If she
does not hear the truth, and feel It too, before she goes Into her
grave, and we into ours."
Neal kept his pledge. From February to December, 1843 (if
not from 1841), his mind was filled with the subject. His Tabr
ernacle speeches produced a whole round of discussion and editorial
writing, and the Brother Jonathan, by Its steady-going editorials
which put bed-rock facts Into the argument, became a pillar of sup
port to the cause of better legislation. Neal contributed to the Una
in 1853, and continued to write on the subject to the end of his days.
John Neal did his stint, and a large one, in behalf of women be
fore the suffrage movement was born and before the distinguished
leaders of the movement were in the field. His speech In Portland,
Maine, in 1832, his editorials, and his Tabernacle speech in 1843
place him pretty nearly as the first man to be a popular advocate of
woman's rights.

[403

'I'he Broadway Tabernacle, New York, where John Neal lectured on the
"Rights of Women," January 24, 1843

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
The Substance of a Lecture delivered by John Neal
at the Broadvs^ay Tabernacle, January 24, 1843
{Published in the "Brother Jonathan," June 17, 1843)
WHETHER the women of this country are slaves, or not, de
pends upon the definition of slavery.
That they are not free — free, in the sense that Men are free,
according to any definition of liberty, acknowledged among them
selves, is undeniably true.
What then is Freedom, or Liberty — that Freedom or Liberty,
which all the Nations are strugghng for? that Is held to be, not the
shadow only, not the sunshine, but the very substance of Christian
ity and which all human beings endowed with reason, are fitted to
enjoy, and If our faith be sound, "created" to enjoy, that, of which
"we, the People," claim to be the only true Interpreters, the only
faithful expounders on earth? Is It of two sexes? Are there two
kinds of Liberty — one for Man, and another for Woman, through
out the world? Are the Egyptians, the Hindoos, the Chinese, and
the rudest barbarians of all the earth, right In their doctrines and
practices, with regard to women?
Have women no political rights? Are their legal and social
rights everywhere, only just what men may choose to concede to
them ? In other words, are their best privileges and highest prerog
atives, matters of favor, wholly dependent upon the opinions and
prerogatives of Men — observe the question, we beseech you, and
weigh It well — have Women, either In this country or In England,
or throughout Christendom, properly speaking, any rights at all?
Everywhere, among barbarians as well as Christians, they are
admitted to a sort of qualified companionship — everywhere, they
are allowed to enjoy just what Man may happen to think will best
promote his comfort — and nothing more. In countries, where they
are believed to have no soul, just as in countries where they are sup
posed to have no understanding, and are classed by the lawgivers
and the law, with Infants, lunatics, and people beyond sea, they are
brought up to believe that they enjoy all the liberty they are capable
[413

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
of enjoying. And woe to the man, who shall attempt to undeceive
them !
Among the Hindoos, it is the privilege of women to burn them
selves alive — on the death of their husbands. Among the Chinese,
the better sort are made cripples from their birth — it Is their priv
ilege, and one of which they are exceedingly jealous and watchful;
the lower orders being satisfied with another and humbler privilege
— that of plowing while the husband sows. In one part of the
world, it Is the woman's privilege to dig and plant, and carry her
children upon her back, till the boys are old enough to beat her,
while her husband lolls about in the shadow and amuses himself
with hunting and fishing! In another, she is not permitted to sit
down in the presence of her lord and master nor even to eat with
him, her husband, and the father of her children; it Is her chief
privilege, her highest prerogative, to stand before him barefoot,
with her arms crossed upon her bosom, and her eyes fixed upon the
earth, and hear him eat : while In another, where the men treat the
women with the greatest possible tenderness — taking care that the
very "winds of Heaven shall not visit their faces too roughly";
where "they toil not, neither do they spin, though Solomon In all his
glory was not clad like one of these" ; where the highest prices are
paid for them, and they are literally worshipped for a reason —
they are not allowed to speak to a stranger ; to go to the door under
any pretence, not to look out of a window, with uncovered eyes,
under pain of death. But these are all barbarians. And while our
men pity them, and labor to convince them of their short-sighted
folly, sending Missionaries among them for the purpose; and while
our women are amazed at the dreadful ignorance and blindness that
prevail in such lands — looking upon the men as downright savages,
and wondering at the patience of the women — there is another
country, and another people much nearer home, with whose habits
and customs they are much better acquainted — whom they never
think of pitying, and with whom they never dream of Intermed
dling, though there is a greater difference between the privileges of
the men and the privileges of the women — the rights of the Men and
the Women there — than in any other country, or among any other
people upon the face of the earth : all the Men being free and all
the Women slaves at birth, and utterly incapable of becoming free,
by any change of circumstances. In that country, women are under
a perpettial guardianship, they are never mentioned but In the lan
guage of poetry, with uplifted hands, or a gentler Intonation of the
C423

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
voice; they are ffattered and fondled, if we may believe what we
hear, from the cradle to the grave. There, instead of being what
she Is in the lands of barbarian pomp, a slave, a plaything, or a toy,
she is the companion of man — his friend, his equal, and his pleasant
counsellor, sharing his proud sovereignty and qualified for ever
lasting companionship — if we may believe the Men themselves, or
even the Women. There, It Is their privilege to be spoken to In a
subdued voice — never to be contradicted — never to be reasoned with
— and to grow up with a belief, that men are their slaves, and that
women always have their own way at last, whether married or
unmarried. There, too, it is the privilege of woman to be excluded
from all participation In business — In the professions — in govern
ment — In power; to be excluded from all offices, whether of trust,
profit, or honor, however well fitted she may be for the discharge
of their duties, and however much she may need their help and com
fort — huge, able-bodied men, being preferred to her in every case,
even for the sorting of letters, or the mending of pens — to labor
all her life long, for a price varying from a fifth to a fiftieth part
of what a man Is paid for the same labor; to make shirts for six
pence a day — to cry her eyes out, under pretence of being courted —
take In washing, or to marry — and be satisfied for the rest of her
life "to suckle fools and chronicle small beer."
In that country It is their privilege to be taxed without their own
consent; to be governed by laws, made not by themselves, not by
their representatives, but by people, whose interest Instead of be
ing Identical with theirs. Is directly opposed to theirs, in every
Important question of self-government, as they prove by their whole
course of legislation, and by their unwillingness to share what they
call liberty with the very persons whose Interest they say Is Identical
with theirs, and who amount to one-half of the whole population of
the country.
There, too, up to the time of her marriage, and after the death of
her husband, a woman Is nobody. Her property is taxed without
her own consent — and she is allowed to share in no one of the
three great powers of self-government; neither in the making of
the laws, the administration of the laws, nor in the execution of the
laws. No vote can she give — no office can she hold. _ After mar
riage, It is the same, with these additional disqualifications ; all her
personal property goes to her husband, or to her husband's credi
tors; the use of all her real property during marriage; and, if they
have a child born alive, up to the time of her husband's death; all
[43 3

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
her rents and profits, all she may acquire during marriage, by gift,
or device (with a few exceptions, not worth mentioning). Add to
this, that while no part of the husband's earnings belong to the
wife, all her earnings belong to him; that she is bound by personal
service during marriage, and may be treated by him, like a servant,
a child, or an apprentice, and actually beaten, if beaten moderately
and with a wholesome regard to her amendment, if she falters in
her allegiance. Lo ! the privileges of women In the country we
have in our eye ! And who taught them that these were indeed
their privileges? The same being who taught the Egyptian woman
that to bury herself alive with her husband was a privilege. The
same being who persuaded the poor Indian, that to cast herself
headlong into fire, was a privilege. The same being, who per
suaded the Chinese woman to cripple herself, and the North Ameri
can savage to stand still and be beaten by her lord and master,
in the shape of a man-child, carried in her arms till they dropped
with fatigue; and the beautiful women of Turkey, and CIrcassIa,
that to be the plaything of a hoary lecher Is a privilege. And who
was that being? Was It God? No. It was Man : the tyrant Man.
Having usurped all power — and being entitled to It, by the right of
the strongest, according to the avowed opinions of 6x-PresIdent
Adams, and others equally distinguished — do what he may, and
say what he may, it is high treason, ay, and blasphemy, for women
to question his supremacy.
It Is vain that she proposes to argue the question. She Is only
laughed at, for her pains. If she quotes his own language against
him, and convicts him out of his own mouth of the most egregious
folly, or falsehood, the answer is a rude laugh, a sneer, a sarcasm,
or an appeal to the newspapers.
But we are not to be so easily silenced. And If argument Is
wanted, argument they shall have — these mighty logicians and
mightier statesmen, who have undertaken to justify the everlasting
disfranchisement of one-half of the whole human race, with a sneer.
To the point then. What is freedom? Ask our fathers of the
Revolutionary War. People are free, said they — and they fought a
battle of eight years with the most powerful nation of all the earth,
pouring out their blood like water, to establish the proposition —
people are free, only so far as they are allowed to govern them
selves: in other words, to make their own laws, to expound their
own laws, and to carry their own laws into execution. Were they
right, or were they wrong? Let us see.
[443

