'"I giset^sfe Baoki. • '. for. V'.e. founding of S£iiUegf in this ColorvjV B):a».*.J!U.-g>.^'vvaa>*;ei; BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE Society of tlie Cincinnati Fiind. J TWO MEN OF TAUNTON ROBERT TREAT PAINE Memorial Statue, Taunton Two Men of Taunton In the Course of Human Events 1731 — 1829 By Ralph Davol Davol Publishing Company Taunton, Massachusetts I 9 I 2 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY RALPH DAVOL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS it becomes necessary for pne people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God en title them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind' requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. — Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Greeting The simple Truth is all we ask. Not the Ideal We set ourselves the noble task To find the Real. THE Historical Society serves as a sort of tap-root of expanding civilization. The more zealous and active members are continually penetrating the mouldered Past, try ing to feed the budding leaves of the Future. " The fallen leaves nourish the tree that it shall be clothed anew." Somewhat after the manner of the apple-tree roots that followed the decaying bones of Roger Williams, and preserved the form of the man in the vegetable kingdom after it had left the animal, has the writer, a member of the Old Colony His torical Society, chosen to follow out, through scattered archives, a few buried facts in an effort to preserve in the Kingdom of Letters some out line of two long-vanished Yankee gentlemen, with the hope that another generation may find profit or pleasure in reading of men who held high seats in the councils of their day. As these two per sonages came upon the stage at a robust period, giving fine opportunity for distinction, it seems worth while to attempt to rehabilitate their [v] Greeting careers with some warmth of life; to show what they stood for in their day and generation; to revive awhile the contemporaneous pulse-beat; and give a glimpse of the depth of feeling, suffer ing, sacrifice, and heartrending attendant upon those days of stirring thought and action, when one people were severing the political bands which bound them to another; when families were sun dered in the sifting of parties ; when the Lion and the Unicorn (the arms of King George with the garter motto, "Honi soit qui ¦mal y pense") gave place to the lone Indian and uplifted arm on the seal proclaiming, "Ense petit placidam sub liber tate quietem" ; when, at the close of the Thanks giving proclamation, "God save the King" be came "God save the Commonwealth of Massa chusetts." During that era in which this story lies, novels were often constructed in a series of personal let ters, such as the immortal Clarissa Harlowe, Humphrey Clinker, or the American Eliza Whar ton. The first impulse was to present the lives and times of our subjects in gossipy letters, supposed to be written by local characters who discussed events of their day. This proved a more unsatis factory task than had been anticipated. Second Thought whispered that an attractive method of preserving the peaches of Truth in a syrup of Fic tion might be to attempt a biographical romance [ vi ] Greeting What better underlying groundwork could a ro mancer ask around which to weave the delicate embroidery of his fancy? These central figures, though local, have many experiences touching the universal comedy and tragedy — a christening in the Old South Church; a mother's life sacrificed to her child's existence; two students at Harvard Col lege; their subsequent rivalries in love, law, and politics; the strategy by which one is decoyed from his duties by the other; a minister's son selling a slave in the Carolinas; a child demented as a result bf political frenzy; two men severed in their associations by opposite views of govern ment; one leaping into immortal fame by signing the Declaration of Independence, the other hunted from his home by fellow townsmen; the son of one hero a genius of letters, the son of the other an inebriate vagabond; a wife buried in the bosom of the ocean, and the pitiful tragic end, by his own hand, of a venerable expatriate in Lon don. In such experiences, there is ample founda tion for the story-teller who wishes to lead his reader into the Castles of Imagination where so many pleasant things occur. But even though the writer win the compliment given to Defoe ("he lies like the truth"), the matter-of-fact reader, skepti cal and unsatisfied, might reward his pains by ex claiming, "Yes! Yes! All moonshine!" and fling the book into the open grate. [vii] Greeting When the long-labored-on, semi-fictional chap ters were submitted to venerable antiquarians, the author received 'the rather pointed injunction to forswear all fancy on the ground that Fact is more fascinating than Fiction; and after all, per haps the finest charm of a story lies in measuring the incidents of one's own life with those which have actually happened to another; in knowing what that person was doing when at the same age; what relation the individual bore to the mass of humanity; what scenes his eyes beheld; what were his tastes and humors; what his changing points of view; how he govemed his passions; and espe cially (for 'this is the real man) what thoughts went drifting through his brain from the mother's knee to tottering age. Our heroes, of course, passed through the same tremulous mental condi tions as do we to-day — hope and melancholy, light and darkness, love and jealousy, pride and renunciation, temptation and triumph (the old passions remain the same, mind whetting against mind, heart wrestling with heart) — and it is the relation of these human passions to the different settings and varying times which makes the local color. Then let it stand as an attempt at faithful por traiture executed with such liberties as the por trait painter is allowed. If, at any time, the reader has reason to suspect that the narrative is founded [ viii ] Greeting on circumstantial evidence, he will please bear with the artisan, upon the plea that the original color had not all worked out of the brush. In twining these two lives together the writer takes a leaf from Plutarch, who frequently pairs his heroes for balance and relief, measuring a Greek against a Roman. In this case the brace of he roes were at one time neighbors, but followed opposite political stars, bringing widely divergent fortunes. The heat of action, long since cooled, has left each man in clear individuality. We are sufficiently far removed from the immediate theatre of their glory to untangle the snarl of alli ances and feuds, and place their personal accom plishments in better perspective than could their neighbor, whose prejudice, pride, and jealousy was blinding him to see exactly each actor's true place in the quick-moving drama. In assembling material for this book the writer is indebted to Charles F. Adams, Frank B. San born, Henry C. Crane, Franklin Pratt, William G. Davis, C. H. Pope, Mary A. Tenney, Joshua Crane, D. Howard Briggs, Houghton Mifflin Co., James H. Stark, Perry Walton, Willard Leonard, Robert Reid, Old Colony Historical Society, Bos- tonian Society, Harvard University, Boston Athe nseum, Mr. Tracy, curator of the State archives, and others. CONTENTS GREETING v PREAMBLE i AT FIRST THE INFANT 17 I. The Old Colony Background ... 19 II. A Brahmin Pedigree 39 III. Land of the Leonards 53 THEN THE SCHOOL-BOY e^ IV. Boston Latin and Norton School Days 69 .V. Harvard College in the Eighteenth Century , ... 91 NEXT THE SOLDIER 105 VI. Adventures by Sea and Forest . . . 107 VII. A Family of Colonels 128 AND THEN THE LOVER 135 VIII. Hanging ^he Shingles 137 IX. A Belle of Taunton . . . . . . .153 X. Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb . . . 162 XL Leonard's Second Marriage . . . .183 [xi] Contents NEXT THE JUSTICE 199 XII. King's Attorney 201 XIII. A Cause Celebre 212 XIV. The Great and General Court . . 221 XV. The Continental Congress . , . 237 XVI. A Tory Absentee 262 XVII. The Massachusettensis Papers . . 277 XVIII. Taunton during the Revolution . 294 XIX. First Attorney-General of Massa chusetts 313 XX. A Supreme Court Justice , . . .329 XXI. Daniel in the Lions' Den .... 339 XXII. Chief Justice of the Bermudas . .351 THE LEAN AND SLIPPERED PANTALOON. 356 XXIII. A Family of Bostonians .... 367 XXIV. An Aged Exile in London .... 386 LAST SCENE OF ALL 393 XXV. Passing of a Patriot 395 XXVI. Last of a Loyalist 398 A CALENDAR OF LIVES 401 [xii] ILLUSTRATIONS Paine's Statue, Taunton Frontispiece Leonard's Mansion i Old State House 6 John Adams 12 Robert Treat Paine 20 Daniel Leonard 34 Puritan Governor of Connecticut .... 46 Elegy of Thomas Leonard 54 Proposed Monument to Iron Pioneers .... 58 Leonard " House of Seven Gables " .... 64 Map of Boston 70 Boston Harbor 80 Harvard College 92 Harvard Commencement Programme .... 102 Governor Thomas Hutchinson 130 Lawyer at Court 146 Persecuting a Tory 206 Boston Massacre 214 Old Province House 222 [ xiii ] Illustrations Herring Petition 228 Hall of Representatives 234 Prayer in Congress 242 Signing the Declaration 254 Independence Hall 260 Battle of Bunker Hill 274 Taunton Green . . '. 300 John Hancock 330 Reception to Loyalists 342 BERilUDA 358 Sam Adams 368 Old South Church 378 Temple Bar 388 DANIEL LEONARD'S HOUSE .\T TAUNTON GREEN TWO MEN OF TAUNTON Preamble Under which king, Bezonian ? speak, or die. Henry IF. HAD you been living in the days of the American Revolution and chanced to stroll through the village of Taunton in the early moming, the last of May, 1774, you might have seen a gay young man, then turning his thirty-fourth birthday, arrayed in rich velvet coat, white stockings, bright-buckled shoes, and cocked hat flashing with gold braid, as he came forth from the mansion on the northwest side of the sprawling, pasture-like common, known throughout the Old Colony as "Ta'nt'n Green." Surveying the heavens with his weather eye, as he takes a pinch from his lacquered snuff-box, our fashionable friend walks down the box-lined path to the stable, where he gives sundry orders to Spencer, a colored groom, who, thereupon, changes his coat and crosses to the house newly erected on the northeast side of the Green. The slave sounds a heavy knocker and then, with respectful bow, communicates his message to a tall, spare man, in years rising forty, but appar- [ I 1 Two Men of Taunton elled with less regard to the latest mode of London than his neighbor. An hour later this tall gentleman, carrying a white canvas bag and cane, emerges from his house with a small boy clinging to his finger and his young wife, sunbonnetted, by his side. To gether, the trio walk to the mansion of their grand neighbor, who is conversing with his wife and six-year-old daughter in the blossom-scented dooryard. The family party is joined by such early-rising townsmen as young Dr. Cobb, Rich ard Caldwell, the storekeeper. Parson Caleb Barnum, and others alert to the imminent political crisis. Presently a pair of spirited horses, driven by an ebony Jehu, drag a yellow coach up to the front entrance. With a stirrup-cup and parting joke about saving their country, the eager discus sion of men and matters of importance is broken off and the tall man and his neighbor (bidding their wives such a good-bye as men married four years bestow) enter the vehicle with their bags and pipes and canes, and at the crack of the whip are off to the northward on the old Bay Road. Were you a stranger in the town, the village hairdresser would have told you that the two travellers were Colonel Leonard and Squire Paine, both lately elected to the General Court, and now setting out for the summer session at Boston. [2] Preamble Then if, like some daring school-boy without prejudice against a dust-bath, you could have chased behind, and stolen a seat on top of the horsehide trunk strapped to the rumble (dang ling your feet over the brass nails, spelling the initials "D. L."), you might have heard a lively colloquy as they rolled along through the spring forest, whitened with flowering dogwood and fra grant with opening wild-grape blossoms. The conversation begins with comment on the glory of the morning and the freshness of nature; is in terspersed with the greeting of friends, passing in chaises or on horseback; drifts into ominous epi sodes of the day — the omission this summer of the Harvard Commencement which they were wont to attend, omitted this year because of the fermenting state of public affairs; the Boston Tea Party of the previous winter; the bold burn ing of the Gaspee at Providence; the impeachment of Judge Oliver for accepting a salary from the Crown; the Port Bill about to go into effect and the sympathy for Boston, shown by towns far and near, in offering sheep, fish, meal, wood, and her ring for her subsistence. As they talked, feeling their way with cautious words, deep convictions were working to outward expression; each was gradually revealing his in most personal attitude toward the impending crisis. Out of the depths of ancestral influences, [3 ] Two JVIen of Taunton from delicate springs of temperament and associa tion, came intuitive predilections which shaped the^ir different views. Each felt in his heart pre sentiments of his relation to coming events; for "in to-day already walks to-morrow." The occupants of this coach typified, in their attitude to each other, the fatal chasm between two political parties. The crucial dilemma, in which Paine and Leonard found themselves, of choosing between Friends of Government and Sons of Liberty, involved fame, property, home, and country. Paine, revolting against constituted authority, quotes Locke, Milton, Grotius, and argues for the right of secession, much as Calhoun did in the next century when South Carolina sought to withdraw from the Union. Paine up holds the rights of the colonies and contends that all authority is vested in the consent of the gov erned; that it is a fundamental right of the people to have some check or control on the legislature; that the laws of England should have no force here, unless confirmed by the General Court; if the right of taxation is conceded to Parliament, what power or influence is left to America ? Leonard replies that the power of Parliament is coextensive with the empire, and that George III is King of Massachusetts as much as of Nova Scotia or Ireland; that if the Crown cannot tax the colonies, it is not sovereign and there is no [4] Preamble general government; there cannot be two powers in the same State; to permit the lesser to with draw from the greater will unhinge all govern ment. Great Britain has protected the colonists in their wars, and America should bear a part of the national burden in return; she has cost more to maintain than has been received in taxes. He expatiates on the certainty of defeat for the raw Provincials in battle with the King's troops ; and on the summary punishment of rebellion. Eng land, determined to enforce her laws, will send an organized army to crush the undisciplined militia ; her navy will destroy the towns along the coast, while Canadians and savages will desolate the inland settlements. Even should the colonists triumph, they would quarrel over boundaries and military rule by reason of diversity of laws and religion; and France and Spain would soon take their ancient possessions and divide the continent between them. If the colonists have any real grievance, it is not from illegal use of power by Parliament, but from lack of representation in that body. Arguing around the circle, they try to keep within constitutional bounds, and if Leonard meets all his points, Paine falls back on "first principles." "Yes, I know," he replies, "but the natural law of right takes precedence over parlia mentary statutes." If Leonard insists that loy- [5 ] Two Men of Taunton alty to the Constitution is the first duty of the subject, Paine answers, "Between loyalty to King George and loyalty to King Conscience, I cannot hesitate." Paine seems to defy law and order, Leonard to obey them; one is appealing to the past, the other to the future. Leonard is a Unionist, Paine a secessionist. The travellers smoke, gesticulate, and earnestly discuss the new Governor Gage, and his intention of convening the Legislature at Salem. As they draw near Milton, they speak of Governor Hutch inson, who is preparing to sail for England; and when Colonel Leonard proposes to drive in for a farewell call upon him. Squire Paine is careful to say "Good moming, Mr, Leonard," excusing himself on the ground of pressing business requir ing his immediate attention in Boston, where we may assume that a short, gray-headed man, by the name of Sam Adams, was a greater attraction at that moment than the royal govemor. These two distinguished Tauntonians were thus gravitating — one toward Sam Adams, the other toward Thomas Hutchinson — the antipodal master-minds of the opposing Whig and Tory parties in Massachusetts, It was some two months later that the final parting of the ways came for these fellow-trav ellers. Then, if you still lingered around Taunton Green, you might have seen, one August moming, [6] *^^,^ fe OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON Preamble Squire Paine departing again, this time in his own chaise, escorted by cheering fellow-citizens wish ing him God-speed upon his way, to the first American Congress, A few days later. Colonel Leonard steals away from his hearthstone to es cape annihilation at the hands of his townsmen, and is destined never again to make his home in this region of his forbears. Viewed from our standpoint of American ideals of patriotism and liberty, there is a strong tempt ation to treat melodramatically these two rivals, sanctifying Paine and vilifying Leonard, Even though Leonard made a monstrous mistake and missed his aim in life, we believe that his motives were pure, and do not charge him with evil de signs against his country, nor brand him with obloquy. Turning the searchlight on all comers of Paine's career, we do not find a paragon of virtue. Each was a success and each a failure; for sck long as human ideals outran human attainments, so long is each individual bound to be a self^ convicted failure; so long as one is loyal to the daily dictates of implanted conscience and, works bravely onward, he may be a glorious success. With one hand we hold fast to the good; with the other we reach out for the better. Always there is the outgrown established order, to which Leon ard clung, at war with the eternal forward move- [7] Two Men of Taunton ment of which Paine was a part. The thrill of most satisfying happiness comes when we let go the ancient order of things, do something new, and feel we are doing right; when the restraint of heredity, of habit, of the law of years is broken, and the liberated spirit cries, "I have found satis faction in new things; I have left the old wrecks behind me." And so our sympathies remain with Paine. These men were alike in many ways : both grew up only sons; both were Harvard graduates; both lawyers; once admirers of the same woman; both found homes on Taunton Green; always promi nent in public office, both became judges; and both lived beyond threescore and ten. Sharp contrasting as well as parallel pictures come to view, and their diversified careers seem to con form remarkably to the Seven Ages which the English dramatist has set for this play of life. Then let us visualize the successive scenes in the eighteenth century, and follow the two players as they walk the stage, making their exits and their entrances, each, in due time, playing his many parts. First the Infant, Paine, nestled in furs, carried down School Street, in Boston, to be christened in the Old South Church; Leonard, a motherless babe, in [8] Preamble the arms of a negro nurse at Norton Planta tions, Then the School-boy, Paine, slipping across to the Latin School, next door to his home, and reciting bonus-a-um to the famous schoolmaster Lovell; Leonard, barefooted, raddy and freckled, riding his pony to the "deestreek" school at Winnecunnett, or delivering the class oration at Harvard in presence of the historian Hutchinson. Next the Soldier. Paine, the militant and adventurous young chaplain in the Crown Point Expedition against French and Indians; Leonard, in resplendent uniform, a lieutenant-colonel, drilling the raw recraits at the annual June muster on Taunton Green. Then the Lover. Paine, a tardy benedict, marries, with amus ing suddenness, into an iron-master's family; Leonard starts out in a chaise on a "wedding tower" through New England with the charm ing daughter of Colonel White. Next the Justice. Squire Paine, after participating in the Con tinental Congress at Philadelphia and signing the Declaration of Independence, goes riding [9] Two Men of Taunton through the woods of Maine, then a part of the court circuit of Massachusetts judges; while Leonard, in flowing, full-bottomed wig, dra matically presides over the motley population of the summery islands at Bermuda, The Pantaloon Age. Paine, gray and withered, walks in procession with his old comrades, Adams and Gerry, to arouse patriotism and the "spirit of '76," dur ing the naval war with Great Britain; Leonard goes tapping with his cane along the brick side walks of London, muttering stories of his old life across the seas to children's willing ears. Last Scene of All, Paine passes out of life, in the bosom of his family, to lie buried but a few steps from the spot where he was born; Leonard, after his tragic end, is lonesomely buried in the heart of the biggest city in Christendom, The sources from which this book is compiled are brief sketches of Leonard and Paine in vari ous publications; their letters in the possession of individuals, families, and historical societies; and other unpublished "monuments of vanished minds," The private joumal of Paine was the sine qua non, kindly placed by his descendants at the writer's disposal. [ 10] Preamble The daily chronicles of Bradford, Winthrop, the Mathers, Sewall, and the Adamses embalm the history of New England before the advent of the daily paper. These were not meagre records of the weather and their own whereabouts, but comment on men and things, their opinions, prejudices, aims — the vital movements of the days we wish to know, A record of Leonard's thoughts, emotions, and succeeding incidents in his life might have more charm than those of Paine; but his papers were scattered to the four winds or kindled into bonfires by unsympathetic hands, Paine kept a journal nearly seventy years, skip ping scarcely a day, except from September 3 to September 15, 1752, when Clio herself has left no record of English history. This journal, an epitome of legal conciseness, — a mere brief of his earthly pilgrimage, — is extant, save the log of his maritime wanderings; but is provokingly lean and unfraitful, — a faithful weather report and laconic entries of daily problems uppermost in his mind. He was not so gifted with ready flow of language, as Jonathan Sewall or Peter Oliver; nor had he such a reflective tum as John Adams, For example, in reference to the above- mentioned change in the calendar, Paine's full entry in his journal is merely this : September 15, 1752. This day, according to Act [ II ] Two Men of Taunton of Parliament, we begin to count time according to the Gregorian Calendar. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, or John Adams would have philosophized on the occasion which added eleven days to their lives at one clip, and gave Franklin excuse for keeping two birth days.^ As their principal contemporary, weighing these men in the balances of judgment, we turn to John Adams, whose inquiring mind was always dissecting his associates in his private records, sometimes using, it almost seems, the quill of a porcupine dipped in vinegar. Daniel Leonard and John Adams were intimate friends for a dozen years, associated socially, politically, professionally. After their separation, Adams, looking back through half a century to the misty figures of early manhood, once spoke of his friendship with Leonard as "a vapor blown off by political winds." Again he wrote to Josiah Quincy: I have differed for many years in political senti ments from your grandfather, your uncle Samuel, ^ The discrepancy between the solar and calendar year had been increasing for centuries, so that the Protestant and Ro man Catholic countries assigned this time for a readjustment of the calendar; while the Greek Church to this day retains the old form. [ 12 ] JOHN ADAMS By Stuart Preamble your cousin Jonathan Sewall, Daniel Leonard, and some others, the most Intimate friends I ever en joyed, without the smallest personal altercation, and, I am bold to say, without diminution of es teem on either side. In a letter to Dr. Jedidiah Morse, dated Quincy, December 22, 18 15, Adams again refers to his brother barristers (Leonard, Jonathan Sewall, Samuel Quincy) as his cordial, confidential, and bosom friends. I never, In the whole course of my life, lived with any other men in more perfect Intimacy. They all had been patri ots, as decided, as I believed, as I was. He adds : Leonard was a scholar, a lawyer, and an orator, according to the standard of those days. As a mem ber of the House of Representatives, even down to the year 1770, he made the most ardent speeches which were delivered In that House against Great Britain, and In favor of the Colonies. His popular ity became alarming. The two sagacious spirits, Hutchinson and Sewall, soon penetrated his char acter, of which. Indeed, he had exhibited very vis ible proofs. He had married a daughter of Mr. Ham mock, who had left her a portion, as it was thought in that day. He wore a broad gold lace around the rim of his hat, he had made his cloak glitter with laces still broader, he had set up his chariot and pair, and constantly travelled in it from Taunton [ 13 ] Two Men of Taunton to Boston. This made the world stare; It was a nov elty. Not another lawyer In the province, attorney or barrister, of whatever age, rank, or station, pre sumed to ride in a coach or in a chariot. The dis cerning ones soon perceived that wealth and power must have charms to a heart that delighted in so much finery, and indulged In such unusual expense. Such marks could not escape the vigilant eyes of the two arch-tempters, Hutchinson and Sewall, who had more art, insinuation, and address than all the rest of their party. Poor Daniel was beset with great zeal for his conversion, Hutchinson sent for him, courted him with the ardor of a lover, reasoned with him, flattered him, overawed him, frightened him, Invited him to come frequently to his house. As I was Intimate with Mr. Leonard during the whole of this process, I had the substance of this Information from his own mouth, was a witness to the progress of the Impression made upon him, and to many of the labors and struggles of his mind, between his Interest, his vanity, and his duty. The relation of Adams to Paine was different. Both have left plain evidence of their opinions of each other. Under the greensward of outward amiability was a subsoil of jealous rivalry, turned by the plough of occasion to the surface, Paine was proud, Adams (frankly announcing it in his diary) was self-seeking, vain, a "home-made" man, courageous, tenacious, forceful. Much to [ 14] Preamble the amusement of Paine, Adams made an inglo rious debut in his first case at law. In the excite ment of his new experience, he had drawn a defective writ, so that his client, who had been inclined to encourage the new beginner, repented his folly and "wished the affair in Hell," Adams, aged twenty-three, says of Paine, aged twenty-eight: How should I bear Bob Paine's detraction } Should I be angry and take vengeance by scandalizing him? or should I be easy, undisturbed, and praise him as far as he is praiseworthy? — return good for evil.? I should have been well pleased, if he had said I was a very Ingenious, promising, young fellow; but, as it Is, I am pretty easy, 1758. December 3, Bob Paine is conceited, and pretends to more knowledge and genius than he has, I have heard him say that he took more pleasure In solving a problem in algebra than In a frolic. He told me, the other day, that he was as curious after a minute and particular knowledge of mathematics and philosophy as I could be about the laws of antiquity. He asked me what Dutch commentator I meant.? I said, "Vinnius," "VInnlus! "says he (with a flush of real envy, but pretended contempt) ; " you cannot understand one page of Vinnius." He must know that human nature is disgusted with such incomplalsant behavior; besides, he has no right to say that I do not understand every word in Vinnius, for he knows nothing of me. For the future let me [ IS 1 Two Men of Taunton act the part of a critical spy upon him; not that of an open, unsuspicious friend. Last Superior Court at Worcester, he dined In company with Mr. Grid- ley, Mr. Trowbridge and several others, at Mr, Putnam's; and although a modest, attentive be havior would have best become him in such a com pany, yet he tried to engross the whole conversation to himself. He did the same In the evening, when all the judges of the Superior Court were present; and he did the same last Thanksgiving Day at Colonel Quincy's, when Mr. Wiblrd, Mr. Cranch, etc., were present. That evening, at Putnam's, he called me a numskull and a blunderbuss before all the superior judges. . . . He Is an Impudent, ill-bred, conceited fellow; yet he has wit, sense, and learn ing, and a great deal of humor; and has virtue and piety, except his fretful, peevish, childish complaints against the disposition of things. Referring to their appointments as judges of the Supreme Court, Adams says : Phil. 9 June 1776. Paine has acted In his own character, although I think not consistent with the public character which he has been made to wear. However, I con fess I am not much mortified with this, for the bench will not be the less respectable for having less wit, humor, drollery, or fun upon it; very different qual ities are necessary for that department. AT FIRST THE INFANT Chapter I The Old Colony Background Won it by the axe and harrow, Held it by the axe and sword, Bred a race with brawn and marrow. From no alien over-lord. Gained the right to guide and govem, Then with labor strong and free Forged the land, a shield of Empire Silver Sea to Silver Sea. D. S. Scott. THE Stalwart Pilgrim fathers, wading through the curling surf from their shal lop (a "bow-shoote" distance) to the welcome sands at the point of Cape Cod, and bearing in their arms the loyal Pilgrim mothers, coming ashore to do their belated washing, make a homely and amusing, but very signifi cant, picture of the landing of our Majrflower an cestors. The presence of those women betokens that the sea-worn home-seekers had come to stay — to breed a new race which should perpetuate their vital principles as an abiding influence in the land. The genesis of this new provincial type, now known throughout the world as the "Down East Yankee," was in this Old Colony, and on Cape Cod — a "Clam Yankee," the Dixie folks call him. [19] Two Men of Taunton Those descendants of Norman and Saxon brought sturdy bodies, evolved by long warfare against other races, and a moral fibre nerved by religious conviction and stiffened by persecution. Their most conspicuous quality was courage — not so much courage to come (for in time of per secution, the line of least resistance is to migrate), but courage to stay in this new country, to put the plough into this stubborn soil and not tum back with their returning ship. It is this "staying quality" which compels our reverence. Hunger brought them hither — soul-hunger for the worship of God according to their light. With heroic strength of mind they held tenaciously to their Nicene Creed, and rebelled against formal ism and ecclesiastical pomp; tolerated no inter mediary between themselves and their Maker; recognized two sources of power — God and the Devil ; thought it difficult to tally a happy life with a virtuous one; guided their lives by the King James Version (loath to question its teachings); and considered piety the chief end of man.^ They felt they had crossed the ocean in fulfilment of some divine revelation of human progress. The beckoning finger of Cape Cod was a providential guide to this location. ' John D. Long has pointed out that they were not all " saints"; the varied elements of human nature cropped out in the first shipload. [20] The Old Colony Background Peculiar characteristics differentiate this Old Colony Yankee from the rest of mankind. The natural features of a country are said to mould its inhabitants. In this Old Colony there are no mountains, great rivers, waterfalls, or prairies. The four indigenous factors influencing them were : the surrounding sea, the fickle climate, the stingy soil, and the gloomy wilderness concealing treach erous neighbors. The sea invites exploration, demands a wide horizon, inspires expectancy and curiosity. The capricious climate is a test of physical quality, with its range of weather from arctic to tropic on short notice, and compels the Yankee in self-pro tection to become a close observer of nature, and may explain his remarkable propensity for guess ing. To fortify his constitution against these mer curial changes, he discovered that hard cider and Jamaica ram were agreeable accessories, driving out fever in summer and warming his stomach in winter; and incidentally of value in bargaining with red men or in prolonging the pastoral call. The Yankee was not always a good match for John Barleycorn. He was sometimes trandled home in a wheelbarrow from the muster; after an installation festival, ministers were known to be gently tucked in bed by kind-hearted parishioners ; gin-sling, toddy, flip, and punch gave Saturday a Donnybrook finish; in Taunton, the store-town [ 21 ] Two Men of Taunton of the Old Colony, was a shed on Jockey Lane known as the "Morgue," where maudlin victims snored off their week-end sprees.^ Damp weatherproduced pulmonary complaints. The demise of the New England winter was ac companied by a train of ailments. Wells stag nant in summer bred autumn fevers, which car ried off the little ones. Salt meats and heavy foods produced lank, dyspeptic bodies, "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are," says a Frenchman. Diet determines mental and moral capacity. Vegetarianism was an unknown virtue. Pies of mince-meat, pumpkin, apple, chicken, clam, and rhubarb were a mainstay, interlarded with "Injun" pudding, doughnuts, sausages, hogs-head cheese, "b'iled dinner," cod fish-balls, johnny-cakes, baked beans, succotash, and pandowdy. From the soil they acquired a quality called "grit." "Winning by inches, Holding by clinches, Slow to contention, but slower to quit; Now and then failing, Never once quailing, Let us thank God for our Saxon grit." ' There were then, in proportion to the population, five times as many resorts in Taunton, licensed to sell liquors, as there are to-day. The public conscience did not look upon this drink ing habit as an enormous sin. [22] The Old Colony Background Inland it was so rocky that they declared the ballast from the Ark went overboard there during the Flood; toward the shore it was so sandy, some one remarked, that the farmers might be judged insane, like the feigning Ulysses when he ploughed the seashore at Ithaca; down on the Cape the thin garment of soil was sadly "out at heels and elbows." In places the turf was sown thick with arrowheads and domestic mementoes of the vanishing Indian. How to deal with the aborigines was a vexatious problem. The newly arrived white men found themselves between two fires; Canonicus in the Rhode Island territory was hostile to Massasoit in southern Massachusetts. The red men dwelling in this corner of the Atlantic seaboard were hardly more developed than the beavers building their dams along the rivers, the deer that migrated in families through the forests, or the colonies of crows holding caucus in the treetops. The Indian had made little advancement beyond the making of a bark canoe to cross the ponds; pointing his arrows with flint and eagle claws; baking clams in seaweed; fertilizing corn with fish; and curing skins of moose or wild cat to provide clothing and shel ter. Along comes the white man, who proceeds to subjugate the four elements of air, earth, fire, and water, as vassals to do his work. He cuts down the primeval timber and fashions comfortable [23] Two Men of Taunton dwelling-houses (often with gambrel roof, in memory of the Pilgrims' sojourn in Holland); he harnesses the rivers to make nails, boards, and cider; he taxes the wind to turn sails for grinding com into meal; he digs and smelts bog-ore into rude implements. With patient labor he converts the forests into pastures, the pastures into cattle, the cattle into beef, the beef into brawny arms to fell more forests and drive his enemies from the earth. These dis coveries the red children of the forest had not dreamed of; even as those pioneers had no vision of our modern electric servants and aerial con veyances. The red men were, for the most part, treated contemptuously by the white men as treacherous vermin. King Philip was persecuted with barbaric ferocity; the head of the Princess Weetamoe was displayed on a spontoon in Taunton to terrify Indian captives; Annawan, after his capture by the daring Captain Church, was taken to Ply mouth and executed, in spite of Church's promise that his life should be spared if he surrendered without resistance. Yet there was some show of justice. Govemor Bradford proudly recorded that every foot of the Old Colony had been paid for, though the Indians often sold their lands for a mess of pottage. Several white men were once hanged for the murder of an Indian, but we imag- [24] The Old Colony Background ine these white men were "undesirable citizens" of the tiny republic. There was an attempt to Christianize the savages. Coadjutors with Eliot — Bourne and Treat, of the Cape, Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, and Danforth, of Taunton — were measurably successful, leading a large number of converts into semi-civilization, teach ing them to get a poor living by farming and whaling — the latter a not uncongenial sport. But praying Indians were a decadent race, and at Mashpee, Eastham, and Assawampsett aroused almost as much suspicion as their unregenerate brothers. Having little regard for property rights, they walked into town and took what they needed without apology. Many became slaves; one, named "Quock," was long in the family of Ephraim Leonard, Miscegenation with the imported blacks produced a less savage but no less fierce-looking type of man. The Indians were more capable of adopting the white man's vices than his virtues, "Fire-water," first offered them on their meeting with Governor Carver, was much to their liking and contributed toward accelerating King Philip's War a few years later. Algonquins circled in the rear of the seaside settlements "like the scythe of death ready to mow them down at any moment," Scalping-knife and tomahawk brought dread alarm to young and old. Often the valiant house wife sat in the crotch of a tree with loaded flintlock [25] Two Men of Taunton to protect her husband's scalp as he hoed the grow ing corn.^ Sixty years of contention with the Indian- haunted wilderness made the Yankee wary, alert, ragged, strong, and skeptical. Tramping the woods and hills, laying stone walls criss-cross over the fields, hewing timbers, and swinging the flail, lengthened his arms and legs and evolved the prototype of Uncle Sam, He became horny- handed; and close-fisted as well, carefully storing away in the chimney whatever "pieces of eight" came to him in days when trade was mostly by barter. He held little reverence for the " slothful servant"; indeed, a canny pursuit of the "root of all evil " came to be his leading trait in the eyes of the British nation. On this tall, sun-browned, strong-jawed yeoman, whittling with his jack-knife notions of all sorts; salt-witted, self-contained, standing on his rights, content if not molested, — put a coonskin cap, galligaskins, cowhide boots, a quid of pig-tail in his cheek, and a picturesque buckskin coat con- * These Algonquins first used the word "Yankee." Having no "1" in their language, they could come no nearer to pro nouncing the word "English" than "Yengeesh," which be came corrupted into "Yankee." A towering, gigantic, iron statue of King Philip, with uplifted tomahawk and full savage regalia, should be erected on the summit of Mount Hope as a memorial tribute of the Yankee to the former tenants of this land, and an object lesson in history. [26] The Old Colony Background cealing the patch on his trousers, and you have a characteristic type of the dramatis personce of our stage when "Farmer Geprge" became king. Up before sunrise, he toadied to no man; felt himself equal to princes; was acquisitive of property (often "land-poor"); he sat patiently through Fast Day sermons, and after candlelight played checkers and "Old Sledge" on a hogshead at the "store." All the King's horses and all the King's men could not drive him. He was filled with bitter resentment at foreign oppression. Holy water and papal bulls were special objects of his hatred. The Pope and the Devil were religiously burned on Guy Fawkes's Day.