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
All government Is made up of three elements, or powers, differ
ently combined: the power of making, the power of Interpreting,
and the power of administering laws : in other words, all govern
ment, whether a Despotism, a Monarchy, an Oligarchy, an Aristoc
racy, a Republic, or a Democracy, may be resolved Into the legisla
tive, the judiciary, and the executive powers. Men are agreed upon
this, without going to Aristotle, to Montesquieu, to John Locke, or
to the authors of the Federalist.
Where these three powers are united In one person, as In the
Czar of Russia, the government Is a Despotism. Where they are
enjoyed by and confined to a privileged class. Independent of, and
separated from the people, it is either an Aristocracy, or an
Oligarchy. Where the People are allowed to share in the govern
ment, along with the privileged class, or hereditary lawgivers, and
a king by right of birth, as in Great Britain, it is a limited Mon
archy — though Sir Francis Burdett calls it a Republic, and others,
pleasantly enough It must be acknowledged, a Constitutional Mon
archy. Where the people govern themselves directly, as in Athens,
it Is a Democracy : where they govern themselves indirectly, by rep
resentation, as in the United States, it Is a Republic — so far at least
as the men are concerned.
Now — under which of these different forms of government do
the women of this country live?
Where people do not govern themselves, either directly or in
directly by representation, they are slaves. Qualify it as we may,
disguise the unpalatable truth as we may, they have no rights and
all their privileges are at the mercy of the governing power. Stead
fast as Death — steady as the everlasting Ocean, in their encroach
ments. Men have obtained the mastery over Women, not by supe
rior virtue, nor by superior understanding, but by the original acci
dent of superior strength; and after monopolizing all power, have
extinguished her ambition, dwarfed her faculties, and brought her
up to believe — ^the simpleton — that she was created only for the
pleasure of man.
But what is meant by governing themselves? Ask the Revolu
tionary Fathers. Lo ! their answer, as with the voice of congre
gated armies. Having argued the question for eight long years,
by the mouth of cannon having agreed upon a confession of faith —
having sent it abroad over all the earth — publishing It everywhere
by the sound of trumpet — among all nations, and kindreds and
tongues : we appeal to them, and to that.
[45 3

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
To be free — such is their doctrine — To be free, Men must be
allowed to govern themselves. But If Men, why not Women? We
shall see before we get through. In other words, they must be
allowed to make their own laws, either in person, or by delegates
chosen for the purpose: they must be allowed to explain, or Inter
pret these laws after they are made either In person, or by delegates
chosen for the purpose. But chosen by whom? — by themselves, or
by another and a different class? Propound that question to our
Fathers, If you dare.
In other words, to be free, people must be allowed to vote as they
like — to choose — they must not only be electors, but eligible to office.
We need not stop to qualify the doctrine by saying that we mean
what our Fathers meant, where majorities govern, with proper
qualifications, fairly assented to. Nobody will understand us to
maintain that all have the right to govern themselves, according to
their own pleasure, without reference to others — but only that all
have a right to share In the government, under which they live — to
share and share alike. If our noble Fathers were right — if they
were not rebels and traitors, alike unjust, unprincipled, and shame
less. Abridge a people of these rights; deny to them free exercise of
any, the least of the whole, under any pretense (where they have
not been forfeited by crime) and you abridge them of their liberty;
you wrong them of their birthright; you spoil them of their natural
heritage. So say our Fathers, and they were "honorable men."
And now to apply this. Are Women people — or a part of the
people ? When our Fathers say, that all Men are created equal —
that they have "certain inalienable rights," etc., etc., etc., do they
mean Women or not? If not, how much better are they, than the
Turks, who deny that Women have souls? And what confidence
can Women have in their pretended reverence and affection? And
with what face, can they, the mothers in Israel, venture to become
the teachers of our youth, or to justify the course of our Revolu
tionary Fathers?
Women constitute one-half of our whole population. They
amount now. In round numbers, excluding those held In bondage
at the South, to eight millions, or thereabouts. Have these women
souls or not? Have they understanding or not? Have they any
rights — have they anything indeed but what they enjoy by the favor
and courtesy of Men? are they capable of governing our house
holds; capable of bearing men, and of educating them, capable of
[463

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
assisting In our churches, and managing our elections — and yet in
capable of governing themselves, or even in sharing In the govern
ment of themselves? Let the spirit of eternal truth and justice
answer. Men will not, and women cannot, In their present stifled
condition, either feel, or see the truth. As well might we ask the
Hindoo woman to see why she has been taught to destroy herself at
the tomb of her cruel, selfish, unrelenting husband ; or hope to per
suade the Chinese woman to understand why she is crippled for life ;
as the English woman to see her own hopeless, dependent, and piti
able condition, among rational beings, claiming to be free, or the
American woman, hers.
But still we do not despair. We have faith In Woman — much
more than we have in Man, If the truth must be told. And It shall
be no fault of ours, If she does not hear the truth, and feel it too,
before she goes into her grave, and we Into ours.
To return therefore, we mean to be understood. For these eight
millions of human beings — free white women — who make the laws?
Men. Who expound the laws? Who carry the laws Into execu
tion? Men. Who occupy all the professions? all the places of
trust, profit and power? and who have charge of all the resources
of the country? of all the scientific and literary institutions? of the
army and navy, and the entire wealth of the nation? Men, always
men. Just reverse the condition of the two sexes : give to Women
all the power now enjoyed by the Men — and would they not be able
to keep It, think you ? What a clamor there would be then, about
equal rights, about a privileged class, about being taxed without
their own consent, about virtual representation, and all that I And
yet — mark our words — that is the true way of putting the question.
In any given case, we have only to ask ourselves how we should bear
such laws from women as they are called upon to bear from us —
and not only to bear, but to be thankful for? But we are Men—
and they are Women; only Women. Behold the answer, urged by
the husbands and fathers and sons of the land, against their wives
and mothers and daughters, eight millions strong !
And now to the second, and last branch of our subject. Some
people have authority— even for believing that two and two make
four. Be it so — they shall be satisfied.
In a certain paper called a Declaration of Rights, pubhshed to the
world In 1774, by a body called the American Congress, we find the
following passage: . u 17 r u r- 1 •
"Resolved, That the Inhabitants of the Enghsh Colonies, in
[473

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of
the English constitution, etc., etc., have the following Rights;" and
then follows a brief enumeration of these rights : after which it is
Resolved, "That the foundation of English hberty, and of all free govern
ment. Is a right in the people to Participate in their legislative coun
cil: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their
local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented In
the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive
power of legislation, in their several provincial legislatures," etc.,
etc. Among the grievances complained of, with profound serious
ness, as Involving the dearest rights of Freemen, was that of taxa
tion without representation, or that of being taxed without their
own consent. As early as 1765, when the first Provincial Congress
met, this was regarded as the principal grievance; and from that
hour, up to the Declaration of Independence, that was the abomi
nable thing chiefly complained of. The Stamp Act, and the Repeal
of the Stamp Act, the emptying of a cargo of tea into Boston har
bor, the battle of Lexington, and the battle of Bunker Hill — In fact
the whole war of Independence, If we may believe our Fathers,
grew out of a tax on tea; in other words, out of the pretensions of
the mother country to tax our people without their own consent.
And now two questions arise here. First. Were the women
of these English colonies of North America, inhabitants? If they
were, then did our Fathers decide- the whole question; that they
have all the rights we contend for, by the immutable laws of Nature.
By the constitution of New Jersey, all the inhabitants, having re
sided a certain time within the State, and being worth fifty pounds
proclamation money, are entitled to vote. Under this provision,
the women of New Jersey, have occasionally voted, up to the time,
when finding they could neither be shamed out of their privilege,
nor laughed out of it, the Legislature undertook to settle the con
stitutional question, by declaring that the word ^''inhabitants ," meant
free white males! So much for contemporaneous interpretation.
Secondly. Are women a part of the People? If they are, then
by the solemn adjudication of our Fathers, they are entitled to par
ticipate In their legislative council: and not being represented, have
a right to legislate for themselves.
On the other hand, If women are neither inhabitants , nor people
— they are not persons. They have no right to assemble together
[483