^ His nasal twang and drawl were aggravated by humming Watts's hymns. These Old Colony farmers, foresters, and fisher men came together at town meetings, church gatherings, barn-raisings, auctions, turkey sup pers, clambakes, and spelling-bees. They bred sheep, goats, swine, cattle; planted flax, wheat, turnips, corn, beans, and pumpkins; tanned skins for boots; spun wool for their shirts; trimmed furs into caps, coats, and mittens; and became a self-reliant community. Ingenuity, thrift, and energy marked them. The sick, the insane, the * Thomas Coram, of England, thought that the citizens of Taunton might never become enough civilized to appreciate an Episcopal church. [27] Two Men of Taunton deformed, the feeble-minded, and the decrepit were not segregated, but were a charge to the family, where their appearance may have dulled the edge of sympathy. It was a day of family gov ernment, family amusement, family religion. Thomas Paine, in 1776, observed that a good portion of the first-imported virtue was inherited by the Revolutionary patriots. The standard of morality and high ideals was maintained among a learned ministry, to the third and fourth genera tions, who knew not the Holland life or the graves of their English forbears. Constant reading of King James's Bible had developed the "New England conscience" always ready to fly "to the cause which needs assistance" or at "the wrong which needs resistance." These ministers, college- trained, self-searching, faithful servants of the Lord, compelled attendance on their lengthy sermons; and were careful to shape public opinion and to see that every child was taught to read, revere, and understand the Bible. But the common alma mater was the great University of the Back Woods. In their wild environment, the lack of higher education tended to produce a different race. Culture gave way to practical knowledge. The Pilgrims have been called the cream of the Puritans. Although the Mayflower company came from northem England, succeeding immigration [28] The Old Colony Background was largely from southwestern England. Often a shipload of immigrants would become the nucleus of a town named after their pastor's home. So we find Barnstable, Bristol, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Norton, Plympton, Taunton, Tiverton, Traro, Somerset, Swansea, Wareham, Yarmouth were names well loved by those old-country folk. The Pilgrim beliefs and customs predominated. Many were descendants of the Leyden church mem bership. Every town had its Congregational minister to support. Men ostracized through religious controversy had sought shelter in the Plymouth Colony, each ready to defend his creed. Those who sought to quibble on theology could be " accommodated " in discussing the Halfway Cove nant, the fate of infants unbaptized, the Inner Light, Vicarious Atonement, Foreordination, the use of the fiddle in church music, and whether the communion bread could be digested in the mate rial body. Baptists settled at Rehoboth, Swan sea, and Bristol; Quakers increased at Dartmouth. Heresy of the Old World became orthodoxy in the New, Calvinism was the backbone of the religious thought. Protracted fasts and vigils produced visions and weird revelations; but the " Witchcraft Delusion" never carried the natives completely off their mental centre. During the periodical "revivals," the excitement rose to the pitch of throwing off coats, screaming in ecstatic [29] Two Men of Taunton prayer, and committing other strange antics in the name of a calm and gentle Christ; but mental equilibrium was restored before such inhuman excesses were committed as at Boston and Salem. Godly and ungodly mingled together. "Home missionaries" were kept alive and active, by un- regenerates who went fishing Sunday, cheated in "hoss" trades, chewed tobacco, swore on small provocation, smuggled, played cards for shillings, and too often came under the Circean spell of new ram and hard cider. The third and fourth generations, risen from the soil, were a robust, toddy-drinking race, of ani mal nature, ever ready for a fight, whether with the red man or in a foolhardy expedition to cap ture the citadel at Louisburg, where, the story goes, they chased the flying cannon balls of the enemy to fire them back again before they became cold. The " unregenerates " had been taught by the genius loci to take their fun in boisterous horse play. Saturday afternoons, the rastic plough- jogger from Bearhole, Slab Ridge, Tearall, Hock- amock, Rocky Woods, Great Meadow Hill, Happy Hollow, or Squawbetty, hitched up "Old Dobbin" and drove "daoun to Ta'nt'n" with his brown jug under the seat. If it was summer, he stuck antlers of indigo weed above his horse's ears to keep off hungry flies, and the "yaller dog " trotted under the wagon on which poultry may have found [30] The Old Colony Background a lodging for the night. If it was winter, he rode in a pung, with moth-eaten wolf robe flying tails over its back, and the dog curled about his mas ter's kip boots. During the afternoon he swapped "bosses," had a trotting-match, cock-fight, dog fight, or raffle; and tumbled about the Green in bacchanalian single combat in settlement of old scores; then rode home singing convivial songs, and flinging melon-rinds, lobster-claws, or oyster- shells along the way. At Bristol, the prosperous seaport town, slaves, brought from Africa and Guinea, were sold by slave-traders coming down from Boston. A brisk trade with the Carolinas, New York, and the West Indies was carried on by Taunton, Somerset, Bristol, Dartmouth, and Yarmouth. The build ing of vessels was a main source of wealth; sloops of thirty tons made their way up the rivers and inlets, with cargoes of wheat from the Hudson, rice and potatoes from the Carolinas, and sugar and molasses from the West Indies. When the fierce "northeasters " rocked the houses and lashed the surf along the shore, prayers went up at many firesides for the absent sailor-boy at sea. Iron was forged from bog-ore; bricks were made from clay- pits ; furs were a source of revenue to every farmer's boy, who sent the polecat's skin across the sea, to be worn in France as ermine. Bears and wolves ranged the swamps, and the forests were tenanted [31] Two Men of Taunton by otter, mink, wild cats, and raccoons, as well as rabbits, chucks, and chipmucks. As late as 1790 wolves were flooded out of a Raynham swamp by a ditch from Taunton River, Wellfleet and New Bedford were catching whales, though whale fishing was not at its best until the early nine teenth century. The wealth of the seas was always a large part of the income of Old Colony settlers. Codfish and mackerel were important exports; "codfish aristocracy" came to be a term of re proach, Taunton was settled from Somerset and Devon shire Counties of England, Some Welsh from Swansea had given the old name to their new home. Kidnapped Acadians were heartlessly set down near Lakeville and elsewhere by Colonel Winslow, In Bridgewater were ironworkers among whom the Leonards were foremost. They were an everyday lot of people, with big families, plain wooden houses, well-filled bams, and many stone walls, which testify to generations of lumbago. Few had means to live without constant toil. There was a little aristocracy — the Winslows at Plymouth, the Edsons at Bridgewater, the Leon ards at Taunton. Troy — now the busy city of Fall River — was but a scattered hamlet. Money was the rarest commodity among the earlier colonists; they had not enough to pay five hundred pounds for their royal charter. Once their credit was saved [32] The Old Colony Background by the accidental meeting of some Englishmen wrecked on the coast, who brought a little ready cash. The Boston Puritans, increased in wealth by the continual arrival of immigrants, grew haughty and intolerant to the extent of hanging witches and Quakers; whereas the Plymouth Pilgrims, in the humility which comes from poverty, welcomed Roger Williams, exiled from Salem and Boston, and bore with Quaker peculiarities. We may remember, however, to its credit, that while the Province of Massachusetts was under British law, capital offences were fewer than in England, and were not so harshly punished. At Boston, men believed in freedom; but to think and do as the Bostonians did — that was freedom. In Plymouth Colony, they were so poor that if one be haved " tolable well," he could enjoy full liberty. Through these years the Yankee had been work ing out his salvation with native shrewdness. Opinions were hardening in his head on the ques tion of civil freedom and human rights. Ever looking for a new idea, he sat whittling in the barn door, chewing tobacco and pondering right and wrong, until he concluded that the town ought not to be taxed to pay the minister, that Church and State were separate institutions, and that there should be no taxation without representation in Parliament. Both Paine and Leonard descended from these [33 ] Two Men of Taunton stout-hearted Anglo-Saxon pioneers, who, cut off , from Old-World influence, started anew upon their interpretation of the Scriptures and human ex perience, retaining the kernel but discarding the husk of English government, along with what seemed to them the accumulated wrongs and fallacies of Lords and Bishops, Preserving a sacred reverence for their old homes, they studied to make this new govemment simple, direct, sub- ; stantial, founded on duty, and reliance upon God. The corner stone was the Bible. The town meet ing was developed and perfected, — a democracy where rich and poor could meet together in equal ity. After a century and a half of brave labor in pursuit of such ideals, they had almost forgotten England, and felt qualified to set up for them selves, "Freedom to worship God" was the watch-cry in 1620 at Plymouth; "Liberty and Union" the motto on the flag at Taunton in 1775. Thomas Paine, great-grandfather of Robert Treat Paine, had been a fisherman on Cape Cod, and Thomas Leonard, great-grandfather of Daniel Leonard, had dug valuable ore from the bosom of the Old Colony. After the colony was divided into counties, the two men sat together as Depu ties at Plymouth in 1689, Thomas Leonard was appointed a justice to hold the Court of Common Pleas in Bristol County, and James Paine, son of [34] The Old Colony Background Thomas and grandfather of our Robert, became a justice in Barnstable County. Francis Baylies, in his scholarly memoirs, says of the Plymouth Colony citizens : , . , That curse of all small and independent communities, political ambition, found no place amongst them. The higher offices were not sought, but the services of such as were fit to sustain them were demanded, as the right of the people, and they were accepted, not for the sake of distinction, emolu ment, or pleasure, but from the sense of duty. Fear ful of the loss of reputation, men underwent the severe and painful duties which such offices required. Where there was no strife for position, no temptation in the shape of emolument, and no passion for offi cial distinction, small was the danger of feuds and factions. Then, if we find Thomas, George, and Ephraim Leonard, Thomas and James Paine holding high office, we may know they were men "fit to sus tain them." Democratic Plymouth was much aggrieved to be amalgamated in 1692 with the aristocratic Massachusetts Bay Colony, This conjunction de stroyed the political consequence of Plymouth, and the claims of the elder but humbler colony were little regarded. At that time the population of the Old Colony was 13,000, including reds, whites, and blacks; by 1775, the whites had in- [35 ] Two Men of Taunton creased to 26,656, and there were about 600 each of blacks and reds. At the outbreak of the Revolution, the Old Col ony was politically divided. The eastern county, Plymouth, had many sympathizers with England, as had also Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, while Bristol County was largely Whig. Two eminent leaders of these factions were our heroes, Leonard and Paine, who played their parts in Taunton because of a blunder made by Charles II. The patent of 1629, from the Plymouth Council of London to the Plymouth Colony, granted juris diction over the land from Cape Cod to Narragan sett River as the western boundary. The charter of 1663, to Rhode Island, from Charles II,granted title to the land three miles to the eastward of Narragansett River. Thus there was a strip of land, three miles wide, lying east of this river, which had been granted to two colonies. People from Rhode Island, mostly Baptists, had settled this strip, but were under Plymouth rale and sent delegates to the Plymouth General Court. They recognized the sovereignty of Plymouth, but the royal confirmation of the title to the land (granted by the Plymouth Council of London to the Pil grims) was given to Rhode Island. When Massa chusetts effected the coalition with Plymouth, Rhode Island pressed her claim to the disputed land, but was unsuccessful at that time. [36] The Old Colony Background In 1685, Plymouth Colony had been divided, like Gaul, into three parts, — one named Bristol County after a prosperous seaport town in the disputed territory. At this Bristol, the courts were held, and thither went Ephraim Leonard, James Paine, and other "common-sense lawyers" to adjust local differences. The natives there considered themselves a part of Massachusetts, but Rhode Island (at her best pinched for terri tory) was jealous, and a dispute began about this strip of land. The two colonies could not agree, and at length, in 1741, George II appointed a commission of three — one member from the Province of Nova Scotia, one from New York, and one from New Jersey — to settle this bound ary question. Massachusetts had been a way ward child to the mother government; her case was prejudiced, and the commissioners recognized Rhode Island's claim as valid. In 1746, Rhode Island claimed all Fall River and Assonet as far as Somerset; her claim was granted in part, A line about three miles east of Narragansett Bay was made the boundary. Massachusetts, in her indignation, refused to pay her half of the surveying costs, which caused fur ther litigation. This territory ceded to Rhode Island included Tiverton, Westport, and the shire town of Bristol; hence the remaining Bristol County in Massachusetts contained neither the [37] Two Men of Taunton town of Bristol nor a court-house. Taunton, an inland town, had grown to be much larger than Bristol; was thriving, and central in the dismem bered county; and consequently became the loca tion of a new court-house in 1747. Samuel White, the leading lawyer in Taunton, was appointed King's Attorney, rather than Ephraim or George Leonard, who were old residents of Norton, When this transfer was legally made, the inhabitants of Bristol were loath to part with the records, and tradition says they were secured for Taunton by strategy of George Leonard and other lawyers. After Taunton became the shire town, many justices gathered there in the days when law was growing in importance as an attractive calling for energetic, clear-headed, ambitious young men. Thus Paine and Leonard were naturally drawn to the court-house, and no one can fully grasp the story of the Old Colony who is not familiar with the career of these two men who focussed much history in their lives, in those stirring times when questions of the Prerogative of the Crown versus local rights were finally decided. Chapter II A Brahmin Pedigree His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen. Dryden SAFE behind the "clenched fist of Massachu setts," the Pilgrim fathers boldly drafted the "Mayflower Compact" in rebuke of the despotisra of Church and State, now left beyond the seas. This Compact and the Declaration of Independence are two preeminent documents which have inspired the American people to deeds of courage, freedom, and glory. Among the signa tures to the covenant drafted by the liberty-seek ing immigrants in Provincetown Harbor is that of Stephen Hopkins. After the Pilgrims had founded Plymouth, this Hopkins went with Edward Win- slow on an exploring expedition — the first white persons to leave a description of the Indian resort known as Cohannet, which lies in the shoulder blade of the defiant Cape. Cohannet, a few years later, received from English settlers the name of Taunton, Our Paine, living in Taunton and de scended from Stephen Hopkins, was the sole resi dent of Plymouth Colony among the signers of the Declaration,^ ' From the adjoining plantation of Rhode Island came another signer with tremulous autograph directly descended from the same Stephen Hopkins. [39] Two Men of Taunton As the Epic of the Leonard family is strongly colored with iron, so through the Epic of the Paine family runs a distinct theological thread. To use the phrase of Holmes,^ Robert was of "Brahmin ancestry." By easy genealogical leaps, we come down his line from one clergyman to another. His father, Thomas, was minister at Weymouth; his grandmother on his mother's side had married two ministers, Mr. Esterbrook first, and later, Rev. Samuel Treat. Paine's maternal great-grand father, Rev. Samuel Willard, was pastor of the Old South Church in Boston; and was acting president of Harvard College from 1701 to 1707; his paternal great-great-grandfather was Rev. Anthony Thatcher. Besides being a scion of the clergy, his pedigree discloses an added strain of blue blood in the names of Robert Treat, Gov ernor of Connecticut, and Major Willard, another famous Indian fighter. The pioneer, Thomas Paine, came to America in 1622, bringing a son, Thomas, then ten years old, who had lost an eye at archery practice in Eng land. This Thomas, Junior, lived on Cape Cod until his ninety-fourth year, preserving his re maining eye intact from Indian arrows through King Philip's War. He married Mary, daughter of Nicholas Snow, whose wife was daughter of Stephen Hopkins. The elder immigrant, Thomas, * Elsie Venner. [40] A Brahmin Pedigree settled at Yarmouth, but his one-eyed son moved to Eastham, and was parent of seven sons, from one of whom, John, was descended the wandering playwright, John Howard Payne, who touched all hearts with his tender song: "Be it ever so hum ble, there's no place like home." ^ James, the sixth son of Thomas Paine, went up to Barnstable, was appointed justice, accumulated property and lands, married Bethiah Thatcher, and erected a substantial farmhouse, carefully tarring the mortise-holes against decay. This ancestral resort was the boyhood delight of our Robert, who sailed, an unhappy voyager, across the bay from Boston each summer to visit his Aunt Mary Freeman, who had inherited the es tate. Bethiah was the fourth child of Colonel John Thatcher, and granddaughter of Rev. Anthony Thatcher, who holds a place in history because of his frightful shipwreck on an island dotting the point of Cape Ann, and known to this day as "Thatcher's Woe." 2 ' This song-writer thought the name looked more "select" spelled with a "y," an opinion embraced by others of the family. Among the numerous spellings of the Signer's name, on bills contracted at the Continental Congress, is one sent to "Mr. Traitpain," which intimates that he was hailed by his familiar cronies as "Treat." ^ The spar of land was granted to him by the colony on ac count of his "providential rescue." He had set sail with his family from Cape Cod for Cape Ann in 1635, when a storm drove the ship on the rocks. He and his wife reached shore, but [41] Two Men of Taunton John Thatcher, father of Bethiah, was married in 1661 to Rebecca Winslow, and while on the way to Falmouth with his bride, he stopped for the night at the house of Colonel Gorham at Barnstable. During the merry conversation with the newly-married couple (so the story goes), a baby girl, a few days old, was introduced, and the night of her birth mentioned to Mr. Thatcher, who observed that it was on the very night he was married. Taking the infant in his arms, he pre sented her to his bride, saying: "Here, my dear, is a little lady born on the same night we were mar ried; I wish you would kiss her, for I intend tohave her for my second wife." "I will, my dear, but I hope it will be long before your intention is ful filled." Then, taking the babe, the bride kissed it heartily and returned it to the nurse's hands. The jesting prediction was eventually verified, Mr, Thatcher's wife died, and the child, arrived at the age of twenty-three, actually became his second wife. For a century, this family knew the perils and privations of Cape Cod life. The descendants of Thomas Paine intermarried also with the Doane, Freeman, Sparrow, Hopkins, and Winslow fami lies, good, sturdy folk, long identified with the their children were drowned before their eyes. Later children came and their granddaughter was grandmother to Robert, the Signer. [42] A Brahmin Pedigree Cape, the fish-hook shape of which symbolized the profession of many of its residents. The greatest of all hunting sports — whale-chasing — supplied, sooner or later, some exciting adventure to almost every native of Cape Cod. Conceming James Paine, his son Thomas wrote of a whaling expedi tion off Cape Cod as follows : November, 1717, My father, being In a whale bote, was struck Immediately by a whale on the neck and head, and the bote being stove, he was about drowned before any one could find him, but we afterward carried him home and he is wonderfully recovered. For years Cape Cod was the mother of sea- captains. Skippers from Harwich, Traro, Dennis, and Barnstable were spinning yarns and "splicing the main brace" in every port of the globe. On the decks of many a fleet schooner was a keen-eyed pilot from those sandy shores. These captains followed the sea through the summer, setting lob ster pots and "smelling" for blue-fish, and went courting in the snug winter. The women, with eyes narrowed. and dim from long search of the offing, set up flapping coats and sails on posts and waved red handkerchiefs, as signals to their jackies passing by offshore. Thomas, son of James, was bom at Barnstable in 1694. There he lived until he went up to Har vard College for the class of 1717, destined, like [43] Two Men of Taunton most of his classmates, to the ministry. Upon his appearance at Harvard, he was a thoroughbred Cape Cod Yankee, salt and sandy. Followers of the sea study the moon, stars, tides, and weather- breeding signs. So we are not surprised to find this studious Thomas printing almanacs "of celes tial motions, aspects, eclipses, etc.," for the years 1718 and 1719, which were a joy to the embryo "Poor Richard," then a young, inquisitive boy in his brother's printing-shop at Boston.^ Thomas Paine studied with Rev. Nathaniel Shaw, of Harwich, attended the Thursday Lec tures in Boston for a couple of years, preached itinerantly, and was shortly ordained as minister at Weymouth at ninety pounds a year, with a par sonage and forty acres of land as perquisite. In 1 72 1, he married the delicately beautiful daughter of Rev. Samuel Treat, of Eastham, then living with her widowed mother in Boston. She was just "sweet sixteen" when a mounted troop escorted the bridal party out to the parsonage at Wey mouth, where Rev. Peter Thatcher performed the wedding ceremony. They lived a few years in the parsonage at Weymouth, but the wife and mother * One announces the times for holding the courts, the spring tides and prophetic aspects of the weather; foretells four in visible eclipses; but makes no prediction of the great earthquake of 1725. On the back page is a statement of reasons why the light of the moon is so weak that it cannot, even by a burning- glass, be brought to afford the least degree of heat. [44] A Brahmin Pedigree was semi-invalid, and the place did not prove salubrious. She returned to Boston, where she died October 17, 1747. Her husband continued to preach awhile in Weymouth, until his inher ited property led him into trade. He had come into a good estate, some £7000, by the death of father, brother-in-law, and wife. General merchan dise became his business. He bought and sold all sorts of commodities, especially West India goods, then an eminently respectable calling. After his daughter Abigail married Joseph Green leaf, Father Paine's vessels took rope, staves, salt-fish, brick, and meal to Havana, returning with cargoes of molasses and sugar to be converted into rum by the new son-in-law in his distillery, Thomas Paine was a heavy loser in the Land Bank of 1740, suppressed by the British Government, During the French War of 1745, some of his ves sels were captured by pirates. In 1749, when his fortunes were in a precarious condition, he deeded his slave "Cato" (for slavery did not shock the moral sense even of ministers) to his daughter Abigail, and his books, silver plate, and household furniture to his three children. Afterward he established an agency in Halifax. But his health broke down and he went on a long sea-voyage. When his business affairs became involved in liti gation, he concluded to become a lawyer, advising his son to do likewise, that they might keep out of [45 ] Two Men of Taunton the courts and protect their remaining property. Their legal preceptor was Benjamin Pratt, of Boston, later Chief Justice of New York, Father and son, sharpening their talons on each other, pored over the English law-books and held mock arguments on winter evenings. Improvident as a merchant, in 1756 Thomas Paine's estate was finally compounded. After the breaking-up of his home upon the death of wife and mother-in-law, the marriage of Abigail, and the departure of his son, Robert, to teach at Lunenburg, he dwelt alter nately in Halifax and with his married daughter at Germantown, in Quincy, where he died in 1757. On the maternal side, Paine, the Signer, came of a high-born family. His great-grandfather, Robert Treat, was Governor of Connecticut. His epitaph, copied by his namesake into a daybook, reads : Palmam qui meruit fer at. Here Heth the body of Robert Treat, Esq., who faithfully served this colony In the post of governor and deputy governor for near the space of thirty years, and at the age of fourscore and eight exchanged this life for a better. July 12 anno Domino 1710. Major Robert Treat had marched up to North- field in 1676, and found his former comrades mas sacred by Indians and their heads graesomely [46] PURITAN GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT A Brahmin Pedigree mounted upon poles along his advance. A spicy story of his courtship is preserved. When the major went visiting his friend. Squire Tapp, of Millis, he found the apple of his eye in the rosy- cheeked daughter, Jane, and presently was trotting her upon his knee. Jane coyly observed, "I'd rather be treated than trotted." A hearty laugh spread through the family circle; and so they were married and lived happy ever after, — at least if children could make them so, for twenty-one, all told, were bom to them. The first of the twenty- one was Rev. Samuel Treat, who became one of the stalwart men of Cape Cod. Soon after grad uating from Harvard in 1669, he settled as minis ter of the church at Eastham, of which Thomas Prince, the Governor, was the leading spirit. In 1662, the town agreed that part of every whale cast ashore should be appropriated for the minis try, "thus leaving," as Thoreau remarked, "the support of the ministers to Providence, whose servants they are, and who alone rales the storms, for when few whales were cast up, they might sus pect that their worship was not acceptable." The Rev. Mr. Treat must have sat upon the cliffs and watched the strand with some anxiety.^ ' Thoreaii also says of Treat; "He was not one of those who, by giving up or explaining away, becomes like a porcupine dis armed of his quills; but a consistent Calvinist, who can dart out his quills at a distance and courageously defend himself." [47] Two Men of Taunton A contemporary writer says that "his voice could be heard roaring above the sobs of hysterical women, and the howling winds, stirring up an awakening and alarm." Hysteric fits were very common on Sunday in the time of divine service. When one woman was so affected, others generally sympathized with her, and the congregation was thrown into violent confusion. We may gather something of Treat's spiritual comfort in the fol lowing selection from his sermons : Text: Luke xvi, 23 : Thou must go ere long to the bottomless pit. Hell hath enlarged himself and Is ready to receive thee. There Is room enough for thy entertainment. Consider thou art going to a place prepared by God on purpose to exalt his justice in a place made for no other purpose than torments. Hell is God's house of correction, and remember that God doeth all things like himself. When God would show his justice, and the might of his wrath, he makes a hell In which it shall Indeed appear to purpose. Woe to thy soul, when thou shalt be set up as a butt for the arrows of the Almighty. Sinner, I beseech thee realize the truth of these things. Do not go about to dream that this Is deroga tory to God's mercy and nothing but a vain fable to scare children out of their wits withal. God can be merciful, though he makes thee miserable. He shall have monuments enough of that precious attribute, shining like stars In that place of glory, and singing [48 1 A Brahmin Pedigree eternal hallelujahs to the praise of Him that redeemed them; though to exalt the power of his justice, he damns sinners heaps upon heaps. Consider, God himself shall be the principal agent in thy misery, his breath is the bellows that blows up the flames of hell forever; and if he punish thee. If he meet thee In his fury, he will not meet thee as a man, he will give thee an omnipotent blow. Some think sinning ends with this life; but it is a mistake. The creature is held under an everlasting law; the damned Increase in sin and hell. Possibly the mention of this may please thee, but remember thiat there shall be no pleasant sins there, no eat ing, singing, dancing, drinking, wanton dalliance, and drinking stolen waters; but damned sins, bitter hell ish sins, sins exasperated by torments, cursing God, spite, rage and blasphemy, the guilt of all thy sins shall be laid upon thy soul and be made so many heaps of fuel, Samuel Treat had settled at Eastham in 1672, and was soon converting Indians as well as whites. In this he was assisted by the General Court which passed a law, in 1685, to inflict corporal punish ment on all persons who denied the Scriptures. He translated his confession of faith into the Nau- set language. There were two thousand Indians in his pastoral charge, whom he visited in their huts, readily conversing with them in the native tongue. He died during the great snow-fall of [49] Two Men of Taunton Febraary, 1717.^ Treat's burial was a mortuary tableau. The deep snow had swirled around the parsonage, towering in lofty drifts. An arch way in the snow was dug on the road between the house and the burial-ground; through this, Indians, who had loved him in life, bore him to his last resting-place in the God's Acre on the hillside, within sound of the eternal requiem of the sea.^ The wife of Samuel Treat was Eunice, daughter of Rev. Samuel Willard. The Willards had settled in the neighborhood of Concord, Lancaster, and Groton. Major Simon Willard, son of Josiah, was, like Major Treat, a hero in the old Indian wars. In 1676, at the age of threescore and ten, he made a thirty-mile dash from Lancaster, arriving at Brookfield in time to save the town from the red skins. The son of this Indian fighter was Samuel Willard, pastor of the Old South Church. In 1701, the General Court elected him acting president of Harvard College to succeed Increase Mather, who declined to make a residence in Cambridge, pre ferring to stay in the thick of theological frays at Boston. Willard's successive wives had fine Bibli- ^ At this time Richard Williams, the first white child born in Taunton, died, remaining three weeks unburied because of the overwhelming storm. ^ In the company of those gathered at Mr. Treat's funeral was the son of a woman who had been fined ten shillings for railing at him, the minister. Nature has a way of shaming our animosities — her son later married Treat's daughter, [50] A Brahmin Pedigree cal names, Abigail (wife of Nabal), and Eunice (mother of Timothy). A cut in the hand while opening oysters resulted in lockjaw of which he died in 1707. After his marriage with the daughter of Mr. Willard, Samuel Treat was sometimes invited to preach in his father-in-law's pulpit. Samuel Willard had a graceful delivery and dramatic voice, and his sermons display strength of thought and energy of language. In consequence, he was generally admired. Mr. Treat, having preached one of his best sermons to the congregation of his father-in-law in his usual unhappy manner, excited adverse comment and a committee waited upon Mr. Willard to beg that Mr. Treat (a worthy, pious man, but a wretched preacher) might never be invited to his pulpit again. Willard quietly went to his son-in-law, and borrowed the discourse, which he delivered to his people a few weeks later. The deacons thanked Mr. Willard and requested copies for the press. "See the difference," they cried, "between yourself and your son-in-law. You have preached a sermon on the same text as Mr. Treat, but while his was contemptible, yours was excellent." With this brief outline of his lineage, we wel come our hero himself. Two sons had come to Rev. Thomas Paine, only to die in a few days. Then one fine spring morning in 173 1, he took [51 ] Two Men of Taunton another newly-born child down School Street to the Old South Church, praying that this boy might be spared. As the child was dandled in his father's arms, crying for liberty at the top of his lungs. Parson Prince laid his christening hand on the infant patriot, in the same church in which, a quarter of a century before, Ben Franklin had been christened in the arms of his father, Josiah. Chapter III Land of the Leonards Crowns are for the valiant — sceptres for the bold, Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold. "Nay," said the Baron, kneeling in his hall, "But Iron — cold iron — is master of them all." Kipling. A SMALL iron pot, capable of containing about one quart" was the initial output of the iron industry in America. This humble ancestor of the American Steel Trast was cast at a foundry on Saugus River, near Lynn, before 1650, and is still in existence, heavy enough to make three in the hands of a modern founder. The power behind the pot was no less a personage than John Winthrop, Jr., who furnished the " influence " which started the forge at "Hammersmith," as they named the location near Saugus Centre, where mounds of slag and scoria may still be seen. There had been a discovery of iron, in 1585, on Roanoke Island, and the Jamestown settlers sent over to England, in 1608, enough "iron oare" to make seventeen tons of metal, worth four pounds per ton. Soon expert workmen were brought from England, to establish a "bloomery," but an Indian massacre terminated the enterprise. In a Lynn account-book of 165 1 is this entry: [53 1 Two Men of Taunton James Leonnarde, 15 days worke about finnerey chimneye and other worke In ye forge, 1:13:0. To ditto Leonnarde for dressing his bellows 3 times, 1:10 : o. This James Leonard is the real father of our American iron industry, since he persevered in that calling, and his foundries were perpetuated for centuries. He did not remain long at Saugus. Adam Hawkes, from whose bog the ore was ex tracted, was litigious. His suits for flowage of his lands put an end to the Lynn undertaking. James and Henry Leonard then went to Braintree, still in the service of Winthrop.-^ These two brothers had left Pontypool, Wales, for America, in the middle of the seventeenth century, bringing with them a boy, Thomas, son of James, and leav ing their ironworks at home plastered with mort gages. Seeking new opportunity in a new coun try, they brought a knowledge of English farming and of the Bible, as well as of ironmaking. From Braintree they explored the Old Colony, where they found the inhabitants extracting a scanty living from the niggardly soil. With their spades, tongs, and hammers they went up and down the streams testing the water for chalybeate signs, while little Thomas cut a birch sapling and dropped a line for trout. Far-seeing men were ^ Henry later removed to New Jersey. [54] Major Thomas Leonard Efq. Of TauHttH in Ncw-EngUvd ; Who departed this Life on the ^4di. Day of tftvmLer, Anno Dcmi/ii i 7 I 3. In the 73d. Year of his Age. 'E do afTcmblc cbat a Funeral Wich grief and forrow wc may foIcmni'/-c, ' Whereat 'cis proper, tliat to mind wc call The Grcarncfs of our Lofs ; die L-jualicics And Ufcfulnels of our deccaf.'d Friend, V/hofc Pilgrimage on Earchis at an end. EDvy and Malice mufl: be reigning Vice; In tliofc who will not bear co bear his Praifc; To Spc.Tk well of the Dead, true Grace ad vifcsi 'TjiUalctiefs diacRcproach on luch doth rajfc i^uchjafllymay cxpctS Rctalbcion Who tio bcgruccb to ochcrsComnicndation. Tlio' I prcrcnd no skill in Poetry, Ver Will adventure once to Mourn in Vcrfc Raiher titan Jiich a Worthy,dcad Ihould ly U'irliouc a due Encomium on his Hcrlc ; Grief" will iind \'cnr, &- Fuincfsof affcillion How to cxprci*! ourlc]\LS will give di- ( rcdion Let's firfV cCmatlsThat GOD Ihould him mclinc Iji's early days to try with all his might For skill CO Wf ICC li Cipher, in a cimc When oiU'^-iTouth; i'azhLcjnfittg did but (light; ¦ Vet he ccdecmd h:s Tinic niofl carefully And made in sZ-cafning,gooJ pcolicicncy. ^OOhldVa hi^Carc \-Pjiii., tliac be attain d ¦ tl'iih hide iiclp trom oclicrs, uicful skill '"I'.N-uihc ouc-lhonc others, that he gaiiid . I'rcfernicnt in the Town, Eflccnl, good Will ; I'tfim meaner Polls made gradual Alcciit ToOfhccsofTrurt, Care and Moment. |lii ML-.liLinc licpradilcd hi5 skill ¦ ^ 1 «n'.ndini; Tunc and Money in the Cure i '¦'i'lic;, and ¦Wounded, with compalTion lli;i. j Tlii^c'iJ the Loveofall ro h.m pr^rurO j Mjil^'ConfclsJiii kindncis diduoounJ iiy hclptulneli. unco Ins Neighbours round. m^- For many Years, the chief Affairs in Towii :^ Prudential, he manag'd carefully Wi:h good Acceptance, unco his Renown Perform 'd his TruR in all things faithfully; So that the Governour did him prefer In Military Trufls a.part co bear ; And in tiifi Civil Government he flood ¦ Commiffioncd, to Punifii Vice and Sinj For many Years; His Care and Prudence good 1 And.Faidirulnefs wcrc well difplay'd ihcrein. f^'c always flicw'd Pactfick difpofition. Trying to end all jjrr s by Compoficion. He gave himfelf to GOD in's Youthful days Pcofcls'd Religion ; and Ins Family Wcrc well Inllruacd, Pray'd with all always His good Example uas hclorc th(.ir Eye. His PrayVs \^'crc heard, In; Houlc (the I Lord be Praisd ) With hopeful numerous OlTspnng GOD j hath raii d. GOD grant diat all of liis Poflenry May imiracehis Vicrucs, anJ nuy l.iy HisGODmallbc our GOD, Hini hnliluily We'l icnc until our Lait iiod D\ m,; J_'/ Andncvcr Will out Katli^r'^ GODIorLvke ; liutforourGODfincctely wtll H.m cake. I His famous crownini; work was HisgreatCarc | Tiir.r GolpcUWorllnp, Goli'Cl-MmiQry I In l-icrren, D'^Uen, Other I'I.jccs near On L^ood boundanons might .Sctlcd be ; He io\ d in Hope, clut now were laid | 1 oundacion^ Or Pi:ty lot mjny Gcneratior. . SAMUEL DANFORTH ¦ ELEGY OF THOMAS LEONARD, 1713 Land of the Leonards they! Beneath the surface they detected traces of iron ; and quietly thought, " Let the farmers plough the meadows ; we will dig into the neglected slashes and find wealth the natives dream not of." In the records of Taunton, October 21, 1652, it appears that the town made a contract with these Leonards and a certain Ralph Russell, to " set up a Bloomery Work on the Two Mile River." A stock company was soon formed. The subscribers paid in from five to twenty pounds apiece. Among the shareholders in this earliest stock corripany of Taunton are listed Elizabeth Pole, who bought Taunton for a peck of beans, and her sister, Jane, as well as nearly all the leading heads of families. Other distinguished stockholders from distant towns were later added ; which goes to show that iron stocks were considered sound family invest ments as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. The boy Thomas, under his father's teaching, grew to be the Tubal-Cain of this locality. " Amid the forge's clangor, and the flames Sparkling from smitten anvils, boldly wrought A bright-eyed boy. His hand was hard with toil, But his clear mind o'er field of thought roamed wide. Gathering the fruits of knowledge. Thus he grew, Winning the true nobility that waits On honest labor." [SS] Two Men of Taunton Thomas Leonard established forges and smithies in various neighborhoods. It required several hundred bushels of charcoal and two weeks' time to heat the furnace hot enough to smelt the ore. When started, the furnace could not be stopped conveniently until the blast of five or six months was completed. The workmen, in leather breeches, knew no regular week days or Sundays, but spent their time alternately at the furnaces and in the cook-shed, where tables were set day and night, and the cook, with big kettle full of meat and vegetables simmering upon the fire, was constantly at hand. In 1727, an estab lishment for making iron pots and kettles was built in East Taunton by a joint-stock company. One of the Leonards set up a forge upon the Taunton Mill Stream. When it was finished. Cap tain Leonard remarked, "Now let us hope well of it; and what shall we name it ? " "Whynot callit Hopewell Forge?" said a bystander; — the word clung and is still a local name. Iron was long used as a medium of exchange.^ The bloomery was a clearing-house when trade was not made by customary barter. Thus the Leonards became the earliest bankers, as well as hardware dealers, in the country. The minis ter, at first paid in provisions, later received part of his stipend in iron, as shown by the record of a Raynham town meeting, September 2, 1 751: [ S6 ] Land of the Leonards It was put to a vote whether or no the town will make an addition to the salary of Rev. John Wales for the present year, — that Is, to make In the whole £400old tenor; one-third to be paid in good merchant able bar-Iron at £9 per cwt., the other two-thirds In Indian corn at 10s. per bushel, rye at 30^., beef at 1 8 J. per lb., and pork at 2s. 6d.; which sum being reduced to lawful money is £53 8d. The payment for an ox bought of Thomas Wil liams by Nathaniel Smith is transacted in this wise: Nathaniel Smith, this is to desire you to pay to my mother Williams, three hundred & half a qr. of iron which Is part of ye price of ye ox which you bought of me. This is uniquely endorsed as follows : Taunton ye i6th of October, 1693. Capt. Leonard, I pray be pleased to pay to old mother Williams 3 hundred & half a quarter of iron. Nathaniel Smith. This product was so precious that when divi dends of the company were paid in iron, Govemor Leverett preferred to have his dividend hauled across country in ox-teams to Plymouth, that it might be more safely shipped to Boston, rather than to take the chance of rounding Cape Cod in shallops. [57] Two Men of Taunton The Leonards becarne powerful by iron — Vul- cans among their fellows. Wherever they found bog-ore, — in " Scadding's Moire," Stony Brook Meadows, Chartley, Middleboro, or Littleworth Brook, — the ever-increasing family dammed the streams, made their charcoal,^ set up their bloomeries, and dug over the soil impregnated to this day with iron. When ore grew scarce in the swales and meadows, they went out in boats, and with tongs brought it up from the slimy bot toms of Winnecunnett, Nippenickett, and Assa wampsett ponds. After the smelting process the pigs of iron were rolled into bars and sheets, then forged into axes, anchors, shovels, kettles, fire-dogs, ox-shoes, tires, chains, nails, hammers, and such rude farm implements as were adequate to the hand-made, rough-hewn age in which they lived. Wherever they placed their "hearths," one of the family located. So thoroughly identi fied were they with this industry that a house hold proverb arose: "Wherever you find a forge, there you will find a Leonard." The prophet Benner claimed that the mate rial greatness of America is founded on pig-iron and pork. Iron rails, "iron horses," iron ships, iron pipes in the ground, iron girders for build ing, and iron stoves, attest the far-sightedness of these pioneer Leonards. It is natural that their ' Anthracite coal was not in use until after the Revolution. [58] 'if^-^^^^ Land of the Leonards descendants should plan to erect a fitting me morial to them on Taunton Green amid the scenes of their early labors. Although the Leon ards, as early as the Revolution, had learned to temper iron into steel, yet from bog-ore and wood- fed furnaces to Pennsylvania coal-mines and the chrome steel process, with its air-blasts and coke- fed fires, is a matter of two centuries.^ The Leonards were like Bismarck's men, of Blut und Eisen. The iron was absorbed into their blood. They were a sturdy, strong-fibred, and gristly clan. There are probably to-day more of their descendants in the Old Colony than of any other family. They and their posterity were of sound, efficient stock, well suited to bear the climate and endure all other hardships; marry ing early in life, and apparently forgetting, what Hawthorne observed in a gloomy mood, "That for every birth there must be a funeral." One member of the family boasted nineteen children; but even so, falling short by two of the "bumper crop" among the Paines. Dwelling in the same spot for generations, they became rooted in the soil. Zephaniah built a castellated mansion near his forge at Raynham, in 1750. King Philip, in his wanderings up and down his little kingdom, * America stands for the iron age as compared with the marble age of Greece. Centuries hence its rusty ruins may put it at a disadvantage in the poet mind. [S9] Two Men of Taunton often stopped at this forge of the Leonards (with whom he was always a true friend) to obtain iron points for his arrows; and when the white man had taken the sachem's head, it was in the cellar of this Leonard mansion that the gory relic found a transient sepulchre. Perez Fobes, of Raynham, in 1793 noted that longevity, promotion to public office, and a firm attachment to the iron industry were the remark able facts associated with the Leonard family. Thomas Leonard, the boy emigrant who came to America clinging to Uncle Henry's finger, grew up to be a doctor, justice, major of battalion, deacon, town clerk, and judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Had there been any other de sirable positions, he would have held them, for every office was his for the asking. The energy and business tact of one man gives life and vital ity to a whole neighborhood and he becomes "General Manager" by divine right. Every com munity will produce spontaneously a captain of industry whose mission is the regimentation of un organized labor. Men of strong convictions and personalities unconsciously influence the thought and action of their kind. Such a positive force were the Leonards. Upon the death of Thomas Leonard in 171 3, an elaborate elegiac poem was printed by the editor of the Boston " News-Letter." The son of Thomas [60] Land of the Leonards was known as "Major George." His mansion, suggestive of wide-hearted hospitality, is stand ing at Chartley; one room is twenty-five feet square, with cupboards in the double walls be tween the deep-seated windows. The fireplace was so large that it is now converted into an in closed skylighted bedroom. Ephraim Leonard, son of Major George, was born in this house in 1706, to the life of a farmer and iron-master. He received a tract of land in that part of Norton which was set off (upon his own motion), in 1770, under the name of Mans field. There he built a substantial dwelling, and in the summer of 1739 rode down through Attle- boro and Providence to Norwich, Connecticut, to bring back, as wife, Judith Perkins, snugly seated, let us hope, on the pillion behind him.^ Though somewhat tardy, for that day, in entering upon married life. Fate smiled with Ephraim. He was gathered to his fathers, having survived at least three wives and leaving a widow to mourn him. His tombstone, surrounded by those of his wives and slaves, may be seen to-day in a forest, hard by the old homestead. Colonel Ephraim's colonial mansion ^ was adorned with quaint f res- * The marriage shuttle was flying back and forth between these two families, for we find that Jacob Perkins, of Norwich, had taken a bride, Miss Jemima Leonard, from Taunton, in 1730. ^ This house, originally in Norton, was situated in that part set off as Mansfield, in 1770. [61 ] Two Men of Taunton coes on the walls, and contained luxurious furnish ings from the mother country. Its panelled front door was made from a single slab of primeval oak. Here he lived in baronial state, equal to that maintained by other distinguished American families. Like Washington, he had a deer park; his table was spread with toothsome viands, wild geese and pigeons, venison, grape jellies, pickerel, bass and other fish from the ponds; mallards and woodcock were brought in the fall by the hunts men; wild turkeys and deer hung in the loft to ripen through the winter frosts ; strings of dried apples festooned the corn-crib ; the ground cellar, permeated with the smell of cider, was stored with turnips, potatoes, and other garden pro ducts, raised by his gang of slaves ; deep-sea fish, lobsters, and sea-vegetables were sent from Plymouth. Close by the mansion stood the slave-house, with its bell to call the black farm hands to meals and prayers. On winter nights these slaves climbed to a loft under the ridge pole, to sleep on pallets of straw around the great chimney. The Leonards were a landed gentry, strongly attached to the Norton home. When one of them was offered a baronetcy in England, tradition says he replied that he would rather be "Lord of Acres" in America than Lord D 'Acres in Eng- [62] Land of the Leonards land.^ Rev. Nathaniel Leonard sent to Norton to obtain the timber for his new house in Ply mouth, "so that I may put my hand on it," he explained, "and say that you and I were raised out of the same soil and breathed the same air — we are brothers." Several years all three selectmen of the town were Leonards.^ The social position of the family ^ The Leonard family came of noble origin, claiming descent from Leonard D'Acres, a nobleman descended in two lines from Edward III through one of his sons, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester. The arms of the Leonards and Leonard D'Acres are the same. In a book of heraldry, published March 25, 1737, we find this account of a Leonard Castle. "This beautiful Castle stands not far from ye old Caer- Pensavel-Coit of ye Britains. This place was called Saxons Hyrst from its situation among the woods. "Soon after the arrival of ye Normans, it was ye seat of a Family who from ye Place took their name of de Hyrst or Herst. "From ye Posterity of Walleron de Herst who assumed ye name of Monceaux (which name also from that time has been annexed to ye Place) it came by marriage to the Fiennes. Sir Roger Fiennes or Fynes obtained License from K. Henry IV. and built ye present Noble Pile. It continued in this family till with Margt, Granddaughter of Thomas Ld Dacres, it passed to Samp son Leonard, Esq., whose sister being married to Dr. Francis Hare, now Lord Bishop of Chichester, tis the property of their son and Heir, Francis Hare Naylor, Esq." (Now Hurst-Monceaux). ^ Though the Leonards in the eighteenth century were the chief family of Norton, in the nineteenth, the Lincolns, of Norton, Raynham, and North Taunton, had become so numerous that when Abraham Lincoln, supposed to be descended from this family, was nominated for the Presidency, there was a political club composed entirely of that name. [63] Two Men of Taunton is shown by their elaborate tombstones in the Norton cemetery, where a posthumous rank is still preserved in table-shaped tombs, rising king like among the bowing slate headstones of their humbler neighbors. "I am a Leonard" was a badge of nobility much like "I am a Roman." A venerable daughter of the family, married to a man of less distinguished name, upon being questioned, after a serious accident, as to her identity, replied, if you please, " I am the daugh ter of 'old Dr. Leonard.'" The late Mrs. Peddy Bowen, a white-handed lady of quality, still re membered in pleasing anecdote, was spoken of as the "last of the Leonards." When Zepha niah Leonard died, a zealous eulogist (presuma bly his neighbor and friend, Benjamin Church) wrote a high-sounding epitaph of which a couplet read : — "Even the Leonards undistinguished fall And Death and hovering darkness covereth all." These lines were somewhat perverted by local philosophers into the phrase, "Even the Leonards ,i\ must die," making a jest of their importance. The ill-chosen lines were ultimately chiselled off by Zephaniah's grandson in chagrin, after the family had dwindled in greatness. As they accumulated wealth, they accumulated trouble. Blunders and quarrels brought down [64] Land of the Leonards upon them a horde of lawyers, — a necessary evil bom of an erring race. They discovered that the only way to outwit the lawyer was for everybody to become one. Thomas Leonard had been empowered to hold court when Bristol County was set off, in 1685. This judgeship was kept in the family a hundred years. When John Adams came to Taunton on court matters, in his youth, he found on the list of justices five Leon ards — George, Sr., George, Jr., Ephraim, Zepha niah, and Daniel, and began to refer to Taunton as the "land of the Leonards." Ephraim Leonard brought his bride to the Nor ton home in the summer of 1739. On the 30th day of May, 1740, when the orioles were nesting in the branches, lilacs perfuming the air, and bees humming in the orchard where petals of apple blossoms fell like snowflakes, a boy was bom into this home and christened "Daniel" from the mother's side of the house. He came into a fam ily of gentlefolk that had the blood of nobles in their veins, and to a home filled with hospital ity, with wealth, health, education, and honors awaiting him. The mother died that summer, leaving, as an inspiring legacy, her unfulfilled love and aspiration. And here the life story of our other hero opens with a picture of the infant Daniel lulled to sleep in the arms of a crooning negro nurse. [65] THEN THE SCHOOL-BOY Chapter IV Boston Latin and Norton School Days Two lads that thought there was no more behind But such a day to-morrow as to-day And to be boy eternal. Winter's Tait. ROBERT TREAT PAINE was born at a house in School Street, Boston, near the present City Hall, at 4.30 a.m., March 4, 1731. That he was happy over his "early start" in life is shown by the precision with which he refers to the moment in his joumal upon success ive birthdays. The house was almost out in the suburbs then, though later the neighborhood be came the haunt of aristocracy; the North End was then the court end of Boston. A month after this son was born, Thomas Paine purchased a house on the "lane leading to the Almshouse," near the corner of Beacon and Bowdoin Streets. This house stood much higher than the present build ings in that locality; for Beacon Hill was cut down many feet to fill in the Boston Mill Pond. Mother Treat lived with the Paines; also Mrs. Treat's sister, and James Freeman, a nephew of Thomas Paine, employed by him as bookkeeper. In January, 173S, Thomas Paine bought a brick [69] Two Men of Taunton house, next door to the Boston Latin School, in this same School Street. Coming out on the doorstep, with shining moming face, the boy Robert could look over at the weathercock on the Province House where the curious copper Indian, with arm behind his back, was shooting against the wind ; he could look across to Copp's Hill, where the tombstones of the fore fathers were silhouetted against the sky; above hun was Gentry Hill and its hanging " iron skillet " filled with kindling to be ignited in the hour of alarm; to the eastward was Fort Hill, where the red banner of King George was blazing in the sunlight, and the harbor beyond, whitening with the fishermen's outgoing sails. The immediate environment was one to entice a boy. Gentry (now Park) Street ran past the Granary, which stood on the site of thepresent Park Street Church. In early days, the Common extended to the cor ner of Tremont and School Streets, including the Granary which gave its name to the Granary Burial Ground, set off in 1660. Below the pound stood the Bridewell, a large two-story, brick building 120 feet long, erected in 1737, to serve as an insane asylum and workhouse, anticipating the present Deer Island institution. Near at hand was a large brick almshouse, so overflowing with the poor, feeble-minded, sick, and aged, that it was colloquially known as the "Hell Huddle." [70] ¦n.j",-' n n.f ] I DIAGRAM OF BOSTON IN PAINE'S BOYHOOD Paine lived in the centre of the Peninsula Boston and Norton School Days Occasionally in summer, Robert's father preached to the inmates, but we imagine the boy saw enough of such unfortunates during week-days, and preferred to remain outside, teasing the stray horses, cows, and swine confined in the adjacent pound. His sister Abigail, four years older than he, kept careful watch over his vagrancy when he wandered down to interview the vocal in habitants of the frog-pond. Sister Eunice, two years his junior, was a constant companion; some times on Sunday, Bob would mount a cricket, select a text, and solemnly exhort his imaginary congregation, represented only by the solitary Eunice sitting in appreciative silence. In his rambles up and down the tortuous streets and narrow alleys. Bob visited Hutchin son's Corner for sweetmeats, or the apothecary at the " Old Cocked Hat," with its many gables and overhanging upper stories; the "Noah's Ark," with its walls seamed by the great earthquake, — a gathering-point for grizzled sea-captains and bearded Spanish sailors; the Boston Stone, from which distances were measured; the powder house, wishing-stone and gibbets on the Common where pirates were executed on Fast Days; and the great windmill on the point erected by the pioneers. He sailed toy boats upon the Mill Pond and spent happy hours on Long Wharf, which extended half a mile into the harbor, having [71] Two Men of Taunton a wall of warehouses on one side. There he fished for pollock and cunners, mayhap baiting his hook for the sea gulls coming too closely ashore. On rainy days he visited the lofts filled with his father's merchandise, and listened to yarns by old sea-dogs about China and the Span ish Main. He saw at a distance the splendid gatherings at the Province House, and Brom- field's, and Sir Harry Frankland's magnificence; but he steered clear of the Bunch of Grapes and Green Dragon tavems, as scrupulously as did young John Adams; for he well knew that the black strap would be taken from the hook behind the kitchen door if his father once caught him within their precincts. Now and then his father took him to his counting-room and set him to work, tallying the invoices with the cargoes from the West Indies; and on Saturday afternoons in summer he would take the boy bathing at the narrow beach, cleared among the eel-grass at the foot of the Common, or boating on Charles River, a treat he was denied when alone, as an uncle had there been drowned on the very day he en tered college. There were merry hours, also, visiting the old parsonage at Weymouth where his father had preached. On clear days the Blue Hills of Mil ton challenged him and his comrades to explore ledges where rattlesnakes were sunning themselves, [72] Boston and Norton School Days and wild cats prowling. The prenatal instinct for mast-climbing prompted him to clamber to the pine-tops on the summit and trace the curving ocean shores and the sapphire ponds among the hills which intervene between Boston and the far away peaks of Monadnock and Wachusett. With Eunice as comrade, he set traps for squirrels; placed water-wheels in the brooks, sought pun gent flag-root in the fresh marshes, and went to see fishermen draw the alewive seine. ^ Visiting their aunt at Barnstable each summer, it was their delight to go where clams were so thick that they spouted an inverted shower bath, as the fiddler-crabs rattled off to shelter among the rosemary. They watched the protean changes of sea and sky; gathered periwinkles, star-fish, devil's-apron and sea wreckage, while Robert held the white shells to Eunice's ear that she might hear the mysterious song of the sea. Robert fitted for college in the old one-story, brick Latin School. An addition to the new and ambitious King's Chapel required taking a part of the ground occupied by the school and Robert records that he attended the laying of the comer ^ An old quatrain runs: Hingham for beauty, Cohasset for pride, If it was n't tor herring Weymouth had died. [73] Two Men of Taunton stone in 1749.^ The new Latin School was a stone building with a belfry and bell, erected at the expense of the King's Chapel tmstees. "Master Birch" was the famous John Lovell, who moulded Boston youth, "lashed into Latin by the tingling rod," from 1717 till the famous day, in 1775, when he announced the opening of the war, — "De ponite libros." Lovell himself was a Loyalist, but he inspired such patriots as John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, James Bowdoin, Sam and John Adams, all of whom Paine as a boy came to know. At home Bob was carefully brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Old South Church had such important influence in his formative days that we may dwell a moment on its story. About 1670, two factions arose in the First Church, on the subject of baptism and the introduction of the "Halfway Covenant." The liberal wing, being in the minority, withdrew and gathered a new congregation, known first as the "Third Church," afterwards as the "Old South." Here Samuel Willard, Paine's great-grandfather, was long pastor, and here in boyhood Paine at tended, sitting in a box-pew with his grand- ' Joseph Green, in his poem on Boston, says of the removal of the building to the other side of the street: "A fig for your learning! I tell you the town To make the church larger, must pull the school down." "Unhappily spoken!" exclaims Master Birch; "Then Learning, it seems, stops the growth of the Churchl" [74I Boston and Norton School Days mother, mother, father, sisters, and aunt — a family party of seven, punctual at meeting, three times, on the Lord's Day. In strange evolution the First Church of Boston, once rigidly orthodox, later developed into a Unitarian Church, which Paine in old age attended, while the dissenting Third Church to-day remains an orthodox body in its new uptown meeting-house.^ The other day, after two hundred and thirty-five years, the two churches discovered that all are dug from the same clay, and Dr. Gordon, from the Trini tarian Old South, administered the communion to Unitarians of the First Church, among whom were direct descendants of our Paine. The "Great Awakening," a spell of religious ferment from 1730 to 1750, succeeded a period of spiritual apathy and languor. People were aroused by the powerful preaching of Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, and carried away with the ear nest eloquence of George Whitefield. Govemor Belcher, who had heard of the fame of Whitefield in Georgia, invited him to Boston. He first came September 15, 1740, and was taken in tow by Robert Treat Paine's great-uncle, Josiah Willard, secretary of the Province of Massachusetts for thirty years. During Whitefield's constant preach- ^ Both these societies now meet in new sanctuaries, near where, in Paine's boyhood, British ships-of-war could come to anchor. [75] Two Men of Taunton ing, young Paine was among the great out-of- doors audiences, so large that several persons lost their lives in the cmsh. When Whitefield preached in the Old South Church the boy must have been impressed and tickled to see this gray- haired, cross-eyed, young minister hoisted in through a side-window, on account of the tre mendous audience, as a few years later. Dr. Joseph Warren made a similar flank entry, when it was otherwise impossible to reach the pulpit. White- field came several times, sometimes sent for by Parson Prince when he thought the "heavenly shower" was over. Paine never failed to hear him and wrote, in critical college days, that he "ap plauded the oratory, but condemned his juris pmdence." Whitefield's teaching became the subject of violent discussions; the air of New Eng land was alive with pamphlets, tracts, and treat ises for and against this preacher. During and after his visits, there were large additions to the church membership; the face of the town seemed changed, and a moral uplift was apparent at taverns and in the streets. Whitefield keyed up the populace to high nervous pitch. Robert caught the excitement of these "revivals." In 1746 he joined the Old South Church, being then fifteen years old.^ ' Congregational statistics show this is the age when the greatest numbers become church members. [76] Boston and Norton School Days He records, March i6: This day, I was taken into the Old South Church in Boston, and took the covenant of grace upon me; and that it might be a perpetual covenant never to be broken and that I might never more return to sin or indulge myself in any iniquity, but in the name of God, I will resolve against all sins, especially those that most easily beset me. Apparently his grandmother, in commendation of his course, presented him with a memento of the occasion, for his diary says : March 20, 1746: Grandmother gave me a gold ring {¦nil nisi dantis amare). Parson Prince gave him the right hand of fellowship, as he had christened him. Young Paine took a deep interest in all things religious, listen ing not only to Prince and Sewall expounding the catechism at the Old South, but to Samuel Mather, at the Second Church; to Mather's cousin, Mather Byles; to Benjamin Coleman, at Brattle Street, and Jonathan Mayhew at the West Church, the last being an especial favorite of Paine. Whenever he met a parson in wig and bands, black skull cap and Geneva cloak, with Bible under his arm, he would doff his cap in respect for the cloth. He was likely recognized by Governors Belcher and Shirley, from the fact that his uncle was secretary at the Province House [77\ Two Men of Taunton and his father and grandfather had been clergy men. To his parents and grandmother, the Sabbath was a day of keen pleasure, when they could in dulge in the luxury of a soul-stirring sermon ; but to a boy, the long sermon, mnning often to "twenty- fifthly," seemed an uncomfortable interpretation of the Bible. Hell became as real a place in his geography as Comhill or Boston Harbor. He sat with eyes wide open, in torture at the thought of eternal damnation; kicked his feet on the floor to keep them warm, or finally went to sleep from sheer exhaustion. A strict Sunday observ ance was one of the last of the Puritan notions to be relinquished. No walking the streets or loafing at the tavern was allowed to mar the sanctity of the day. On Saturday evening. Bob read "Pilgrim's Progress," Mather's "Essays To Do Good," or his great-grandfather Willard's "Body of Divinity," the first folio printed in New England, containing two hundred and fifty lec tures on the "Obligation of the Sabbath," "The Doctrine of Devotion," the "Lawfulness of In terest on Money," and such controversial theo logical questions, popular in their day, though a weariness to a modem reader. Robert quizzed Eunice in the catechism, and went to bed after carefully shining his boots, in preparation for the rigid observance of the following day. [78] Boston and Norton School Days Boston, then over a century old, was a town of fifteen thousand people. The oligarchy of the greater Mathers was now ended; Judge Sewall, the diarist, had laid down his chronicle pen. The age of brocade was arrived; King's Chapel held many mffle-shirted Episcopalians; halberdiers at tended the Govemor, and lace cuffs and powdered wigs were in evidence at the Thursday Lecture. George Brownell applied to the selectmen to instmct pupils in the "gentle art of dancing." This raised a mmpus among church-goers. By 1740, Boston had a population of sixteen thousand thrifty, tidy, and prosperous citizens. In 1742, there were 1719 houses, 166 warehouses, 1200 widows of sea-captains, and 15 14 negroes. Peter Faneuil had given Boston his hall, to rank with the Town House, Province House, and some fine mansions. There were four schoolhouses (but no Sunday Schools), three Episcopal churches, one meeting-house of Quakers, and one of Baptists. The streets were badly paved; watchmen walked their rounds at night crsang the hour and giving account of the weather in "moderate tones." Theatrical performances were frowned upon, but a bowling-green was set up at Fort Hill, in 1742. Town reprobates were "posted" upon public walls. Briareus could not wear the multitude of rings and gloves given to the minister at weddings and funerals. Lotteries, small-pox, and Fast [79] Two Men of Taunton Days flourished; the General Court authorized a lottery to raise funds to support Harvard Col lege. Churches sometimes were maintained by this means, while dancing and theatricals were under the ban.^ Zabdiel Boylston was a famous physician inoculating with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's newly-discovered remedy, and thus creating a bone of contention among medical men. It was argued that one in eight, not inocu lated, died, against one in thirty of those inocu lated. Every one stood in dread of the small-pox. Doctors did a thriving business inoculating, and contagious hospitals were erected everywhere. In time of pestilence or war, or in critical affairs of church and town govemment, it was customary to seek divine guidance by days of fasting, humilia tion, and prayer. Hymns of " mere human compos ers," as the successors of Dr. Watts were called, began to be hummed and fugued. Hoop petti coats were arraigned by the "light of nature and the law of God." Newspapers contained many advertisements of negroes for sale, for the appre hension of runaways, and for negro wet-nurses. Bibles were clandestinely printed by Daniel Henchman, in violation of the exclusive right given to John Basket in England. Umbrellas * Behold the whirligig of time! To-day the parson may waltz with the soprano, and play the role of Hamlet on the chapel stage, but his days are numbered if he starts a church raffle! [80] ^^-M. BOSTON HARBOR IN PAINE'S BOYHOOD Boston and Norton School Days were unknown, and the "great-coat" was the only effective shield against east wind and storm. No shops were open Saturday night. Dogs were so numerous and annoying to butchers that no one was allowed to keep a dog above ten inches in height. In 1741, the impressment of Yankee sailors, by the British men-of-war in the harbor, was vigorously resisted by Thomas Paine, father of Robert. There were spinning-schools, and Paine, in his diary, speaks of attending a famous spinning- bee up on the common. A gentleman named Old- mixon, coming from England in 1741, said, "The conversation of the people of Boston is as polite as the want of it is in England." The large towns were on the seaboard. Boston, though third in size in America, was first in com mercial importance; six hundred vessels cleared annually from her harbor, although by its loca tion it was a "foul weather port." On ^the hills, except Gentry, there were windmills for grind ing com.^ State Street was then King Street; Washington was Comhill, Marlborough Street, and Orange Street in its different sections. Paine's boyhood was spent in this snug little town, under Puritan influence. He was not one ' The name " Tri-Mountain," from which the present "Tremont" Street is derived, came not from the three hills of the Peninsula, but from the three peaks of Gentry or Beacon Hill, the loftiest of the three. [81 ] Two Men of Taunton to "creep like snail unwillingly to school." It was only a hop, skip, and jump from his back door into the schoolhouse; as, later, it was but a step over the back fence to the theatre for his son, Robert, who became a theatrical poet. Propinquity counts much in shaping careers. Therefore it is not surprising that proximity to the schoolhouse produced a bright scholar who could master the mle of three, recite hic, hcec, hoc, explain dative, locative, and ablative, and com mit to memory his lines from Ovid's "Metamor phoses" with facile aptness. From the Boston Latin School, Robert was graduated at the head of his class. In contrast to the town-bom Paine, Daniel Leonard enjoyed the traditional wholesome New England country boyhood. Paine's pro genitors, by their sedentary habits, and minds dwelling much in the unseen realms of the spirit world, naturally produced a child inclined to be religious in character. Boston's narrow streets lacked the ozone of pine forests, to strengthen his physique. Daniel Leonard inherited a vig orous current of blood from ancestors who kept ' in constant touch with Mother Earth. He was cradled close to Nature's breast, where fields spar kled with morning dew, brooks rippled through green meadows, and bluebirds heralded the spring time from the budding oak. From country sources [82] Boston and Norton School Days of vitality was he strengthened for the strain of many years. Although Ephraim Leonard married four wives (some say five), of whom two were widows, there was no tangle of "my children and your children playing with our children." The sole darling of the household was Daniel, who, like the great Leonardo of Italy, was petted, scolded, coddled, , or spanked by a succession of maternal guardians. Born with an iron spoon in his mouth, the spoon had a silver lining. In the springtime, when the partridge was dmmming in the woodlot, he helped "Robin," "Csesar," and other family slaves in breaking steers. He planted fields of Indian corn,< dropping four kernels and one pumpkin seed iri each hill, while crows smiled from the neighboring pines. The town gave a bounty for these rapa cious crows and bluejays, and they made a tempt ing target for Daniel with his long "Queen's arm." He dug out woodchucks, tacking their salted skins on the barn door; tamed the young crow and taught him to "talk" by splitting his tongue on a silver shilling; listened to bees buzz ing in the hollow tree; carried home soft squirm ing squirrels in his hat; and brought in pocketsful of moss, lichens, quartz pebbles, "mud turkles," and eggs of the old fire hang-bird. We must for give him if he ever came home with a huge paper hornet's nest, to set the contents loose during a [83] Two Men of Taunton sewing bee in fulfilment of a certain text of Scrip ture.^ He sought the chickadee's home in the birch stumps, the snake's skin in the fiy-catcher's nest; climbed the bam rafters to see the young swallows, and gathered cocoons of moth and but terfly. He knew the habits of the far-travelling fox, that one night was in Norton, the next in Bridge- water, the third in Rehoboth. He set horse-hair snares under springy saplings, and climbed pliant birches to swing over to the ground in thrilling hazard. He lay at night by charcoal pits, listening to the rollicking whip-poor-will and whickering screech owl ; pricked up his ears to catch the bark of a distant coon; or watched the fantastic sparks shooting from the peaty, smouldering mound. In the summer, when clams were brought from the shore, he baked them on heated stones in King Philip's Cave, overlooking Winnecunnett. He chased the cattle out of the com, and was happy when a shy deer mingled with the cows in the meadow. He went swimming at Wad ing River or in the Mill Pond, where high-water was marked by a copper bolt driven into a boul der, and performed all the aquatic tricks such as "skinning the cat" and "bobbing for eels," handed down by boys to this day. After the swun, with feathers in their hair the naked boys raced whooping through the woods, imagining they were * Deuteronomy 7: 20. [84] Boston and Norton School Days "Injuns" on the war-path. They made huts of odorous pine-boughs, built camp-fires, smoked sweet fern and "everlasting," roasted fish, baked potatoes, and for a choice relish boiled snakes') and turtles' eggs. The sports of country boys are sometimes mde, cmde, and unseemly. In Norton there was a custom of egg-gathering in bird-nesting season, when the boys chose sides, which separated to scour the woods and rifle the nests of crows, blue- jays, owls, hawks, and blackbirds. The banditti assembled in some secluded rendezvous, where the captains of each side would utilize the plunder as ammunition in a hand-grenade duel. When they returned home, a walking omelet, they were careful to make an unobtrusive entrance to avoid a supplementary taste of "strap-oil." Dan went fishing in the great ponds for white perch, pouts, and pickerel (much larger than we get to-day), and possibly he made the acquaint ance of one of those antedeluvian bull frogs which Jocelyn, the first New England naturalist, tells about, "as large as a new-bom baby." The ring of the anvil and the glow of the "hearth" were familiar to him; wherever he went a-visiting among his relatives, he found a bloomery to play in. He thoroughly understood the iron busi- \ ness; had fed the oak wood into the furnace, dug ^ the ore, worked the bellows and poured the [85 ] Two Men of Taunton molten iron into the pits of sand, and hammered out the nails and horseshoes. The June Muster was a grand holiday event for every boy within a half-day's horseback ride of the training-field on Taunton Green. In autumn, Daniel entered the surrounding forest, multi-colored as the coat of Joseph, and climbed the high shagbark and chestnut trees, to shake down ripened nuts. He inflated dried blad ders, put a solitary pebble rattling inside, then tied them to the tails of roosters and stmtting gob blers, and sent them, frightened and distracted, round the farmyard to create a gallinaceous panic. He baited belligerent rams in the sheep pasture, and we suspect the dare-devil boy sometimes entered the deer ^paddock and mounted an old buck, clinging to his homs and dashing madly about the enclosure. In winter, he went coasting, "belly-bump," down the glistening hills on his bob-sled, or skating under the crystal stars on the Mill Pond. This Daniel come to judgment knew the tracks, in the snow, of all animals; the two prints of the mink, the four prints of the rabbit, the delicate track of the white-footed mouse, and the double track where the hound had followed the fox. Occa sionally the three marks of the wild turkey's foot sent him hurrying for his gun; and the otter, raccoon, and howling wolf brought excitement [ 86] Boston and Norton School Days a-plenty. The yawning fireplace, of enormous ap petite, claimed a large share of his time to supply it. In the evening, he roasted com and nuts on the hearthstone; read "Robinson Cmsoe" and Frankhn's Almanac, and listened to stories of local ghosts and goblins, by the fireside, as he watched the "wild geese" climbing the soot on the chimney-back. Credulous slaves told weird tales of African life; and witch stories were con nected with the family. One tradition was that the original Major George Leonard, Daniel's grandfather, had made a league with the Old Rascal in order to gain great wealth, and in re turn for services rendered, Leonard was to give the Devil his body and soul when called for. In 17 16, he was ill with a fatal fever; the Evil One appeared, claimed the cadaver, and bore it away. Giving, as he left, a tremendous leap from the top of the house, he landed on a distant rock, leaving footprints which are clearly seen to this day to prove the story tme. Daniel may have gone with his father to hear Whitefield speak on Berkley Common. The preacher proclaimed to the children that the people of Taunton were "part man, part beast, and part Devil," and a few years later came back to correct hisstatementbyannouncingtheywere"allDevil."^ ' Norton in the year 1910 is a peaceful, unpretentious town spread out over a flat country covered with white pines, juni- [87] Two Men of Taunton So Daniel came through boyhood's happy days without encountering, so far as we know, either constable or bonesetter. As for his school days, we have the following entry in the town records: December 30, 175 1 — Voted to Ephraim Leonard, Esq., for boarding ye school master (Stephen Far rar) 6i weeks, and feching him from Concord, £11-00-0 Old Tenor; £1-9-4, Lawful Money. Six and a half weeks in the year is small school ing for a boy of eleven, even though he may ab sorb learning from daily companionship with the pers, and maple and white oak, for charcoal burning. Its two thousand inhabitants are gathered in a half-dozen centres; sev eral of the old Leonard mansions are still standing to remind the visitor that they were the lords of this land, though the house in which Daniel grew up was razed in 1893. The first min ister's house, a fine type of the substantial Colonial home, is pictured on the town seal, with that atmosphere of solidity, hos pitality, and comfort known to the old-fashioned Yankee folk. Norton has many greenhouses where midwinter cucumbers are raised for Boston epicures, and in which the water is still so impregnated with iron as to corrode the boilers; there is a large box-board factory in which the surrounding forests are being continually converted into casings for all manner of merchandise; there is a jewelry factory catering to the vanity of America. The most noteworthy change which has taken place in the last hundred years is Wheaton Seminary, founded by Daniel Leonard's American agent. This institution, which advertises the town of Norton about the country, has drawn young women from every State of the Union to this village. [88] Boston and Norton School Days preceptor, sitting beside him at the table, and sleeping with him at night. The town was quar tered for school purposes as the following entry shows : At a legal town meeting of Norton, Massachu setts, held March 29, 1727, it was "Voted that Jo siah Griggs shall be scholl master to keep Scholl in Norton. . . . Provided he will keep scholl, the first quarter at ye middle of the towne; and the second quarter at WInconett; and the third quarter on the south side of ye way that is towards Elezer Fisher's ; and the fourth quarter at Left. White's or theyre- abouts." Daniel lived in the Winnecunnett section, and rode his pony to the other remote places, swinging around the circle for twenty-five weeks. The min ister, of course, supplemented the pedagogue in preparing the youth for college. The first settled minister at North Precinct (whom Ephraim Leonard had brought down in his chaise from Brookline, as he had brought the school-teacher from Concord) was Ebenezer White, a graduate of Harvard in 1733. He administered the church affairs for twenty years, and taught young Daniel, as Rev. John Avery at South Precinct taught his cousin, George, a few years earlier. This George attended Harvard, but other cousins went to Yale, so that Daniel had inclinations toward both in- [89] Two Men of Taunton stitutions . ^ Eleven years after Paine was matricu lated, Daniel, nine years younger, was admitted to Harvard. Thus we picture him at sixteen years of age, like the Daniel of Bible days, "of no blemish and well-formed," going up to Harvard in his eagerness and expectancy to enjoy the new faces, new friends and new pleasures of the col lege life in which he was to take a conspicuous part. ' President Clapp of Yale was a summer resident of the Old Colony at Scituate, and his influence may have been felt in this vicinity. Chapter V Harvard College in the Eighteenth Century After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the Civil Govemment, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the Dust. — John Winthrop. AT the age when the ancient Roman youth /-\ assumed the toga virilis. Bob Paine was -*- -^ putting on the prescribed green frock coat and skull cap of the Harvard freshman. His mother, Eunice Paine, was a daughter, step daughter, granddaughter, and wife of a minister; quite naturally she wished to be mother of a preacher of the gospel. The tablet on the westem gate of the Harvard Yard, quoted above, pro claims that the institution was founded for the purpose of educating young men for the ministry. For a century afterward, the major portion of those who entered college expected to make it a stepping-stone to the pulpit. It was for this pur pose that Bob was sent to Harvard, as the parents of John and Sam Adams and John Hancock had likewise sent their boys, although no one of this quartette of lifelong intimates is recorded in the [91 ] Two Men of Taunton Quinquennial with "S.T.D." appended to his name. On a September moming, then, in 1745? Paine's fond mother kissed her boy good-bye, sister Abi gail put a flower in his button-hole, and Eunice, aged twelve, clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Some day you'll be a great preacher. Bob, and we'll all come to hear you." They followed Rob ert with admiring eyes as away he rode with his father in the chaise down across Roxbury Neck to Cambridge, seven miles distant, as the guidestone, regardless of modern short cuts, still proclaims. The college world of which Paine became a part could not muster one hundred and fifty all told.^ There were but three halls around the Yard. The faculty consisted of President Holyoke, Pro fessors Wigglesworth and Winthrop, and Tutors Hancock, Mayhew, Flynt, and Marsh. Boys were still flogged, although, after 1734, boxing the ears was "expressly reserved to the president, professors and tutors." Dignity was much en forced. The students were little old men. Con versations were carried on in Latin, or something like it.^ Daniel or Robert, meeting President Hol- ' Paine's class graduated twenty-three members; Leonard's, twenty-six. ' By the original Dunster rules, "The scholars shall never use their mother tongue, except that in public exercises of oratory, or such like, they be called to make them in English." [92] HARVARD COLLEGE (When Paine and Leonard were students) Harvard in the Eighteenth Century yoke in the College Yard, doffed their caps at eight paces and hailed him "Salve o prcese" and "passed the time of day" among themselves as Pompey or the Gracchi might have done in the Roman Forum. If Paine's chum called him "Bob" in public, he was liable to a fine; there were fines for "making tumultuous noises," "neglecting to repeat the sermon," "despising Hebrew," "going on the top of buildings," or "leaving college with out proper garb." To wear "silken night-gowns" was a heinous crime. A student was fined a shill ing and a half for lying, and if detected at card- playing (Have a care, Daniel!) was fined two shiUings and sixpence. If a minister's son is the Devil's grandson, col lege days will prove it. Robert was not especially precocious ; in no sense did he exhibit the so-called flash of genius later ascribed to his son; neither a prig nor an esthetic recluse, he was a youngster emerging from a long line of students, and in heriting poor health. Such recreations as he took were limited by the omnipresent eye of the fac ulty, if not by his own conventional tastes. Search ing his heart for hidden guile, he lingered over his Shepard's "Sincere Convert" or Stoddard's "Guide to Christ." He indulged in the milder forms of college dissipation ; gathered with the boys in front of the buttery, when mutton was served too frequently at Commons, to bleat and baa [93] Two Men of Taunton until the steward cried for mercy; and whenever the butter became so rancid it "was n't fit to grease a farmer's cart wheels with," he rose in righteous indignation. To drive dull care away, he purchased a German fiute at the cost of £4- iSs.; and bore the basso profundo when the boys sang glees inclose harmony under professors' win dows. "Making the president's hay" was then a part of the freshman duty. From June 16, 1746, to June 25, as his joumal indicates, you might have seen Paine whetting his scythe, mopping his moist brow, raking hay into windrows, or seeking the cool, brown jug in the comer of the field. The "jug" figures in Paine's diary in his early days. Tlie laconic but expressive entry, "Got dmnk," appears as late as March, 1767. For May 15, 1746, we read: Whipple ^ gave us a very sumptuous treat. Oliver got drunk before dinner and I went home a little boozy myself. It was provided, by a law passed in 1734, that no undergraduate should "keep by him brandy, ram, or any other distilled liquors, nor make use of any such mixed drinks as punch or flip in en tertaining one another or strangers." Students ^ Whipple, the first in rank of the class, died the year after graduation; Oliver was an associate member of the Academy of Science with Paine in 1780. [94] Harvard in the Eighteenth Century were allowed a half-pint of beer at each meal, and Paine frequently ran over to town for "half a barrel of cyder." The nearest route between Cambridge and Boston was by ferry. The keg was placed in a boat at Long Wharf or the Old West End, rowed over to Cambridge, and conveyed by willing hands, with some little ceremony, to the tap-room in a secret cellar. Cider was a joy to Paine in youth and a solace to age.^ This was the natural beverage for the New Englander, made from the native apple; just as the Frenchman drank the wine of the grape, the Mexican the cactus juice, or the Eskimo his whale oil. To keep the students from the temptations of Boston taverns, the buttery hatch became a sort of buffet lunch, where beer, cider, and other "extras" coulcf be obtained, and from which the butler realized many perquisites. All the stu dents were obliged to attend Commons unless ex cused by the president. Constant gmmbling, and the discharge of steward after steward, brought about a vote of the Corporation in 1750 that the quantity of commons be "two sizings of bread in the moming, one pound of meat at dinner with sufficient vegetables, and a half-pint of beer; and ^ John Adams attributed his longevity to a mug of hard cider before breakfast; and thought the first ancestor of his family would never have eaten the apple in the Garden of Eden if he had known what good cider it would make. [95] Two Men of Taunton at night, that a pot-pie be of the same quantity as usual, and also half a pint of beer." Soon after Leonard left college, beer was banished from the table, and cider took its place, brought on in pew ter quart cans which were passed from mouth to mouth like the wassail bowl. Students were then forbidden to sup or dine in town, "except on an invitation to dine or sup gratis," and shortly, breakfasting in town was forbidden — the morning meal being served at the Commons instead of at the buttery. On the wall of the dining-hall was hung a list of the students written in large German text, giv ing their names in the order of their rank; those at the top were allowed to help themselves first and pass to the next. A platform, raised twenty inches, put the seniors and tutors on a higher level. An old regulation says: The waiters, when the bell tolls at meal-time, shall receive the plates and victuals at the kitchen- hatch, and carry the same to the several tables for which they are designed. And the senior tutor or other senior scholar In the hall shall crave blessing and return thanks. During the discussion of the equality of men preceding the Revolution, the custom of rank ing students according to their family import ance, instead of alphabetically, was questioned as [96] Harvard in the Eighteenth Century inconsistent with the rising American ideals. Social precedence was earlier abolished at Yale, but the Harvard faculty still sat arbiters of rank until 1773, weighing the standing of citizens whose sons were in college. During Paine's and Leon ard's college careers, they shone by their fathers' glory rather than their own. The ranking of the class produced heart-burnings and jealousies among the students and their parents. Learning, blood, culture, pious ancestry, all succumbed to blatant prosperity in the West India or slave trade. It was a day of excitement, rage, and harsh reflections on the faculty by disappointed students, who were slow to acquiesce in their allotment. Paine, although descended from a president of the college, ranked only ninth in his class; while Leonard, son of a wealthy iron-master, ranked second. When Paine entered Harvard, coming with the highest honors from the Boston Latin School, he was placed in the home of Rev. Mr. Appleton, whose family name is now preserved in the col lege chapel. His room-mate was a friend named Barrett, who died in his sophomore year. Paine's watchful care of this feeble chum was very try ing, for he himself had but a modicum of health; and though tall, at the age of fifteen weighed only ninety pounds. Rev. Thomas Paine, starting on a health voyage [97] Two Men of Taunton during his son's college course, wrote a letter of fatherly counsel, closing thus : Let these texts be your guide in all cases, civil and religious. Psalms xxv, 9, Matt, xxviii, 20.^ Our Puritan ancestors discouraged familiarity in their intercourse with their children. Dignity and restraint were impressed upon them, and their duty was exhibited by the tone of submissive re spect and obedience, rather than of warm affec tion. A letter by Robert to his father in 1749 re veals the formal relations of father and son and the mature philosophy of the young man : Be pleased, sir, to accept a few lines as a token of the respect and duty which your much obliged son bears towards you. It is, indeed, with great reluct ance that I think of your intended voyage; and al though It Is not for me to regret your proceedings, yet human nature has many foibles, and the weak ness of youth needs much Indulgence. If your health would be served by any other means, with great pleasure should I hear it; but if that, and that method only, will avail, with profound submission, I acquiesce. I may not have another opportunity of writing to you, or of hearing from you again; therefore, as far as words will go, I would express my ' "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way." "Teaching them to observe all things what soever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." [98] Harvard in the Eighteenth Century sincere desire for your welfare, hoping that the same Providence which has hitherto kept us both, will still keep and preserve us, and bring us again to a happy meeting In this world. I hope, sir, I shall never be unmindful of the relation I stand In to you, either as a child or as one who professes Christianity: and, sir, I desire your remembrance of me, that, however Providence orders in this world, yet that we may be happy hereafter. Profanity and " taking the great and holy name of God in vain" were so prevalent in college, that (November 20, 1747) Rev. Mr. Appleton gave a lecture against swearing, and called upon all who had "any honor, religion, and reverence for the name of God," to do all in their power to discourage the unholy practice. Paine was among those who volunteered to report any profanity, and kept his ear alert for the Latin swear-words — one of which, "dei te perdant," the boys had learned from lively Terence. In his Journal, May 14, 1746, Paine notes: Lee returned from Louisburg. Was reduced four teen places In class, and compelled to make public confession.Possibly the old French cross from the chapel at Louisburg, found years afterward in the base ment of one of the Harvard dormitories, and set [99] Two Men of Taunton up as a trophy over the entrance to Gore Hall, was a token of the sign-stealing proclivities of this student. The public confession in chapel at moming prayers was one of the punishments for misdemeanors. Studies, as well as apparel, were prescribed. Both Paine and Leonard scanned their Virgil and Juvenal, parsed Greek paradigms, attended vespers (always committing to memory the text of sermons); sharpened their quills, and trans lated St. Paul's Epistles from the original Greek into Latin of their own make; struggled with Euclid, and Newton's "Principia," and went to hear Whitefield, who periodically appeared to arraign the college; saying that it had sunk into a "seminary of paganism," and that "their light had become darkness — darkness , that may be felt." 1 * The standing of Paine's class was as follows: William Whipple Newport Andrew Oliver Boston Edward Wigglesworth Cambridge Nathaniel Appleton Cambridge Benjamin Marston Marblehead John Seaver Kingston John Cotton Newton Cotton Tufts Medford Robert Treat Paine Boston John Wiswall Boston Joshua Green Boston Samuel Brooks Medford [ loo] Harvard in the Eighteenth Century When Daniel Leonard entered Harvard, he was placed third in his class of 1760, and after the departure of Francis Green, ranked second. Thomas Brattle, of Cambridge, stood first. Leon ard's father was the first citizen of the Norton Plantation, had prospered in business, and had held nearly every office of consequence except that of minister. Daniel Bliss, of Concord, a great-uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was Leon ard's room-mate, and he, with Samuel Dean, also from Norton, was with Leonard in London twenty years later as a Tory exile. Freshman Leonard ran bareheaded around the Yard on errands for the seniors; wrestled, pitched quoits, and was prominent on the lighter side of college life. In the faculty records we should not expect to find mention of Paine's degradation in the class for re fusing to doff his cap to tutors, playing on his flute at midnight, sleeping during class lectures, throw ing stones through professors' windows, or writing libellous acrostics on the faculty. His record is WiUiam Tidmarsh Boston Gideon Richardson Sudbury Nathan Tisdale Lebanon Samuel Haven Framingham Joseph Wilson Maiden Abijah Thurston Timothy Pond Ezekiel Dodge Shrewsbury Israel Cheever Concord Oliver Meriam Concord [ IOI ] Two Men of Taunton even clearer than that of Sam Adams, who has one solitary reprimand against him for lying abed after the college bell proclaimed the hour for prayers. Leonard was fined a number of times for absence. These pecuniary mulcts (Yankees were thrifty in the matter of punishments) sug gest that he was playing traant in Boston. Emer son said : " Send your boy to school, and he will get his education on the road." But Daniel was never msticated, nor convicted of flagrant "crimes." In 1757, a military company was formed to drill with firelocks on the Delta (where Memorial Hall now stands) and on Cambridge Common. In these "Harvard Fencibles," Leonard held a captaincy. The student soldiers, aping their elders, leamed tactics in anticipation of enlist ment in the days when France and England were ready to fiy at each other's throats on slightest provocation. They made a glittering spectacle under command of Captain Brattle, Leonard heading the first division, arrayed in green coat, with white trimmings and buff hose. The girls from the fine houses, which later became "Tory Row," smiled and waved their handkerchiefs, and Daniel retumed the greeting with sword salutation as he passed by the elm tree under which Washington, fifteen years later, was to take command of the American Army. Leonard, at Commencement in 1760, deliv- [ 102 ] 1 i ii O NO R A T I S ,S .1 . ac lubljini Virtacc, opC;rn.iqLie HrQuitionc, orn.Ttifliino \ iro THOM jE H U T C H j N S O A^ O, Pro~ r'"iis ro''f'-e ¦)/7/7'c/'-/'/yV"c'7//f eonfultiflimis • F 1 1 R i L K t f[ I k II 1 u \ \ ILl A J Lj u b ] ^ L ** ] ..^ I h nc/cr \\iJl IL^ C ?J 1- 1 L 1 I r G ) 1 i « r 1 ., > , tl . II [ c « I 1 r ^^ 1 J Tr J \ r. 1 c ^k - 1 „c \ 1 i I 1i# 1 M O Armigero, Mot 1 r :;.. r M ] 1 -4 "" r " — \ i 1 HARVARD COMMENCEMENT PROGRAMME, 1760 (Note contemporary comment " Orator" at Leonard's name) Harvard in the Eighteenth Century ered a Latin Oration in presence of Lieutenant-; Governor Hutchinson, the assembled concourse of alumni, and his proud father and stepmother.^ In 1766, he went to Yale to receive his "ad eundem" degree. His mother (from Norwich, Connecticut) had family associations with Yale, and this branch wished Daniel also to wear the colors of their college. The young man found a * The order of rank of Leonard's class was: Thomas Brattle Cambridge Daniel Leonard Norton Ebenezer Hancock Boston Lewis Vassall Boston John Lowell Newbury John Hall Wallington William Hooper Boston Elijah Dunbar Boston John Warren Wenham Daniel Bliss Concord Rev. Josiah Crocker Eastham Ebenezer Williams Roxbury Bunker Gay Dedham Nathaniel Wells Wells William Bradford Boston John Wyeth Cambridge Dr. William Baylies Uxbridge Samuel Deane Norton Ephraim Woolson Lexington James Baker Dorchester Timothy Fuller Middleboro John Livermore Westboro Ebenezer Rice Marlboro Antipas Steward Marlboro Henry Cuming Hollis [ 103 ] Two Men of Taunton new atmosphere in New Haven. President Clapp of Yale was more rigidly orthodox than Dr. Holy oke of Harvard. He had great notions of dignity and ceremony, and was a stickler for prayers and scholastic forms. All the tutors must subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. At the same time, our young collegian's social position was less flattering to his self-esteem, and accus tomed as he had been to sit above the salt at Harvard, it was humiliating to be placed in the middle of his class at Yale. But he adjusted himself to the new conditions, and to secure his ; honorary degree, studied the civil constitution of ; Great Britain, the forms of court procedure, civil j and common law, military and commercial law, besides physics, anatomy, mathematics, and liter-/ ature. Exalted by two college degrees, we can see him as he greets his friends in Norton at the / age of twenty-six, a gentleman and scholar. / NEXT THE SOLDIER Chapter VI Adventures by Sea and Forest I remember the black wharves and the slips, And the sea-tides tossing free; And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, And the beauty and mystery of the ships. And the magic of the sea. LoNGrELLOW. Have ye heard of our hunting, o'er mountain and glen — Through cane-brake and forest — the hunting of men? Whittier. WHEN Shakespeare introduced the sol dier as one of his "seven ages," he did not necessarily mean a man who actu ally shouldered an arquebus to follow a tattered banner through Flanders, and be finally bome off on a litter, leaving one leg on the field of battle. He merely recognized the Hotspur age, when the venturous spirit of youth, scoffing at danger, burns to go forth to try its mettle in conquest of the world (which is himself). No further apology will be offered for these chapters on the soldiership of our heroes. Neither Paine nor Leonard went about seeking the bubble reputation in the can non's mouth. No deeds of gore and glory by either are handed down to their posterity. Leonard did not march out to Concord Bridge with the red coats nor did Paine go through the winter at Valley Forge. Yet both saw enough of the hor- [ 107 ] Two Men of Taunton rors of battle not to jest at scars. Paine served as chaplain at Crown Point, in the French and Indian War, ministering to tomahawked and arrow-pierced soldiers, and preaching burial ser mons over their graves. Leonard stood on a house- roof at Copp's Hill, watching a red line of British soldiers falling under the fire of the Provincial farmers behind the old rail fence beyond the river at Charlestown. That was as close as either came to the smell of gunpowder and the whistle of bul lets. Leonard bore the title of colonel many years, though rather in a Kentuckian sense. Paine was ' a soldier of fortune. Paine was better equipped to enlist in the navy than the army. The magic of the sea touched him in childhood, as he beheld the white sails coming and going in Boston Bay. Cape Cod blood mnning in his veins set the Wanderlust upon him. He longed to explore the seas in his father's vessels for gain or adventure, as well as to restore his fluctuating health.