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
for any purpose, even to petition for the redress of grievances, that
privilege being confined to the people ; they cannot be justly punished
for anything. The conclusion is inevitable.
Now let us see where we are. The builders up of our political
Faith went to war with their own Fathers and brothers, and quar
relled for eight long years, pouring out rivers of blood, and millions
of treasure, and counted the cost nothing, because they would not
consent to be taxed without their own consent; nor to be governed
by laws to which they had never agreed; nor to be virtually
represented. Having triumphed; having established the great Truth for which
they were so ready to lay down their lives, and with it their in
dependence, what do they next? Why they turn round to one-half
of their whole population — their wives and sisters and daughters —
and beloved ones, and say : "We hold these truths to be self-evident :
that all men are created equal : that they are endowed with certain
inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness." Nonsense, at best, but nonsense well calculated to
show their temper and meaning; and just of a piece with the be
havior of the Puritans, who having fled from persecution at home,
were no sooner established here, than they fell to persecuting others
with unrelenting bitterness. They swear to England, as the Lord
liveth, we will not be taxed without our own consent! and then
turning to one-half of their whole number, they say, as the Lord
liveth, you shall. They say to England, we will not be governed by
laws, to which we have not given assent: and then turning to those
among them, whom they profess to love and venerate, beyond any
thing on earth, they say — You shall!
But, perhaps, the framers of that constitution, when they de
clared, that all Men were created equal, meant Women? Let us
see. We may allow them to speak for themselves ; to be their own
interpreters. They class women with infants, idiots and lunatics.
They hold her to perpetual service,— allow her no share in govern
ing herself— permit her to enjoy no office, though we have twenty
thousand offices much better fitted for women, than for able-bodied
men— and do not permit her to choose her own master, by a vote.
Before marriage, a woman Is taxed without her own consent. After
marriage. It is the same. During marriage, all her personal prop
erty belongs to her husband, all her acquisitions, all her earnings,
all her rents, and profits, and she is bound to personal service, until
set free by death or divorce. There are a few exceptions to be sure,
[49 3

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
as where property Is secured to her by the intervention of trustees,
or by chancery, or by declaring that it shall not be subject to the
control, nor liable for the debts of her husband — but these are only
exceptions: the rule is just what we have stated. While under
coverture as it is called, that Is, during marriage, the wife can
neither acquire, nor bestow anything, as of right. She can neither
educate nor portion her children off. She can neither provide for
old age, nor help her husband, however much he may need help —
all her property belonging to his creditors; and at his death, she
may be left entirely destitute at the pleasure of that husband, if he
happens to have nothing but personal property, or has been cunning
enough to obtain her relinquishment of dower; and this, although
they may have begun the world together — both poor — or he poor,
and she rich; and although she may have been his partner for life,
laborious, diligent, faithful and frugal; and he, a drunken spend
thrift — so that by the common laws of partnership, she would be
entitled to at least one-half of all their joint-savings and acquisi
tions. Oh 1 but we could tell such things, If this were the time or
place I But it Is not, and we leave them for another.
Again that we may understand our rights and our duties when
wrongfully dealt with, let us take another passage from the
Declaration of Independence. In It, our Fathers declare that "to
secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriv
ing their powers just from the consent of the governed: that when
any form of government became destructive of these ends, it Is the
right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
government," etc., etc. But that, "when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, having Invariably the same object, evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism. It Is their right, it Is their
duty to throw off such government, and provide new guards, for
their future security." If all this be true, — and who will venture to
question Its truth? — What Is the right of Woman, what her duty
towards her oppressor Man? What say the authorities? We
leave them to answer the question.
And now — what say you ? Try it by what standard you please :
adopt what definition of liberty you will — are not the women of
this country slaves? Do they not enjoy all they enjoy at all, by
sufferance, rather than by right? Are they not wholly dependent
upon men? Are they allowed any share whatever in the govern
ment of the country; any participation in what men call liberty?
Are they not as much bondwomen as any you ever read of? Is
[503

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
not their situation as deplorable, all things considered, as that of the
women of Egypt, or Hindostan, or China, so far as a just equality,
a true companionship is concerned? Tell us not that Christianity
has done everything for women — it has done little more for women
than for the beasts that perish. It has not narrowed by one hair's
breadth the difference between the sexes — the great gulf between
the powers of men, and the privileges of women: It has added no
jot nor tittle to her acknowledged rights. Everywhere— through
out Christendom, as throughout all the rest of the world, woman
Is kept only in the best possible working condition for the comfort of
man.

[513

THE OLD ASSEMBLY ROOM
Maine's First Theatre
A BIGGER Portland began on July Fourth, 1793. For. the first
time, "the people repaired to the Assembly Room." Some
one's public spirit had provided Portland a public hall, the first in
its history, and the procession to the Meeting House became a new
feature of the July celebration. The custom continued and festivi
ties grew. In 1796 the people returned to the hall after the ora
tion and enjoyed an elaborate entertainment which concluded with
sixteen toasts accompanied by discharge of cannon.
In this little hall on King Street the community spirit gathered
momentum. It became the home of Masonic meetings. Here
dined the Lodge of Portland, No. i, St. John's Day, 1795. Here
was the first Concert Hall where Mr. Boullay of the Boston Theatre
gave a concert November 10, 1795. Here Mr. Armand opened
his Dancing School In January, the same year. Here was Port
land's first theatre. Here was the first side show. In which were
exhibited the wax works and the Knowing Dog.
The year 1793 marked a period of development In which Port
land began to revive from its destruction In 1775. The population
In 1790 was 2240, the dwelling houses in 1796 numbered 393. In
1794 Bowdoln College was established; and that year the Port
land Academy was authorized by the Act of the General Court of
Massachusetts. The Assembly Room, with a floor space of thirty-five by twenty-
seven feet, occupied the second floor of a two-story, wooden bulld-
,Ing. It stood at the foot of King Street, now India, then the fash
ionable street of the day; and It was neighbor of the Stephenson
house, a block and a half distant. A fireplace six feet wide pro
jected Into each end of the room. The dwelling, downstairs. In
cluded a shop front, and Captain and Mrs. Coffin who lived there
sold ticket's "at the theatre." The building was probably erected by
Dr. Nathaniel Coflin, the second, of King Street, who, like his
father, lived a long and useful life devoted to the public good. In
fact, the shop may have been the doctor's oflice and drug store.
[523

The
Old Assemblif Room.

XIDLU

ELIZABETH ARNOLD
The first theatre in Maine, and its favorite actress. The portrait of Elizabeth
Arnold (Poe), from the "Works of Edgar Allan Poe," is reproduced
by special permission of Charles Scribner's Sons

THE OLD ASSEMBLY ROOM
The second Dr. Coffin died in 1826. Ten years later, the "Old As
sembly Room" passed out of the Coffin estate Into the hands of
Henry Cumston "of said Portland sallmaker." For a number of
years It was the home of Mary J. Cumston, an early teacher of
Portland distinguished for long and faithful service.
"New Theatre, King Street"
1794
On Tuesday, October 7, 1794, Portland witnessed the first
theatrical performance given in the town. The "New Theatre,
King Street," announced In big letters, was the upstairs Assembly
Room equipped with a stage. The company, headed by Mr. and
Mrs. Powell of the Boston Theatre, consisted of five or six persons.
Their opening bill included "The Lyar," a favorite comedy; "The
Learned Pig," a song; and a farce called "The Merry Mourners."
It would appear that five actors played "The Lyar," according to
the following cast: "THE LYAR"
Sir James ) j^
Old Wilding (  ^^'^"^
Young Wilding  Powell
Papillion  Jones
Miss Grantham. . .Mrs. Powell
Miss Godfrey  Miss Jones
The performance of the first week crowded the theatre; the
pieces were "judiciously cast, and supported to admiration." The
Powells were the best actors Boston had, and they opened the King
Street Theatre, Portland, the same year that they dedicated Bos
ton's Federal Street Theatre, which opened February 4, 1794. The
Portland season ended in November. A Puritan prejudice headed
the opposition. To placate this feeling, a benefit that netted $55.33
for the poor of the city was given October 29th. This gives some
clue to the earnings of the company. Performances were given
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. The standard price
of admission was three shillings. The doors opened at half past
five, and the performance began at six-thirty o'clock.
In 1797 a little actress, more permanently recorded in history
[533