^ In school-days, he had sailed along the North Shore as far as Falmouth and Pemaquid to visit ancestral property, and farther on to his father's branch office at Halifax. In his first trip to Carolina, though he passed the entire voy age of two weeks in his bunk, he reached port still manfully determined to master the art of 1 He quit the sea with health mended, blood quickened, skin toughened, and nerves nourished. [ io8] Adventures by Sea and Forest navigation. On the return trip, having found his sea-legs, learned the ropes, and gotten his nautical bearings, he could resist no longer the call of the mermaids. The next year, 1753, the Boston "Centinel" announced that the sloop Dolphin (Captain Paine), with cargo of brick and staves, had cleared at the port of Boston. She was to bring back from Newbem, Carolina, a cargo of tar and turpentine. On this voyage an episode occurred. In a small pirogue named Moses, Paine sailed up the creeks inland, into the region of Raleigh's lost colony, and bought up casks of tar until he had enough to fill the sloop's hold. If charged more than he was inclined to pay for bringing the casks down in boats, Paine had an idea of forming a raft with rope coiled in the stern of his boat. The planters laughed, but a youth of twenty is fertile in resources. He strapped forty-four tar barrels in a raft and on high tide started them downstream. At first all went well; the casks kept in the channel as the ebb tide took them toward the sea. Paine stood at the stem of his boat, steering and directing the sailors at the thwarts. They floated down until slack water, when stumps in the creek became so thick they could make no headway. A hurricane set in, and before the next ebb tide, night was upon them; but the raft was still intact and out of danger. The lantems being lighted for a warning, folks [ 109 ] Two Men of Taunton along the shore could see them bobbing about all night; passing boatmen hailed the young captain with gibes. When morning broke, casks of tar were scattered over the stream like wild colts es caped from a corral. The tide was playing havoc with them, and from the shore men tauntingly inquired how he enjoyed rafting tar barrels. Shouting and cursing, the crew took boats for a round-up, pursuing each separate barrel. Three days later, the cargo was loaded on board the sloop, and Cap'n Paine turned in for a long- delayed sleep. That night four drunken "tar- heels" came aboard the Dolphin with malicious intent. The captain was aroused, and in his keen- edged nautical vocabulary ordered the boarders to clear. One of them hit him on the cheek with a black bottle, giving Paine a lifelong reminder of his trip. Twenty years later, when Josiah Crocker of Taunton came home from Philadelphia and told Mrs. Paine of seeing her husband there, the wife sat down and wrote: "I hear you have let your hair grow long and I suppose I shall not know you when you return. I hope the scar on your face will look the same." Paine landed the tar barrels safely in Boston. Tliough the market was slack, and profits small, he took to the business and other voyages followed. Once he remained away for nine months, buy ing and selling commodities, and, incidentally, [ IIO] Adventures by Sea and Forest deer-hunting with rice-planters' daughters. Time slipped by; he sent home letters intimating that "Sam Duncan's daughter" was making life pleasant for him, adding, "I sometimes think I should remain in the Carolinas if it were not on the borders of Purgatory." When, the last of November, 1 75 3 , he came home and had sold his cargo to advantage, his wander ing spirit prompted a trip to Europe. For several weeks he visited the wharves and searched the "News-Letter" and "Post" for a seaworthy ves sel. At length, he heard of a sloop of thirty tons, the Hannah, which he chartered at twenty pounds a month. After scraping her bottom, tar ring the ropes, salting the mast, and filling the lazaretto with lobscouse, hard-tack, "tongues and sounds," "salt hoss," and other delicacies of a sailor's "whack," Cap'n Paine secured an "Al gerine Pass"; piped all hands on deck; asked a blessing on the trip, and weighed anchor for Caro lina carrying a load of brick, meal, ropes, and pottery. He took along his father's negro slave, "London," whom he afterwards sold, for he was bent on business and had no scrapie against the traffic in "human cattle." A sloop does not require so large a crew as a schooner; but there is more strain on the mast, which gave excitement during the voyage and compelled a sharp eye for weather changes. [ III] Two Men of Taunton Thirty days after leaving Carolina, he sighted " phyall Light." Spending a few days at Fayal, he found no market there for his cargo and hoisted sail for Cadiz. Marching up the Calle del Ruiz, he stared at the strangeness of the sights, the tiny sidewalks, the iron grilles of the stone houses, through which senoritas " sympdticas y graciosas" were peering out and talking in musical cadence. He drank his sherry to the dregs; jumped away from the lizards which sprang from the trees and walls to his shoulders ; went to bull-fights (leaving his strongbox with the English consul), and visited the churches to behold the marvellous paintings of Murillo. The pesetas and Johannos received for his cargo did not jingle long in his pockets. Tum ing his ready money into oranges, lemons, figs, and bottles of Madeira, he sailed up to England, giving the coast of France a wide berth, lest some French privateer should capture him under pre text of the hostilities then existing between the two countries. In London he bought a large re peating watch, now preserved in the Massachusetts Historical Society's collection. The colonial fig ures on its dial seem to speak of that wonderful city which would appeal to the mind of an Amer ican youth of twenty-four, waxen to impression — the London of George II, of Goldsmith and Field ing, Garrick and Sterne, Reynolds and Johnson. No sooner had he reached Boston, greeted his [ 112] Adventures by Sea and Forest friends, and disposed of his cargo, than he must sail again, this time to the North Atlantic on a whaling voyage, patteming after his grandfather. He was master of the good ship Seaflower, and recorded this prayer as he left the wharves of his native town: "And so God send good success to the Seaflower and her company." He took aboard a harpooner at Provincetown, and was away all summer. Again let us pause to look at Paine, now aged twenty-four, hunting whales off Greenland. In tarpaulins and billycock hat, beard half-grown, he gives orders to his crew. Spy-glass in hand, he mans the tiller, or from the rocking crow's-nest shouts, "Thar she blows." He orders the boats lowered away, the line paid out. His keen eye follows the harpooner as he hurls the toggle-iron. He is towed many leagues, often in danger of being upset. When the whale is made fast along side, he superintends cutting the blubber and trying it out in vats on board. In the fall he re tums with a fare of oil, whalebone, and amber gris, of which the lay gives him a comfortable profit. The rough crew were hardly companions for the captain. On these voyages we imagine Paine sat much by himself, watching Mother Carey's chickens chattering in his wake, on the trailing meadows of sargasso, the playful dolphins, the [113] Two Men of Taunton monster "leather-back," or flying-fish shimmer ing over the waves to fall helplessly upon his deck. He likely repeated the Latin proverb — "Nun quam minus solus quam solus," or after nightfall sang some favorite chanty, or better, hummed Addison's grand hymn to the stars : "Forever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is Divine." At sea, in a raging storm, lashed to a mast or wrestling with the hehn, as the lightning flashes, and seas rash over the deck (at any moment liable to be sent to Davy Jones's locker) ; then, if ever, the awakened spirit is aroused to prayer and a vision of etemal traths and begets the missionary unpulse. After two years of deep-water medita tions, and communion with the infinite loneliness of waves and stars, the clerical instinct implanted in him asserted itself. Did not the clergy keep the torch of enlightenment from flickering out ? he reasoned. Was there not a vast company in every community who would rather say "amen" than think out problems for themselves? The minister was a leader, the inspirer of moral, social, and edu cational activities; he prepared youths for college; enjoyed the confidence and sympathy of emotional women; knew many family secrets; was granted a parsonage, where he welcomed donation parties bringing provisions, clothes, firewood, rings, and [ 114] Adventures by Sea and Forest gloves; was allowed the sacred privilege of pas turing his horse in the town cemetery, and con tinued forty, fifty, sixty years in the pulpit, some times until the Bible was pushed off the desk by palsied fingers. So Paine came home from the sea to preach. His ancestors had fed on sermons. He was bom with a text on his tongue; he had studied faith fully, and lived as a conventional Bostonian, "diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Preaching was his hereditary calling; and the hopes of grandmother, father, uncle, and sis ters centred on this. He had been acquiring the ministerial habit for years, but the final train ing was given by his mother's relative, Rev. Mr. Willard, at Lancaster, with whom he studied the ology through one winter. Occasionally trying his powers in the neighboring pulpits, he presently secured a six weeks' charge at Shirley before the days of the Shaker invasion. The few people there were poor and had been attending church at Gro ton. They found it a hardship to ford Squanna- cook River in their Sunday clothes; consequently Shirley was set off as a separate parish in 1752. When Paine preached there in the spring of 1755, a part of the small congregation was obliged to stand, for the mde benches of the new meeting house were insufficient for his audience. He wrote: [ IIS] Two Men of Taunton I find my present church In the middle of thirty acres of scrub wood. Upon my appearance, the people, who were sunning themselves under the trees, repaired to the seats, and I preached with satisfac tion to them. Here again we see the youthful Paine, in white lappet and wristbands, blowing a hom to call his congregation together; preaching "satisfactory" sermons; bowing in prayer while the venerable deacons stand at the ends of the pews; and lining out the psalm from the Bay Psalm Book, "The tidings strike a doleful sound." As preacher he was one step higher in dignity and standing than as teacher. The transient title of "Reverend" was probably used chiefly by his sisters. We find no record that he was ever ordained. When he stepped from the pulpit, he demitted the title and such emoluments as the people gave their ministers. Shirley and Lunenburg were on the "Crown Point Road," the old Indian trail from Boston to Canada. Paine saw the soldiers passing along this thoroughfare in the expeditions against French and Indians, and was infected with the military contagion so prevalent in the rival colonies. In the summer of 1755, a large fleet left France with soldiers for America to renew the contest for this continent. Interference with the fisheries was sap ping the life-blood of New England. The French, [ 116] Adventures by Sea and Forest erecting a series of fortresses from Quebec to New Orleans, had aroused the enmity of the sea board English toward them. A colonial conference had been held at Albany in 1754, upon the initiation of the far-sighted Franklin, to prevent the French from uniting Canada and New Orleans. At a conference at Alexandria, in the summer of 1755, it was re solved to reduce Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Crown Point. Baron Dieskau was in command of the French Canadians and Indians who were coming down through Lake Champlain. Among three thousand colonial English troops joining in an expedition against the French and Indians were John Stark, Govemor Shirley, "Old Put," and Timothy Ruggles. One regiment was under Paine's relative. Colonel Samuel Willard. The young parson was eager for adventure and schemed for a military chaplaincy. In August, 1755, while at Shirley, his wish was realized: To Robert Treat Paine, Gent'n, Greeting. Reposing especial Trust and^i Confidence In your Loyalty, Piety and Learning, I do by these presents, constitute and appoint you, the said Rob't Treat Paine, to be chaplain of a Regiment of Foot, under the command of Col. Samuel Willard, being the forces now raising for reinforcing the Troops against Crown Point, of which Major General Johnson is Commander-in-Chief. [ 117 1 Two Men of Taunton You are therefore, carefully and diligently to do and perform the duty of Chaplain to the said Regi ment, by your Public Prayers, Preaching and Pri vate Exhortation, visiting the sick, and In all things as becometh you ; and you are to follow such orders and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from the Commander-in-Chief of the said expedition, or other your superior officers, for which this Is your warrant. Given under my hand and seal at Cambridge this Sth day of August, 1755, In the 29th year of His Majesty's reign. S. Phips, by T. Clark, Dep. Secretary. The appointment received, Paine departed the first of September, 1755, to be a part of the army life for four months, and possibly to enjoy, at Albany, the company of the Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Livingstons, and others, to whom his standing might give him introduction. To those who thrill with the memories of camp- life — the romance of sleeping under star-lighted skies on balsam boughs ; fishing for bass and wall eyed pike; cooking rabbits and quail in skillets over fagot fires; fighting black flies and mosqui toes; skylarking through the night; contracting chills and fever ; and foregoing improved domes tic conveniences of civilization, — the luck of this adventurous youth seems enviable, as he starts [ 118] Adventures by Sea and Forest off to join that memorable expedition in which he found novelty, excitement, and service. The lakes and mountains of this Vermont valley constitute a scenery as romantic as any in America. It was bounteous in its physical gifts then as now.^ To Paine's joy in camping-out was added a spice of danger. Savage shrieks and war-whoops came ululating across the lake, piercing the stillness of the night. There was always danger of sudden ambuscade, and of being burned or eaten by furious red skins. It was impossible to restrain the savages within the rales of civilized warfare. Prisoners on both sides were made away with as an economic measure. The English commander- in-chief was Sir William Johnson, a fine, wild Irish man who had lived many years in the valley of the Mohawk as a chief. Dancing the war-dance, talk ing readily in the native language, figuring as the groom in several interracial marriages, he had acquired great power. On the first of September, 1755, Paine, with musket and blanket, mounted his war-horse, and set out on his cmsade, singing the mighty songs of Zion. Colonel Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams College and commander of the New ' The Mohawks, who frequented it, were of such physical per fection that once a hasty, unthinking, provincial New Yorker, travelling in Rome, exclaimed, as he looked upon Apollo Bel vedere, "By Heaven, a young Mohawk warrior!" [ 119 ] Two Men of Taunton England troops, wrote home during the cam paign: We are a wicked, profane army, especially the New York and Rhode Island troops. Nothing to be heard among a great part of them but the language of Hell. Prayers, sermons, and psalm-singing were confined chiefly to the Massachusetts soldiers. Paine ar rived in time to bury the dead after the engage ment in which Baron Dieskau was severely wounded and Colonel Williams killed. The ex perience of this excursion is told in a whimsical, abridged letter, suggesting an acquaintance with Dean Swift and Rabelais, which the young minis ter sent home in November, 1755: About the latter end of summer, I sat out accom panied with some persons of quality, each one pro perly accoutred with firearms and blankets. I shall not trouble you with occurrences near home — every one meets with them — but after a travel of some days we came into a fine country, where the earth was covered with produce not indebted to ye labor of ye husbandman. The highways through this country are laid out In a very spacious manner, being in most places 20, 30, yea 100 feet wide, and in many places very plentifully paved; but the country being new, the paving work seems not to be completed, for so many places the rich fat soil proves very offen sive to the foot of the travailer; however, there is [ 120 ] Adventures by Sea and Forest abundant provision for water, which is so situated that a foot-traveler cannot avoid washing himself. After a long travel, we came to a city so extraor dinary it deserves the minutest description. We arrived about dark and took quarters at a friend's house for some considerable time. This wonderful city by enquiry I learned has not been long known to our part of the world, yet has very lately settled a considerable correspondence that way. 'T is very secretly seated between two long ranges of lofty mountains, capable of being discovered by none distant except the sun, who in his meridian altitude peeps through the clouds of smoke and sulphurous vapors that frequently overhang this place. It stands at the head of a long narrow lake, whose stagnant waters afford but a livid prospect; 't Is said by some that it leads directly to Purgatory at the other end, and so one would think to see the innumerable ferry boats which we have prepared to waft the inhabitants forward. The land here is not tilled, though it is excellently manured, they raise no provision but have it transported from other parts that at times you would think you were in Lubberland and again that you were on a maroon island. The no. of inhabitants it is impossible to tell, as, for like the Ocean 't is perpetually chang ing without any sign of stability. The inhabitants I observe are chiefly males, for 't is said the women that come here all turn to men immediately, so that this place seems to put on opposition to the land of the Amazons, and as they mark themselves by cut- [ 121 ] Two Men of Taunton ting off the right breast for the convenience of shoot ing the bow, these are no less remarkable for cutting off natural affection for the convenience of li\'ing careless lives. Upon my first arrival, I found only a small tract of abt 22 acres compactly settled and the inhabit ants strictly confined within these narrow limits, but after a whUe the strangest phenomena appeared that has ever been heard of since the men that were produced from the serpent's teeth. Multitudes seemed to be produced Immediately — whether 't was the clouds, the lake, the fog, or the earth that swarmed forth inhabitants 't were hard to tell, they pitched their residence somewhat distant from the old city, when Nature, that spontaneously produced men seemed as fertile In habitations. In the course of one night whole streets of houses would spring up out of the earth and the rubbish of the wilderness rise up into beauteous towns. So that in a short space of time a new city was found exceeding in cleanness and nearly equal for numbers to the for mer. But who can describe the various accomoda tions and conveniences of living used in this place.' In one part you might behold rows of habitations appearing like whited sepulchres, the same stuff that among us proves fatal to villains, here screens them from trouble; In another place you might see a cave or hole in the rocks ; some huge poles of brush and dirt served to fend off the cold and rain — others had long rows of buildings that much resem ble our meeting-house sheds ; but the better sort of [ 122 ] Adventures by Sea and Forest people have houses built according to certain rules of architecture in practice here; the doors are low and the roofs level, some spread them with hides and sheep-skins, though others neglect it for the benefit of the light — their windows are made lengthwise and some reach from side to side; there are very few that wainscot, paper or plaister their rooms, by reason they prefer the pine scented bal sam their timber affords. Their lodging is various, some using an artificial couch and others preferring the feathers the land produces, so that truly may it be said of some that their houses are fir and their bed is green. As for their food, they go much on roast meat, and therefore, they are generally provided with spits which some hang on a part of their apparel. Others again eat a sort of bread called by them allow ance, which is a medley of almost everything, and agrees well with their constitutions, but when any of the parts are wanting, especially some that are called essential. It produces strange effects, breeding flatu lency in the bowels, maggots In the brain, delusion, distraction, strange volubility of tongue and disaf fection among intimates. As for their apparel, that likewise is very various, tho' there seems to be no standard which, different from other parts of the world. Is inimitable. 'T Is customary for men of dispatch to have their Hatts shod with gold and sil ver (that being an article they have no other use for here) in order to cut the fog and smoke which would otherwise much impede their passage. Some wear long tails to their wiggs, wh is found very beneficial [ 123 ] Two Men of Taunton here to steady their heads ; there are some few such enemies to dirt (the natural product of the place) that they continually carry their towels near their hands. There Is one particular which I could not determine, whether It was peculiar to their Bodies or whether It was part of their apparell and that Is a large horn generally growing on the right side. 'T would be natural to think It a real part of their body If It grew on their heads, but It Is generally thought by strangers to be an excresence, for upon examination they are found to contain a sort of black, subtile penetrating powder no ways akin to their constitutions, tho' some have said that this Is their brains, and because It is observed they have another instrument of strange form and composition with weh only they hold arguments and disputes; and 't Is seen that when they use them they put this powerful Trade Into It which renders their argument very penetrating and when they argue matters of consequence they add a small leaden composition, taken from a neighboring receptacle to this brain, wh often renders their arguments decisive & hence 't Is Inferred that leaden brained men are most suit able Inhabitants of this city. Everything here Is done by the sound of bells, but then they are different from ours, being a composition of wood and leather and are carried about for various uses; early in the morning you'll hear them sounding all about, upon which the Inhabitants begin to muster; ab't an hour after, they sound again at stated places, upon which there walks out one of a different garb from all the [ 124 ] Adventures by Sea and Forest rest. I should not have judged him an inhabitant, or anything but a deity here, and after standing a while in ye stated place, ye people gathered about him, he stood a while and said something, but by comparing his looks with that of the bystanders, I could not make out what he was after. By the sound of these bells you see them moving back and forth, great numbers of them moving on to a certain place, where 't was said they were employed in work of great importance. I went with them and saw a large pile of dirt and wood wh the people were tumbling and tossing about, which resembled a Pismire's hill the nearest of anything, for 'twas said they pro posed to lay up food there for the winter. This seemed to be their chief employment, except some that stood at distance round them to give notice of the appearance of any enemy. This expedition against Crown Point was a failure. The enemy might have been whipped in open battle, but cold, disease, and hunger were more than a match for Sir William Johnson's ill-equipped, ill-fed army. Many deserted when November winds began to chill their bones. The army broke camp in December and retreat was sounded till a more auspicious season. Paine left his relative, Samuel Willard, buried on the field of battle, and, after stopping over at Springfield td take part in the wedding of a college friend, arrived in Boston on New Year's Day. Those [125] Two Men of Taunton four months of life with an army in the mountains had a new influence upon him. We do not hear more of Paine as a clergy man (though he continued to look like one), and was always thereafter a prominent figure in the "Amen Comer." His was a religious life. He fol lowed beaten paths until he began to think for himself, when he developed a strong tendency to individualize. Only for a few months as an of ficer of the established church did he feel respons ible for the beliefs of others; as layman, his own beliefs expanded with his political views. His temperament was not adapted to the staid sobri ety of the cloth. A doubt arose as to whether he was made for the orthodox pulpit when he read Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon (especially his twelfth chapter), Voltaire, and Diderot. As with John Adams, the doctrines of Calvinism seemed harsh to his reasoning mind. He was suspected of Ar- minian leanings. Fate had other work for him, or he might have spent his days as a respectable, conventional, well-to-do parson of the eighteenth century, with his name long since drifted quietly down the harbor of memory out into the sea of oblivion. Soon after Paine's return from Crown Point, Colonel Washington, fresh from Braddock's de feat on the Ohio, came up to Boston (which then covered 780 acres, not so large a territory as [ 126] Adventures by Sea and Forest his brother's plantation at Mount Vernon) and stopped at the Cromwell's Head Tavern, a few doors from Paine's home on School Street. Pre sumably, Colonel Washington and Captain Paine exchanged their experiences in the recent cam paigns, and commenced a friendship which, ten years later, was renewed on a more important occasion.^ * Parson Weems records that the only person who ever got the best of Washington in personal combat was a man named " Paine. " But that was at Alexandria. Chapter VII A Family of Colonels You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar. — Othello. A THIRST for military glory is the vice of the most exalted characters," declares the historian Gibbon. During the ambitious days of the Civil War, Artemus Ward referred to a regiment composed entirely of colonels, save a single private. The title of colonel sat jaun tily on a Leonard. In the first hundred and fifty years of New England's history, when the law obliged every man to keep by him flintlock, knapsack, and ammunition (being subject to mil itary duty), the colonel of the regiment competed with the parson as the foremost citizen. The Leonards, in their fondness for office-holding, did not overlook these military positions ; nearly every head of this family held some sort of martial rank; James was exempted from service in 1662, being a "bloomer" who made iron implements of warfare. Ensign Leonard paid his soldiers in bar iron after Philip's War. Thomas Leonard was captain of the First Company in 1691 ; James, first lieutenant, and George, captain. Thomas, m 1709, was appointed major, by which title he was distinguished from his son — Colonel George. [ 128] A Family of Colonels Ephraim, son of the major, became colonel in 1757; in 1772, his son, our Daniel, was elected lieutenant-colonel of this regiment and known as "Colonel Leonard" until, in Bermuda days, he exchanged this title for "Judge." The field offi cers of the Taunton Regiment in 1762 were: Sam uel White, colonel; George Leonard, lieutenant- colonel; Thomas Mowry and Seth Williams, majors. In 1772, the field officers were: George Leonard, colonel; Daniel Leonard, lieutenant- colonel; George Williams and Apollos Leonard, majors. Every boy instinctively plays "soldier," more particularly when the son and nephew of colonels. The glitter of military glory naturally appealed to Daniel, who, as a boy, attended the muster of the trainbands and followed their manoeuvres studiously. As George Washington, in youth, drilled and marshalled his play-fellows about Fairfax Court-House, so we see Daniel, imitating his elders, holding miniature reviews on muster- day behind the horse-sheds at Oakland, Norton, or Taunton Green, passing the countersign and leading his boy brigade, armed with brooms, hoe- handles, and cordwood sticks, and topped with paper helmets, as they march, "hay foot, straw foot," about the field or charge helter-skelter into a flock of sheep, or the frait trees of a neighbor's orchard. [ 129 ] Two Men of Taunton Washington, honored for his brilliant conduct on the Braddock retreat, coming to visit Govemor Shirley in 1756, aroused enthusiasm for war among the rising generation. Daniel was sixteen, when that serious-minded young Virginian visited Bos ton. Colonel Washington was a commanding figure, in his uniform of buff and blue. Some older person often seems to be the realization of unful filled ideals, and let us imagine young Leonard, about to enter Harvard, :filled with emulation at the sight of the illustrious Southerner. The pomp and circumstance of war especially charm a youth in his teens. While at college, the story of Wolfe at Quebec fired the students to form military companies. By virtue of his class rank, to which attention has been already called, Daniel was second in command of the "Harvard Fencibles," who exercised much as the High School Cadets do now, parading once a week upon the Common. Fresh from classic studies he marched around Cambridge with visions of Csesar exhorting his legions in Britain, or Xeno phon leading the Ten Thousand back to the Hel lespont. During his legislative career, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the local regiment, Govemor Hutchinson nodding assent. Leonard, who was his father and grandfather polished up, naturally sought this position, since so many of his own [ 130 ] GOVERNOR THOMAS HUTCHINSON A Family of Colonels family and connections were officers. In his early thirties, he makes a bright picture in his scar let coat, buckskin breeches, nankeen waistcoat, silver-hilted sword, and white-topped boots. We can see him as he deploys the platoons of militia around the Green at the summer muster, while the "women folks" stuff tow in their ears to shut out the "horrid rattle of the drums"; or as he visits the temporary booths to purchase the mus ter refreshments of gingerbread and new rum; or gallantly offers his snuff-box — " If you please, my lady" — while a curtsey is dropped in answer. As the Revolution came on, the Leonards were divided in allegiance — the townsfolk whispered that it was to preserve their property, on which ever side the fortunes of the war should fall. When Daniel was besieged in Boston, he was not listed among the officers of "The Royal Ameri can Associators" (as the regiment of gentleman volunteers under Brigadier Ruggles was called).^ When Washington tightened his siege-lines, in the winter of 1775-76, Leonard was drafted in Boston among several thousands who saw no service, for General Gage raised the siege by flight. Apparently Leonard lacked heart to take arms ' These troops drilled every morning on the Common, wear ing white sashes on the left arm to distinguish them from the King's Regulars. [ 131] Two Men of Taunton against his family, although he would not have been the first to do o, for his cousin. Colonel George, had commanded a brigade which cap tured vessels in Somerset, attacked Fall River, laid Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard under trib ute, and was about to ail up the river and treat Taunton in the same w ly, when it was fortunately repulsed by Colonel Durfee. We find a militar}- phase in Leonard's career, but he was more celebrated on dress-parade than in the imminent deadly breach. In soldier ship, he was little akin to bluff Putnam, polished Prescott, scholarly Dr. Warren, or ragged John Stark. During the siege of Boston, the office of Solicitor gave him eiitree to the inner circle of big-wigs there, several of whom were scions of noble families. Congenial company were some of these : Earl Percy, living handsomely in a house overlooking the Common; the dashing Major Andre, whose wish to live and die distinguished was so tragically fulfilled; Major Pitcaim, who bragged that he would stir the Yankee blood as he stirred his toddy In a Concord tumbler; the playwright, Burgoyne, a kindred spirit; Generals Howe and Clinton and Govemor Gage, who knew Leonard well and writes of him as a "very re spectable man." To organize an army for a successful campaign, a trinity of weapons must cooperate — the sword, [ 132 ] A Family of Colonels the tongue, and the pen are in request. Tram- bull spoke of Leonard as the "scribbler-general." In the Civil War, Lowell's pen was "worth a brig ade of soldiers." Any one could fight, but few could inspire courage by writing. Leonard did not lay himself open to the charge of being wholly a summer soldier; he felt that he could wield the pen more skilfully than the sword, and he put it into active service for the Tory cause. AND THEN THE LOVER Chapter VIII Hanging the Shingles I never was ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one. — Voltaire. THE same Emerson who had complained of being a "victim of miscellany" gave these hints to a young man seeking his counsel: "Teach a littie, farm a while, drive a tin-peddler's cart a season, keep store, go to Congress, preach a year, and lead the experi mental life." Paine's life was so "experimental" that a critic, surveying his variegated career, might have feared his drowning in the waters of Unstability. His spirit was ever fluid and moving; his hungry brain biting into every phase of exist ence. Forestalling Emerson, he taught a little, preached a little, and went to Congress; his farm ing was on a scale too small for great financial loss ; instead of the corner grocery and peddler's cart, he went trading on the high seas and harpooning whales; with Yankee adaptability, he carried a transit and chain as surveyor; mended clocks, dabbled with chemistry, and finally rested in the lap of the law. Thus mixing with men and keeping his eyes open, his mind was reacting to different stimuli and all the while building upon itself as he came to learn the Universal Laws. When he [ 137] Two Men of Taunton signed the Declaration his name stood for well- rounded experience. Reared in a family not only above want, but wealthy enough to be envied, the boy grew up with prospects of a place among the well-to-do. In the year that he was graduated from college the tide of fortune ebbed, and left his father stranded on the beach of Poverty. This fall to penury from plenty, he met courageously. To bridge over the hard times, he first sought a posi tion as teacher, an employment profitable to youth in gaining knowledge of human nature, habits of patience, concentration, self-control, and familiarity with platform speaking. In teach ing others, he was teaching himself. A gradu ate of the Latin School, and living next door, he readily secured a position there as usher in the year 1750, for which service the town of Boston paid fifty pounds a quarter.-^ * Oliver Goldsmith, a year older than Paine, was graduated from Trinity College and afterwards became an usher there. His experiences he utilizes in the "Vicar of Wakefield": I have been an usher to a boarding-school myself; and may I die by an anodyne necklace, but I had rather be an under-turnkey at Newgate! I was up early and late; I was brow-beat by the master; hated for my ugly face by the mistress; worried by the boys within; and never permitted to stir out to meet civility abroad. But are you sure you are fit for a school? Let me examine you a little. "Have you been bred apprentice to the business?" "No." "Then you won't do for a school." "Can you dress the boys' hair?" "No." "Then you won't do for a school." "Haveyouhad the small-pox?" "No." "Then you won't do for a school." "Can you lie three in a bed?" "No." "Then you will never do for a school." "Have you got a good stomach?" "Yes." "Then you will by no means do for a school." [ 138] Hanging the Shingles Paine left the Latin School in 1750, and the next winter went to teach a school at Lunenburg. Rattan well in hand, he stood his ground and chased the unruly pupil over and under the benches or out of the window if need be. After two ses sions with f erale and primer, he concluded that he might better make his way in the world by ship ping in one of his father's vessels. His three years of maritime wanderings and his transit of the pulpit have been given in the chapter on adven ture which ran somewhat ahead of our story to conform with the Seven Ages. Robert combined a study of law and gospel under Samuel Willard at Lancaster, followed by a year of law under Benja min Pratt. In 1750, there was lingering doubt as to the law being a holy calling, though the making of an attorney was something akin to the mak ing of a minister. The youth was apprenticed to some popular justice who usually had one or more fledglings under his eye. In lieu of copying sermons and hymns, studying concordances and catechisms, the tadpole lawyer copied writs and leases, and burned the tallow dip over Coke and Littleton, Hawkins's "Pleas of the Crown," Justinian's "Institutes," and Sackville's Reports. He was called on to sweep and dust the library, hamess the horse, brash boots, shovel snow, weed turnips, chop wood, and perform a thousand petty disagreeables of life, which, however, were sweet- [ 139 ] Two Men of Taunton ened by surreptitious love-making with the mas ter's daughter. The very week of his admission to the Boston Bar, in May, 1757, Paine's father died insolvent; and he found himself, aged twenty- six, the head of the family and worth less than nothing. Death brings about a readjustment of affairs. The young man at once made plans to liquidate his legacy of debt. His eldest sister was now married to a distiller, which insured her ample comfort, and his younger sister was the only immediate con nection looking to him for support. The disposal of property at Falmouth, which had come by his grandfather, required him to spend some time there, attending to business, but looking in vain for additional practice. In the year 1758, John Adams chronicles a dole ful colloquy of Paine and Quincy: Bob Paine: "I have ruined myself by a too eager pursuit of wisdom. I have now neither health enough for an active life nor knowledge enough for a sedent- ive one." Josiah Quincy: "We shall never make your great fellows." Thus Paine and Quincy both are verging to de spair. Paine: "If I attempt a composition, my thoughts are slow & dull." Paine is discouraged, and Quincy has not courage [ 140 ] Hanging the Shingles enough to harbor a thought of acquiring a great character. In short, none of them have a foundation that will support them. . . . Paine's face has lost its bloom, & his eye its vivacity & fire; his eye is weak, his countenance pale, & his attention unsteady; and, what Is worse, he suffers this decline of health to retard & almost to stop his studies. . . . Paine (to me): "You don't Intend to be a sage, I suppose?" Oh, Paine has not penetration to reach the bottom of my mind. He don't know me; next time I will answer him, & say; "No, Knowledge enough to keep out of fire and water is all that I aim at." Seeking new fields, he now looked toward the home of his paternal ancestors, as before he had gone into the neighborhood of his mother's people to teach and preach. Taunton was the foremost town of southem Massachusetts; there he stopped to bait his horse on his way from Boston to Barnstable. In June, 1755, Paine came down to a muster with Gordon Chandler (whose daughter married a Leonard), and visited his college friend, George Leonard. In March, 1758, Paine and Dick Cranch rode down to Taunton, attended the Inferior Court, ate breakfast with Squire White, and were greeted with curtseys by his charming daughters. As the young men rode home and talked over the outlook for lawyers, Paine thought how fine it would look to hang his shingle under [141] Two Men of Taunton that of Squire White, and the rosy future was brightened by the eyes of the daughter, Anna. Squire White, formerly living in Weymouth, had been fitted for Harvard by his pastor. Rev. Thomas Paine, Robert's father. Transplanting is usually beneficial. To remain root-bound in one's birthplace, enslaved to fixed conditions, forbids expansion. The acorn sprout ing under the shade of the parent oak is spindling; the acorn carried by the blue jay to the open field grows stalwart. In the new environment, not only must the newcomer struggle to keep his head above the water of competition (which brings into action all his latent powers), but he is also freed from the handicap of village gossip peddling abroad the mistakes of youth. Paine, bringing his Boston training into the rural town, began to thrive. His first case in Bristol County Court-House grew out of litigation over land left him by his father in Dartmouth. After a while he kept a horse in Dr. McKinstry's pasture, and with saddle-bags and legal books he would ride about the country, to Quaker meetings and turkey suppers, or bait his horse at the homes of men who might become his clients, or some day send him to Congress. From his diary, we find him dining with Chief Justice Hutchinson at Milton, with Judge Oliver at Middleboro, Nathaniel Ray Thomas at Marshfield, Colonel [ 142 ] Hanging the Shingles Doty at Stoughton, Mr. Edson at Bridgewater, Edward Winslow and Colonel Watson at Ply mouth, John Rowe in Boston, and with other dis tinguished citizens at Providence, Newport, and Barnstable. This exercise on horseback gave him a wholesome view of life; it was good for his liver. With the birds singing in the trees, the rabbits bobbing across the highway, quails piping in the meadow, his lungs full of ozone, and quick blood thrilling his whole body, he rode out of melan choly into gladness. And he was able to save a pound sterling now and then to send to sister Eunice. The law did not absorb all his time; to piece out, he became Surveyor of Highways, and had a job when Colonel White indicted the town for maintaining a menace to public safety by neg lect of Neck-o'-Land Bridge. Soon the sun began to shine with new brilliancy for the young barris ter; clients multiplied. Among the notable cases discussed by lawyers during Paine's early years in Taunton was the trial in 1 76 1 of the slave, Peggy, a spinster of Swanzea, who drowned her two children, Violet and Cato. In 1762, "Seth Cooper did challenge advisedly, wickedly, and corhiptly Benjamin Marvel to fight a duel," for which he was convicted and fined.^ In ' A letter written in 1762 by Jonathan Sewall, Attorney- General of the Province, to his college friend, Paine, and the amusing reply, mirror men and matters then uppermost in the [143] Two Men of Taunton 1763, Henry Grossman went to Swanzea and came home with another man's horse, for which he was set on the gallows with a rope around his neck, whipped ten stripes and compelled to pay three times the value of the horse (£27). Publicity of punishment had not been abolished. Frail and be trayed women were punished at the whipping-post and exposed to the gibes of town loafers. In 1764, when execution of judgment was summary and public mind and recall half-forgotten incidents to the students of the Revolutionary period. Brother Bob, — Pray be so kind as to deliver the enclosed [prob ably a legal document] to a Catch-pole [a constable]; and when you can give me an opportunity to cancel the obligation, please to command me freely; your hearty friend, &c. — How is the harvest in your part of the vineyard? Which side do you take in the political controversy? What think you of coin? What of writs of assistance? What of his honour, the L ? What of Otis? What of Thatcher? What of Coke, the cobbler? What think you of bedlam for political madmen? What think you of patriotism? What think you of disappointed am bition? What think you of the fable of the bees? What — ? Send me your thoughts on these questions, and I will send you fifty more. Jonathan Sewall. Charlestown, nth Feb., 1762. Friend Jonathan, — I have just received yours, and shall take, special care of the enclosed. Your queries demand an immediate answer, in which I hope you will find a satisfactory display of the orthodoxy of my mind. To first query, I answer, the old account is reversed, for the harvest is small and the labourers are many, and there are many little foxes that spoil the vines. To 2nd query, I reply the right side. To the 3d question, I say, what hungry men do of food, if they can get any, never dispute the quality or the price. I reply to the 4th inquiry, never was more need of them; I shall soon apply for one to get me a help-meet. Question sth: What of his honor, the L. G.? I answer, as the son of Sirach said, all things cannot be in vain, because man is not immortal — what is brighter than the sun? Yet the light thereof faileth. What of Otis? Answer; what the virtuosi do of Lemory's concave mirror, which burns everything which cannot be melted. What of Thatcher? Answer: [ 144] Hanging the Shingles each lawyer his own justice, this legal item bears witness tiiat Paine's abhorrence of profanity in college was not outgrown. 1764 20th February. In the fourth year of his Majesty's reign, Thomas Tobey was convicted by his own confession of swear ing two profane oaths in the town of Taunton, and was sentenced to pay four shillings for the first and one shilling for the second. Before me. Rob't T. Paine {Jus Pac). There were frequent cases of smuggling, and other attempts to evade the revenue laws, in which Paine appears as counsel. In 1765, the Stamp Act alarmed the legal fraternity. Paine, in his joumal, wrote November i, 1765, "A dark, de- at Jacob said of his son Dan, as a serpent in the way he biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider faileth backward. What of Coke, the cobbler? That he is dignified with a title which many others deserve more. What of bedlam for political madmen? It will by no means do; being already occupied by madmen of a more sacred profession. What of patriotism? As I do of the balance master's art, very few have virtue enough, in the Roman sense, to keep themselves perpendicular. What of disapointed ambition? Consult your own mind, on having no reply to this question. What of the fable of the bees? It proves that good old word, the wrath of man shall praise the Lord. Last question. What — ? It is the recapitulation of all the others. Thus I have gone through my catechism, and according to the good rule of education, the next step is to learn it with proofs; in which I shall hardly fail of success, if I keep to that standard. As for the fifty questions more with which you threaten me, I beg when you execute it, you would observe a modern rule of answering them yourself as you go along; in the mean time con ceive yourself obliged to answer these small queries. What think you of our — ? of our Act? — of what strange compound, soul and body? and of mankind? Expecting to see your agreeable Democritical visage, I subscribe, your fellow-gazer and friend, R. T. P. [145] Two Men of Taunton stractive fog at dawn as if Nature mourned the dreaded day." ^ Betting was not carried on in pounds and shillings with carefully calculated odds, but a turkey supper would be put up against a hogshead of rum. A suit was brought to court on which a loser declined to pay his wager. The court held that only private honor could compel payment of such a debt. Barristers were the highest rank of lawyers. In 1768, there were twenty-five in Massachusetts, of whom the three in Bristol County were Samuel White, Robert Treat Paine, and Daniel Leonard. Legal pickings in Taunton could not supply a living; so together they rode on their circuits, seeking clients in Plymouth, Bamstable, Provi dence, and attended celebrated trials in Boston. While friendship might cease among the liti gants when their case came into court, the coun sel often grew better friends thereby. Paine and Leonard would strive mightily, argue vehemently, and after the session laugh and empty their glasses together at the bar of Bacchus.^ ^ Some lawyers were discussing the gloomy outlook at a tav ern, when one dejectedly asked [another, "What are we going to do now?" "Guess you better go to making brass buckles," interpolated the tavern-keeper, "as the raw stock won't cost you anything." ' If you would see how Paine or Leonard appeared as young lawyers, examine closely, in Reid's painting in the State House "Otis arguing the Writs of Assistance," the group of attorneys in the background. [ 146] young barrister pleading before supreme court of judicature Hanging the Shingles At one time, Paine and John Adams were op posing counsel at Martha's Vineyard, where the Mayhew family feud had become so shameless, it seemed to the visiting "off-islanders" that all "virtue, honor, decoram, and veracity" had fled to No Man's Land. Paine conducted a case in 1769, for Copley, the artist, who had become involved in a suit of long standing concerning a parcel of land on Beacon Hill, now occupied in part by the Somerset Club. What a pity that the then poor artist did not liquidate the lawyer's fee by painting Paine's portrait! But although Copley was making por traits of Revere, Adams, and Hancock at about that time, Paine did not realize how he was miss ing an opportunity of shining in art museums of later centuries. Since the founding of Taunton, it has seen but three executions for murder. The most noted was during Paine's early days there. On the morn ing of June 4, 1763, as Elizabeth, sister of Dr. McKinstry, stooped to kindle the fire on the kitchen hearth, she was strack on the head with a flatiron and horribly mutilated with an axe, by a frenzied negro boy named Bristol. The mur derer fled to the woods, was tracked, by a posse organized for pursuit, to Rehoboth, Swanzea, and Providence, and finally, after three days' chase, was captured in Newport, where, amid the numer- [ 147] Two Men of Taunton ous colored population, he had tried to conceal his identity. It was said he had been induced to believe that he could secure his freedom by killing one of the family. He laid the whole affair to the tavern-keeper's negro; but was overcome with rer^prse and repentance.^ The indictment read: "Bristol, servant of William McKinstry, not hav ing God before his eyes, did assault one Eliza beth McKinstry, in the peace of God, &c." He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. The execution was set for November i. Paine, as * Paine was coming down to Taunton when the news reached him of this tragedy. In a letter to his sister he says: The fact was committed on the morning I left you. I heard the news as I entered Taunton and you may well think I was received joyfully at the house, which I found full of curious spectators, confusion, anx iety, and distress — she was living senseless — Dr. Tobey came and pronounced her wounds fatal — in the evening she died. The burthen of everything lay upon me — some things I must wait here till I see you. Five o'clock the next raorning the coroner called to direct me to take the inquisition. About four o'clock Bristol, who had been taken at Newport, appeared, sullen, denied the fact as it was committed, and has since most penitently confessed to me and many others the fact, nearly as I exprest it in the newspaper, and said he had liever had any anger against her, that she never treated him ill. Paine, being intimate in the McKinstry family, took a re sponsible part in the conduct of the funeral. He Speaks of the ceremony as follows: On Tuesday she was most decently interred, the largest and best regulated funeral in the country, six scholars her bearers, I one. There IS nothing more particular that I can recollect amidst the incessant in terruptions of court week. The Doctor extremely affected, but very de cent; poor Mrs. McKinstry worked up into high hysterics; I was obliged from principles of humanity, with the assistance of her friends, to go inside and work up a most labored cheerfulness to keep her from fixed distemper. [ 148] Hanging the Shingles his counsel, pleaded "benefit of clergy," ^ and secured a reprieve of two weeks from Govemor Bernard. As there was a lurking suspicion that a negro had no soul to save (an opinion held also by some in earlier ages in regard to woman), this act of Paine's seemed especially humane. The epitaph of the woman reads : Here lies ye body of Elizabeth McKinstry, basely murdered by a negro boy, June 4, 1763, aged 28. "Watch for ye know not the manner nor the moment of your death." One minister and one doctor will thrive in a small country town; a lone lawyer may cleave the air in vain, when two would clip as merrily as a pair of sheep-shears. You ask me why lawyers are so much increased, Tho' most of the country already are fleeced ? The reason, I'm sure, is most startlingly plain: Tho' sheep are oft sheared, yet the wool grows again. And tho' you think ever so odd of the matter. The oftener they're fleeced,the wool grows the better, Like downy-chinned boys, as oft I have heard. By frequently shaving obtain a large beard. ' In old English days, a law was passed intended for the immunity of ministers, by which all who could read might re ceive judicial clemency in mitigation of punishment. As a matter of usage, any one who was so accomplished as to read his own name, had opportunity to claim what was termed "benefit of clergy." [ 149 ] Two Men of Taunton So long as the passions of envy, hate, malice, and greed dwell in the human breast, so long will law yers turn these passions to account for their mutual emolument. The two blades of the local shears in 1770 were Paine and Leonard. We imagine Leonard, about to descend into real life from the college Parnassus, was puzzled what career to choose. To be a doctor and know every ill and scar covered by the gay apparel of his fellow-townsmen; to be a minister and know the haunting fear, timid doubt, and heavy heartaches concealed under the forced smile; to be a law yer and know who were writing wills and mort gages, who were to be residuary legatees, who were in financial troubles, who were seeking petty vengeance; — there was a three-homed dilemma. He could look over the careers of a number of kinsmen who had acquired college degrees. His uncle, Nathaniel, had studied for the ministry; so had his cousin, Abiel, who graduated in the class of 1759. His cousin, George, graduating in 1748, became a lawyer. Another cousin, Thomas, seemed to be the only one in the family with a taste for physic. Opening his eyes to the ways of the world, Daniel perceived that while a barber had a fixed price for dressing a cue, and a farm-hand a fixed wage for a day's work, the lawyer took all he could get, ate three good meals a day, wore fine [ISO] Hanging the Shingles clothes, rode in chaises, and commanded men's purses and votes. He could absorb wealth without creating it. For a hundred years after the settle ment at Plymouth, there were no distinguished lawyers in the colony, though "common-sense justices" were found at almost every cross-roads. Then the call of the times was for constructive lawmakers, who could debate the fundamental issues on which a mighty nation was soon to rest. On leaving Cambridge, Daniel returned to Norton with an air of some importance. The fame of his fine Latin oration at Commencement gave him high standing, and at twenty-two years old he was chosen a selectman. This office was a sort of heirloom, his grandfather, father, uncle, and cousin having served their terms. Daniel had notions of being a gentleman, hold ing office, and gaining wealth by absorption, rather than extracting it from the soil as his an cestors had done. He went to Boston, studied the law a while, sketching the profile of Nancy White on the margins of his big sheep-bound books, and was admitted to the bar in 1766. He soon found that his native town had grown too small for him; there was little hope in lawyer-ridden Boston in competition with such men as Otis, Quincy, Sewall, and Adams; the shire town of Bristol County seemed the logical starting-point for a career, and [ 151] Two Men of Taunton near Taunton Court-House he hung his shingle. It was not long before he was engaged in an im portant case dealing with the laws of contract — a contract between two parties incluied to matri mony. Chapter IX A Belle of Taunton Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that set young hearts romancing. Pkaed. IN an account book of Colonel White an entry, in the summer of 1756, reads: "Loaned four dollars to Dan'l Leonard on account." This item not only reveals a close intimacy of young Daniel with Colonel White's family, but his bor rowing propensity suggests that he was qualify ing as a traditional Harvard freshman. Colonel Samuel White held a license for a tavem, or ordi nary, as these houses of entertainment were called in the provincial period. Soon after graduating from Harvard, in 1731, White, a student of law, was appointed deputy-sheriff and came to Taun ton to marry Pradence, daughter of Samuel Wil liams, grandson of Richard Williams, whom an tiquaries have styled the "Father of Taunton." There were various lawyers who did business in cidentally, as justices; but White was the first out-and-out lawyer in Taunton to dislodge the idea that the law was an unrighteous profession. He was made King's Attorney; his father-in-law had been in the legislature eight terms, but he was sent eleven sessions; served as Speaker of the [153] Two Men of Taunton Assembly three terms, and in 1765 signed the pro test against the Stamp Act. He was a member of the first Continental Convention at New York that year, and had the apple then been ripe to fall, might have signed a Declaration of Independence. During his last years, he was a member of the Provincial Council.^ Colonel White built his house in the afternoon shade of the great oak, still standing on Somerset Avenue, at the corner of White Street, named in remembrance of him. This venerable oak, by careful computation, is three hundred years old, and was standing when Somerset Avenue was an Indian path from Cohannet to Pokanoket. King Philip and his braves may have sat in its shelter and gathered its acorns. If it were a Sibylline oak with talking leaves, what happy tales it could tell of White's three daughters. Experience, Anna, and Bathsheba, before the pink pleasures of girlhood had paled in the gray duties of maternity; of merry morning spinning- bees ; gay afternoon tea-parties beneath its boughs ; of the Harvard-bred dandies riding up to call; of > The obituary notice of March 20, 1769, in the Boston Evening Post speaks of White as a "gentleman well known in this government from the many public stations in which he ap peared, and well esteemed for the attention and integrity with which he demeaned himself in them. By long experience and fidelity in the practice of the law, he had acquired a handsome estate and a fair character." [ 154] A Belle of Taunton mounting from the horse-block when the young ladies were lightly tossed to the pillion behind their beaux.^ John Rowe (of Rowe's wharf) took tea at Colonel White's and wrote in his diary that the White girls "appeared very neat" — a com pliment which covers a multitude of charms, and calls to mind a home with its clean-winged hearth, gleaming pewter, sanded floor, and well-scoured panes. Nancy was a belle educated in a Boston finish ing-school. Her autographs, as witness to powers of attomey for her father, appear in Colonel White's record book as early as her thirteenth year. He took her up to Boston in the big boat- shaped sledge when he rode to the winter ses sions. The environment differed from that of a girl of to-day; there were no high schools nor colleges; novels and magazines were few; our city * Of these three daughters. Experience was "published" in 1759 to George Leonard of Norton; his cousin, Daniel, who knew Anna in school-days, married her in 1767; the third daugh ter, Bathsheba, married William Bayhes, a classmate of Daniel at college, who came down from Uxbridge, where his people were iron-workers. Three leading families thus interwoven became the dominant circle in Taunton. Of the sisters, the eldest. Experience, is buried by the side of her distinguished husband, under an elaborate tombstone, at Norton; the young est, Bathsheba, lies on the Richmond hilltop at Dighton, be side her husband. Dr. Baylies; midway between the two in the Plain Burying-Ground of Taunton, beside her parents, lies the delicate Anna Leonard. [ iSS] Two Men of Taunton libraries were as unthought of as telephones, automobiles, arc-lights, or airships; but the wide- open book of Nature she leamed by heart. She knew that tree swallows came in early April; that the first Sunday in May, the fire hang-bird would be carolling in the elm-tops; that on the King's birthday, robin's eggs could be found in the mud-lined nests. She knew the plaintive notes of the phoebe, the flute-song of the veery, and the wood thrash, the crossbill whistling in the hemlocks, the topsy-turvy nuthatch, the cooing of the wood-dove. She gathered water-lilies and mallows in the river creeks; could find the shad- bush of spring, the gentian in the fall, checker- berries under the snow, holly in the winter swamps, and all the campestral flowers of summer. The rabbit in the woods, the trout in the brooks, the mole in the ground, ferns and sassafras in the for est; moths and honeybees were her friends. She could paddle a canoe up the river, harness Dob bin into a chaise; could spin wool and weave it for garments; make crab-apple jellies, blackberry cordials, and elderberry wine, with graceful lady hood. Neat-handed, young, and laughing-eyed, of course she had admirers. Many gallants, well- to-do in the world, were at her feet. Into the sampler of her dreams she wove images of the young bloods of Boston, the visiting lawyers sitting at her father's table on high court days, [IS6] A Belle of Taunton as well as Robert, Daniel, and scions of other leading Taunton families — Williams, Crocker, Tisdale, Dean, Washburn, Cobb, and Presbrey. There are causes of division among the youth of every town — family connections, political as pirations, church associations, professional jealous ies, and the girls. The old White oak was a rallying-point for wit and beauty — a rendez vous where differences were forgotten. Paine writes of drinking tea there with three Leonards^ Otis, Adams, and others. Nancy swayed hef lovers with admirable tact, and the gossips mar velled at the number of strings to her bow; but she held herself high and did not marry until six-and-twenty. As herebefore mentioned, Paine was intunate in the family. He found in Nancy an appreciat ive listener. In the long winter evenings when the earth was wrapped in snowy robes and great logs crackled on the wide hearth, lighting up the pol ished floor and shining pewter, Paine would close the shutters, put on a large fore log, take a seat in the settle by the fireside, and lower a bucket into the well of experience; while Nancy in the other settle-corner, would listen with admiration until the candles on the dresser burned low. He told of his frontier life at Crown Point among the Indians; of taking dinner with Dr. Franklin in Philadelphia; of following sperm whales off [ 157] Two Men of Taunton Greenland amid fantastic Boreal lights ; of coast ing down the stone flags of the Azores hills, and seeing brown-skinned children diving for coppers at St. Mary's; of the marvellous Madonnas by Murillo and how the artist met his tragic end in the chapel at Cadiz; of the sights of London for which he found a text in the scenes on the wall paper or the English crockery. He walked home with her from Sunday meeting, quoting Pope, Dryden, and Gray's Elegy; told her his views on religion; talked of Whitefield, Mayhew, and Catholic masses in Spain. Occasionally he took the college flute out of its German case; and let us hope Nancy accompanied him on the harpsi chord, tomake the airmerrywith "Green Sleeves," "Cherry Ripe," and other English songs. When we read in Paine's journal this item: "Cleaned Colonel White's clock," we conjure up a picture of this horological performance, in which Nancy assists in boiling the inner mechanism. She did not need to pull a daisy to pieces to tell whether Robert loved her or not, when they started on their way to Sunday meeting. Pretty soon, we find Paine inviting her to go on a jolly outing to Newport. Experience and her husband, George Leonard, were to go also — a cozy party of four. They would drive down one day, remain a day, and return the third. There were periodical excursions to Boston or Newport [158] A Belle of Taunton from Taunton, situated midway between the two.^ The Rhode Island twin capital was blooming into gayety as early as 1729, when Berkeley arrived, while Boston was still discussing the Halfway Covenant. A company of players, inspired by the English ofiicers stationed there, exultant after the British victories at Louisburg, Quebec, Ticonder oga, and Havana, were giving plays entitled "The Grenadier," "Maid of Oaks," and "The Devil to Pay "; the last of which we hope was not the one given on this occasion. The party set out for Newport in chaises by way of Rehoboth; but the quartette had scarcely driven out of town, when up galloped Daniel Leonard, on horseback, de termined to go along with them, his cousin having given him a quiet tip. His appearance did not especially contribute to Paine's enjoyment. Soon after, it came about that it was not the travelled, Boston-bred newcomer, Robert, but the wealthy, raddy, country-bom Daniel, who bore away the prize. A town record reads : April 2, 1767 Daniel Leonard of Norton and Anna White of Taunton were joined together in marriage In Taun ton. ' The winter of 1769, Taunton River was frozen so solid that sleighs were driven by the young men all the way to Newport on the ice, [ 159 ] Two Men of Taunton Samuel White, Esq., Ephraim Leonard, Esq., George Leonard, Jr., Esq., and Seth Williams were present. By me, George Leonard, Justice. Anna and Daniel went on a wedding journey in a chaise about New England. Paine's joumal, April 12, 1767, reads "Daniel Leonard and Anna White retumed." There was a year of happiness in Taunton for Daniel and his bride; then came the little one, named, for the mother, Anna White Leonard. But the child had scarcely opened her eyes when the mother's lids were closed. The same blue birds and robins were carolling in the oak tree, the grass was again green on the river-banks, and the hylas peeping in the marshes, on that April day when the sorrowing relatives and friends, Paine among them, bore her body to the burial-ground from the home where a year before they had gathered to celebrate her nuptial gladness. The marriage gown had become a shroud; Daniel was wedded to a memory. Some quiet Sunday afternoon if you go up to the Plain Burying-Ground on the old Bay Road, you may still decipher, under a cluster of sentinel firs, through briers and tangled grass and mosses, this admonitory sermon on the broad, flat tomb stone of the gentle Anna : [ 160] A Belle of Taunton Intombed the remains of Mrs. Anna Leonard, daughter of the Hon. Samuel White, Esq., Consort of Daniel Leonard, Esq., born February 25, 1741, died April 4, a.d. 1768. As the spotless lily amid ye flowers of ye field. Such was ye departed among ye daughters of men. There is no flattery here. Though all the world calls lovely, good, and great in woman Once enlivened this now inanimate, yet in Death's pavilion no soothing eulogy is heard. Each action, sight, and sound bring solemn Admonition. "Hark, 't is ye voice of death, Go, busy, thoughtless mortal, ere ye boast of Heraldry, ye pomp of power and all that Beauty, all that wealth ever gave," explore ye Variant track of those that creep, and those That fly, — trace every path of life, — and Mark ye end. All centre in my empire — Think thou, who never thought before — Let conscience do its office — The scene is closing fast. A God, A "God Appears " The way is lighted — study wisdom! Chapter X Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb Misses, The tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate But proper time to marry. Cowper. PAINE, in his leaning toward scientific re search, discovered early that the greatest of all natural forces is the gravitation of man towards woman. He has left no heart's autobiography in rapturous madrigals to Chloris, or sonnets to his mistress' eyebrow, composed either before or after marriage; but there are smiling entries in his daily journal, and confiden tial secrets in letters to Sister Eunice, which light up the old, old tmth that creatures are forever going in pairs upon this earth. "Friendship is Love — without his wings." Like the mutual attachment of Charles and Mary Lamb, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, the Herschels, Schumanns, Renans, was the lifelong friendship of Eunice and Robert Paine. She was his first love, and their affection was ever wing less. Two years his junior, she looked on the world through prison bars of invalidism all her days. Along with reciprocal medicinal advice in their letters are many sprigs of sentiment. As children, [ 162] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb they helped each other with the family chores; did sums together; puzzled their heads over conundmms in Poor Richard's Almanac; coaxed pigeons into the house by spreading crambs along the window-sill; slid down the Weymouth Hills; and sat side by side in the big box-pew, playing Jack and Jill upon their fingers to keep awake. When Robert went to college, she visited him once a month, bringing a bandbox full of seedcakes, currant jelly, and ginger beer, made by her own hand. She took home his washing and repaired his clothes. An extant sheaf of letters discloses several of their insubstantial love-affairs. He wrote to her one week, and she replied the next. Once he sent her a side-saddle with gaudy trap pings, such as the quality used, and then addressed his letters to the "Right Honourable, the Lady Eunice, Mistress of the Nag." Again he calls her "Duchess of Weymouth," and often "Dear Old Maid." She did not resent this last appella tion, and at twenty-five wrote a good-humored letter to Robert (tiien a lawyer at Falmouth), asking if that were "a good place for a straggling old maid"; to which he replied that if "ye old maid be tired of her condition, 't is no place to change it" — "nor for a lawyer either," he added. When he left home at nineteen to teach school in Lunenburg, his arrival there was described to his sister with a graphic account of a ratal tea-party: [ 163] Two Men of Taunton In ye room were a couple of — (ladies must I call them .'') No, good, honest, country girls, one of which honestly confest yt that the last time she weighed herself, she weighed seven score and a haff (or in our dialect half). At first, I was a little straitened for conversation, but this girl, while I was musing, asked me if I Intended to bring my family to Lunen burg. Ha, ha, ha! I told her I did not deal in such trash; however, she followed me so hard with her dry joaks that I thought two or three times that I must have quit ye field. I never was so joaked or so confoundedly handled by a woman before, but manfully I stood ye ground and joaked again when I could restrain laughing. I was entertained with a dish of tea by these — (you Boston people have spoiled me quite. I had e'en said Ladys again) — by those country girls. I was little at loss how I should do over ye tea-table, but I presently found that he who could mix most milk, sugar, and tea, then laugh, and spill most milk, sugar, and tea, was ye best man. Soon we find this lonesome school-teacher writing to his sister that he is in love with some one "but does n't know who." Danger ahead! He was in love with the rosy passion, and soon a Lancaster belle was plucking at the harp of his heart-strings. He confides to Eunice: I keep this a profound secret, lest the enemies of my peace should sing Te Deum to Venus. However, [ 164] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb I hope that I have gotten over the worst of It, and expect, now that the long evenings and still nights are come to invite to study, to grow more serious than ever. Again he writes : Soft things I am done with, they only plague one ; they are truly like opiates to a feverish person; if they succeed and relax the fibres, they bring a sweet and confused repose, but if they fail (and they are very precarious), they aggravate the disorder, and all ends in perfect distraction. Therefore, I run no such venture. Presently steeling himself against all feminine charms, he closes with this injunction: Remember me to no female friend upon earth, Rob't, (Lord Shirley,) He was careful of his sister's culture, once writing to her: I hope that you will never affect to be one of those polite ladles who talk nonsense and bury it under a flood of words, which rush in upon them without ideas; as waters through a flood-gate have no fish. And then inquires if she "has any spark yet." Referring to a college mate who visited him, he wrote: I believe I must send him to court you ; his infinite good humor will suit you to a notch. You love just [ 165] Two Men of Taunton such a man as I do a woman — an easy good-humored nothing. With fraternal frankness, he told his afflictions. That youth has its troubles as well as age, this lamentation will testify: Dear Eunice: I hear fine tidings of your dancing, frolicking, and nobody knows what, and I am sorry I have such pressing occasion to transfer to you some sorrowful tidings which will doubtless suppress your spirits and bring a gloom upon your mind. It Is your well- approved maxim that troubles lose their force by communicating, and then 't Is the part of friendship to share In affliction as well as in prosperity. Afflic tions always affect us more or less according to our circumstances when we hear them, and I can easily conceive how great must be the shock to you who are regaling and wantoning at connubial festivals, to be Informed that your brother has not got a pair of drawers fit to wear. Ha, ha! ha! Your, you know what, R. T. Paine. Eunice had her own heart-flutters. Richard Cranch, a lifelong friend of Robert, who had come to America as a child and settled at Wey mouth, was a suitor for her hand, but his blood was not blue enough nor his purse full enough for family alliance with the Paines. [ i66] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb Thomas Paine wrote to Richard Cranch, May 1,1753: As to my daughter, the great affair of matching her, I (perplexed) must leave to her own inclinations, hoping they will be prudently directed. She is now the greatest care of my life, as her sister Is settled and brother in good circumstances, and the necessary supplys to settle her in the world are at present per plexed. But they will be considerable, if I can get over the incumbrances of the law, In which I am now involved, and how long they will last I can't see. To secure her in this. Is now the whole cause of my abiding the present fatigue, and I can't think it prudent for her to engage herself in marriage, while I am in these circumstances. So Richard is dismissed; but having his heart set on a minister's daughter, he transferred his affections to Betsy Smith, and became brother- in-law to Abigail Adams. Next comes a long-distance wooing. Febraary 2, 1756, Thomas Paine wrote to his daughter from Halifax: I have to inform you that Mr. Eben'r Prout, whom you formerly knew, is now in a very good business here, and has made a proposal to me, that If I sent for you to come down here, and it would not be dis agreeable to you, he should be glad to make you his spouse; and upon these conditions I should incline you would come; otherwise would not on any ac- [167] Two Men of Taunton count. I leave you wholly to your own liberty In respect to the above. Eunice, in excitement, instinctively and imme diately wrote to Brother Bob — laying bare the emotion within her bosom. He replied in an ex tended letter dissuading her from the proposed step, by reminding her of her delicate health, picturing the care of children, with the father at sea and "no knowing when he will retum," ques tioning whether a sea-captain could satisfy the mind of a minister's daughter, dwelling on the possibility of a marriage beneath her station, and closing at length: "But if you can find a friend nearer than a brother, may Heaven bless the alliance." She pondered the question deeply and finally accepted — her brother's counsel, sending this pointed reply to Ebenezer, who would not meet his ladylove even halfway. Boston, March 8, 1756. Sir: I rec'd Inclos'd In my Father's last a very unex pected epistle, which I suppose I must make an an swer to, seeing I shan't make my appearance, as was desired. I am surprised you should venture so far in an affair of so great importance, when you are so unacquainted with the bargain, for surely could you know what you are delivered from by my refusal, you'd bless yourself; and take more care for the fu ture how you run such a hazard. My being so entire [ 168] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb a stranger I should think as sufficient objection, but my ill state of health has for many months obliged me to depend chiefly on the care of my doctor and nurse, and tho' at this present I am something bet ter, yet far from being able to take any care or do any business; this declaration I suppose will suffice, instead of a more formal refusal. I heartily wish you all manner of prosperity, and especially that you may be more happy In your next attempt of this kind. The simplicity of this letter will show my sincerity and how heartily I wish your welfare. I will now take leave to subscribe myself Your humble servant, Eunice Paine. Thus Eunice accepts a patient acquiescence in the conjugal joys of others, her maidenly resigna tion mingled with dreams of what might have been. In single blessedness she hung upon her brother's left arm for life. She became "Aunt Eunice" to the family, the ever-reliable stay to care for the children, to mend their worn and tom gar ments, teach them letters and manners (occasion ally removing a slipper to emphasize her corrective counsel), read Watts's Moral Songs ^ at bedtime to enliven their dreams; to question them on Sun day about the stories of the Old Testament; in ' For instance: Why should I love my sports so well. So constant at my play. And lose the thought of Heaven and Hell And then forget to pray? [169] Two Men of Taunton short, to supply in Paine's homes in Taunton and Boston the help, sympathy, and advice of what the French call the "little mother." When the Revolutionary embargo was laid on oolong and hyson, she cheerfully brewed catnip in the after noon tea-pot. When not at her brother's, she stayed with her sister, Abigail Greenleaf, or at the house of General Joseph Palmer in Germantown, where her days were ended in 1804. Abigail Paine, four years older than Robert, was not so intimate a companion as Eunice, act ing more in the capacity of a guardian angel.^ When Robert was a senior sophister at Harvard, Abigail considered his judgment mature enough to advise her in her most deHcate affairs. She writes to him, March 4, 1749: Dear Brother: As I would look upon you as a friend as well as a brother I will take this time to inform you of an • In a letter to Bob at college she gives a glimpse into their domestic affairs : I have a merry piece of news to write you of a strange accident which happened to us. Last Thursday night, father took uncommon care to charge Freeman to shut the house, and he said that he had done it, which made us all neglect to look at the fore-door and so went to bed with it open; sometime before we arose, somebody came in, opened all the inner doors, and went into the pantry and took a bottle full of rum out of the case, and part of a loin of roast veal out of a dish, and left a spoon and porringer and three teaspoons on the shelf in open view; from whence they advanced into the kitchen and took a loaf of brown bread and the sugar-box, and three pocket handkerchiefs out of a basket of clothes; and so departed without any further mischief, which I look upon to be very honest in a thief; it has caused abundance of laughter amongst us. [ 170 ] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb affair of my own, that I make no doubt will surprise you as it had me. Father has at length approved of Mr. Greenleaf's request to visit me, and has given his consent and has taken some pains in a very ten der manner to persuade me to comply with 's request. Were it not for this and the reason he urges, I should have no thought but to refuse without consideration. But his urging it in any degree is so strange, I know not what to say. Many of his rea sons are too tedious to name, but one, a considera tion of my age, and his circumstances not being so promising as some years past, by reason of many losses and disappointments, and his infirmities of body and age come on; which makes him desirous to have me settled, and he thinks this Is a good pro spect for a living; his only objection, what we all know, the family. Pray let me know your thoughts upon this by bearer, for on Monday night I shall see him again ; if you think 't is not, I will dismiss the point. As the point was not "dismissed," shall we con clude that Robert approved, or otherwise? He attended the wedding in October. Though keen for feminine charms, Robert was a tardy benedict. We know that many blossoms of his heart dropped their petals without fraiting. His joumal and letters arouse conjecture by re ferences to Betsy Watson, Elizabeth McKinstry, Anna White, Sally LeBaron, Hannah Quincy, not to mention the fair deer-stalker of the Carolinas [171] Two Men of Taunton or the belles of Lancaster. Such an entry in his joumal as "Rode to Plymouth with Sally Le Baron" calls up the picture of a "one-hoss shay" bouncing over long sandy roads while the occu pants cozily discuss intimate affairs. "May 9, 1763. This evening began to visit Miss Betsy Watson at Plymouth" suggests the premeditated siege of that lady's heart. His legal affairs fre quently took him to Plymouth where he was often a guest of Colonel George Watson. Paine, now in his thirties, replies to the question, "What do you think of the Writs of Assistance?" — "I think of taking out writs of assistance for myself." For some reason his suit was quashed by these two daughters of the Pilgrims, who appear to have married respectively admirers by the nameof Clark and Barnes. Why did he not marry until in his fortieth year? Was it lack of money? A well-dowered lady was then an essential consideration. Was it infirm health? Like Hancock, another matrimonial pro- crastinator, he was always ailing. Was it his per sonal appearance? When we add to his facial portrait a lank figure, thin neck, and spindling legs, the result is no rival to Hyperion. Was it his manners? Adams says, "By his boldness in Com pany, he makes a great many enemies; his aim is to be admired, not to be loved; this impudent be haviour may set the millions agape at him, but will [ 172 ] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb make all men of sense despise him." Did he have too many flames ? Was family pride too exacting in its demands ? One day in the autumn of 1768 there was a gay spinning-bee near Taunton Green, described thus in the Boston "Gazette": Twice ten young blooming virgins trod the Green With all their native virtues of sixteen. Beauty when joined to such superior charms Might draw the desert hermit to their arms. Whether this quatrain was from the pen of Leonard (married the year before) and the " desert hermit " a sly dig at his unmarried rival, or whether Paine, who was a correspondent of Boston newspapers, was the rhymester, who shall say? When tiie new lawyer took up his residence in Taunton, — well- bom, witty, well-educated, — he held passports to the best society, and cultivated those leading families in which were marriageable maidens. His first Thanksgiving dinner in Taunton was eaten at Thomas Cobb's tavem in 1760. Captain Cobb was a religious man and presumably nodded to his guest to ask the blessing, since the young lawyer could not have wholly forgotten his min isterial experiences. Who doubts that Sally Cobb, then apple-cheeked, saucy, and sixteen, waited on the table, passing drum-sticks, dumpling, celery, and syllabub ? and that here was the first .stitch by Cupid, the sly, old tailor, in basting [ 173 ] Two Men of Taunton these two hearts together? Yet ten years passed before the wedding-knot was tied. After Sally, amorous and comely at two-and- twenty, removed to Attleboro, her ripe charms lingered in Paine's eyes. By the summer of 1766 affairs took a serious turn. Data of progress are found in Paine's joumal: November, 1760. Spent Thanksgiving at Cobb's house. October, 1762. Mrs. Lydia Cobb died, and Miss Sally took charge of things. July, 1766. Began to visit Sally Cobb. February 28, 1770. This day I was published to marry Sally Cobb. March 15, 1770. This evening I was married to Miss Sally Cobb by the Rev. Mr. Weld. Sally was born May 15, 1744, of sturdy stock rooted deep in the soil of Taunton. Henry Cobb, the emigrant, was a raling elder of Barnstable. His grandson came to Taunton about 1690 and settled at Oakland Village, as Cobb Swamp there would indicate. Ensign Morgan Cobb made the first map of Taunton in 1728. Captain Richard Cobb was killed at an Oakland muster in 1772, the accident being thus curiously recorded by General Godfrey: November 7, 1772. Capt. Richard Cobb died by his Right legg being shot of by the splitting of a short [ 174 ] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb Barell of a Gun at Left Wm. Thayers on the 4th day of sd November, being a Training day and cut of above his knee sd 7th day Died. Thomas Cobb (born 1705) was first sea-captain, then tavern-keeper, then iron-maker with James Leonard, whose daughter Lydia he married. Lydia Leonard was a woman of sound character and of such worth that the Taunton society of the Daughters of the American Revolution honor her memory in taking her name for their chapter. At his marriage. Captain Cobb became an iron worker, because of his wife's portion in the works at Chartley and Attleboro.^ In the latter town he purchased for a home a large octagonal house (built by a rich old bachelor and known as the "Chapel"), with stone flags on the lower floor, and triangular rooms radiating from a cen tral hall. The family lived upstairs, the slaves below.* November 5, 1761, Rev. Josiah Crocker, the minister of Taunton, whose son was a Har vard classmate of Daniel Leonard, was married, with great display, at the "Chapel," to the daugh ter, Hannah Cobb, as his second wife. The two sons, Thomas and Jonathan Cobb, were iron manufacturers. ' Daniel Leonard was a third cousin of Sally Cobb, and as children they might play together at Chartley. ' Thomas Cobb gave his negro, Cuff, his freedom May 7, 1779. [ 175] Two Men of Taunton The best known member of this family was David, bom in 1748, who at seventeen married Eleanor Bradish, and became the father of eleven children.^ A billet found in an old Taunton ledger, gives this portrait of the wife : Eleanor Cobb is a very amiable young lady; she not only possesses an outward dignity which instan taneously and warmly prepossesses all in her favor, — but what Is infinitely greater, — she has a mind equivalent to each outward charm, grace in all her steps; heaven In her eyes; and In every gesture dig nity and love.'' David was a doctor, entered the army in the Revolution, and became lieutenant-colonel. After the war he was made judge of the Common Pleas, as a reward for his military service. He was of strapping stature, and was equipped with a robust vocabulary. He had led a force of militia at Quaker Hill in Rhode Island (in 1 777) , and stands out as the defender of law and order, October 5, 1786, in Valentine's mob-attack at Taunton dur ing Shays's Rebellion. We may fancy the enraged veteran striding into his house roaring, "Mother, bring out my old regimentals. Damme, I'll sit as a judge or die as a general." But he did I Among his descendants were the late Mayor Cobb of Boston and former Governor Curtis Guild. 2 Paine's diary reads: "April 1767: I scolded at Cobb's wife before him." [ 176] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb neither.^ When the judge reappeared in mili tary majesty, epauletted coat and sword in hand, the rebel tatterdemalions dispersed with out bloodshed and the court was discreetly ad journed. David used sulphurous language, swear ing not only on occasions of high temper, but in peaceful conversation and in letters; in later years the minister used to call upon him to swear by proxy. Coming out in the morning and no ticing that the vanes on the court-house and the meeting-house did not agree, he observed to his brother-in-law, "The Law and Gospel seldom point the same way." He was with Washington at the surrender of Cornwallis and later visited Mount Vemon.* At the age of eighteen, Sally Cobb became mis tress of household affairs in her father's tavem on the site of the Taunton post-office. She was a ready hand to rake hay, feed chickens, try tal low, mould bayberry candles, or mix a noggin of punch. She was not one who might yeam to be "married to a poem and given away by a novel." Girls were educated on short rations — feminine learning may have been considered contrary to New Testament teachings. But the warmth of • Francis Baylies may have put these words into his mouth forty years later. ^ At West Point, when weighed along with fellow-officers, Cobb's weight was 182 pounds, while Washington weighed 209. [ 177 ] Two Men of Taunton her nature succeeded in melting Paine's celibacy. Banns were published in Attleboro Febraary 28, 1770; on March 15, a few days after Leonard's second marriage, Paine put on his wedding-coat and drove up through the odorous spring woods from Taunton, to be married that evening. There was no ostentation about this wedding at the "Chapel" when Sally, buxom and blushing, was united with the worldly-wise Robert, some thirteen years her senior. Two months later, May 14, the union was blessed with a bouncing boy.^ With his wife came a dowry, and soon Paine purchased land on the northeast side of the Green. October 14, 177 1, there was a house-raising, with a cask of cider and much Jamaica mm; ninety- eight days later the plaster was thought dry enough for the family to enter but the infare oc curred in a driving snowstorm. Sally could now put on her calash and ran across to Caldwell's store for a bar of soap or a string of herring; and over to her older sister's to get advice in domestic trials, while her brother's stentorian voice could call across the Green to consult her husband on poli tics or business. In this house four of Sally's children were born, and here she lived till the removal to Boston.* ' The great author of the Seven Ages himself was hardly an idealist in his own Age of the Lover. * After the success of the French Revolution, the Americans [ 178] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb Paine's wife, though unable to keep step with her husband's advanced tastes and thoughts, admired him for his reserved manners and his official dignities. Her pride in his distinction is manifest in a letter in which she mentions that Norton had chosen "a market woman's husband" as representative in the General Court, adding, "A sweet figure they cut." John and Abigail Adams during their separation for a third of their mar ried life (which Abigail said was the secret of their conjugal happiness), kept up a snowstorm of letters, but letters from Paine to his wife during his two years in Congress were few. Writing to Dr. Cobb from Philadelphia, he says, "Let my wife read this letter; I have n't time to write her." Two of the Massachusetts delegates took their wives with them; the others lived as bachelors and were much sought after for evening func tions, which they found an agreeable change after the worries of the day. The Old Colony delegate left his wife at home with a newly born child, when he made his third trip to Philadelphia in September, 1775, The win ter came — no husband; the spring came — still began to show their sympathy by adopting the French name "hotel" for taverns. Paine's Taunton house was converted into the Washington Hotel, and about the same time Leonard's mansion became a coffee-house. [ 179 ] Two Men of Taunton he tarried; summer came — "I'll be home soon," he wrote; "tell Robert I have a toy dog for him;" autumn came — "I expect we shall both walk with cains before I see you," wrote the wife. At length, Sally hinted that there were pretty wo men in Philadelphia, inquired if he liked their looks, and presently wrote that she dreamed of seeing his new wife in the City of Brotherly Love, and awoke in a great fright. And the dream was so far trae — that a famous young lady, receiv ing the attentions of her fifty gallants, was mak ing her debut in a gown of red, white, and blue, — her name was Columbia. Paine was absent from September, 1775, to January, 1777, In this period, when his mind was engrossed with laying the foundations of a new empire, a few letters from his wife shed light upon the intimacies of home affairs. Had Sally not shown a humorous turn, these clip pings might suggest the wail of an unappreciated spouse, Febraary 11, 1776: I expected you would have Inquired after your children's welfare before this time, but I believe you have forgotten them as well as me, but I hope that when you have your second wife you will not forget her. I have heard that you are In great spirits and don't want to come home. As the Irishman said I [ 180] Aunt Eunice and Sally Cobb was afraid you would come home dead. I remain your affectionate wife though neglected. May 12, 1776: I have n't rec'd a letter since March, for what rea son I don't know, without it is as Jos. Crocker says that you have got a new w — f, be that as it may be I should be glad to hear from you and when you desire to meet the old one, . . A court on March 17, 1776, was broken up by a crew with sticks and clubs and compelled to sit at Mr. Crocker's. . . We have had one of our dreadful trainings to-day and my head is almost drummed off. October, 1776: I am not willing to think that you are unmindful of home, though you have a new wife. I saw her the other night, she was very sassy and began to claim her right and I turned her out of doors. In doing so I woke in a great fright. Thirteen years his junior, the young wife was naturally a bit jealous of her husband. When the family removed to Boston, Sally's life was one of complete domestic employment, caring for her brood of children, and later for her grandchildren, who lived with her. She was busy keeping her house in order, churning butter, attending to the flower garden, entertaining her guests; and every spring sent Jedidiah, the hired man, with her [ 181] Two Men of Taunton carpets over to Boston Common for the annual beating. She had a tender feeling for the wild poet-son, Robert Treat, Jr., when his father's face was turned against him. She followed, one after another, all four of her boys to the grave, and died, a widow, in June, 1816. Chapter XI Leonard's Second Marriage He who marries a second time does n't deserve the loss of the first wife. — Old Proverb. DANIEL LEONARD prided himself on being the glass of fashion and the mould of form, but disceming women saw in him a nobility not wholly imparted by the barber, the tailor, or a study of Chesterfield. Polite and engaging, he was a beau any belle might be happy to catch. The dazzling, dashing, gaming quali ties of Daniel were satirized in a play by Mercy Warren, sister of the fiery James Otis, and wife of James Warren, Speaker of the Revolutionary Assembly.