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
than the Powells, made her debut in the Portland Theatre. She
was a frail and beautiful child, perhaps sixteen. For two months
she delighted her King Street audiences, winning the admiration
and affection of that little circle interested in the art she followed.
This child was Elizabeth Arnold, destined to become the mother of
Edgar Allan Poe.
The first reference to the theatrical family which was to sojourn
In Portland from November 21, 1796, to January 17, 1797, was the
anouncement that "Mrs. Tubbs, late Mrs. Arnold of the Theatre
Royal, Covent Garden, London, who arrived from England last
January, and now from the Boston Theatre, proposes having a
Concert of vocal and Instrumental music, November 21st, at the
Assembly Room." The entertainment featured "A concerto on the
Piano Forte by Mr. Tubbs." It was further announced that "Mr.
Tubbs Intends fitting up a Theatre."
The theatre was fitted up, and performances began the last week
in November. The company included Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs, Eliza
beth Arnold (daughter of Mrs. Tubbs), a Mr. Clapham, a Mr.
Partridge, and two local youths, Mr. King and Mr. Peters. From
what we know of the Tubbs family and of Miss Arnold's later
work, there Is every reason to beheve that the Tubbses set up their
first theatre in Portland and that Miss Arnold made her debut as an
actress at the old Assembly Room. At the end of the first week,
the Portland paper announced that no company of the same size
and "under similar circumstances" could have done better.
The Little Theatre
When a theatre first opened in Philadelphia In April, 1754 —
Hallam's New York Company — the exhibition took place in the
storehouse of Mr. William Plumstead. The Assembly R-oom of
Portland, except for limited size, presented no exceptional Incon
veniences. We can imagine the audience of seventy-five persons,
perhaps a hundred, jammed close to the fireplaces, looking at a
stage that probably ran lengthwise of the hall on the front side. On
a platform two feet high, the actors could have had a floor space
fifteen feet wide by seven feet deep, a height of seven feet, four
inches, from stage to ceiling, and dressing rooms a little less than
seven by ten. These were the "circumstances" of the Theatre on
King Street, Portland, Maine, as It appeared in 1796 when Eliza
beth Arnold made her curtain speeches before the Wadsworths, the
[543

THE OLD ASSEMBLY ROOM
Coflins, the Tuckers, the Weekses, the Stephensons, and not im
probably before the mother of the poet Longfellow, then In her girl
hood. The moving genius of the Portland organization was Mrs.
Tubbs, who In comedy and opera played many prominent parts In
Boston, having made her debut there February 12, 1796. During
this Boston engagement, Elizabeth Arnold, her daughter, made her
first public appearance — between the acts of a play — in a song en
titled "The Market Lass." In the summer, Mrs. Arnold and Eliza
beth gave concerts at Portsmouth, N. H., and other New England
towns. When they reached Portland in November, Mr. Tubbs,
an adaptable actor and Instrumentalist, and a bad singer, had be
come manager of the troupe and the husband of the leading lady.
The opening performance was criticised for InsuflSicIent preparation
and for the trembling exhibition of the two "local gentlemen"
recruited into the business, but conditions rapidly improved. Mr.
King overcame his difficulties and Mr. Peters "was sufficiently popu
lar to be necessary In the cast as a drawing card at the final per
formance." One song by Miss Arnold that elicited great applause
was "Listen to the Voice of Love."

Poe's Mother
That Elizabeth Arnold charmed her patrons by her beauty and
Innocence of character as well as by her talents Is evinced by the
tender sentiment she inspired. "Mrs. Tubbs always does well. But
the powers of her daughter, Miss Arnold, astonish us ! Add to
these her youth, her beauty, her innocence, and a character Is com
posed which has not, and perhaps will never again be formed on
any theatre — Lovely child! thy youth we know will not long con
tinue: thy beauty soon must fade: but thy innocence! may It con
tinue with and support thee in every character while on the theatre
of this world." At the close of the theatre, January 17, 1797, an
epilogue, written by a Portland gentleman, was spoken by Miss
Arnold. The concluding lines were these :
"Tho' now I like a bird of passage fly
Where Phoebus' rays with stronger ardor burn,
With still stronger ardor shall I seek return.
Then I may hope at a maturer age,
Indulged by you, to tread the Portland stage."
[553

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Miss Arnold played with her parents In Newport and Provi
dence and then went south. In 1800, in Philadelphia, she married
an actor named Hopkins, who died five years later. Afterward,
she married David Poe of Baltimore. Edgar Allan Poe was born
to them in Boston in 1809. Elizabeth Arnold remained, through
the few years allotted her, beautiful, graceful, and talented. She
never became distinguished, and her lot was hard. November 29,
181 1, the following card appeared In the Richmond Inquirer, Vir
ginia : "To the Humane. On this night Mrs. Poe, hngering on the
¦ bed of disease and surrounded by her children, asks your assistance,
and asks it perhaps for the last time." Thy beauty soon must fade
— the words of the Portland editor were prophetic.
During the earlier part of their Portland engagement, Mr. and
Mrs. Tubbs and Miss Arnold lived on Free Street at Captain
Davis's estaWIshment, "The Sigh of the Lighthouse." During the
latter part of their stay, they were entertained at "Mrs. Greeley's,
Back Street," which was the famous tavern of Mrs. Alice Greele,
conveniently near the Assembly Room.
John Neal, of Portland, was one of the first admirers and de
fenders of Edgar Allan Poe's works. He corresponded with Poe
relative to his visiting the city where his mother had spent two such
pleasant months of her girlhood. The visit was never made, and
Poe's letters to Neal were lost in the Portland fire.
The "Old Assembly Room" had little to do with Portland of the
nineteenth century. It belonged to the reconstruction period fol
lowing the Revolution. Its career was short : larger buildings of the
kind, and the movement of the city's life nearer Congress Square
changed, its character. It stands amid foreign tenements, a Junk
Shop. But there it stands. It survived the Portland fire of •1866;
and it must pretty nearly stand a last survival of the American
Theatre of 1794.

[563

On the hilltop where the Standish road rises above Sebago Lake Station are clean fields and a house by the side of the road. The house
was built by Thomas Shaw in 1774. After his discharge from the Continental Army, he married and settled there for life. His parents
died there. His children and his children's children lived there, until the line was extinct, August 26, 1914.

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
"A DOWN-EAST HOMER"
By Isaac B. Choate
{From the "Granite Monthly," 1887)
AT New York sales by auction of books and other property,
^£^ there have appeared at rare Intervals broadsides of poetry
by Thomas Shaw, of Standish, Maine. These have been cata
logued with much display, and with unusual fulness of description.
They have for years commanded prices in the metropolis such as
their author never dreamed of asking as he hawked them about
among the less appreciative farmers among whom he lived. . . .
It is worth keeping in mind, that while Shaw was attentive to
a not very exacting muse on the birch-covered gravel hills of Stand
ish Neck, he could look across Sebago Lake to the head of Kettle
Cove where Hawthorne kept his boat tied, and half a mile to the
right he could see the tips of the pines which grew about the lad's
home and deepened what was later spoken of as "that cursed soli
tude of Raymond." At the same time, too, up at the head of Long
Pond, Seba Smith was getting ready to do some of that political
writing which our poet so earnestly deprecated. Over In Gorham,
only three or four miles away, Sargent S. Prentice was living on a
farm, and Isaac McClellan was beginning his work. At the city,
John Neal must have been heard by that time, and his was a strong-
voiced muse ; Mellen was cultivating a smoother strain ; and Long
fellow was already engaged upon his earlier tasks.
But these belonged to another generation, and a happier one for
literary enterprise or Indulgence. We are not often reminded now
how little chance there was for any art to survive the two wars we
had with the English. Sometimes when we examine the records of
towns and parishes for that period, we see how great a falling there
was from colonial times In regards to preparation for clerical work.
So, too, the fact that work hke Shaw's was made to order, as it
were, and that It supplied a real demand marks a sort of zero point
upon the scale of popular taste and interest. The work had just
[573

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
one redeeming quality — In common with most of the oratory of that
period — Its spirit of genuine patriotism; and that was enough to
excuse and atone for all literary delinquencies.
HIS DIARY
I WAS born in the year 1753, and in 1775 I went into the Con
tinental Army at Cambridge. And now I was the first man
in this town that listed for the war, and I served one year and eight
months therein, the first of my freedom, and the very first dollar
that ever I had I let go for the service of my country.
And I being nine years old when we come into this town, where
was no school until I was twenty-four years old, and so I never went
to school a moment in my life. Nevertheless, I learned to read and
write a little, and in the year 1775 I began in my ignorant way to
write spiritual songs all the opportunity I had until at last I have
a trunk full of my manuscripts wrote on various subjects, and some
of them I have got printed.