^ "The Group " is now read, not be cause of its literary merit, but for its whimsical references to the men and politics of that day. Published in 1775, it ridicules the most notable Tories, introducing them under strange appella- ' Madam Warren shared with Abigail and Hannah Adams the feminine literary glory of the Revolutionary period in Massachusetts. Her Plymouth home was the resort of visiting lawyers; at her table, Leonard and Paine were guests while at tending the County Court; intermittently she had intimate friendship with John Adams, who wrote of her satirical play, "The Group": There was but one person in the world, male or female, who could at that time, in my opinion, have written it; and that person was Madam Mercy Warren. [183] Two Men of Taunton tions, like "Hateall," "Scribleras," "Hum-Hum bug," "Hazelrod," and so on. In a copy at the Boston Athenseum, the persons caricatured are identified : "Hazelrod" is Peter Oliver; "Meagre," Foster Hutchinson; "Hateall," Timothy Ruggles; "Scribleras," Jonathan Sewall; "Beau Tramps," Daniel Leonard. Here Leonard, whose foibles were well known, was impaled under that clever sobriquet, a curious combination of French and English words. The aesthetic taste of Taunton centred in him. He had an eye for a deftly curled wig; his elegant waist coats and elaborate manners contributed topics for the persiflage of ladies' tea-tables ; and his scrapu- lous toilet as a "macaroni" is thus described by John Adams : "Velvet coat, neckerchiefs and wrist falls of exquisite Irish lace, satin trousers, and silver embroidered on his cocked hat." Natty, spruce, personable, he answered the requirements of an English squire, "well fed, well read, well bred." Paine was characterized by moral eamest- ness; Leonard by a Bourbon culture. Traits of the Puritan appear in Paine; in Leonard, those of the Cavalier. Matthew Arnold would have classified them as Hebraic and Hellenic, If you were to have a jovial midnight supper, a rollicking fox hunt, a campaign speech at election, a dress-parade in military trappings, Leonard was your man; but if you wished for an impromptu blessing at a I 184 ] Leonard's Second Marriage dinner-party, or a discussion of theology over an afternoon teacup, or were looking for a pall bearer, or moderator of a town meeting, you would turn to Paine, Jonathan Sewall said that Adams "would never shine at court as an ambassador, as he could not dance, drink, game, dress, and flirt with the ladies." This might apply to Paine, but never to Leonard. For him woman had a wondrous fascination, and Trambull, in his "Mc- Fingal " refers to him thus : Scribbled every moment he could spare From cards, the barber, and the fair. So much for Leonard as a "beau." The other word of Leonard's sobriquet is explained in " every moment he could spare from cards." He was an inveterate card-player; inordinately fond of the company of the gorgeous kings and queens in the pack. When a youth inquired of the venerable Paine about Leonard, the Judge mused a moment and replied, "Yes, Daniel was a clever fellow — but too fond of cards I too fond of cards ! He never was at ease in company till cards were intro duced." There is no evidence that Paine knew "jack" from "joker." It never entered into his plan of life to fritter away the night over seven- up, quadrille, whist, or piquet.^ He had the Pu- ^ He did not agree with Talleyrand, who wrote to one who could find no joy in cards, "Quelle triste vieillesse vous vous freparez." [ 185] Two Men of Taunton ritan abhorrence of the pack as "tickets for Hell," and took the same view of card-playing as John Adams, who wrote: It gratifies none of the senses, neither sight, hear ing, taste, smelling, nor feeling. It can entertain the mind only by hushing its clamors. Cards, back gammon, etc., are genteel antidotes to reflection, to thinking — that cruel tyrant within us. So while Leonard, Dr. Cobb, and their visiting friends lighted their long-stemmed pipes, set their mugs of toddy in the ashes on the hearth, and shuffled the greasy deck till midnight, laying down a few shillings to spice the game, Paine took the key from his pocket, wound his big watch, and with a night-cap joke, put a pinch of pep per in his mulled cider and went early to bed.' Leonard enjoyed the zest of chance, and in this day might have developed the "poker face." We need not suppose that he learned all his card games in Norton. Those fines at Harvard might perhaps be accounted for by a cozy game with 1 As he arose betimes to visit Woodward's Springs, for a morning draught of the iron-water, he may have passed Leonard on the stairs on his way to bed, as Clay and John Quincy Adams are reported to have met while the Treaty of Ghent was making. Adams, the early riser, greeted his colleague with "Good mom ing," to which Clay, after spending the night at the gaming table, retorted "Good night." [ i86] Leonard's Second Marriage college chums in a back room of the " Bunch of Grapes" Tavern. When following the circuit plenty of fellow-barristers would join his evening game; when penned up in Boston during the siege, he could take a hand with the ever-ready British officers, for as Solicitor to the Customs he could meet them on an equality.' Later, picture him with his fellow-exiles in the Adelphi Coffee-House or at Almack's in London, whiling away days of anxiety by piquet, when winnings and losses were of necessity small, because remittances from America were meagre. At Bermuda, we fancy the courtly old judge enjoying his otium cum dignitate, his white-stockinged legs stretched under a ma hogany table, as he joins the Governor, or Tom Moore for an aftemoon game, with mint julep handy on the buffet. Through life he played a gentleman's game, but the cards went against him. So Leonard stands as "Beau Tramps," in the play. His first cue follows : * At this time, a game called " Boston " originated among these British soldiers. It is now probably forgotten in the North, but if you should chance to be walking up Canal Street in New Orleans with eyes bent to the ground, you might observe among the signs embedded in the banquette the words "Boston Club." Imagination would naturally conjecture "A Society from Mass achusetts"; but should you enter, you would find the members playing this old Revolutionary game of cards. [187] Two Men of Taunton THE GROUP — ACT II A large dining room, the table furnished with bowls, bottles, glasses and cards. The Group appears sitting around it in restless attitudes In one corner of the room is discovered a small cabinet of books for the use of the studious and contemplative, containing Hobbes's "Leviathan," Sib- thorp's "Sermons," Hutchinson's "History," the "Fable of the Bees," Philalethes on "Philanthropy," with an appendix by Massachusettensis, "Hoyle on Whist," "Lives of the Stewarts," "Statutes" of Henry the Eighth and William the Conqueror, Wedderburn' s " Speeches and Acts of Parliament," for 1774. Scene I Hateall, Hazelrod, Monsieur, Beau Trumps, Simple, Humbug, Sir Sparrow, etc. Scriblerus and Mon sieur are engaged in dialogue when Beau Trumps enters with Grandisonian air and speaks : That's right. Monsieur, There's nought on earth that has such tempting charm As rank and show and pomp and glittering dress. Save the dear counters at beloved quadrille, Viner unsoiled and Littleton may sleep. And Coke lie mouldering on the dusty shelf. If I by shuffling draw some lucky card That wins the livers some lucrative place. The Leonards were an uxorious clan. Ephraim was so fond of his first wife that he repeated his "venture" again and again. To remain single after experiencing so many stepmothers, especially when ample means of display would come with a [ 188] Leonard's Second Marriage wife, was out of the question with Daniel. So in tribute to the lovely Anna, he soon sought a new wife, — as much like the first as possible. In 1770, his star was in the ascendant. He was now King's Attorney, member of the General Court, and his law practice was beginning to be lucrative. Since the death of his wife, he was, like Paine, living at McWhorter's Tavern, while Ann Barney, at Grandmother White's, was caring for his motherless babe. The year that Daniel first went up to the General Court, Andrew Cazneau, a fellow-barrister and member of the same club, had married a daughter of John Hammock, a prosperous Boston merchant,^ The gay Daniel, we assume, was present at the wedding, and found one of the bridesmaids attractive; having an eye to fashion and understanding the uses to which inherited wealth could be put, John Hammock lived at the aristocratic North End, and was the father of several daughters,^ * In the address to Governor Hutchinson upon his departure for England, the signatures of Leonard and Cazneau stand side by side, suggesting a close acquaintance. They were both pro scribed by the Legislature in 1778, and lived together many years in Bermuda. The Cazneau sisters were belles, known in Providence as well as in Boston; and interesting letters relating to their entanglements are preserved in Rhode Island historical collections. The family was Huguenot. * One, born in April, was named Easter Hammock. Whether she was born on Easter Day, or whether this name was another form of Esther, the reader may decide, [189] Two Men of Taunton Those North End ladies and gentlemen read Ad dison's " Spectator," "Tristram Shandy," "Tom Jones," "Sir Charles Grandison," the Eng lish prayer book, and repeated bon-mots of Sam Johnson; some of them had manors of a thousand acres in the country, cultivated by slaves from Africa (the Apthorps, Amorys, Bor- lands, Hutchinsons, Olivers, Princes, Wendells, Winslows). It was their ambition to ape the cus toms and ceremonies of England, as the habitans in Quebec attempted a miniature of the court at Versailles. Of an afternoon the Bostonians pa raded on the Mall in brocaded vests, broad rafl[led sleeves, Delta-shaped hats, and powdered wigs, swinging ivory-headed canes to touch up vagrant dogs, sheep, or pigs, and warn idle negro urchins. An English traveller said of them, "The ladies here visit, drink tea, and indulge every little bit of gentility to the height of the fashion, and neg lect the affairs of their families with as good a grace as the finest families of London," In less that the customary two years from the death of his first wife, Daniel goes up from Taun ton to marry a daughter of Boston; eleven days later, Paine, having coming down from Boston, takes to wife a daughter of Taunton — a fair exchange, Sarah Hammock and Daniel Leonard were married March 4, 1770, a day before the Boston Massacre, when the town was in fever- [ 190 ] Leonard's Second Marriage ish excitement from the conduct of the King's troops, who, a few days previously, had killed a boy. John Hammock was a vestryman in Christ's Church, There let Fancy assemble a fine wed ding party — acting Governor Hutchinson in of-| ficial splendor, Lieut,-Governor Oliver, Josiahj Quincy, intimate friends of the groom; a Brit-/ ish officer or two, in flashing red coats with med als and orders; and the North End gentry as smartly frocked as credit would allow. Of his college-mates, Thomas Brattle, next to whom Daniel had sat at the head of Commons; John LoweU; Daniel Bliss of Concord; William Baylies, his brother-in-law; Samuel Deane, a few years older, who had come up with him to college from Norton, and was now preaching at Portland; include also Dr, Joseph Warren (class of 1759) and John Trambull of Yale, who studied law in Boston, and Judge William Browne of Salem, Of his fellow-members in the Legislature invite Major Hawley from Northampton, James War ren of Plymouth, James Otis, living in Boston, Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick, and Colonel Jerathmeel Bowers of Swanzea,^ Paine must drive up from Taunton; and welcome Paul Re- ' "¦ Colonel Bowers was a boon companion of Leonard. He made a fortune in the West-India and slave trade and his son became a notorius spendthrift. For lack of other sensational [191] Two Men of Taunton vere, the silversmith, Cazneau, John Adams and other lawyers, and various members of the two families in their Sunday best. But hush! The rector, Mather Byles, Jr., enters the sanctuary, shaking the snow from his curls; the bride of twenty-four, in hoop skirt, lace and brocade, with pearls on her neck and in her ears and hair dressed high; the groom of thirty, in silver-trimmed blue velvet coat, tie-wig, finely plaited linen neckerchief and "pudding." Now the Communion; the kneeling at the altar; the passing of the ring; the hymn and benedic tion and wedding march, with nuptial strains from the newly installed organ. And now the rice and slippers ! Let the guests from Norton climb the steep wooden stairs of the delicate tower (designed from drawings by Sir Christopher Wren) to inspect the chime of bells and startle the pigeons, just as the sexton with his two lantems startled them on an April evening, five years later. On the first of the eight bells they might read, " The subscription for these bells was begun by John Hammock and Robert Temple, Church Wardens, Anno 1743." On the seventh bell, " Since generosity has opened extravagance, one day, young Bowers announced he would eat the most expensive breakfast in Somerset. When the neighbors dropped in to watch the banquet, the Colonial Mi das put a hundred-dollar bill between two slices of bread and devoured it. [ 192 ] Leonard's Second Marriage our mouths, our tongue shall ring aloud its praise." They must also examine the "Vine gar Bible" and the silver service given by George II. While his first wife's father was scratinizing Leonard's affairs, Daniel felt restrained, for Colo nel White was an accumulator, not a dissipator of fortunes. After his second marriage, Leonard began to favor a more extravagant style. His tastes prompted him to live in a manner becoming his titie of King's Attorney. He took his Boston bride down to Taunton, where he enthroned her in a newly-purchased mansion. He was the John Hancock of Taunton; his house overlooked Taun ton Green as that of Hancock looked down on Boston Common. The natives mbbed their eyes at the new pomp, began to put aside familiarity and hailed their fellow-townsman as "Mister." Madam Leonard frequently accompanied her husband when his legislative duties called him to Boston. She could not find many of her own social set, and may have sniffed a trifle at the rural gentry. Paine and Mrs. Leonard became congenial friends, though Paine, bom on Beacon Hill, was then not so aristocratic as a North- Ender. The substantial mansion of Leonard was on that side of Taunton Green where now stands the court house. In the rear was his stable with the coach [ 193 ] Two Men of Taunton in which he rode to Boston; paths of box led to the wide door; china and plate were on the ma hogany table. Here were entertained, with the most lavish display the town could afford, the Govemor and Supreme Court Judges — Gerry, Godfrey, Otis, Mayhew, Bowers, Cobb, and high officials from Boston. And judges grave and colonels grand. Fair dames and stately men. The mighty people of the land. The " world " of there and then. Cards, wine, dancing, and midnight merriment made the judicious grieve; the sober-thinking sawj that Leonard was cultivating the haughty spirit which precedes a fall. Four years Mrs. Leonard lived in Taunton, where three children were born. The unhappy circumstances under which her husband was driven to Boston, when popular sentiment ostra cized the family, aroused sympathy for the wife whose child, born in this harrowing period, devel oped symptoms of idiocy. As soon as advisable, the family coach, driven by Spencer Lyne, the colored coachman, took Mrs. Leonard and the children back to Boston, to a house in Queen Street; and not long after. Colonel Leonard's private papers were borne away, to be scattered none know where. [ 194] Leonard's Second Marriage After a year and a half in Boston, Mrs, Leon ard sailed to Halifax, to live among two thousand exiles in Nova Scotia. Halifax was then but a fisherman's hamlet. There was great difficulty in accommodating the 1927 persons, who, in crowded ships, sailed thither in March, 1776, Icebergs coming down from Labrador caused heavy fogs, "the pity of the sea." Most of the houses were rickety, admitting bleak winds through mani fold chinks, and scarcely a room had been plas tered.^ Whole families were crowded together closer than aboard ship. Daniel soon went to Ejigland, but his wife remained, with her half- dozen children and servant, for another two years, dreading the ocean voyage, and expecting every day the war might cease. Tears of home sickness welled up in her eyes as she sat in exile, with her little ones, and in the summer of 1778, she gathered her brood about her and crossed the ocean to join her husband. She lived three years in crowded London, near Buckingham Gate, educating her children in the schools. Then she packed her Lares and Penates for Bermuda, where she lived the narrow life of the island for twenty- five years, a near neighbor to her sister, Mrs. Cazneau. There the silver wedding was ob served. * Some one speaks of the climate as nine months winter and three months cold weather. [19s] Two Men of Taunton The Leonards' faithful servant, Ann Barney, loyally followed the family in all its peregrina tions. Hers was a life of peculiar gentieness; she had taken care of Daniel's first wife, and after her death had nursed the motherless child as her own. When Daniel married again, his new wife welcomed Ann into the household with her foster- child, whom the nurse loved with all her unsatis fied maternity. Thus Ann came to be as one of the Leonard family, and companioned her new mistress through all the changes of fortunes. She cared for other little ones as well as for Anna, and was always a very present help in time of trouble, especially during those trying days at Halifax when Mrs. Leonard, in her husband's absence, was bravely endeavoring to keep her children in health. Ann went to London and finally to Bermuda, where it was her happiness to see her "child" married to an English officer. Besides Ann Barney, Seth Williams, a Harvard graduate and kinsman to Leonard's first wife, followed the family into exile. The household, in 177s, consisted of ten persons, counting in the nursery maid. There must have been an annual increase of olive-branches round Madam Leonard's table, but two died in infancy and were buried either on the bleak hillside at Halifax, in the throbbing heart of London, or in the "quiet" behind St. Peter's at Bermuda. [ 196] Leonard's Second Marriage The death of Madam Leonard in 1806, away from her husband and children, on the waste of waters, is a pathetic contrast to the brilliant promise of her wedding day. She had lived with Daniel thirty-six years, for better, for worse. The climate of Bermuda, fatal to consumptives and beneficial to nervous diseases, was not good for her; she left the island to return to her American home by way of Providence, but never reached New England. Superstitious sailors put shot in her canvas coffin, and as the captain finished the marine burial service, gently lowered her body into the vast unmarked ocean cemetery. NEXT THE JUSTICE Chapter XII King's Attorney The far-off splendors of the throne And glimmerings of the crown. Anorvymous. THE decade 1 765-1 775 was a succession of surprises to Leonard; its critical changes and significant developments brought out his trae colors. He was admitted to the bar and elected to the General Court; was married twice and became father of several children; he was appointed King's Attorney and Mandamus Coun cillor. Honors were crowning him faster than he could carry them gracefully. Presently he was driven, at the menace of musket balls, from thei land of his fathers by angry fellow-townsmen. To grasp the spirit of the times during this first decade of his practice as an attomey, it may be well to refresh the mind upon the events then marching double-quick toward the goal of Inde pendence. Almost weekly, Leonard and Paine found some new disturbance to discuss with their neighbors at the store or the town house. British law made it impossible for the Leonards to make iron for export. It was a crime to manufacture hats or shoes and market them beyond the neigh- [ 201 ] Two Men of Taunton borhood, so rigidly did the Crown's vigilance re strain the commerce of the Colonies. Criminals from British jails were sent to America and sold as indentured servants for stated periods. The import duties, the summons to England for trial of all officers under indictment, and the quarter ing of troops in time of peace, strengthened the arguments against the ministry and the revolt against constituted authority. The straggle with France for the American continent had ceased in 1763 and the danger of French control was ended. Thereafter the colonists gave attention to their business, farming, and political troubles. By the Stamp Act of 1765, a special stamp was re quired on every document, from a deed to a mar riage certificate. The resentment of the people was so universal that this law was repealed the next year, only to be replaced in 1767 by an other odious taxation scheme devised by Charles Townshend. Taunton families gained wealth by evasion of these laws. To smuggle became a pa triot's duty. Sloops anchored at out-of-the-way points along the coast, from which carts, under cover of night, brought away tea, wine, sugar, molasses, and frait to secret cellars. In 1768, Parliament bade the Massachusetts Legislature rescind their circular letter addressed to other provincial assemblies seeking assistance. Seven teen members obeyed and were tormented within [ 202 ] King's Attorney an inch of their lives by sore constituents. Han cock's sloop. Liberty, was seized by Crown officials for smuggling. That fall two regiments of British soldiers arrived. In 1769, Governor Bernard was recalled on petition of the Assembly. Then duties were removed on all articles except tea, the obnox ious tax upon which caused a general boycott of that staple commodity, the ladies stipulating to forego their favorite brew. In 1770 came the Bos ton Massacre and its criminal trials. The first Committee of Correspondence was then suggested by James Warren, and within a year or two they were established in every town. Castle William and Boston Harbor were taken from provincial control. In 1 771, Hutchinson was made govemor of Massachusetts and Benjamin Franklin was appointed agent to present the grievances of this province at the court of St. James. In 1772, the Assembly protested against the payment of provincial ofiicers by the Crown, and a British ship, the Gaspee, was burned in Providence River. In 1773, Virginia and Massachusetts joined hands through their committees ; the letters of Hutchinson and Oliver, acquired by Franklin, were sent to Boston. In December of this year came the famous tea-party on the Dartmouth. In I774j Chief Justice Oliver was impeached, Paine and Leonard taking opposite sides. The citizens refused to pay for the tea destroyed and [ 203 ] Two Men of Taunton the port of Boston was closed. Hutchinson sailed for England and a solemn covenant not to use imported goods was signed. Then came the Con tinental Congress and the discomfiture of the leading Tories; next year, Lexington and Bunker Hill; and the cry for independence was in the air. Such issues had divided the Province into political parties. The supporters of the admin istration were called Loyalists and Tories; their opponents who claimed that its policy was narrow and unjust, were Whigs or Patriots.^ The Tories of the Revolution were the logical heirs of Andros, Randolph, Dudley, and the champions of Stuart absolutism. Out of the administration of Gov ernor Shirley arose a new Court Party, success ors to the ancient Cavaliers; this party included the Hutchinsons, Olivers, Leonards, Ruggleses, Sewalls, Winslows, and their kind. They stood for an aristocratic order of society and upheld the union of church and state. The Tories called themselves the Law and Order party, maintain ing the prerogative of the Crown, and defend ing the supremacy of British law throughout the empire. The Whigs claimed that they, too, were loyal, because they recognized the execu tive functions of the Crown and the sovereignty of Great Britain. As it was not the original thought of the Tories to appeal to the iron hand ' Insurgents and reactionaries they would be called to-day. [ 204 ] King's Attorney of monarchy, so it was not the early aim of the Whigs to separate from England. Time and cir cumstances drove both parties to measures they had not originally proposed. To support Parlia ment, the Tory became a defender of arbitrary measures, and the Whig, to preserve fundamen tal rights, became the advocate of an American Democracy, Much barrel-head oratory was heard about ballot-boxes in place of a king, for the se lection of officials, Leonard, having served in the office of Colonel White and married his daughter, was the logical candidate for the position of King's Attorney, which he secured in 1769, The young barrister of twenty-nine entered upon the position, just vacated by his father-in-law, with the enthusiasm of a rising lawyer, Paine was better qualified for the place; not only was he older, but, being obliged to earn his livelihood by the law, he was a closer student. If Paine had had the "pull," the office would have gone to him and the whole current of his life might have been changed. In assuming this title of "King's Attomey," Leonard began forging the chains which fastened him to the English throne. While making pleas in the name of the King, and referring so often to "His Majesty," he was mechanically becoming a Loyalist, as much as if taking command in a regiment of British troops. He had sworn to per- [ 20s ] Two Men of Taunton form his duty in opposing lawless acts and pre serving order, and measured swords with the lead ing counsel of the Old Colony in pleas of the Crown. He came to know the might of the British Em pire, then mistress of the world, and he was proud to honor his King, although he could feel that the name "King" was becoming hateful to the populace. He saw nothing to gain and all to lose in joining the Whigs, whom the lordly Tories con temptuously spoke of as "a mob of blustering, bellowing patriots." Though the spirit of patriot ism was often cased in a husk of turbulence and lawlessness, the finer sentiment of freedom and liberalism was instinctive with the educated ortho dox clergy and many cultured minds. Leonard had been rated a Whig until 1772, when he showed symptoms of the turncoat. Though suspected as a renegade, he gave no specific cause for open censure until 1774, upon his vote against the im peachment of Judge Oliver, Then malevolence dogged him, and only previous popularity saved him from assault. Much could be said in extenuation of Leonard's course. He was one of the young bloods, popular in the clubs of lawyers at Providence and Boston, and a frequent guest of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth. It required great force of will to break with his many associates. To renounce allegiance to the Crown would not only cut off his in- [ 206 ] SONS OF LIBERTY PERSECUTING A TORY King's Attorney come, but bring upon him the contempt of the Boston aristocracy, whose friendship he valued socially. His vacillating mind was weighing in the balance the question whether the present movement would be put down as a rebellion or justify itself as a revolution. England received a million pounds of annual revenue from the colo nies, and could hardly afford a war, Leonard rea soned; but he saw that the most high-toned were on the side of the administration; while a vulgar rabble constituted the vast majority of the Pa triot forces. The satisfied class, who had wealth and social position, the Episcopal clergy, the con servatives, the Crown officials put absolute trast in the power and justice of their sovereign. The patriots were, of course, eager to humili ate those who leaned toward the King, and feel ing their power grow, as the chasm widened, gave the Loyalists choice of persecution or banishment. A Tory, they declared, was a man whose head was in London while his body was in America, and whose neck, therefore, ought to be stretched. Tory estates were despoiled and the names of their owners published as betrayers of their country; men would not associate with them in buying, selling, or worshipping; they could scarcely pur chase the necessities of life; millers would not grind their corn, laborers would not hire out with them; Tory pulpits were nailed up. [ 207] Two Men of Taunton Taunton became a centre of fiercest hate of the Tories. The Patriots were too much in earnest to tolerate pronounced Loyalists as neighbors. Lines were drawn in families, severing brother from brother. The Committees of Safety looked with longing eyes on estates to be confiscated. The minister, judge, colonel of the regiment, scholar, and capitalist were threatened with indignities — "Insults more to be deprecated than death itself," wrote Leonard. The bitterness of the Patriots was shown by their fertility of invention. To one Tory they would send, as a gentle hint, a box containing a halter; another was lowered in a well and there imprisoned overnight; again, they would cut the hair and tail off a Tory horse and paint its body fantastically; sometimes they drammed a man out of town, or, setting him on a rail, gave him a spectacular ride about the streets ; others were burned in effigy or fastened to whipping-posts. Their wigs were pulled off; cow bells were hung around their necks; family por traits were set up as targets for sundry missiles.^ A King's Attorney was a shining mark for Whig attacks. Leonard's apostasy was accelerated in the spring of 1774. One morning his neighbors were sur- 1 Tradition says that Mr. Edson of Bridgewater was placed inside the carcass of one of his slaughtered oxen, his head swathed with entrails, and thus drawn on a cart through his native town. [ 208 ] King's Attorney prised to see Govemor Hutchinson drive up to his door. A long conversation took place under a / tree which, fifty years later, was still pointed out ; as the "Tory pear tree." The Governor had come there to bring his skill to bear on the young attor-. ney, and bind him to the Tory cause. When Hutch inson returned home, Leonard was safely inocu lated with the loyal viras. Mercy Warren, in her satire, thus pictures the scene: I trimmed and primped and veered and wav'ring stood. But half-resolved to show myself a knave, Till the arch-traitor, prowling round for aid. Saw my suspense and bade me doubt no more. He gently turned, and smiling took my hand. And whispering softly in my listening ear, Showed me my name among his chosen band. And laughed at virtue dignified by fools; Cleared all my doubts and bid me persevere In spite of the restraints or hourly checks Of wounded friendship, and a goaded mind. Or all the sacred ties of truth and honor. Hutchinson, constantly threatened, asked the King's permission to visit England; and sailed June I, 1774, to hold his notable interview with George III.^ Upon his departure from Boston, the Tory * Hutchinson was soured because the mob sacked his house and burned his library, which Governor Hopkins of Rhode Island commanded, hoping it might keep him from writing any more history. [ 209 ] Two Men of Taunton barristers sent him an elaborate address of good will and esteem.^ ^ The address is as follows: A firm persuasion of your inviolable attachment to the real interest of this your native country, and your constant readiness, by every service in your power, to promote its true welfare and prosperity, will, we flatter ourselves, render it not improper in us, barristers, and attor- neys-at-law, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to address your Excellency, upon your removal from us, with this testimonial of our sincere respect and esteem. The various important characters of Legislator, Judge, and first Magistrate over this Province, in which, by the suffrages of your fellow- subjects and the royal favor of the best of Kings, your great abilities, adorned with uniform purity of principle, and integrity of conduct, have been eminently distinguished, must excite the esteem and demand the grateful acknowledgement of every true lover of his country and friend to virtue. The present perplexed state of our public affairs, we are sensible, must render your departure far less disagreeable to you than it is to us. We assure you, sir, we feel the loss; but when in the amiable char acter of your successor, we view a fresh instance of the paternal goodness of our most gracious sovereign, on the probability that your presence at the Court of Great Britain will afford you an opportunity of employing your interest more successfuUy for the relief of the Province, and par ticularly for the town of Boston, under their present distress, we find a consolation which no other human sources could afford. Permit us, Sir, most earnestly to solicit the exertion of all your dis tinguished abilities in favor of your native town and country upon this truly unhappy and distressing occasion. We sincerely wish you a prosperous voyage, a long continuation of health and felicity and the highest rewards of the good and faithful. We are, Sir, with the most cordial affection, esteem, and respect Your Excellency's most obedient and very humble servants; Robert Auchmutv Sampson S. Blowers i^^ONATHAN Sewall Shearjashub Brown Samuel Fitch Daniel Bliss Samuel Quincy Samuel Porter William Pynchon David Ingersoll James Putnam Jeremiah D. Rogers Benjamin Gridley David Gorham Abel Willard Samuel Sewall Andrew Cazneau John Sprague Daniel Leonard Rufus Chandler John Lowell Thomas Danforth Daniel Oliver Ebenezer Bradish [ 2IO ] King's Attorney The signing of this address, and two months later the acceptance of the office of Mandamus Councillor, were the clinching proofs of Leonard's Toryism. He conducted his last case at the Taun ton Court-House, June 14, 1774, and not long after paid the penalty of adherence to the Crown by exile. With Leonard's incumbency ended for all time the office of King's Attorney in Bristol County. Chapter XIII A Cause Celebre The stones of King Street still are red. And yet the bloody red-coats come, I hear their passing sentry's tread. The click of steel, the tap of drum. Holmes. FOR thirteen years, Paine had been practis ing in a variety of petty cases, when Fame suddenly gathered him into her family, and carried his name into the American Colonial capitals from Boston to Williamsburg. By chance, he took a leading part in the trials following the street affray known as the Boston Massacre. This event, pivotal in Paine's career, and as sig nificant to Boston as the battles of Lexington or Saratoga, was annually commemorated by a Fifth of March Oration, in which matters of greatest political importance were brought to public consideration. This holiday competed with the Fourth of July for several years after the Revolution. The annual orator received four yards of cloth for a new suit of clothes; the in jured survivors of the fray stood by the door with beseeching open palms. A hundred and twenty years after the "Massacre" the Common wealth of Massachusetts commemorated it by an eagle-crowned column on Boston Common, [ 212 ] A Cause Celebre not quite certain whether it was the memorial of a lawless street riot, or of the first martyrs in the War for Independence. The real issue in volved was, not so much that citizens had been killed, but whether, in time of peace. Parliament could quarter a standing army upon a town with out its consent. When the British fleet, in October, 1768, sailed into Boston Harbor, bringing two regiments of scarlet-coated soldiers to be quartered upon the town, it required but a slight knowledge of Yankee nature to foresee that one of the inevitable crises in history was about to occur. Here was a pro vincial capital of eighteen thousand inhabitants who tried to keep the Ten Commandments, seldom attended theatres, frowned on frivolities, went to "meeting" three times on the Lord's Day, and sat content so long as there was no invasion of what they considered their natural right of local self-government. Into this com munity came the British regiments, not only for an odious political purpose, but bringing the morals and manners of a European army to shock the Puritan provincials by their brawls, pro fanity, coarse pastimes, and parades on Sunday. They came ostensibly to prevent smuggling and protect citizens; but really their presence was a threat. The Writs of Assistance, the Stamp Act, the Townshend regulations — these had aroused [ 213 ] Two Men of Taunton the indignation of the people, and George III, through his ministers, North and Hillsborough, had begun his short-sighted policy of humiliating Massachusetts. For a year and a half mutter ings steadily increased. A boy had been killed; citizens were carrying cudgels as they walked the streets. The atmosphere was overcharged and a storm was imminent. March 5, 1770, dawned, — one of those crystal mornings when a kindly Providence has spread a fleecy, diamond-studded mantle over the earth to conceal its ugliness. The shedding of blood seems foreign to so chaste a setting. Yet on this day shots were fired whose echoes did not cease till Yorktown. The fight occurred in front of the Old State House. Every school-boy knows how the troops came marching out for evening exercise under Captain Preston; how pedestrians and street urchins taunted them, shouting "Lob sters," "Bloody-backs," and flinging snow-balls, turnips, ice, and staves ; how the soldiers endured this baiting until the infuriated Preston gave the word to fire; how the mulatto street-leader, Crispus Attucks, and several others fell, the first victims of the Revolution.^ The bodies of the ^ Three, Attucks, Maverick, and Caldwell, were killed out right. Two of the victims clung to life for several days and one dragged out a miserable existence for years. Over this same spot, in 1854, a marshal's posse conveyed another col ored victim, Anthony Burns, escorted home to slavery be- [ 214 ] BOSTON MASSACRE, 1770, BEFORE OLD STATE HOUSE A Cause Celebre dead were escorted to the Granary Burying- Ground by the largest concourse ever gathered, till then, at a Boston funeral, men riding in from all the countryside; and the day passed with a calm control of civic passion, the soldiers being held within their quarters. No revenge was at tempted; all the talk was of legal redress. The law took its course, as Governor Hutchinson, from the State House balcony on the night of the tragedy had proclaimed that it should. Attor ney-General Sewall was ill, and in any event probably preferred not to conduct the prosecu tion, and mentioned Paine, his friend of many years, as prosecutor — a suggestion approved by the Boston selectmen and Sam Adams. Samuel Quincy was retained as Paine's associate. For the defence John Adams came forward, thus giving a signal instance of his love of justice, and guaran teeing a fair trial to the British offenders; with him Josiah Quincy acted as consulting counsel. These four attorneys had lived almost as neigh bors; and the twelve "good men and tme " of the jury came also from the southern outskirts of Boston. Paine and Quincy drew the indictments with legal nicety. William Warren, not having the fear of God cause law and morality were at variance, — his suspenders cut to prevent a sudden dash for liberty. [215] Two Men of Taunton before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil and of his own wicked heart, did assault one Crispus Attucks, then and there being In the peace of God, and that he, the said William Warren, with a certain hand gun of the value of twenty shillings which he, the said William Warren, held In both his hands charged with gun powder and two leaden bullets, then and there, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did strike, penetrate, and wound the said Crispus Attucks In and upon the right breast a little below the right pap of him, the said Crispus, one mortal wound of the depth of six Inches and of the width of one inch; and also thereby giving to him, the said Crispus, -with, the other bullet aforesaid so shot off and discharged by the said William Warren as aforesaid, in and upon the left breast, a little below the left pap of him, the said Crispus, one mortal wound of the depth of six Inches and of the width of one Inch, of which said mortal wounds, the said Crispus Attucks then and there. Instantly died. The prosecution sought to prove : I. Whether the five persons said to be murdered were in fact actually killed. II. Whether they or any of them were killed by the prisoners, or any of them. III. Whether such killing was justifiable, ex cusable, or felonious. IV. And if the latter, whether it was man slaughter or murder. [216] A Cause Celebre Captain Preston, at a special trial, was acquitted. The other prisoners pleaded not guilty. Samuel Quincy opened the case in prosecution; Josiah Quincy in the defence. For five days, the court house was packed to hear the evidence. The eyes of Massachusetts were turned on Paine, and all the colonies were looking on, as he rose to sum up the case from the people's side. The Court had sat for eight days; everybody was wearied; Paine himself greatly fatigued in sifting evidence and preparing his brief; and the Scotch steno grapher gave out before Paine finished. His argument was: that the conduct of the inhab itants was no justification for the fire of the soldiery, who were in no real danger of being beaten or wounded, because the citizens were acting on the defensive; that the order to fire was unjustifiable, and so the prisoners were plainly guilty of murder. He reasoned from the common law and a sense of justice; a part only of his argu ment is preserved. Gentlemen of the Green Bag may like to read a paragraph and catch Paine's style of addressing a jury. It now remains to close this cause on the part of the Crown, a cause which, from the Importance of it, has been examined with such minuteness and protracted to such length, that I fear it has fatigued your attention, as I am certain It has exhausted my spirits. It may, however, serve to show you, gentle- [ 217 ] Two Men of Taunton men, and all the world, that the benignity of the English law, so much relied on by the counsel for the prisoners, Is well known and attended to among us, and sufficiently applied to the case at the bar. Far be It from me to advance, or even to Insinuate anything to the disparagement of that well-known principle of English law. In support of which, the counsel for the prisoners, last speaking, has produced so many authorities; nor should I think It necessary to remark particularly on It, but that It has been traced through so many volumes, and urged with so much eloquence and zeal, as though It were the foundation of their defence, or at least an argument chiefly relied on. But If you consider this sort of reasoning for a moment, you will be sensible that It tends more to amuse than to enlighten; and without great caution may captivate your minds to that principle of law, which Is endeared by the attributes of mercy and benignity, while It draws you entirely from justice — that essential principle, without which the laws were but an empty sound. Justice, strict justice, is the ultimate object of our laws; and to me It seems no hard task to maintain, that the attribute of benignity or mercy, can be ascribed to nothing abstracted from that of justice; that a law all mercy, would be an unjust law; and therefore, when we talk of benignity, we can understand no thing more than what Is comprehended In Lord Coke's observation on our law In general, "that It Is ultima ratio," the last Improvement of reason, which, in the nature of it, will not admit any proposition [ 2i8 ] A Cause Celdbre to be true, of which It has not evidence ; nor deter mine that to be certain, of which remains a doubt. If, therefore. In the examination of this cause, the evidence Is not sufficient to convince you, beyond reasonable doubt, of the guilt of all, or of any of the prisoners, by the benignity and reason of the law, you will acquit them. But, If the evidence be suf ficient to convince you of their guilt, beyond reason able doubt, the justice of the law will require you to declare them guilty, and the benignity of the law will be satisfied with the fairness and impartiality of their trial. Paine began in one afternoon and concluded the following noon. John Adams made the clos ing plea for the prisoners, with exhaustive cita tions from Crown Reports, introducing classical allusions, and dwelling on the benignity of Eng lish law. The jury returned in two hours and a half. They declared Weems, Hartigan, Mac- Cartey, White, Warren, and Carroll not guilty; the defendants had been pelted with sticks, ice, and stones, in anger; their action was justifiable homicide. Kilroy and Montgomery were guilty of manslaughter. Adams, astute, familiar with the loopholes of the law, and having regard for the obligations of humanity, pleaded for "benefit of clergy." The sentence was commuted by the judges, and instead of dangling from the gallows, thanks to John Adams, the culprits held up their [ 219 ] Two Men of Taunton hands and set their teeth while a hot iron sizzled on the balls of their thumbs. That was redress for the death of five civilians ! Paine was disappointed in the verdict, but he had conducted the case with spirit, and won the acclaim of the leading Whigs of America. The acquittal of Captain Preston did not meet public approval. In a few days the town poet burst forth in lines which were found posted on the Town-House door: To see the suffering of my fellow towns-men. And own myself a man, to see the court Cheat the injured people with a shew Of justice, which we ne'er can taste of, Drive us like wrecks down the rough tide of power, While no hold 's left to save us from destruction, — All that bear this are slaves, and we are such, Not to rouse up at the great call of Nature And free the world from such domestic tyrants. Chapter XIV The Great and General Court I aim at nobler objects, what say you to politics — the general assembly? — Macaulay. ONCE in practice, the next ambition of the young lawyer is to secure a seat in the Great and General Court, that he may widen his web to catch more flies. Leonard was Colonel White's political legatee, much as White had caught the mantle of his father-in-law. Squire WiUiams. So it came about that Leonard, after stepping into White's shoes as King's Attorney, became a candidate for Representative at the May elections. Burke once said the best way to relieve private griefs is to devote attention to public affairs. There was much sympathy for the young lawyer, not yet twenty-nine, who had lost his beautiful bride. He had shown unusual faculty in debate; his mind was well cultivated and vigorous; his warmth of heart and liberality had given him a wide circle of friends. His father had a scheme to establish a new town out of Norton, North Precinct, and brought strong in fluences to bear. These were favorable elements in his canvass. With James Williams, Daniel was elected, and duly appeared in Boston, May 31, 1769, to take a new oath of fidelity to King George. [ 221 ] Two Men of Taunton The first business of the Assembly was framing a preamble: "Whereas a military guard is kept with cannon pointed at the very door of the State House," etc. The members protested that legislating in the cannon's mouth was "incon sistent with the dignity and freedom with which the Assembly has a right to deliberate, consult, and determine." Commonly, the members from the country, rough-spoken and redolent of tobacco, were in clined to be a little awkward and formal In manner, brusque, heavy-minded, not especially at ease with strangers. But this native of the timber-lands of Norton was never rus in urbe. If city dandies twitted him for carrying soil on his boots, he dusted them with his bandana and might answer, "Yes, yes, I am Lord of Acres." When the House had assembled and the presiding officer was appointing his committee to notify the Governor of the election of a Speaker, Leon ard won a place, possibly by his polished appear ance. The committee proceeded with pomp and dignity across to the Province House; notified Governor Francis Bernard that the House was organized and ready for business; and asked him if he would kindly point his cannon the other way.^ ^ Popular esteem for this Governor was never conspicuous; feeling now ran so high that some Harvard students cut the heart from a painting of him hanging in the College. [ 222 ] e r^(mW'^''m OLD PROVINCE HOUSE, BOSTON The Great and General Court Leonard was among those voting (June 29) to request King George to recall Bernard — the reason given being his published letters charged both houses of the General Court with "oppug- nation against royal authority." Moreover, they wished for Governor a native of New England, who understood their traditions and ideals. There upon (July 16) Sir Francis testily prorogued the Assembly. Leonard went over to the Royal Ex change Tavern, where an indignation meeting was held, and after a stormy discussion, promoted by rounds of punch, he hitched up his chaise, put a bag of grain under the seat, and started to report to his constituents at home. Two or three short sessions of the Legislature were held in the course of a year. During one of the interims Leonard had again married.^ He was now in possession of ¦'& new wife, new house, new revenue, and felt it proper to drive to Boston with a coach and pair, as no lawyer in the Pro vince had ever done. So narrow were some of the streets that John Hancock must carefully look, as he drove in at one end, to make sure that Leonard was not driving in at the other. 1 There is a custom in the Legislature of making a present to a Benedict during the session — a perquisite not to be over looked by a scheming bride. Instead of two hundred and forty members as now, there were then but one hundred and forty- five in the Assembly. [ 223 ] Two Men of Taunton Thomas Hutchinson became the acting Gov emor in place of Bernard recalled. Dr. Wheaton, whose son was Leonard's American agent in after years, was the Norton Representative, and Zeph aniah Leonard came from Raynham.^ Daniel introduced his bill to create a new town at the Norton North Precinct. This was duly enacted April 20, 1770, and Ephraim Leonard was ap pointed to notify the townspeople to hold a meet ing to choose town officers. Ephraim Leonard chose the name "Mansfield," in honor of Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of England, an eminent Tory, thus giving an intimation of the Leonard attitude in politics. ^ In this session the Taunton Representative secured an act to define the bound ary of the "Precinct" between Taunton and Middleboro — a good job for Paine, then surveyor of highways in Taunton. Govemor Hutchinson convened the Assembly at Cambridge, in Philosophy Hall. This cham ber, restored after the big fire, brought back to Leonard memories of the days when he fagged his brain over Bacon's "Essays," Newton's "Prin cipia," or Locke "On the Human Understanding." Cambridge was displeasing to the Assembly on account of inadequate accommodations there and ' One year we find the town of Raynham paying a substan tial fine for neglecting to retum a member. ' A few years later the General Court repented its act and attempted, unsuccessfully, to change this unhappy name. [ 224 ] The Great and General Court general inconvenience. The first business of the session of 1770, therefore, was to remonstrate against leaving Boston without necessity. The committee to draft the remonstrance consisted of James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Major Hawley, and Daniel Leonard; they repre sented that only twice before had the Court been removed, on account of smallpox in Boston, and that there was now no such necessity. The Gov emor refused to yield, alleging that the char ter gave him the right to assemble the General Court wherever he chose. A second time Leonard was on the committee to make protest, and again the Governor put his foot down. Then the Assembly voted that it should hereafter meet in the Boston Town House, the committee to convey this resolution to the Governor being the two Adamses, John Hancock, James Warren, and Daniel Leonard. The House stubbornly re fused to do any business, and on June 25 Hutch inson adjourned it to July 25, to meet at the same Philosophy Hall. The members nursed their wrath and sullenly met, only to send another re monstrance, with Leonard still a member of the committee. Hutchinson now adjourned the As sembly to September 26, again naming Cambridge as the place of meeting. There was no change in the attitude of either side, when it met, and a day of fasting and prayer was appointed for Octo- [ 225 ] Two Men of Taunton ber 3, 1770. The appeal to Providence did not soften the obdurate Govemor; and on October 9, the House voted, 59 to 29, to proceed to business "under absolute necessity." Hutchinson smiled. The accumulating troubles of Massachusetts led the Assembly to appoint an agent in England, inasmuch as it was felt that the royal Governor , did not represent the will of the people. The agent chosen to present the grievances of Massachusetts was a native of Boston, Benjamin Franklin, with a salary of £800. Leonard was much on his legs during the session, and so thoroughly imbued with patriotic zeal was he considered, that he was ap pointed on the committee to consider Franklin's report. In May, 1 771, he was elected for the third time, and again drove to Boston, with General Godfrey as colleague. The friction between the Governor and Legislature was growing apace. As soon as the Assembly organized at Cambridge, the customary protest against this place of meet ing was sent up by a committee (James Warren, John Hancock, Sam Adams, and Daniel Leonard), to which the Governor answered by adjourning them to July 25, 1772, — at Cambridge. Leonard ran for reelection in 1772 against Ne- hemiah Lyscombe,^ but was seized with measles > Lyscombe was a "political moth"; the fire blazed too brightly; this seems to be his sole appearance in provincial affairs. [ 226 ] The Great and General Court at a critical point in the spring campaign and was defeated. In May, 1773, the cry went up, "no taxation without representation," — a plausible excuse for independence. If Parliament had consented to representation, the colonists would have been bound closer to the mother country and there would have been no separation. The stress of the times demanded the ablest men for the General Court; and in Paine's diary we find this entry: May 17, 1773. Dan'l Leonard and I chosen Re presentatives of the town. Paine was now forty-two years old and had held various other offices, but this was his first election to the General Court. There had been many indications of his patriotic principles. His first office in Taunton was moderator of the town meeting; he was also on a committee to investi gate an attempt to evade the revenue law in 1765 ; and he had been sent down to Boston in 1768 to a convention to protest against quartering troops upon the people. The title of "Honorable" was already prefixed to his name. In 1771 we find him assisting in the erection of the new court house, and in repairing the jail. He was chair man of the Vigilance Committee of Taunton in 1773- Both Representatives took an active part in [ 227 ] Two Men of Taunton this session, serving on many committees. Leon ard now bore the title of "Colonel" on the Jour nal. The first day of the session, Paine was on the committee to notify the Governor, as Leonard had been four years before. He was also one of a com mittee of nine to consider the Hutchinson and Oliver letters sent over by Franklin, as prejudi cial to Massachusetts. Upon recommendation of this committee, another committee consisting of Thomas Cushing, John Hancock, Sam Adams, Major Hawley, and Daniel Leonard drafted a letter to the King asking the removal of Hutch inson and Oliver. Hutchinson immediately set about to win over Leonard to his views, and was successful, as we have seen. On the Committee of Correspondence, chosen by ballot May 28, 1773, were Speaker Cushing, John Hancock, Sam Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Daniel Leonard, and several others. Leonard's popularity at this time is shown by his selection in preference to Paine, from Taunton, a patriotic centre of importance. By the middle of the session, Paine waxes more prominent in the counsels of the House, while Leonard wanes. Paine, Cushing, and Sam Adams prepared a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, Leonard and Paine introduced a joint resolution, that the County Court at Taunton should be holden, in September instead of June, since it was Important that members of the Legislature [ 228 ] /. /.i/ J'/.', /../^'tv. /.f^/X^. /-v^> VSSf^ yi^U..^.^^ -/'/{^ ¦>^r-...f v., /. . , //,, :// ;., ¦>,',...! .'¦¦¦¦.'^ ..y //:. J.,/.. ...,../,,, J J.,,,. ,.^, ,„,.y .;-/.- ,,«;',i /J,,,,, PETITION TO REGULATE HERRING FISHERIES, 1774 (Signed by Paine and Leonard) The Great and General Court be present, some of whom had business in both places in June. The second session of the year convened Janu ary 26, 1774, in Boston. Paine, now better known, was on the committee to "Consider the State of the Province," and also to report what pro ceedings should be taken against the justices who persisted in accepting salaries from the Crown. In June, 1773, the Assembly had asked the Jus tices of the Superior Court whether they would receive grants from the General Court or take their pay from the Crown. All except Oliver signified their intention of receiving their salaries from the Assembly. On this committee Paine made a first draft of the letter of impeachment against Judge Oliver. A cmcial test came on Febmary 11, 1774, when the committee reported that Oliver should be impeached. Leonard voted against the report, with nine other Tories. On Febmary 24, 1774, the Chief Justice was impeached by the most important committee of that session. Its members were Adams, Hancock, Paine, Hawley, Phillips, Heath, Thayer, Pickering, and Fuller. March 3, 1774, a petition from Taunton to regulate alewife fishing, bearing the signatures, side by side, of Leonard and PalnCj was granted.^ We find them voting together to compensate * Artemas Ward, Henry Gardner, and Benjamin Lincoln came to Taunton to adjust the dispute. [ 229 ] Two Men of Taunton Thomas Leggett (presumably an inhabitant of Taunton) for his expense and trouble in "pursu ing and bringing to justice one Hussy for theft." They walked together at the funeral of Lieuten ant-Governor Oliver, when the militia officers were placed ahead of the Assembly in the parade, at which the latter, indignant, formed another procession. Three cheers were given over the grave by a few irreverent Patriots. Paine was on a committee which drafted a letter of remonstrance to the incoming Governor Gage, in March, 1774, which Gage declared an insult to his predecessor and an affront to him self. The General Court adjourned March 8, and March 30 was dissolved by the Govemor. Leonard was drifting away from the Whig policies of his constituents, but under his lace and brocade beat a heart warm for friendship, and Taunton elected him for the fifth time in May, 1774, with Paine as colleague. ' Though still loyal to his sovereign, Paine had developed liberal views, while Leonard, supporting the acts of the ministry, was endorsing the most abomin able British tyranny. The Preamble of this vol ume is an attempt to picture these two Repre sentatives as Leonard's coach creaked and swayed over the rough roads toward Boston, and momen- ' Dr. William Baylies, brother-in-law of Leonard, was sent from Dighton that year. [ 230 ] The Great and General Court tous questions, which so strongly influenced their future lives, were being discussed — matters which Leonard afterwards put in his Massachusettensis papers, and Paine argued in the Continental Congress. After a three days' session in Boston, Gage ad journed the Assembly to the Salem Court-House, June 7, 1774. Leonard was chairman of the com mittee to notify Governor Gage; he was also on a committee to consider building hospitals for smallpox cases. Paine was of a committee to draw up a new writ of elections; to bring in a bill for the prevention of bribery and cormption; also on committees to regulate "hawkers"; to con sider petitions for the sale of lands ; and to regu late the bills of credit of neighboring colonies. A petition of Felix Holbrook and other negroes, praying that they might be free, he shrewdly voted to refer to the next General Court. Paine's con science may have twinged when he remembered how he had sold the negro, "London," in Carolina. ^ ' Both Paine and Leonard were slaveholders. In Paine's diary, August, ly/r, we read: "This day I bought of Robert Caldwell an Irish servant lad named Michael Crooke, for four years from the first day of August inst." In October, 1774, Michael, with Captain Cobb's negro, Cato, ran away; they were captured at Bristol, and put in jail for ten days. The white slaves were indentured servants, chiefly from Ireland, and often we find such slaves buried beside their masters. Paine's wife wrote him, during his later absence in Philadelphia, that she bought a "mustee" servant from Cuba, "so pretty you [ 231 ] Two Men of Taunton At this session, a committee was chosen os tensibly to consider "the State of the Province," but, as Sam Adams alone knew, really to select delegates to the First Continental Congress. The whole continent was looking to Massachu setts to appoint a time and place for this meeting. So popular was Leonard that in spite of his waver ing, he was elected one of this committee of nine. To effect his purpose Adams required the utmost secrecy; the Governor's officials were watching closely. Any visible movement toward a general Congress would be thwarted, if discovered, by instant dissolution of the Assembly. The pen etrating Adams saw it would be dangerous to have Leonard in his counsels; he must resort to strategy, or his scheme would fail. So the committee held official meetings, and under the clever manipulation of Adams, discussed nothing but vague propositions for conciliation. Every moming, Leonard punctually met with the com mittee and in the evening stealthily communi cated its proceedings to Gage, representing that the Legislature would recommend conciliatory measures, that the rash act of converting Boston Harbor into a teapot would be paid for by the must give her a pretty name." Paine christened her "Dolly." The town of Boston voted to abolish slavery in 1767, and June 14, 1774, an act was passed by the Legislature to prohibit the importation of negroes. [ 232 ] The Great and General Court penitent "Mohawks," that the King's measures would prevail. Little did he suspect that every afternoon his committee was secretly meeting in a garret where Adams quietly perfected his plans. Gage relaxed his vigilance. To insure the success of his plot, Adams, "master of the pup pets," now turns to his convenient friend, Paine, and engages him to induce Leonard to go home to Taunton under pretext of legal business.^ Having won over a majority of the House to his point of view, Adams precipitated his coup d'etat on Friday, June 17. As soon as the Assembly came to order, the "smooth and placid Adams" locked the door and put the key in his pocket. ' An account of this strategy is found in Force's Archives: Governor Hutchinson had been superseded by General Gage, who came as both a miUtary and civil leader (commander-in-chief), and to him was committed the execution of the Boston Port Bill. According ly, agreeable to his instruction, after the General Court had met at the end of May, he adjourned them to meet at Salem, June 7. The Court, as soon as met, proceeded to organize itself as usual, one feature being to choose a committee of nine members to consider and report on the state of the Province, as the usage for many years had been. Thomas Cushing, having been chosen Speaker, had to put the question on the nomination of this committee. Eight persons were nominated and chosen, all considered firm in opposition to British measures; but by the mixture of nominations of both parties in the House, the name of Leonard was so repeated that the Speaker found himself obliged to declare him chosen. Leonard was a man of radical good sense and eloquence, polite and of engaging address, and had been chosen several years as member for the town of Taunton, on the idea of his firm and able support of the oppo sition, in which his town was so determined; but on the prevailing ad dress and salutation of Governor Hutchinson, he had changed his prin ciples; and it was considered unsafe for the committee to enter into consideration of the state of the Province, on principles of opposition while he was present. [ 233 ] Two Men of Taunton His confederates were carefully drilled for their parts; resolves were presented appointing a com mittee to meet on the first of September at Phila delphia, with instmctions "to deliberate upon the wise and proper means to be by them recom mended to all the Colonies for the recovery and establishment of the just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and most ardently desired by all good men." The Tory members were in uproar in their effort to defeat the measure. Under pretext of illness, one escaped by a win dow, and rushed to communicate the tidings to Govemor Gage, who immediately sent a mes sage of prorogation. Thomas Flucker, Secretary ,of the Province, hurried to the hall with this proclamation, but pounded on the locked door in vain. A crowd assembled, including some be lated members of the Assembly, and to these, from the stairway, the messenger read the order. But Sam Adams and the enthusiastic Whigs within were "deaf," and proceeded to appropriate five hundred pounds for the expenses of the five dele gates to Philadelphia. Then the door was quietly opened for Mr. Flucker to enter. Paine, by spiriting Leonard away, had saved the day, and as reward for valuable service Sam Adams had placed him on the Congressional Committee, the only member from Massachu setts outside of Boston. On their way back to [ 234 ] HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES, OLD STATE HOUSE (Here Paine and Leonard were members of the Assembly) The Great and General Court Boston the Taunton legislators learned of the pro ceedings at Salem. Thenceforward relations were decidedly cool between Paine and Leonard. In December, 1774, the Provincial Assembly, of which Leonard was still, officially, a member, passed this resolve : Tuesday, December 6, 1774, Afternoon. Resolved, That the names of the following per sons be published repeatedly, they having been ap pointed councillors of this province by mandamus, and have not published a renunciation of their com missions, viz. : Thomas Flucker, Foster Hutchinson, Harrison Gray, William Browns, James Bouteneau, Joshua Loring, William Pepperrell, John Erving, Jr., Peter Oliver, Richard Letchmere, Josiah Edson, Nathaniel Ray Thomas, Timothy Ruggles, John Murray and Daniel Leonard, Esquires. These officials were further proscribed by this Provincial Assembly at Concord, March 31, 1775, when a committee reported as follows: Friday a.m. Resolved, That the names of the following persons be published In all the Boston newspapers, who, hav ing been appointed Councillors by his Majesty's Mandamus, and having accepted, and acted under said commissions, have proved themselves Implac able enemies to the liberties of their country, by refusing to publish a renunciation ' of their com- [ 23s ] Two Men of Taunton missions, agreeably to a resolve of a former Pro vincial Congress : That the secretary be directed to transmit authenticated copies of this resolve, with names annexed, to all the printers In Boston, and that they be desired to Insert the same In their papers, that every town may be possessed of their names, which are to be entered upon the town and district records, that they may be sent down to posterity. If possible, with the infamy they deserve. After the war began the Assembly declared these High Tories, then in exile, to be traitors to their country and voted capital punishment upon them. Thus Daniel Leonard, forbidden to retum under penalty of the halter, was posted in Taunton with the disgrace which attaches to a traitor. On the other hand, Paine had been proscribed by George III, to whom he had been reported by Hutchin son as "one of the busy spirits to be put down." In 1775, Paine and his brother-in-law, David Cobb, who succeeded Leonard, were sent to the Provincial Assembly at Watertown. Paine was again elected in 1777, when he served pro tempore as Speaker. Chapter XV The Continental Congress These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their coun try; but he that stands it now deserves the thanks and love of man and woman. — T. Paine (in 1776). THAT midsummer journey of the Massa chusetts delegates to the First American Congress in 1774, was akin to the Can terbury Pilgrimage. A modern Chaucer might divertingly relate the experiences of the four way farers as they travelled across country on their three weeks' drive to Philadelphia. Leaving the house of Thomas Cushing, in Bromfield Street, the foggy morning of August 10, they started with some parade to fulfil their instmctions to "cement a lasting and permanent friendship with the mother country." The yellow coach and four, with mounted white guards in front and liveried blacks in the rear, took a turn around Boston Common, in sight of the British regiments there encamped, and rolled off to Watertown. As they passed the soldiers, one of the horses balked, until a British officer, pushing his head inside the coach, sardonically inquired if they had not harnessed in a Tory steed by mistake. Sam Adams's admiring neighbors raised a purse [ 237 ] Two Men of Taunton to fit him out with a new coat, breeches, hat, and wig. John Adams, the scribe of the company, had laid in quills and paper for his correspondence with Abigail. Paine, the most experienced travel ler of the party, carrying a white canvas bag and ivory-tipped cane, played the role of jester. Speaker Cushing, "a harmless kind of man," was not quite so poor as his colleagues and could pay for tobacco and Madeira along the way; but having property at stake, Cushing was so indif ferent to the experiment of independence that he was defeated for reelection. Of this passenger list, Sam Adams was fifty-two; Thomas Cush ing, forty-nine; Paine, forty-three; John Adams, thirty-eight; — all in the vigorous prime of life. Their route lay through Watertown, Southboro, Hartford, Wallingford, New Haven, Milford, Fairfield, Norwalk, Kingsbridge, to New York. There they stopped at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern for several days; then crossed the Jersey ferry to Elizabethtown, and so on to Princeton, Trenton, Bristol, and Philadelphia. At Watertown they were regaled with a ban quet; along the way, much notice was taken of them; their speeches and achievements had given weight to their names; the fact that Massachu setts was taking a prominent part in demonstra tions against the Crown added to their popularity; church bells were mng as they passed; men waved [ 238] The Continental Congress approval along the road, and good wives came to their doorways to eye them curiously. They travelled in the cool of the morning; tobacco smoke poured from the coach windows above the billows of dust which trailed behind. Many good stories were told inside, and very likely Paine en tertained them with a song. There was a chance to study human nature, which discloses itself in such close companionship. John Adams, doc trinaire of the company, was not in good humor. He confided to Abigail as to this journey: No mortal tale could equal It. The fidgets, the whims, the caprices, the vanity, the superstitions, the Irritability of some of us is enough to — " Here words failed him. When Leonard was men tioned, even Sam Adams smiled as they told what a trick they had played on poor Daniel; but they grew serious at the thought of consequences, in case their mission should not prosper. Sam Adams, touchy, scheming, and velvet-fingered, was work ing out plans to manipulate the Congress. He wanted Massachusetts to govern America, Boston to govern Massachusetts, and himself to govern Boston.^ As they jolted along, he instmcted the ' The single name Adams means Samuel, not John; the latter discovered in Europe that he was not "the great Adams"; and Paine in 1776 found that there was another Paine greater than he in the minds of the people. When "Paine" was spoken of, it meant Thomas, not Robert. [ 239 ] Two Men of Taunton company not to obtrude the special grievances of Massachusetts, but to have patience until the ferment of independence had worked to the sur face. Major Hawley sent them a letter of advice, the upshot of which was we must fight. This quartette of Harvard-bred comrades stopped to confer with college faculties along the route. Exuberant undergraduates at Yale, King's College, and Princeton came out to speed them on their way with lusty cheers. The travellers climbed church steeples, comparing them to the Old South for height and beauty of the pano rama revealed; they visited booksellers' shops; they feasted on chicken, green goslings, peaches, and "muskmelons a foot and a half long." Choice china and silver teapots were brought out; unac customed curds and cheeses eaten — the fat of the land was none too good for them. Indeed Massachusetts delegates became so habituated to elaborate entertainments that once at a tavem they took possession of bountifully laden tables, supposing them spread in their honor — but were chagrined to find the banquet prepared for a bridal party momentarily expected. At Milford, Connecticut, Paine took the party to the tomb of Robert Treat, to read the inscrip tion showing that his ancestor had been Gov ernor or Lieutenant-Governor for thirty years. At New York, the Connecticut delegates joined [ 240 ] The Continental Congress them; and John Rutledge from South Carolina rode along in their party — a congenial friend to Paine, with whom he cduld compare notes and experiences among the rice plantations. At Princeton, President Witherspoon showed the or rery invented by Rittenhouse, over which Paine lingered with keen fondness for astronomy. By the time they reached Philadelphia, the dele gates were not surprised to have the excited pop ulace unharness the horses from their coach and draw it by hand through crowded streets. From the opening banquet at Watertown till they reached Mrs. Post's lodgings in Philadelphia,^ they had been hailed as the restorers of invaded rights — there were cheers and hats in the air, and "huzzas for brave old Boston." But they soon found themselves unhappy. Letters had been sent by some friends of the Government at Boston (of whom Leonard may have been one), representing the delegates as four "visionary adventurers," a notion that prevailed for some time. A year later. Chaplain Duche, of Philadelphia, wrote that the associates of John Hancock were "bankmpts, attorneys, and men of desperate fortunes." As Massachusetts men, taking the initiative in Congress, they must first ' Paine's bills for personal adornment, entertainment of friends, servant's expenses, care of his horse, and his own board and lodging are preserved in the Massachusetts Archives. [ 241 ] Two Men of Taunton overcome this prejudice; next learn the character and disposition of other delegates ; then place the case of Massachusetts before Congress so clearly that it could not fail to be understood ; and finally must secure full colonial cooperation, without which Boston's heroic stmggle would go for naught. The other colonists had been moulded by different influences and traditions. Would it be possible to reconcile the differences, to smooth away jealousies, establish a mutual understandr ing, unite all in a common cause, and create a nation of Americans instead of Virginians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders ? On the fifth of September the members marched over to Carpenter's Hall and opened session. They were a picturesque and motley company, eyeing each other with the curiosity and reserve peculiar to strangers. Their ostensible purpose was to consider the affairs of the country, and present a petition to the King for redress of grievances; but far-seeing men knew that this meeting was a long step toward independence.' The several colonies presented their particular grievances to the Congress, but all eyes were tumed to the Massachusetts delegates, who had the sympathy of the body on account of the Bos ton Port Bill. They met behind closed doors, and there is no complete joumal of their proceed ings. Putting our ear to the keyhole of Time, [ 242 ] FIRST PRAYER IN CONGRESS, (Paine indicated by arrow) ¦774 The Continental Congress however, we hear Paine pleading for unity of action and resistance to tyranny. The prosecutor in the Boston Massacre case and the impeacher of Oliver was sure of attention, though his temper ament did not prompt fire-eating oratory against the King. , In the painting of the first prayer in Congress, we see Paine kneeling behind Edward Lynch. Had not the shrewd Adams considered It diplo matic to ask a Southern Episcopalian clergyman to lead in prayer, he might have explained to the members that Brother Paine had ministerial expe rience and have called upon him to ask the divine blessing. Paine's clerical affiliations were recog nized by his appointment on committees to ar range for fasting and prayer. The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts had sent an address to every minister in the Colony, urging assistance in opposing the tyranny of Great Britain. Most of them gave it, save Bap tists, Quakers, and Episcopalians. The aggrieved Quakers and Baptists took this opportunity to try to gain relief from their disabilities and op pressions. Shortly after Congress opened, Isaac Backus, of Middleboro, and President Manning, of the College of Rhode Island, appeared in Philadelphia and invited the delegates from Massachusetts to meet them at Carpenter's Hall. Paine, John Adams, and Cushing went back [ 243 ] Two Men of Taunton to the scene of the day's labors one evening, ex pecting to find a handful of gentlemen to confer with. As they entered the hall, it seemed as if Congress had met for an evening session. Many of the company had their hats on. Some forty Baptists and Quakers, "with fires gleaming under their broad brims," had met to tax Massachusetts with persecution of their sects and with restricting liberty of conscience. Invoking the memory of Roger Williams, they dwelt upon the persecution of the Baptists, and one Pembroke "bellowed loudly against Boston for hanging Quakers." The specific complaint was that citizens were taxed to pay for the Orthodox meeting-houses, and the support of the settled ministers. One case in point with the Baptists was that their sect had been compelled to contribute to the support of the minister at Ashfield. The Congressional delegates, indignant at being summoned before this self-appointed tri bunal which charged Massachusetts with religious persecution, protested in turn that her laws were the most mild and equitable in the world. Paine, who was the most thoroughly conversant with religious matters (having visited President Man ning at Warren and attended Quaker general assemblies), was leading spokesman. He admitted that in earlier days the Baptists were compelled to pay a part of the general tax to support the [ 244 ] The Continental Congress Orthodox Church, but pointed out that under the general toleration act the Baptists were released from ministerial rates upon certificates of being in the fellowship of their denomination; and de clared that the Massachusetts laws were just. The next day the Baptists sent a communica tion to Congress saying that the conference was unsatisfactory, and they must seek further re dress. Manning, cool in the patriotic cause, if not actually wishing the King's success, went back to Rehoboth to declare, in an intemperate moment at a council of Baptists, that there was not a member of Congress that might not be bought, and he knew Parliament had determined to buy them; that the CongregationaHsts of the North and Episcopalians of the South had joined forces to cmsh the Baptists between them. This was the most representative Congress ever assembled in America; composed, not of politicians, but of men of recognized capacities in various lines, including many good speakers. Rutledge, Stockton, Heywood, Lynch, Middleton, Pinckney, and Lawrence, educated in England, brought an air of elegance to the body.^ A part ' The men of greatest abilities and influence in this Con gress were, says President Stiles: Samuel Adams, John Adams, Samuel Ward, Silas Deane, Matthew Tilghman, Peyton Ran dolph, Richard Henry Lee, Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, Edward Rutledge, Ste phen Hopkins, Colonel Bland. [ 24s ] Two Men of Taunton only of the radicals had been concerned in calling this Congress; it was not legally constituted, nor did it have any authority for meeting by existing statutes. Many members were appointed by a small minority of their neighbors. The first days were spent in determining how members should vote. Paine was appointed upon the committee to draft mles of debate. The session lasted from September 5 to October 27. Its work was largely social, bringing all sections into mutual sympathy and a sense of unity. Recognizing a dinner as the best way to promote harmony and good fellowship, the Philadelphians arranged a grand banquet for the members. The sentiment of the majority being still for conciliation, this toast was given at the dinner: May the soul of the parent never be stained hy the blood of the children. The Quakers decided this was a prayer, and filled up their glasses. Reconciliation was ostensibly the purpose, but the two Adamses and Paine were for making arms and gunpowder, since Parlia ment had forbidden their exportation to America. Paine was not so zealous as Sam Adams for immediate Independence; his blood was colder. He did not play the part of a whipper-in, but fol lowed rather than led opinion. Though stanch in spirit, he was cautious and hesitant, acting as a [246] The Continental Congress brake on the wheel. ^ But he read the signs in the skies. At a party once given by Mr. Mifflin to Dr. Witherspoon, the Rutledges, Lee, Adams, and others, Paine gave this toast: May the collision of British flint and American steel produce that spark of liberty which shall Illuminate the latest posterity. Philadelphia was hospitable. After the fatigues of the day, the delegates, perhaps rather home sick, were glad to go to any place where there were bright ladies, a good cook, and a cellar of choice wine. The New Englanders thought Phila delphia inferior to Boston in the tone of morals, religion, spirit, and language — but admitted that it had a better market and more charity foundations.^ A contemporary news item from a Philadelphia paper discloses gayeties attendant on that first Congress which hurt the Quakers. The time of dissolution of Congress draws near, and all good Christians view Its approach with calm ness. All the plays, parties, and such will be given up. 1 Seated in Congress, February 9, 1776, John Adams writes: Mr. S Adams, Mr. Gerry, and myself now compose a majority of the Massachusetts delegates; we 're no longer vexed or enfeebled by divisions among ourselves, or by inde cision or indolence." 2 In an asylum Paine discovered one Ingraham whom he had convicted of horse-stealing in Taunton. [ 247] Two Men of Taunton Coming home, Paine left the other delegates at New York, took a sloop to Newport, visited Dr. Stiles, to whom he presented the Bill of Rights and Grievances, the Transactions of Congress, the Association for Commercial War, and the addresses to the English Colonies and Canada. He completed the journey by packet to Swansea, where he hired a boatman to row him to Taunton. A rousing reception by the Sons of Liberty wel comed him on November 12, 1774. The Second Continental Congress met in May, 1775. Paine set out April 24, with Richard Deane as "waiter." To show the patriotic zeal of Taunton, a troop of ten horse accompanied him out of town to protect him until he joined the hunted Adams and Hancock at Worcester. The party entered New York with grand escort. War had already begun at Lexington and Con cord; Ticonderoga had been captured and concili ation defeated in Parliament, though advocated by the powerful Chatham. Congress politely ad dressed a communication to "His most excellent and gracious Majesty," but constituents at home were burning King George in effigy. When mes sengers in trepidation brought the address to the King, the Earl of Chatham bowed so low in pre senting it that the gentlemen-in-waiting saw his hooked nose between his legs. George III with a scowl handed the missive over to Lord North [ 248] The Continental Congress and the screws of oppression were given another turn. Britain was not only fighting with her colonial army, but was preparing a fleet to beset the coast and destroy American commerce. Congress must act promptly to meet attack and invasion. Washington was made commander-in- chief and war measures at large were adopted. In the selection of a general, Paine did not agree with John Adams. There is reason to believe that he had his friend, Hancock, in mind for the post, although in the presence of Washington, who sat with immovable face, in military uniform, he suggested that his college friend, Artemas Ward, would be a wise selection. When Adams, without warning, nominated Washington, Paine followed the majority, and later he found the General con venient as a postman, to carry letters to his wife on the northward journey. In this Second Congress Paine was recognized on committees for fasting and prayer, and also for securing ammunition and providing barracks for cavalrjonen. He was chairman of the com mittee to devise ways to introduce the manufac ture of saltpetre, together with Richard Henry Lee, Franklin, Philip Schuyler, and Thomas Johnson. Thus he rendered valuable service in securing gunpowder, an essential agent in effect ing American independence. Paine wrote from Philadelphia, July 6, 1776: [ 249 ] Two Men of Taunton I have long since thought that the manufacture of arms and ammunition was an essential object of attention and have accordingly applied myself Intensely to It. Again : America can never support her freedom until we have a sufficient supply of arms of all species among ourselves. 1 He issued a circular describing the manufacture of gunpowder and went about the country seeking the precious article; bearing in mind that only because of empty powder-horns were the farmers driven back from Bunker Hill. After Philadel phia was captured and Its powder factories lost, France came to the rescue.^ ^ In a letter about saltpetre, he says: "It must afford great satisfaction to every town in the United Colonies to defeat the evil designs of their enemies in any respect; and it will gratify me to have attempted it, though, unfortunately it should not succeed. And without some effort, I fear it will e'er long be said, that we have become slaves, because we were not indus trious enough to be free." 2 A letter written to Elbridge Gerry from Philadelphia, June 10, I77S, exhibits Paine's patriotism: My very dear Sir: I cannot express to you the surprise and uneasiness I received on hearing the Congress express respecting the want of gunpowder; it was always a matter that lay heavy on my mind; but the observation I made of your attention to it, and your alertness and perseverance in every thing you undertake, and your repeatedly expressing it was your opinion that we had probably enough for this summer's campaign, made me quite easy. I rely upon it that measures are taken in your parts of the conti nent to supply this defect. The design of your express will be zealously [ 250] The Continental Congress A committee to devise a plan to put the militia in proper state for the defence of America (ap pointed June 24, 177s) included Paine, Benjamin Harrison, Stephen Hopkins, Christopher Gadsden, John Dickinson, and William Flynt. On July 19, 17755 Paine, Lewis, and Middleton were made a committee to establish a hospital. Paine returned home in August and immediately rode up to sur vey Bunker Hill. The Third Congress met September 5, 1775. Paine did not go on with the Massachusetts dele gation; but the first week in September, Mrs. Paine and a new baby were doing so well that the Congressman and Richard Deane, his valet, rode away again. Paine was on a committee attended to, I think. I have seen one of the powder-mills here, where they make excellent powder, but have worked up all the nitre; one of our members is concerned in a powder-mill at New York, and has a man at work making nitre. I have taken pains to inquire into the method. Dr. Franklin has seen saltpetre works at Hanover and Paris; and it strikes me to be as unnecessary, after a certain time, to send abroad for gun powder, as for bread; provided people will make use of common under standing and industry; but for the present we must import from abroad. Major Forster told me at Hartford, he suspected he had some land that would yield nitre; pray converse with him about it. Dr. Franklin's account is much the same as is mentioned in one of the first of the American magazines; the sweeping of the streets, and rubbish of old buildings, are_ made into mortar, and built into walls, exposed to the air, and once in about two months scraped and lix-iv-i-a-t-ed, and eva- porated;_when I can describe the method more minutely, I will write you • meanwhile, give me leave to condole with you the loss of Colonel Lee! Pray remember me to Colonel Orne, and all other our worthy friends' Pray take care of your important health, that you may be able to stand still as a pillar in our new government. I must now subscribe with great respect and affection, Your humble servant, R. T. Paine. [251] Two Men of Taunton to visit Canada and secure cooperation with that colony, if possible, and to make a treaty with the Indians. Both armies were eager to enlist Indians, realizing how their barbarities would strike terror into the hearts of the enemy. Wash ington, who knew that in time of battle Indians could not remain neutral (war being their normal occupation), especially urged that treaties be made to secure them to the Colonial side. Paine had been at Crown Point in 1755, and accordingly was put on the committee (November i, 1775) to repair to the northward and confer with the In dians. Others on the committee were: General Philip Schuyler, John Langdon, Robert Living ston, and Eliphalet Dyer. One thousand dollars was appropriated for the excursion. When the council of Onondaga Indians met the commis sioners at Albany In December, the natives gave each of the white men a name in their own language. Paine was christened "Currensehee" (interpreted as "bearer of good news"), by which we may infer that he told these Indians of his life in their country on the Crown Point expedi tion. When the question of an American fleet was under discussion, Paine favored postponing the matter, on the ground that the " whole continent would be mortgaged." And again, he did not believe that the quartermaster should keep a [ 252 ] The Continental Congress "slop-shop"; and he thought Congress should not agree to clothe the soldiers, but leave it to volun tary private donations. Richard Henry Lee moved for a Declaration of Independence on June 7, 1776; John Adams immediately and heartily seconded the motion. The crowning glory of Paine's life came on the Fourth of July, when he carved his name on the portals of History; though it was not until August 2 that he appended his signature to the immortal document now preserved. Paine did not write down an analysis of his emo tions on this occasion, nor state what flush of high ardor came to him on that summer evening, as he pledged his life, property, and good name for our republic.^ He merely records in his diary: "July 4, 1776. Cool. This day the independence of the states voted and declared." One point is noteworthy — the weather was cool. We know that the heat of early summer had bred an in sufferable swarm of flies in a neighboring stable which hastened the signing of the document. Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration, thirty-four were EpiscopaHans; twelve were Con gregationalists; five or six, Presbyterians; three, * William Ellery said : "I was determined to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrant. I placed myself beside the secretary, Charles Thomson, and eyed each closely as he affixed his name to the document. Undaunted resolution was displayed in every countenance." [ 253 ] Two Men of Taunton Quakers; one a Baptist; one a Roman Catholic. Of the Massachusetts delegation, Sam Adams, John Adams, Paine, and Hancock were Con gregationalists, Elbridge Gerry an EpIscopaHan, Thus, two thirds of those who pledged their lives as godfathers of the new nation belonged to the very church by whose dictatorial tone the American people had been offended. A contro versy with the Church of England had created schism in many places and aroused violent sec tarian feeling. Deists and Freethinkers were on the side of liberty. The founders of our nation did not incorporate any religious belief in their political documents.