Says my father. In his journal, that he was put to Moses Pear
son's Esquire, to learn the Joyner's trade, who moved to Portland
where that he stayed until he was twenty-one years old. And then
returned to his native place in New Hampshire, which was called
Hampton Falls, or Exeter in that state, and then he married Anna
Philbrick of Newbery, who was my mother.
Now my father lived on the Island on Hampton River (Sargent's
Island), and followed going to sea about twenty years to Boston
and down east, and elsewhere.

On the sea-shore (Hampton River) there has been many a vessel
cast away. Now I remember one, the Captain's name was Clay,
and one of his men was brought to my father's house on the Island
so frozen that he had his toes cut off by a doctor, and stayed there
till he got so well as to go away. It is said that another vessel was
cast away on the rocks and my father got up early the next morning
and saw the men on the rocks and he and his brother Josiah went
immediately to them In his boat and brought them to his house and
saved their lives. And another ran ashore high and dry on the
[583

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
sandy beach and was got off and sailed to sea again. And a rich
British mast-ship also was cast away on that beach and lost.
Besides these, a great whale came ashore there also, and was
tried up into He.
Brothers and sisters have been there
And I with them, to see the fair
Of vessels sailing on the sea—
A pleasing sight it was to me.

And now my father, seeing the danger that he and his children
were In a going to sea, he concluded to quit a going to sea, and to
move his family into the woods. And in the year 1762, or there
abouts, he moved to Pearsontown (now Standish, Maine). And
a few years after this we were visited with a host of worms as a
judgment it seems from heaven, and they came from the east like an
army of men, but not with guns, and a great blazing star also ap
peared to come from the east. Which the people took much notice
of and concluded that there was trouble at hand, which came by
the Revolutionary War In 1775.
Now when people move into the woods, they very often have a
hard time of it, for in new places they have bad roads or none at
all, or only a footpath, or spotted trees to go by, and very often get
lost in the woods for want of roads, and sometimes they have no
gristmill for ten, twelve, or twenty miles. I know these things by
experience. And again they have no meeting of any kind to go to,
and also have no schools among them. These things I know by ex
perience. And again they have no squires to do justice to the op
pressed, no sherrif s to catch the 'rogues, nor no law to punish them,
so that very often, when they first go Into the woods, do live with
out law and gospel, for some time to come. And very often have
no blacksmith to shoe a horse, and have no tailor to cut and make a
garment. Nor a shoemaker to make a pair of shoes. Those and
many other Inconveniences I could mention, that attend settlers in a
new country. ,
Now when my father came Into this town, we were scant on t for
most of the above conveniences of hfe. And the gospel was not
preached to us for a long time. Now I remember that I heard a
Baptist preacher, and he seemed to be very wild, and slapt his Bible
on his desk and sought, I thought, to fright the people.
[593

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
An Army of Worms
A great army of worms, I see,
Come from the east and westward flee,
That eat the fruits from off the land
That in the way of them did stand.
The corn and grass hefore them fell
And everything they loved well,
That all behind them then became
Like to a stubble burnt by flame.
Our pastures did become quite bare.
Our cattle, they went hungry there—
Our crops cut off before our eyes
That I did see with sad surprise.
God's army then was all so hold^
To do as their commander told,
And did God's work all faithfully
Until at once they all did die.
Or were all taken to their place
From whence they came in their fierce race,
And whence they went we cannot tell,
Except those that in ditches fell.
For we dug ditches for their grave
That some provision we might save.
Where thousands died, and was no more
To eat our food as here to fore.
Tlje time of worms never forgit
And always do remember it.
All you that hereafter be,
Remember, I did that sight see.
Somewhere about 1766 as nigh as I can reckon, who saw them.

Now I lived to see and hear of many a reformation, and I re
joiced with the same, having experienced religion when I was about
[603

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
fifteen or seventeen years of age, and have joined to the Methodist
order In 1808, and have been happy among them ever since, and
glory be to God for the same, for I have seen great things among
them, and hear wonderful preachers among them, and saw sinners
turned from sin to serve God. ^
As it came to pass in the year 1775 that the war broke out be
tween Great Britain and America, and then I must needs to go Into
the army; but there I still remember the God of my salvation. I
sot out from home for Cambridge under the command of Capt.
Stuart, with a few of my townsmen on the 1 2th of July, and left my
weeping friends behind. Now I stayed at Cambridge all the re
mainder of that year and the next winter, and still remembered my
God, though In an army of men there were many temptations to
draw me to sin; but blessed be God in that he kept me from hideous
sin through all the time I was In the army. Now It came to pass
that on the 17th of March, 1776, that the British Troops then left
Boston, and I with others on the 20th day then went Into Boston all
summer; and there I had smallpox and was very sick indeed. In so
much that I was senseless part of the time. , . . Now In October, I
with some Invalids did march to TIconderoga for to join our regi
ment, for Col. Phinney had marched his regiment. At Fort George
we stayed until January ist, 1777, then our enlistment was out.
Then we went to Albany and got a little money for to fetch us
home. And I sot out from Albany on the first Saturday in that
year and arrived at my uncle Philbrick's In HoUis on the next
Saturday, and I stayed there in that place until the next Tuesday,
and on the next night I came to a cousin of mine, and stayed all
night, and sot out the next morning, and at night I came to my
uncle's, whose name was Joseph Shaw, who received me and enter
tained me kindly . . . and on the next Monday I sot out from my
loving uncle's, and at night I lodged at Summersworth, and the
next night I have forgotten where, and the next night I got home
to my brother's, Ebenezer Shaw's where I sot out from, and they
were glad for my return, and the next day I went to my father's
and my father and mother received me with a joyful heart.
I had a farm and carried on farming and the cooper's trade.
1782 March 14. — My father died at my house, and left my kind
mother with me, and we had no minister at the funeral for the Rev.
John Thompson had left us the year before. And then when my
father was dead and gone, then my kind mother was left alone ; and
[613

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
then I took her into my house, and took care of her above twenty
years. Now In the year that my father died, I built a windmill for
to grind corn In.

The Wind-mill
Oh, my friend, wait; you are too late
To send for rye or wheat,
For wife and I are drained dry.
We've not enough to eat.
I sent to you the winter through
Of such meal that I had,
And now if I do you deny
Pray, sir, do not be mad.
For the poor come in my door
And on me do attend,
To me they cry and say shall die
If I don't give or lend.
To me they come, and will have some,
And dry they do me drean.
My mill doth go hut very slow
So that my toll is lean. ,
I tell ye all the wind is small
Neither can I it draw.
Till the wind rise, get your supplies,
And wait a while for Shaw.
—Standish, April 21, 1778

An uncommon noise In the air, August 30, 1787.
July 14, 1807. Tuesday, as I was riding to Portland I heard
the melancholy news of Captain Adams' shipwreck on Richmond
Island, and began a Mournful Song on the occasion. I wrote nine
verses on the road, and finished the same In Portland. I attend
again on funeral there on that day for three of the sufferers were
[6^3

«t9tft9tl!f«

•It.' 1.,

MELANCHOLY SHIPWKKCK.
vi'rr occasionvtl by the Iqka of the nchfjomr Cji^hles^ Cafilain

¦i.l, ii-fiicfi Ti'iii- lureckrd on h'n /i"i"ii/\ /.Ja-u/, m ,ir the rntrancr ':f
,» .¦/,<¦ nii^ht of I he \2tk of Julyy iao7, v.-huh .si/m. »¦ r /luJ o'i l"..ir</ ,
¦/ vjhom /lerU/iid.

roMi'dsr.D \\\ riroMAS siiAW , or siandisii

OMK all kiiul husbands now tjcliold
A hccne lluil makes iii\ hlumi run cold;
AU l()\in^^ \, uti pray [ttjw upptar,
In soknni mourning droi> a tcur.
("i mi' let lib Mccp, with those that weep,
r^ii- ilitii- lit.-ii friends, plun^'d in ihc deep;
And let lib uU now take some puit
111 yiicl' wldch breaks the lender heart.
And ihoii niv \oid, come meditate,
L'pori the awliil scene of laic ;
And Icok t<> (iud with mournful fear,
I'ur e\ery word which may appear.
O God! who know'st the wants of men,
Dir* it my mind, und }^uide my pen,
That 1 uKiy brinj; the truth to lij^ht,
On ihis dread seene, and awful night.
And O niv soul now brinj; to view
The ca]>i.tin anil his vessel's fii-w;
"With pussenj^crb, the men and wives,
Aud how, and when, ihcy lost their li\cs,
July the twelfth ihcy did set sail,
Krom Boston port with tav'iii.K ^idc,
And then to PoriKind made their way,
Upon God's holy sabbalh day.
When night came on, and all at case,
The vessel glidinj; o*cr the seas,
Thev- did not think, they did not fear
Tiib'i^wrwl danger wliich \^m ntar-
They I'-djiot know the land was nighj
Tlicir danger ilie> did not descry i
So ^ooii. and MuUUidy ii fell,
It is an awful laic to lell

Thus one hv nne i>Vih(i,ird wa:, . asr,
Till sixteen souls wci'e sunk at last;
They ullweie th«j\\iied with .lului i rii.s
That iu,.L loC..^! J.jn-e Uii: vL-i^ ,,
Husbands and v i\es \n Uie sea . .1 ,'
Did suu-i^le there, Jiid breathe tlu ir ta ,t
Vouiu; men .md maidens did 'li'' smn- ,
And lost thtir lives, and WLalih, and r..nn
Thus \onni,';md old U.;:.ilui Ment,
As if it weic (iod's ' r^at intent
That they sli.mtil <!ii . and lit im more
Upon this life':. lumiicsiiMan shore-
The Captain once Rot nciu- to land,
Hut would nut there consent to stand ;
He sought a!,'ain to save Ins wif^
And thus with her he lost his life.
And now do some lor hushaiHls weep,
For wives aud childirn in the deep.
Asunder parted, who doth know
Whose turn the next 'iwill be it- go? ¦
Good Lord look down, some pity take
On widows \\lios.' poor heads do ache,
Ami others i.io, with i liildrcii dear,
Whose troubles now do seem severe.

I

Yomif; chilJicn uIm. take their tuni,
Fol' theii- poor puicnts grieve and mourn :
Cooil Lord 1 send cheering comfort down,
To those who mourn in Portland town. ^
Give strength to Parents for to hear,
Their grief umitlst idl other cure ;
Resign llieir wills, as trouliles run,
To what thy sov'rtign po\ier has done.

-h thcni 1"

.,•(1 rfi.i ,.¦¦
He traveled the

Thomas Shaw, of Standish, sold his broadsides by the thousands.
country roads in person as far distant as Augusta; but his fame was unlimited,
for the sailors of Portland harbor carried his shipwreck songs from ocean
to ocean and to lands unknown.

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
carried to Kellog meeting-house; the greatest funeral that ever was
known in this town, sixteen souls lost and six saved. I carried my
song to the press, and then returned home the third day. The next
Saturday I rode to Portland and seed to the fixing of the type for
printing the shipwreck song, and stayed to Quarterly meeting on
the Sabboth, and heard Elder Breal and Brother Welch preach, and
attend the sacrament there. On Monday I took my songs and
spread them about, which met with great approbation, and returned
home at night. The next day I spread them In this town, and in
the afternoon I went to Windham, then to Portland and stayed two
nights, and then took a circuit round to Saco and Buxton, and came
home on Saturday night. This week I had 4500 copies printed off,
and disposed of nigh 3000.
July 28. Tuesday I rode to Brunswick and lodged there. . .
Wednesday I went to Topsham and returned, and at Nichol's Tav
ern was the college. The college boys beset me devil-like, and I
told them they were learning to preach the Gospel, and I told them
If they did not mend their ways the devil would have them.
July, upon the fourteenth day,
As I to Portland took my way,
Before ten miles I rode ahead
Awful tidings struck me with dread.
On Adam's shipwreck I did hear,
The news a spreading far and near,
Which led my mind, riding along,
For to compose that shipwreck song.
In Gorham I began that song,
And studied as I rode along;
And when I came to Portland town,
Concluded there to write it down.
1808 Wed. 7 of Sept. I went to Portland and Elder Lee
preached. . . . The next day I heard him preach at Scarboro,
and I stayed in Saco until the nth day, I went to meeting at Saco
at the grove where a reformation had broken out three weeks be
fore, and on this day I saw forty-one persons baptised with shouts
and glory.
August 21, 1808. I and Daniel went to Portland to see Drew
hanged, where was a muldtude of people gathered together. There
[633

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
was lltrie preaching there, for It was a silent time indeed, for no one
dared to open his mouth to the people in these awful times, it was
supposed that Drew died a good man.
Aug. 27. I went to Porriand and stayed till Monday, and my
horse ran home, and I came home on Thursday. While I was at
Portland, I got a piece printed on Drew.
On Instrumental Music
What great works is, now, in our day
By means of great machinery
For to go swift without men's hands
To do as is God's great commands.
To go, men have machinery
Upon the land and on the sea,
No one with swiftness can compare
Like one a flying in the air.
Machinery carries a wheel
Which turneth out the good fine meal.
Machinery will sing a song
Without a heart to help along.
The wicked have machinery
To sing God's praise with we can see,
Withput a heart within the same
A trying for to praise God's name.
And on the same is a cat gut.
With horses tails tried to its but,
Which girt machinery around
That doth produce a shameful sound.
With cat guts strung and horses tails,
To groan and scream in all fierce gales — •
Till in God's House men do contrive
Machinery— a place to hive.
I was troubled with Scriptural Dreams and visions, and the use
of instrumental music In Christian worship. And the Word saith
to Christians to be not conformed to this world, but to come out
from among them and be separated, and not to run after the
world's fiddles, and flutes, and pipes, and bugles.
[643

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
Standish, July 23, 181 1. Religion is very low among all orders
of people. Lord, revive thy work all round our land.

Lafayette
Americans I pray draw near.
And listen to the truth you hear,
I and some Fathers still remain,
Who saw our Independence gain.
In seventeen hundred seventy-five
Old Britons bees did leave their hive
Unto this land they then did wing
Hoping the Americans to sting.
But Washington did them soon face
To stop them in their stinging race,
With other Generals all bold
And Lafayette we shall unfold.
He went from place to place in state
And welcomed was by small and great
Thousands of people saw the same
And honor'd Lafayette by name.
Our eyes have saw this man of state
Among the crowd of small and great,
We thank him for his great good deed
He did for us when we did need.

A Review of My Writings
Sheet after sheet I wrote with ink
Full fifty years as I did think
Year after year I wrote down
Many a verse of Standish Town.
Book after book I made with care
And wrote much of my mind down there ;
Many a reformation song
I wrote as I did pass along.
[653

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
And mournful pieces I have made
Upon the living and the dead.
On fires and drowned in the deep
For which many a one did weep.
Now I have been writing sixty years; and my books and papers
he very loose under my hand, and are now very many; and God only
knows whose hands they will fall Into after my decease. Now I
have made It my rule for to write nothing but the truth, and to let
nothing but the truth be found in my writings because I am a Bible
man. July 27, 1836.

My Tomb
My wish has been a tomb to make.
Where, my body for to rest.
At last, the same did undertake,
And trust the same I have the best.
Come bless the Lord, my soul, and wait
On Him above contentedly,
Until I end this mortal state,
And so prepare to die.
And then to close my eyes in peace,
And then to wing my soul away,
Where sin and sorrow all shall cease,
And happiness always to stay.
God grant that I in heaven shall rest
Whene'er my breath I do resign,
And all mankind also be blest,
And be above forever thine.
Composed and wrote Oct. 21, 1837, when I was hardly able to
write. Thomas Shaw. (He died October 20, 1838).
'Seventy-six
Boston, July 17, 1776. The first piece I wrote in 1776. This Is
a copy of the record of Thomas Shaw's march to Cambridge In
1775, from his house on July 12.
[663

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
1776
On July the twelfth day,
As I'm a going to tell.
We marched away to Cambridge,
And all was very well.
And early in the morning
Our captain we did meet,
And had as good a breakfast
As I desire to eat.
And sot out from Gorham,
Left friends for to meet foe —
No more for to see them
As ever we did know.
And traveled towards Cambridge
By the beat of the drum :
At length we did get there
Where we sot out to come.
And when we got there.
We had no house or inn —
Soon there came a shower
That wet our outer skin.
Our major then turned out
Some old sails to obtain —
Of these we made out tents
And sheltered off the rain.
Soon after this was done —
Then, went we upon guard,
And not being used to it,
We thought it very hard.-.
It was to Charlestown Neck
We had a mind to be ;
When the enemy did fire
At all the men they see.
And after I got there,
Shooting batteries did roar:
The small arms, too, did go,
As they had done before.
[673

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
So I did stare all round
Where both above did fly,
But all were overhead
Because they shot so high.
We then did git away
And got home safe again,
For notwithstanding fire,
Not one of us was slain.
But a while afterwards.
To Plowed Hill we did go.
To build a breast-work there
Against our haughty foe.
And after this was done
And winter did draw near.
To build on Cobble Hill
Our men did now appear.
And after we did that,
Our men did then prepare
To build a fort on Beachmore
For fear they should come there.
From Boston they have bombs —
From Beacon Hill were shot —
Intending for to kill us,
But found out they could not.
We built our fort at Beachmore,
Then very soon did hear —
For to lay siege to Boston!
Our men did then prepare!
And after we did fire.
The Bretons did the same
From their Boston high forts.
Which then unto we came.
It was the third night:
All night cannon did boom —
From both sides shots did fly:
Boston did rattle doom.
[683

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
On March, eleventh day,
We paid them to our will.
While on Dorchester side,
We built forts on a hill.
They crowded full their boats
To drive us off the neck;
But meeting a fierce wind.
Were forced to go back.
They saw it would not do,
And soon they did agree
To get into their ships
And sail into the sea.

On the seventeenth of March —
As we did surely know —
They sailed out of Boston
For Nantasket below.
After they left Boston,
The Castle they did spite.
And so they had their pleasure,
And spiled it in the night.
We marched into Boston
On March the twentieth day.
And on Fort Hill did work
To keep our foes away.
And a while afterwards
Our bakers pressed us short;
We did grow very faint,
Because our food was naught.
On May the thirteenth day,
As we then all did hear,
To drive their ships away
Our general did prepare.
The harbor now is clear
Full in our possession,
So 'that all merchant ships
May have free passage in.
[693

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
The Court now passed an act
For us small pox to take
To make it well with all
Who vaccination make.
I don't mean all was well,
For some did surely die.
Their bodies in their graves.
And souls to God did fly.
Now I was very sick —
With fever, they say —
And all thought I should have
The pox, the natural way.
As I was at hospital.
Our regiment marched away.
And we that were sick,
Behind, were forced to stay.
And now the time did come
That I must march away
For Ticonderoga: sot out,
September, eighteenth day.
At morning, we sot out
With thirty men or more
For to travel the road
We never did hefore.
We traveled day by day,
And came to Number Four,
I think it took us six days.
Perhaps a little more.
And so we travel on
Unto where we were sent.
And then at length we came
To Mount Independent.
And now in October,
Our fleet was then destroyed,
But we did keep our guards,
For we were much annoyed.
[703

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
Some of our men they took.
And some of them did kill;
And so at Ty. we were
Till winter did us chill.
Enemies came in sight
With their boats in the lake,
But did not fall upon us.
For fear we should them take.
And so we went to Fort George —
And there a while did stay —
Till the last day of December,
Which brought my freedom day.
Seventy-seven,, first day,
I left our fighting men,
And came to Albany,
Like to a robber's den.
I travel day by day.
Till to my friends I came.
And very slowly went
Because I did git lame.
Uncles and cousins I did see
And with them I did stay
So kindly they did help me
Upon a tedious way.
Through Hampton then I came.
Then entered in this state:
To Brunswick, and then came
To Kennebunk, though late.
The next day I arrive
Unto one Standish Town,
And found our people all alive
With joy and great renown.
And so was glad to see
Father and mother there—
They glad to look on me
So happy, well, and fair.
[713

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Now blessed he the Lord above
That saved my life in our great war.
Lord help me for to look and see
What that I was spared for.

On a Shaker and His Wife
{The man speaks)
Good men and good women, wherever you be,
Come, look on yourselves so that you may see —
Know each other's state and trouble and care,
And then your condition with others compare;
And the awful effect of the Shakers bold craft.
Of Shakers bold craft, of Shakers bold craft.
I tell you good people in a former day.
The people called Shakers did lead me astray;
Caught me and my wife to join to their plan.
Where no honest woman can know her good man.
And no honest man can know his good wife
In matters of marriage the rest of his life;
And no more together to board and to bed,
But singly apart for ever be fed.
So that in this case no children they bear,
And nothing about them seem for to care.
And carry on boldly the Devil's bold plan
Invented by Satan for to deceive man.
A Master they have over their race
To keep them all in their own proper place
To work and to eat, and him must obey,
Just as the old master is pleased for to say.
Unto these strange manners I once did consent,
And joined to them with a good intent;
With all my whole living they took it all in.
Which I could never command back again.
Of singing and dancing their worship is made.
And choosing such scriptures as suiteth their trade,
And for to be led to believe a lie
Invented by Satan and hid from the eye.
[723

THOMAS SHAW OF STANDISH
These things against me, I once plainly saw ;
And contrary, too, to God's holy law.
Against Christ's commandments that he left behind,
Against all his followers that he enjoined.
Then broke my good mind unto my good wife,
That I then intended to flee for my life;
From under the Shakers I wanted to flee.
And once more enjoy my own liberty.
She did not consent, nor was she inclined
To hearken to what I had in my mind.
To leave the bold Shakers she would not consent,
That my mind upon, was so fully bent.
So I gathered all that I could get there,
And then steered off from under their care —
And so marched off and fled for my life,
A leaving behind my good tender wife.
But still my affection for her was so great.
To leave her forever did bear a great weight
Upon my poor troubled and broken mind :
I could not consent to leave her behind.
Again and again my wife I did see.
And entreated her to hearken to me;
But she hearkened not to what I did say.
And then she concluded forever to stay.
From place unto place I seem for to rove —
As discontented as a turtle dove
That has no one with him for to mate
As in a good pleasant married state.
By Satan's invention whole families are
Led off by the Shakers and caught in his snare,
And broken to pieces and scattered around.
And found among Shakers a tilling the ground.
Good husbands and wives must not remain
A long while apart, hut must soon meet again.
That Satan tempt not, as good Paul did say.
And so fall to him an easy prey.
[733

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Then come, ye good wives, consider, be wise,
And so never more my council despise.
And hearken to hear, and husband obey,
And comfort him then the rest of his day.
And so shun the way of Shakers bold craft.
The Shakers bold craft, the Shakers bold craft.
The above is Mr. Frost's speech. I pity that poor man's case.
Th. Shaw.

[743

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BOATING
WHEN Maine became a State, business started. Dan Scrib
ner says his father always said so. One enterprise that
took a boom was the Cumberland and Oxford Canal. Folks that
see Songo Lock nowadays, don't have much idea of boating In the
old days, when there were twenty-seven locks on the canal besides
the one on Songo. There was a lot of freighting then before the
railroads built through, and there used to be as many as a hundred
boats plying the waters. From Portland to Harrison, the water
way was fifty miles. Freighting used to come from Waterford,
and some of it from Vermont and New Hampshire. The canal was
opened In 1830. From Sebago to Portland, It was about twenty
miles long. It ran from the foot of Sebago Lake — from Chad-'
bourn's, there by the Water Works — down along the Presumscot
River as far as Saccarappa, and from there Into Portland harbor,
Saccarappa Is Westbrook.
Mr, Gammon up In Naples could name the twenty-seven locks
from memory when he was almost ninety. He went boating when
he was fifteen, and owned his own boat, "The Ocean Ranger." He
had an old daguerreotype of his boat, with him standing at the rud
der, taken In 1861. Len Morton and James were with him. The
twenty-seven locks, says Mr. Gammon, were like this: i. The
Upper Guard Lock, Sebago Lake, near Chadbourn's; 2. Near the
road leading from Standish to North Windham; 3. Steep Falls;
4-5. Middle Jam; 6. Half-mile above Great Falls; 7-8. Great
Falls j 9-10. Whitney's Falls ; 1 1 . Sandbank; 12. Warren Lock;
13-14. Kemp's Locks; 15. Gambo Lock; 16-17. Little Falls;
18-19. Horse Beef; 20-26. Seven Locks; 27. The Guard Lock,
at tidewater, Portland. Between Horse Beef and the Seven Locks
was a long level of about seven miles ; and again, from Seven Locks,
past Stroutwater, was a level of four miles. The only stone lock on
the canal was the Guard Lock that ran Into Portland harbor. The
others were planked. Mr. Kemp hved near the canal. The boat
crew sometimes put the horses In Kemp's barn, when they happened
along there and wanted to tie up for the night. The regular place
[753

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
to keep the horses was at the head of the canal, but the boats would
tie up anywhere In the canal, if necessary.
Len Morton says the quickest trip he ever made on the canal boat
was with Joe Goodrich from the foot of Long Lake to Portland.
They started from Naples Village, and went about three miles up
the lake to Mast Cove where the boat was loaded with apples
from the Pearley Farm. The canal boat had those apples aboard
the schooner "Fanny Pearley," in Portland harbor, before night.
"That was going some for the old canal boats, and probably never
was beat. We had the wind right with us that day." The boats used
to run from Harrison about once a week. They could make two trips
In eight days by working nights. You couldn't get much ahead of
going from Naples to Portland In a day, although the canal boats
would go faster than a steamboat in a good wind. Speaking of
"going some," Dan Scribner says he'll never forgit one day In Port
land harbor. There was a break In the canal that wasn't repaired
for five days, so that several boats were held In Portland. For a
pass-time, the crews joined together and turned the "Old Columbia"
into a speed boat. She didn't draw much water; she carried ballast
for this occasion, and had two sails that were large compared to the
bigness of the boat. "Old Columbia" sailed to Peaks Island in a
pretty good breeze, and passed everything in the harbor. The
folks on Peaks Island didn't know what to think. "She surprised
them critters terribly," Dan says.
Dan Scribner's father was an early boatman, and used to tell how
the men had to row the boats a part of the time. These boats had
great square sails, too heavy to go against the wind. Later, when
the boats were fitted with centre boards and two good sails, they
went easier. But always when there was no wind, the crew had to
work nights to scull the boat along. There was a "devilish great
big oar at the stern for sculling." Once In a while the men could
get the boat in along shore and pole along. They always had to
pole the whole way through Songo River. There wasn't much fun
In It. Even In Portland harbor, the men had to discharge their
freight and load again as quickly as possible. Len Morton says he
boated ten years steady, from the time he was eighteen, and had
enough of it — too much boating. Hard work and small pay —
only a dollar a day, working day and night. Time passed quickly
though, and there was a chance to sleep part of the time.
Harrison had a woolen mill, a wire factory, and a foundry. And
there was business In Bridgton. The factories made a lot of
[763

BOATING
freighting, and with all the business from up In Waterford, and the
regular trade of cord wood, sawed timber, and shook, there was
plenty to do. There was a lot of sawed timber carried to the ship
yards in Portland harbor and out to the yards at Spooduck. That's
Freeport. There was also spiling for wharves and shade-trees for
the streets of Portland — whole boat-loads of them. These used to
come from along the Songo River on what was known as the Thou
sand Acres. The boats had names such as Express, Whirlwind,
United States, Columbia, Major Jack Downing, Honest Quaker,
Freeport, Legislator, Reindeer, Susanna, and a hundred others.
They were classified according to the locality from which they came.
There were "Long Pond Boats," the "Cape Boats," and the "Fitch
Boats," from Sandy Beach on the Standish shore of Sebago. Any
one could run a boat who would pay toll. There was one particu
lar lock where toll was collected. At first, the boatmen gave a
statement telling the weight of the cargo, but this didn't work.
Later, the canal company gauged the weight of the boats by water
marks. The boats were about sixty feet long by ten feet wide. They
drew from a foot to eighteen Inches of water. They cost about
$500 new, and would carry from twenty to thirty tons of freight.
The crew comprised three or four men, but usually went "four-
handed" In the fall when freighting was heavy. Each boat had a
cook — just some particular man in the crew to do the cooking. He
knocked off a little early to get dinner, but got no extra pay. The
proprietor of the boat furnished the living. The crew slept In the
cabin. Before the war, when Dan Scribner was a boy, the old boatmen
would work for $18.00 a month and board. After the war, the
men got $1.50 a day and board. Work was fairly steady. Dan
worked with a crew once that went forty-two days, during which
time the crew got home only twice.
EH Plummer, known on the canal as "Captain Kidd," was a great
boatman and got his name on that account. He used to live at
Plummer's Landing, Bridgton Centre. When there would be from
ten to twelve boats In the guard lock at Portland, Plummer would
get his boat out In the night, start up the canal, and not wake any
one. His three sons went boating, too. Charles and Freeman were
strong men and able workers. Their brother Wren, "Little
Wren," was too small for heavy work, but he was just like a cat on
the logs He used to run logs from Bridgton to Saccarappa. Ben
[773

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
Lowell was about the stoutest man that ever ran on the canal.
Once he put one of Fitch's boats from Sebago across to Fitch's
when nobody else dared to. Joshua Rich was the oddest fellow.
He would stand and whistle and wouldn't say a word to any one
all the way to Portland. The crew used to say: "Where you going
to cook your pouts?"
Len Morton says he can remember everything along the lakes
for nearly a hundred years — although not quite that long. He says
he remembers seeing Thomas Shaw of Standish, saw him — remem
bers just as well — on Standish Neck, saw him afoot right In the
road near Leonard Shaw's house. He was not a large man, about
medium size, and quick motioned. He had a swallow-tailed coat.
They all used to wear them. Some of the sayings of Thomas
Shaw were repeated over for a good many years 'round Standish.
Thomas Shaw and Amos Marean were always trying to outdo each
other at making up rhymes. One day at town meeting, Thomas
Shaw walked In with a new coat. Marean started the rhyme:
Here comes old Tom Shaw, the poet,
He's got a new coat, and is coming to show it.
Shaw replied : Hither has come old Amos Marean
Who ain't got a coat that's fit to be seen.
Some of the old timers were pretty sharp on each other. One
day Marean went up to Otisfield to camp meeting, and while there
dropped Into "Shad" Bean's to dinner. Shad, with an eye to busi
ness, charged for the dinner, which cost Marean twenty-five cents.
Marean thought he was making a social call, but he paid for the
dinner. Two weeks afterward, Shad came down to Raymond
Cape to meeting. He rather suspected that If he went to Marean's
to dinner he'd have to pay back his twenty-five cents, and so he
didn't go in. When he got hungry, he walked Into Marean's gar
den and ate cucumbers. When Marean discovered this, he sued
Shad for trespass, and made him pay damages.
This Is the famous Shad Bean that dined at Webb's Tavern,
Windham Hill. Old Shad on his way to Portland, sold a pig to
Mr. Webb for $2.00. A few days later, when the Webbs were
expecting company, they cooked the pig. The company didn't come,
but Shad dropped in on his way back, paid fifty cents for his dinner,
and ate the pig.
[783

BOATING
Len says he was up in Rupert, Vermont, one time and heard
two sailors singing:
From Saccarappa to -Portland Pier
I've carted boards for many a year,
Till killed by blows and sore abuse,
They salt me down for sailor's use.
They cut off my meat and pick my bones
And turn me over to Davy Jones.
There was a good deal said about horse beef in those days, and
you could hear that song almost anywhere among the sailors. The
Horse-Beef Mills got named before 1776. Shirley, the first pro
prietor of the mills, used to feed his men from a beef-barrel. One
day at the bottom of the barrel, the men found a horse shoe and a
horse's hoof. That's how. the place got the name of Horse Beef.
In the winter, the freighting had to be done by teams. That
made lively business along the road. Every shed and stable in
North Windham would be filled with horses every night. And up
at Naples, Church's Tavern would be the same. Inside, the men
would sit 'round the fire and tell stories, and have a jolly time in
the tavern. Rum was plenty. You could buy gin for twenty-five
cents a gallon, those days. Before the Grand Trunk Railroad was
built, six-horse teams came from Colbrook, Vermont — teamed,
shook and sawed logs, hogs, cheese, and butter. They carried
back molasses and everything in the grocery line. Len says he was
up at Lancaster, N. H., once, and met an old Mr. Stebblns who
used to drive a team, and he knew every family on the Old Cumber
land County Road, way through to Portland.
Joe Coflin from up In Vermont could sit down after supper and
sing till daylight and never repeat once, he knew so many songs.
Nat Robinson of Otisfield used to sing "The Black Cook" about
the sailors that sold the colored cook to a doctor for forty shillings.
When the doctor got ready to dissect the corpse, it came to life
and ran away. That was always a good song. Daniel Ayer of
Edes Falls, knew all the war songs. He went to war when he was
a boy, and got homesick. His mother wrote to President Lincoln
about It, and he answered her In his own hand.
When the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad passed through
Oxford County, boating fell off, although there continued to be
business along shore. In 1870, September 12, when the first train
on the Portland and Ogdensburg Road ran to Sebago Lake Station,
[793

A DOWN-EAST YANKEE
there was no more need for the boats. The lock gates rusted on the
hinges, and the banks of the old canal filled In. A glimpse of It
from a car window Is all that remains. Even the voices of the old
boatmen are heard no more.

[803

sprague's Journal
of
Maine History
EVERY person resident or non
resident who is interested in the
State of Maine should subscribe for
Sprague's Journal of Maine History,
published quarterly at Dover, Maine,
for ^i.oo per year. Every school
teacher and all concerned in educat
ing the youth of Maine ought to have it.
Our Message
to You
First teach the boy and girl to know
and love their own Town, County,
and State; and you have gone a long
way toward teaching them to know
and love their country.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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