^ Washington, while President, said: "The govem ment of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." Thomas Paine became a strong influence when his essay on "Common Sense" came out in 1776; and Robert Treat Paine wrote, July 6, 1776, after signing the Declaration of Independence, "There is too much Calvinism apparent." The principles of the founders will live on, but in a thousand years, newer liberties and justice un dreamed of in our philosophy may arrive. Tmth moves forward forever. The Declaration was but 1 Writing to Benjamin Kent, John Adams said: "I hope Congress will never meddle with religion further than to say their own prayers." [ 254 ] SIGNING DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Paine indicated by arrow) The Continental Congress a single milestone in the never-ending progress of human rights. It guarantees to every one the op portunity to find his level — the right to rise above environment — or, as Lowell puts it, to be his own oppressor. Under it every man is King. Its best feature is its affirmation of ideal tmths, not the list of grievances against George III. A year before Paine put his name to this man ifesto, proclaiming all men created free and equal, he had been the owner of a slave. This letter from Paine, written in the Fall of 1776, shows how his time was occupied: Our public affairs have been exceedingly agitated since I wrote you last. The loss of Fort Washington made way for that of Fort Lee; and the dissolution of our army happening at the same time, threw us Into a most disagreeable situation. The Intercep tion of an express, gave the enemy full assurance of what they must have had some knowledge of before, the state of our army; and they took the advantage of It. In two days after their possession of Fort Lee, on the 20th of November, where we lost much baggage, and the chief of our battering can non, they marched to the Hackensack, and thence to Newark, driving General Washington before them, with his 3000 men — thence to Elizabeth- town. General Washington supposed, from the best Information he could get, that they were 10,000 strong; marching with a large body of horse In front and a very large train of artillery. We began to be [255] Two Men of Taunton apprehensive they Intended for Philadelphia, and Congress sat all Sunday In determining proper measures on the occasion. I cannot describe to you the situation of this city. The prospect was really alarming. We could not calculate on a force suffi cient to defend the city on such a sudden call. Gen eral Lee was on the other side of the Hudson River, and no hope could be expected from Ticonderoga. But to work we went — the associations of the city were drawn forth, and about 3000 men, with some artillery, marched. The country associations were called upon, but there was no expectation of Immedi ate relief from them. As the week advanced, we had repeated advices from General Washington, of the unopposed approach of the enemy, headed by General Cornwallis. On Monday we were Informed that they had arrived at Brunswick, and that Washington was retreating to the west side of the Delaware. We sent many Continental stores Into the country, and great numbers of the people are moving. The shops have not been opened since Sunday; and there was a real apprehension that we should be routed. I need not tell you what our cal culations were on the expectation of losing this city. I had called In my accounts and prepared matters for a regular retreat: But on Thursday we found the enemy had not crossed the Brunswick River. By an officer of my acquaintance, who went with a flag to the enemy, to exchange a prisoner, we learned that they were about 6000 strong; and were sur prised to find Newark and Elizabethtown evacuated [256] The Continental Congre ss by its Inhabitants; that they knew the state of our army, which induced them to make the excursion. The enemy are in possession of a large part of New Jersey; and the remaining part is greatly distressed by their approach. But I hope this affair will rouse them from that lethargy which occasioned this excursion. Had their militia been alert and resolute, and given General Washington the support they might have done, these events had not happened; but carelessness and apathy have been the lords of our ascendants this last month. It Is to no purpose, however, to scold. Let us carefully ascertain our past errors, and amend them. Sunday, Sth : Congress were called this morning, on advice that General Howe had joined General Cornwallis with a large reinforcement, and was marching to Princeton. This measure induces us to think, that the expedition is against Philadelphia. Monday, gth: Yesterday Gen eral Washington crossed the Delaware, and the enemy arrived at Trenton, on the east side, thirty miles from this place: Close quarters for Congress! It obliges us to move; we have resolved to go to Baltimore. When Lord Howe and Cornwallis moved on Philadelphia in December, 1776, and Congress in alarm fled to Baltimore, Paine put eight bottles of port wine in his stateroom before embarking; but he soon changed plans and started for home. While crossing the North River Ferry his port manteau went overboard; his horse died en route, but he secured another, put his chaise on runners; [ 257 ] Two Men of Taunton dined with Governor Trumbull of Connecticut; and reached home New Year's Eve, 1777. Paine did not return to Philadelphia, though elected for the year 1777 (year of the three gib bets the British soldiers called it). He was en gaged in field work for the Congress; this letter to Gerry explains his whereabouts : Boston, April 12, 1777. My Dear Sir, I have before me, your kind letter of February 14th, and have delayed writing merely because I was in expectation of collecting something solid and decisive respecting some public measures, but mat ters seem to be worrying on at a strange rate; the regulating act, though framed with the greatest care and good Intentions, and though called for by almost everybody, is now reprobated by many and obeyed by few. Many that are supposed good judges in the mercantile way tell you, "that If silver and gold were passing Instead of paper, the prices of goods would be as high, and that nothing but reduc ing the glut of paper currency will save the credit of It." No doubt goods would be higher in war than peace, and the act made provision for that, and meant to state such prices as silver would regulate in time of such war: but the glut of money is hor rible. Yet while I lament the emission of such quan tities, I can but recollect the occasion: taxation should have begun sooner, loans should have been coeval with the emission: but unhappily, govern- [258] The Continental Congress ments were not sufficiently formed nor the people prepared In all of them for the former; and the seat of war drawing the bulk of the currency with It, made loans Impracticable and disagreeable In other governments. The remedy is obvious: particular governments must emit no more, on pain of censure. Rhode-Island In particular must be watched most narrowly, or she will drown New-England with paper, and then suffer individuals to do all In their power to depreciate it; of which there are some shocking Instances. We have begun taxation with an assessment of £105,000; and such has been the largeness of the bounties given by some towns, to raise the new army, as to equal their proportion of the public tax; which altogether falls as heavy again on Individuals as It did last war. But the great evil lays here, for which some remedy must be found: the course of the war has thrown property Into chan nels, where before It never was, and has Increased little streams to overflowing rivers: and what is worse, in some respects, by a method that has drained the sources of some as much as It has re plenished others. Rich and numerous prizes, and the putting six or seven hundred per cent on goods bought In peace time, are the grand engines. Mon eys in large sums, thrown into their hands by these means, enables them to roll the snow-ball of mono poly and forestalling; and thus while these people are heaping up wealth and (what Is very astonish ing) doing everything to depreciate their own pro perty, the remaining part are jogging on in their old [ 259 ] Two Men of Taunton way, with few or no advantages; and the salary men and those who live on the Interest of their money are suffering exceedingly. Let us now apply taxation to these circumstances. The man of visible property will stand highest In the valuation. It Is exceeding hard to ascertain stock In trade; and with many of these people large sums come and go lightly: by this means they who are best able to pay the tax and circulate the money back to the foun tain where It Is wanted, escape with a very small proportion; while others who stand high In the valu ation because they used to be so, are called upon for sums that bear hard upon their abilities. Cannot some mode be hit upon to draw money by taxation from those who are really the possessors of it.? Might not an Impost on privateers or their prizes be so contrived as to bring large sums to the treasury without discouraging that business.? Why should one part of the community reap such large profits by a branch of business licensed by Congress, with out contributing their proportion towards support ing government.? It will eventually be serviceable to them, as it tends to secure their accumulated wealth from the enemy and from depreciation. If the southern governments say they are not ripe for these matters or do not need them, I hope they will consent to some useful measures for regulating mat ters with us. The lottery tickets came at last and sell rapidly; and I think the sale of the first class will ensure the sale of all the others: the plan Is very popular. The loan tickets sell very fast, and I [ 260 ] INDEPENDENCE HALL Philadelphia The Continental Congress please myself with the prospect of great profit from these branches. For Heaven's sake, let something be set a-going before these are exhausted. There must not be more money emitted, and all the colonial emissions must be called In as soon as possible. I have wrote Mr. Hancock about our progress In cannon-making. They make good iron field-pieces at Connecticut and at Providence. I hear Mr. S. Adams was very ill at Baltimore, but I had the pleasure of hearing from his lady the other day that he was recovered. My compliments to both the Mr. Adams': I intended to have wrote them on particular subjects, but continual avocations render It impracticable. Pray describe to me, as nearly as you may, the situation of your affairs. Without any great skill In astrology, I calculate that you intend to send for me seasonably, before dog-days come on. I hope you are well and In good spirits. Remember me to Mr. Lovell. I wish to know to what pitch the price of living and expenses have arisen. The House have passed a resolve calling upon towns to instruct their next Representatives to con sult and form government : It now lays at the board. The smallpox is breaking out continually, — hos pitals erecting in very many places. There are so many objects of importance to attend to, that one may well say in a political sense, the harvest Is great, but the laborers are few. I am your friend and servant, R. T. Paine. Chapter XVI A Tory Absentee True patriots all, for, be it understood, We left our country for our country's good. George Barrington. INITIATED by Hutchinson and Oliver, an act of Parliament in 1774 increased the number of councillors in Massachusetts from twenty- eight to thirty-six. They were not elected by the General Court but were appointed by the Crown to inaugurate the new Trade Regulation Acts, and were known as Mandamus Councillors. The em ployment of leading Tories as officials unloosed popular rage against those "ministerial tools"; the thirty-six councillors named in the King's writ of mandamus became at once objects of persecution. When the Scarborough sailed into Boston Harbor, early in August, 1774, it brought the appointment of Leonard to this opprobrious office: and August 15, he was officially sworn in. When he came home and the news of his appoint ment spread through the neighboring towns, a thousand or more Sons of Liberty flocked to Taunton Green and waited upon Leonard, re questing him to recant his acceptance. But a man [ 262 ] A Tory Absentee of his temperament would not "swallow the oath" and submit to the humiliation of signing a letter of resignation. He had sworn allegiance to British laws, and had faith in the power of England to crush a rebellion of these undisci- pHned farmers. Ephraim Leonard (though at heart he, too, had Tory leanings), fearing bodily injury to his son, tried to reason with the throng •and promised to influence Daniel to resign. He pleaded with the Whigs of whom Nat Leonard was the leader, not to demolish Daniel's house.^ The savage chief, Philip, a hundred years earlier, was so attached to Leonard's grandfather that, in his mandate for killing all white men, he excepted his friend's family; but when the incensed neigh bors and kindred of Daniel Leonard found him in league with the King's tyrannical representatives, jihey were ready to turn and rend even one of their own flesh and blood. Whatever his former /services had been, the Patriots ignored them all. 'Always in the body politic is an element in which |the combativeness of primitive man is uncon trolled and intemperate. When this irresponsible element finds it has the covert sanction of law- abiding citizens, a train of trouble is soon ignited. As soon as this class found public sentiment against ' Leonard, it saw a chance for mischief. The mob ' A mob later burned Oliver Hall at Middleboro, and carried away choice bits of fumiture and plate as souvenirs. [263] Two Men of Taunton marked him for a victim.^ He was threatened and hooted until one night, foreseeing an outbreak, he prudently fied to Boston, leaving, like M'Fin- gal, "his constituents in the lurch." The next day a half-drunken rabble, not content to hurl brickbats at the house, fired bullets after nightfall into his lighted window, supposing that Deputy Sheriff Williams was lodged there.^ The startled wife and new-bom son remained in Taunton a month; then one morning they were taken cautiously through the back garden to the Old Bay Road, where a coach was waiting in which they took final leave of Taunton. It was August 21, 1774, that Daniel Leonard abandoned his home at Taunton Green, around which clustered his early hopes, loves, and ambi tions; a spot also endeared to him by sorrow. Thenceforward, in the language of the law, he was an "absentee." Taine, disregarding the law of personal choice, says: that, given the race, place, and the minute, he would tell what a per son would do under any circumstance. Could he have told that the Yankee Leonard, coming to this cross-roads, would not choose to ally his after life with his countrymen who were to build the ' The mob has been called the first-bom child of oppression; English history affords some startling examples of mobs that were the offspring of delusion. ' 2 One of the shutters, showing the bullet holes, is still pre served by the local Historical Society. [264] A Tory Absentee mightiest nation the world has lately seen, but, turning back the hands of the clock, would return to the land of his forefathers? Let us speculate a moment. In lieu of being posted on the Town- House door and publicly branded as an enemy to the rights and liberties of the United Colo nies, Daniel Leonard, with other advisers, might have been the Representative of the Old Colony in Congress instead of Paine. Once present among those assembled statesmen, — Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, the Adamses, Morris, Lee, Hancock, Randolph, Sherman, Jay, Livingston, — his recognized abilities might have lifted him even to the chair later occupied by John Adams. At first the Tories sought the protection of British bayonets in Boston. For nearly a year after the nineteenth of April, 1775, martial law pre vailed. No merchandise was carried away; passes were required in and out of the lines; letters were opened and those who showed inclination to re bellion were arrested and roughly handled. The refugees talked over the extremities to which they were driven; how they were insulted, as sailed, and barely escaped with their lives, or saved their houses from being burned and their property carried away by the insatiable mob; and how even the Loyalist ladies were pelted and abused with indecent billingsgate. I 26s ] Two Men of Taunton The persecution of Tories was not conducted haphazard by the "mushrooms," as the Sons of Liberty were derisively called. So early as No vember, 1772, Committees of Correspondence had been organized throughout Massachusetts, and in 1773 they were also formed in other colo nies. These so effectively secured unity of action that France afterward imitated the scheme in her Revolution. Adams exclaimed in admiration, "What an engine!" Leonard, with Tory abhor rence, pronounced the scheme the "foulest, sub tlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued from the egg of sedition." Paine was careful to be chosen chairman of this committee in Taunton. Thomas Paine, in his "Common Sense," thus characterizes the Tories : Interested men who are not to be trusted; weak men who cannot see; prejudiced men who will not see, and a certain set of moderate men who think more of the European empire than It deserves. This last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this government than all the other three. Leonard manifestly belonged to the fourth class. With King George, he would say: "To live and die an Englishman is good enough for me." He had read how Lord Shelburne predicted that with the loss of the American Colonies the sun of [ 266 ] A Tory Absentee England would set and her glories be eclipsed for ever. The rebels were mostiy of the middle and lower classes, encouraged by a knot of well-edu cated gentlemen, like Paine. In New England the Church of England as a body stood for loyalty. In the southern portion, Plymouth and Newport were Loyalist strongholds. In Virginia, the imprudence of Govemor Dinwiddle had alienated the class to which Washington and Jefferson and the Anglican clergy belonged, but most„of those who resisted lawful authority hamittie to lose. Secretive "neutrals" kept their places and properties. Some, like Ephraim Leonard, would at a later day have been called "Copperheads." Their coating of patriotism sometimes wore through, revealing inner sentiments that endan gered their lives. The Conservatives did not mas terfully use their powers of public leadership, but stood aloof. A few of the younger men took up arms for Britain; in the whole country during the eight years of the War, some 20,000 Tories were enrolled with the British troops. In a meas ure it was a civil feud. The bitter animosity lasted to the third and fourth generation; persons now living remember how female descendants of Tory Gilbert could not disguise their scorn of the United States upon visiting the ancestral home at Berkley. Crown officers, the "Stalwarts" of the To [267] Two Men of Taunton party, considered the vengeance of their King not a whit more severe than just. Tories were licensed to "prowl for their own living" — mak ing forages along the seaboard in sloops. They held that American farmers ought to pursue their private interests, improve their commerce, and cultivate their farms, but leave the regulation of the State to others more competent. In the face of the Boston Port Bill, Leonard wrote: If the Egyptian darkness that hovers over the land could be dispersed, people might see George III as a provident father of all his people. Among the Tory gentry who, against their will, took up a residence in Boston that winter, were Taunton merchants, — Solomon Smith, William Borland, Gideon White, Tom Laughton, and Seth Williams.^ Another, perhaps more distin guished, friend of Leonard was Dr. William Mc Kinstry, who established himself in Boston, and was appointed by General Gage as Surgeon-Gen eral of Hospitals. Although the doctor was of high character and much esteemed, yet the fact that he dressed the wounds of Colonel Gilbert, the Loyalist, led to such unpopularity that McKin stry, sensitive and feeble in health, insured him self against insult by retreat. 1 From Easton came Daniel Wilhams; from Dighton, Eben ezer Philhps; from Freetown Lot Stranire; Henry Tisdale, Sam uel Gilbert. [ 268 } A Tory Absentee Colonel Gilbert, of Freetown, was a strong per sonality — the loyal watch-dog of southern Mas sachusetts. At the request of General Gage, he mustered 300 volunteers to overawe the Patriots. His forces were nicknamed "Gilbert's Banditti." The Sons of Liberty thought that his sentiments did not agree with the name of his town, and waited upon him to expostulate, after his followers had cut down the Liberty Pole at Berkley. The intended surprise was thwarted by a slave at work in the flax-field, who ran to his master. Gilbert hurried into the house and bade his serv ants make a great clash and jangle with iron chains, as if his house were full of armed soldiers, while he got out of a rear window and escaped through the woods to a British frigate at Newport.^ Gilbert died in Nova Scotia aged eighty-two. After the family were expatriated, the occupant of the Gilbert house in Berkley dreamed one 1 The Provincial Congress in April, 1775, unanimously declared that "Colonel Thomas Gilbert is an inveterate enemy to his country, to reason, to justice, and the common rights of mankind"; and that "whoever had knowingly espoused his cause, or taken up arms for its support, does, in common with himself, deserve to be instantly cut off from the benefit of com merce with, or countenance of, any friend of virtue, America, or the human race." Gilbert repaid the General Court in kind. He wrote to his sons from Boston: "Dear Sons, if these wicked sinners, the Rebels, entice you, believe them not. They are more savage and cmel than heathens, or any other creatures, and, it is generally thought, than devils." [269] Two Men of Taunton night of hidden treasure. He arose in the moming and dug out of the cellar a couple of hinds-foot spoons that had been buried for fear of loot by the visiting posse. Another eminent refugee and friend of Leonard was Dr. Benjamin Church, scholar, physician, poet, and quondam patriot, who wrote elaborate verses and epitaphs for his friends, and built a pleasant summer home at Nippenicket, which put him so in debt that he abandoned it to the Whigs. He conveyed news to General Gage for money; was convicted, banished, and lost at sea with his family in 1776. George Leonard, a cousin, became a zealous Tory, took command of a loyal regiment and finally retired to Nova Scotia. A number of these "High Tories" dwelt at the head of Quaker Lane in Boston. Shopkeepers along this lane kept bells on their doors, and when one of the Tories was observed passing by, the signal was given by ringing a bell, which was repeated down the line, and thus they were com plimented until out of sight. Even within the British lines, Leonard was not exempt from annoyance, and at night a sentry slept in his house for protection. Perhaps in this way smallpox entered his family, for conflict between the townspeople and the soldiers had spread that disease from the unsanitary British [ 270 ] A Tory Absentee barracks. Leonard writes that his whole family were then inoculated. We can picture them in their distress at the Boston pest-house, when that old joker, Rev. Mather Byles (whose son had performed Leonard's marriage ceremony), used to enter the hospital, stretching his arms in mock priestly benison, and dryly remarking: "Pox take 'em."i Fear of indignities, and even of death, kept Leonard a prisoner in this littie peninsula of Boston a year and a half. Provisions were dear, and Colonel Ephraim Leonard, from time to time, drove up to Roxbury carrying a leg of mut ton or a side of veal for Daniel, but did not secure a pass to enter the town from dread that he would bring away varioloid infection. General Gage wrote home to his friends that he saw the roast beef of Old England only in his dreams; and the Patriots smiled to think of the town bull (aged twenty) served as the piece de resistance at an English nobleman's dinner-table. Hunger came so close that rats, reading the handwriting on the wall, began to move out of town. Business was practically at a standstill. The poor of Boston were set to paving streets; asking for bread, they were given a stone. The inhabitants burned torn- down fences, houses, and even churches for fuel. British ships supplied the Mandamus Councillors * Pax tecuin. [ 271 ] Two Men of Taunton with coal and provisions in preference to other Bostonians.^ To such dire straits did they at length subside, " Hell, Hull or Halifax could be no worse," they cried. Leonard's income from law practice was now cut off. Obliged to borrow from old friends and relatives to maintain his uncomfortable existence, he sought a position in keeping with his legal ability. When David Lisle, Solicitor to the Com missioner of Customs for Boston, died in Feb ruary, 1775, Leonard was appointed in his stead. He held the place as a sinecure, the hostilities curtailing its former duties. What was most im portant, he drew the salary of £360 long after the authority of that board ended. The com missioners were practically a Court of Admiralty in Boston, which, before the disturbances, had been the largest port of entry in America, and Leonard was their counsel. He found leisure to frequent the Royal Exchange and Green Dragon Tavems. The summer of 1775 was a lively one for the shut-in town of Boston. Major-Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne had come with their * Bums was satirizing the situation among his roystering toss pots in the tavem of Ayr, in such jargon as this: "Poor Tammy Gage within a cage Was kept at Boston ha' man. Till Willie Howe took o'er the knowe For PhUadelphia, Man." [ 272 ] A Tory Absentee regiments; the active rebels had been forced to outlying towns, a few citizens withdrawing to Taunton. There were about 20,000 people in Boston, of whom 13,000 were soldiers. The social life was military. Earl Percy and the Province House maintained as sumptuous dinner tables as the limited Boston larders could afford. The elite of New England were represented in this com munity by the Vassalls, Lees, Olivers, Hutchin sons, Bratties, Brownes, Hallowells, to mention but a few. Leonard listened to stories of over-sea life and the tremendous power of Great Britain; laughing to think the provincial yeomanry should presume to defy the well-disciplined royal troops. There were daily parades on the Common, in tended to overawe the Yankee farmers. Then one still June morning, the town was awakened by the booming of cannon from the Somerset (anchored in the Back Bay where Bea con Street now lies), to find that breastworks had been suddenly erected during the night on Breed's Hill, in Charlestown. There was imme diate activity among the soldiery to clear away the redoubt. Cannon were hastily mounted above the graves of the Mathers on Copp's Hill, and troops transported to Charlestown, Dr. McKinstry had arranged a Sunday dinner-party, but the guests left his table to take part in the assault. Let us picture Colonel Leonard at this party among [ 273 ] Two Men of Taunton those who ascend to the roof of the house to watch the near-by battle, which was a Pyrrhic vic tory for the redcoats. As Leonard descends the stairs, after seeing Lord Howe and his troops twice repulsed by those despised provincial farmers, we imagine a new look in his face — something coming home to him about a straggle that might change the whole current of his life. The determination of those stout-hearted farm ers, standing their ground against skilled troops, gives warning of his impending doom. He re members what he had written about raw Pro vincials resisting His Majesty's Regulars. After nearly two years in Boston, Leonard was once more ousted by the aggressive Patriots, and now must flee the country. When the British position became untenable, the Leonard family and other Loyalists sailed out of Boston Bay with the King's troops, March 17, 1776, and left stuffed dummies on Bunker Hill, bearing in their fingers of hay the message, "Welcome, Brother Jonathan!" Leonard took his household goods along and planned for a protracted vacation. In his house in Queen Street ^ the only remaining articles of value found by the confiscating agents were a fish-kettle, set of bed posts, some curtain rods, and a case of empty bottles. , The 20,000 Tories who fled from America dur- * Now Court Street. [ 274 ] Willi ¦'¦n iu ^''4,°' ^'(1 ^^ti 'w'jj ^1'g^j>%^ w A Tory Absentee ing the Revolution contribute a notable instance of the unstabiHty of mankind. The Israelites go ing down into Egypt, the equinoctial migrations of Indians, Vandals descending on Rome, the Mohammedan pilgrimages to Mecca, Crasaders in quest of the Holy Sepulchre, Moors expelled from Spain, Pilgrims leaving England, Hugue nots exiled from France, Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, dispersion of our Acadians, the Mormon hegira to Salt Lake City, Argonauts of '49 — to such historic movements of the human family must be added that refluent tide of exiled Tories. Thereafter New England was under control of the Whigs. The fragments of the American Tory party wandered in exile, became English pen sioners or received grants of land in colonial sub servience — some in Europe, some in Halifax, Canada, New Brunswick, Barbadoes, Bermuda, and St. Augustine.* 1 General Washington wrote thus to his half brother, upon this occasion: "All those who took upon themselves the style and title of Government men in Boston, in short, all those who have acted an unfriendly part in this great contest, have shipped themselves off in the same hurry, but under still greater disad vantage than the King's Troops, being obliged to man their own vessels (as seamen enough could not be had for the King's transports) and submit to every hardship that can be conceived. One or two have done what a great number ought to have done long ago, committed suicide. By all accounts there never was exhibited a more miserable set of beings than those wretched creatures now are." [ 27s ] Two Men of Taunton Paine wrote from Philadelphia after the siege of Boston, asking particularly about the conduct of the Tories, and what damage had been done to the town of his birth. "Tell me who of the Tories are left behind, how they behave, and what they say for themselves." Then he adds, "Have they carried off the lifeless carcass of the charter, as one of their party that was slain, or have they left it putrefying to contaminate the air?" When the royal fleet was off Provincetown, they fired salutes and separated, part of them, carrying the troops, tuming southward for New York, and the remainder bearing the Loyalists, who them selves made up the crews, steering eastward for Halifax. Among them we wave adieu to Leonard, wrapped in his heavy cloak against the blustering winds of March, as he paces the deck of the out going vessel, and sees the well-loved hills of Mass achusetts fade into purple shadows in the mist thickening to westward. Are his thoughts bitter against fate and his old friends and neighbors? Does he realize that it will be a quarter of a cen tury before he sees these hills again, and that nevermore will he be an American citizen ? Chapter XVII The Massachusettensis Papers Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known! P. P. Bliss. WHILE Leonard was at college, the rising confiict between Liberty and Preroga tive and their theoretical bearing upon life were much discussed, and the senior sophister had written theses on a subject which he was not old enough to comprehend. In 1766, as a member of a club of young lawyers, which included John Lowell, Elisha Hutchinson, Frank Dana, Josiah Quincy, and other college mates, he prepared ar guments for and against the right of Parliament to tax the colonies — whether the subject could be taxed without his consent in person or by re presentative; whether Americans should be re presented in Parliament, and such problems. With John Adams, he had puzzled his head on many committees of the General Court over the burning questions of the day. The intellectual strength of the colonies was expressing itself in political broadsides, pamphlets, epigrams ; so these two young men sharpened their quills and wrote [ 277 ] Two Men of Taunton for the press over assumed names (to avoid as sault) at a time when newspapers were chiefly filled with voluntary contributions. In the discus sions at the club of Boston barristers, each had evolved an individual style, and could express his thoughts with some clearness, force, and elegance. In 1774, therefore, they were prepared for the fusillade of arguments betwixt Whig and Tory. As human affairs tum out, it is not surprising to find the two comrades pitted against each other on the eve of the Revolution. When Leonard found himself confined within the Patriot lines at Boston, in his bitterness at outrageous treatment he stoutly defended his position in the "Massachusetts Gazette," in pap ers signed "Massachusettensis." * These papers were at first attributed to Jonathan Sewall, but afterwards, an exiled Tory, Ward Chipman, acknowledged that he, a young law-student, copied them for Leonard in Boston during the siege. John Adams eventually credited them to • Sewall disguised himself as "Philanthrop," and it is not strange to see Leonard Latinizing the name of Massachusetts. It was a day of pseudonyms, but not of "gentle reader," or "old subscriber," or "interested citizen." The classic taste is evidenced in such signatures as "Tacitus," "Pro Bono Publico," "TranquiUa," "Rusticus," "Candidus," "Solon," "Plain Heart," "Vox Vocifems in Eremo," "Aquilla," and "Amicus." Other Tory writers of Massachusetts who appeared under fanciful pseudonyms were Jonathan Sewall, Lt.-Governor Oliver, Samuel Waterhouse, Joseph Green, and John Mein. [278] The Massachusettensis Papers Leonard. Benjamin Hallowell, introducing Leon ard to Court authorities in London, says he had great merit as a writer. * Dickinson, the " Westchester Farmer," had al ready published Tory articles for the Middle Col onies, to which young Alexander Hamilton was replying with spirit. In New England, good re plies to "Massachusettensis" were demanded. John Adams, coming home from Congress, said of Leonard's papers, — " they shone like the moon among the lesser stars, were well written, abounded in wit, proved good In every way, and were conducted with a subtlety, art, and address, wonderfully calculated to keep up the spirit of the party, to spread intimidation, and to make proselytes among those whose principles and judgment gave way to their fears. As week after week went by, the papers madean indelible impres sion on many minds. No answer appeared and I began to think seriously of the consequences, and concluded to write in reply." Thus "Novanglus" undertook to counteract "Massachusettensis," until an appeal was taken from the pen to the harsher court of the sword. ' It seems remarkable that Leonard did not himself mention having written these papers, in his petition to the Crown for relief. In the Boston Public Library are listed, under Leonard's name, papers signed "Massachusettensis," written by a Tory as strictures against the administrations of Jefferson and Wash ington. I 279] Two Men of Taunton The papers of Adams abound in fine phrases, frequent quotations, illustrations, and legal cita tions, and contend that Parliament has no author ity over the colonies except by their consent, as provided in their charters. Massachusettensis befriends the much-abused King, upholds British authority to regulate the internal affairs of the colonies, and maintains that there is no ground for constitutional resistance, since the acts of Parliament affect them no differently from other subjects within the three kingdoms.* We may admit that, while the articles are a trifle pictur esque and exuberant, they give evidence of high culture, strong feeling, good reasoning, and literary ; power, although Stephen Higginson, a Boston ^ merchant, writing the "Laco Letters" in flagella-? tion of John Hancock, says: "Hancock had not, in fact, any more efficiency than the pen of the writer under the signature of 'Massachu settensis.'" There are figures of speech in these letters which remind one of Leonard, the boy, at Norton. The Whigs endeavored to gild over their resolves against Parliament by professions of loyalty to the King, but Leonard sneered — "The golden leaf is too thin to conceal the trea son." By his acquaintance with Hutchinson and 1 Dr. Weir Mitchell, in "Hugh Wynne," unwarrantedly alludes to Leonard as the "foul-mouthed pamphleteer of Mass achusetts." [ 280 ] The Massachusettensis Papers other Royalists most learned in legislative and constitutional law, he had absorbed the knowr ledge he required to write these papers. They spun a web of plausible argument in defence of the Crown, and spread alarm among the Patriots. Leonard, who had felt the fury of the mob, showed his contempt for the methods and tricks by which people are led into violent action. "Popu lar demagogues," he says, "always call themselves the people, and when their own measures are censured, cry, 'The people, the people are abused and insulted.' There is a propensity in men to believe themselves injured and oppressed, when ever they are told so." ^ ' An American historian thus sums up Leonard's argument: His great business, therefore, was to convince them that they had been misinformed, that they were misled; that they were rushing on ward under a frightful error and delusion; that the government had not overstepped its limits; that though some of its recent acts may have been bad in policy, not one of them was unconstitutional; that these acts contained no menace to the political safety, dignity, or happiness of the American colonists; that everything of value to them in character, duty, property, and life itself, was involved in their speedily discovering their mistake, casting off the sophists and demagogues who had beguiled them, and becoming once more good subjects of the just and splendid empire within which lay all their hopes for prosperity and happiness. Accordingly, so distributing these various topics as to mingle history, anecdote, warning, sympathy, sarcasm, invective, with acute discus sions of constitutional law, of equity, of the higher aspects of policy, he shows great skill in knocking away, or in seeming to knock away, piece by piece, the argumentative structure under cover of which the Revolutionary agitators had succeeded in drawing a loyal and a log ical people' into courses of action both disloyal and dangerous. That the authoritjf^ of the Imperial Parliament is and must be coextensive with the empire itself; that its authority in the American colonies is not invalidated by the circumstance that distance from the capital renders it impracticable for them to send members to Parliament; that no [281 ] Two Men of Taunton A young man, John Trambull, whom Leonard had seen while at Yale, was studying law in Bos ton in the office of John Adams, where Leonard was often a visitor. Trumbull in "M'Fingal" shows keen insight into Leonard's character. He writes : Did not our Massachusettensis For your conviction strain his senses Show clear as sun in noonday heavens You did not feel a single grievance. Demonstrate all your opposition Sprung from the seed of foul sedition. This alludes to a paragraph in one of the "Massa chusettensis" papers: I saw the small grain of sedition when it was planted ; It was as a grain of mustard. I have watched the plant until it has become a giant tree; the vilest recent assertion of the taxing power of Parliament is new — is, in fact, anything but what has been peacefully exercised and safely granted from the beginning; that such taxation is contained in the very terms of the original settlement of the colonies; that in the doctrine of the supremacy of Parliament, according to the British constitution, is wrapped up our priceless claim to all the great rights and privileges of British subjects under that constitution — the rejection of the former carrying with it the destruction of the latter; that no American peti tions to the Imperial Government have ever yet been rejected, except ing such as were so framed as to compel their rejection on the part of any government that had the least respect either for the constitution or for itself; that what are called American grievances are largely imagin ary, — are charges trumped up by demagogues and conspirators as their stock in trade while fattening upon the generous confidence of a people, noble-minded but misinformed, and rushing toward misery and ruin, — such are the matters principally dealt with by this consummate debater. [ 282 ] The Massachusettensis Papers reptiles that crawl upon the earth are concealed at the root, the foulest birds of the air rest on its branches. I never would Induce you to go to work and cut it down, for twofold reasons; because it is a pest to society and lest It be felled suddenly by a stronger arm and crush Its thousands in its fall. Between November, 1774, and April, 1775, seventeen of Leonard's letters were published in several editions, on both sides of the ocean, as the best Tory argument written in America.^ They were the final desperate effort of the New England Tories to write down the Revolution. Like Paine's argument on the Boston Massacre, they seem too heavy and academic to be read much now ex cept by the student engaged in special research, for whose benefit the first of the papers is given in full. A LETTER Addressed To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 12, 1774 My dear countrymen. When a people, by what means soever, are re duced to such a situation, that every thing they ' An edition published at London in 1776 was advertised as "a series of letters containing a faithful state of many important and striking facts which laid the foundations of the present troubles in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. By a person of honor on the spot." [283] Two Men of Taunton hold dear, as men and citizens, is at stake, It Is not only excuseable, but even praiseworthy for an In dividual to offer to the public any thing that he may think has a tendency to ward off the Impending danger; nor should he be restrained from an appre hension that what he may offer will be unpopular, any more than a physician should be restrained from prescribing a salutary medicine, through fear It might be unpalatable to his patient. The press, when open to all parties and Influenced by none. Is a salutary engine In a free state, perhaps a necessary one to preserve the freedom of that state; but, when a party has gained the ascendancy so far as to become the licensers of the press, either by an act of government, or by playing off the resentment of the populace against printers and authors, the press Itself becomes an engine of oppression or li centiousness, and Is as pernicious to society, as other wise It would be beneficial. It Is too true to be denied, that ever since the origin of our controversy with Great Britain the press, In this town, has been much devoted to the partizans of liberty; they have been Indulged In publishing what they pleased, fas vel nefas, while little has been published on the part of Government. The effect this must have had upon the minds of the people in general Is- obvious; they must have formed their opinion upon a partial view of the subject, and of course It must have been In some degree erroneous. In short, the changes have been rung so often upon oppression, tyranny, and slavery, that, whether sleeping or waking, they [284] The Massachusettensis Papers are continually vibrating in our ears; and It Is now high time to ask ourselves, whether we have not been deluded by sound only. My dear countrymen, let us divest ourselves of prejudice, take a view of our present wretched situa tion, contrast It with our former happy one, care fully Investigate the cause, and Industriously seek some means to escape the evils we now feel, and prevent those that we have reason to expect. We have been so long advancing to our present state, and by such graduations, that perhaps many of us are Insensible of our true state and real danger. Should you be told that acts of high treason are flagrant through the country, that a great part of the province Is In actual rebellion, would you believe it true? Should you not deem the person asserting it, an enemy to the province ? Nay, should you not spurn him from you with indignation? Be calm, my friends; it is necessary to know the worst of a disease, to enable us to provide an effectual remedy. Are not the bands of society cut asunder, and the sanctions that hold man to man, trampled upon? Can any of us recover a debt, or obtain compensation for an injury, by law? Are not many persons, whom once we respected and revered, driven from their homes and families and forced to fly to the army for protection, for no other reason but their having ac cepted commissions under our King? Is not civil government dissolved? Some have been made to believe that nothing short of attempting the life of the King, or fighting his troops, can amount to high [285] Two Men of Taunton treason or rebellion. If, reader, you are one of those, apply to an honest lawyer (if such an one can be found) and enquire what kind of offence It Is for a number of men to assemble armed, and forcibly to obstruct the course of justice, even to prevent the King's courts from being held at their stated terms ; for a body of people to seize upon the King's provincial revenue; I mean the monies collected by virtue of grants made by the General Court to his Majesty for the support of his government, within this province; for a body of men to assemble without being called by authority, and to pass governmental acts; or for a number of people to take the militia out of the hands of the King's representative, or to form a new militia, or to raise men and appoint of ficers for a public purpose, without the order or per mission of the King, or his representative; or for a number of men to take to their arms, and march with a professed design of opposing the king's troops ; ask, reader, of such a lawyer, what Is the crime, and what the punishment; and if, perchance, thou art one that hast been active In these things, and art not insensibility itself, his answer will harrow up thy soul. I assure you, my friends, I would not that this conduct should be told beyond the borders of this province; I wish It were consigned to perpetual ob livion; but alas, it is too notorious to be concealed; our newspapers have already published it to the world; we can neither prevent nor conceal It. The shaft is already sped, and the utmost exertion is [ 286 ] The Massachusettensis Papers necessary to prevent the blow. We already feel the effects of anarchy; mutual confidence, affection, and tranquillity, those sweeteners of human life, are succeeded by distrust, hatred, and wild uproar; the useful arts of agriculture and commerce are neglected for caballing, mobbing this or the other man, because he acts, speaks, or is suspected of thinking different from the prevailing sentiment of the times, in purchasing arms, and forming a militia ; 0 height of madness ! with a professed design of op posing Great Britain. I suspect many of us have been induced to join in these measures, or but faintly to oppose them, from an apprehension that Great Britain would not, or could not exert herself suf ficiently to subdue America. Let us consider this matter. However closely we may hug ourselves in the opinion, that the Parliament has no right to tax or legislate for us, the people of England hold the contrary opinion as firmly. They tell us we are a part of the British Empire ; that every state, from the nature of government, must have a supreme, uncontrollable power, coextensive with the empire itself; and that that power is vested in Parliament. It Is as unpopular to deny this doctrine In Great Britain, as It is to assert it in the colonies; so there is but little probability of serving ourselves at this day by our ingenious distinctions between a right of legislation for one purpose, and not for another. We have bid them defiance; and the longest sword must carry it, unless we change our measures. Man kind are the same, in all parts of the world. The [287] Two Men of Taunton same fondness for dominion that presides In the breast of an American, actuates the breast of an European. If the colonies are not a part of the British Empire already, and subject to the su preme authority of the state. Great Britain will make them so. Had we been prudent enough to confine our opposition within certain limits, we might have stood some chance of succeeding once more; but alas, we have passed the Rubicon. It Is now universally said and believed. In England, that If this opportunity of reclaiming the- colonies, and reducing them to a sense of their duty. Is lost, they. In truth, will be dismembered from the em pire, and become as distinct a state from Great Britain, as Hanover; that Is, although they may continue their allegiance to the person of the King, they will own none to the Imperial crown of Great Britain, nor yield obedience to any of her laws, but each as they shall think proper to adopt. Can you Indulge the thought one moment, that Great Britain will consent to this ? For what has she protected and defended the colonies against the maritime powers of Europe, from their first British settlement to this day? For what did she purchase New York of the Dutch ? For what was she so lavish of her best blood and treasure In the conquest of Canada, and other territories in America? Was It to raise up a rival state, or to enlarge her own empire? Or If the con sideration of empire was out of the question, what security can she have of our trade, when once she has lost our obedience ? I mention these things, my [ 288 ] The Massachusettensis Papers friends, that you may know how people reason upon the subject In England; and to convince you that you are much deceived. If you imagine that Great Britain will accede to the claims of the colonies ; she will as soon conquer New England, as Ireland or Canada, if either of them revolted; and by arms, if the milder influences of Government prove ineffect ual. Perhaps you are as fatally mistaken in another respect, I mean, as to the power of Great Britain to conquer. But can any of you, that think soberly upon the matter, be so deluded as to believe that Great Britain, who so lately carried her arms with success to every part of the globe, triumphed over the united powers of France and Spain, and whose fleets give law to the ocean. Is unable to conquer us ? Should the colonies unite in a war against Great Britain (which, by the way, is not a supposable case), the colonies south of Pennsylvania would be unable to furnish any men; they have not more than Is necessary to govern their numerous slaves, and to defend themselves against the Indians. I will sup pose that the northern colonies can furnish as many, and indeed more men than can be used to advantage; but have you arms fit for a campaign? If you have arms, have you military stores, or can you procure them? When this war is proclaimed, all supplies from foreign parts will be cut off. Have you money to maintain the war? Or had you all those things, some others are still wanting, which are absolutely necessary to encounter regular troops, that is dis cipline, and that subordination whereby each can [289] Two Men of Taunton command all below him, from a general ofiicer to the lowest subaltern; these you neither have nor can have In such a war. It Is well known that the Pro vincials In the late war were never brought to a proper discipline, though they had the example of the regular troops to encourage, and the martial law to enforce It. We all know, notwithstanding the province law for regulating the militia, it was under little more command than what the officers could obtain from treating and humouring the common soldiers; what, then, can be expected from such an army as you will bring Into the field, If you bring any, each one a politician, puffed up with his own opinion, and feeling himself second to none ? Can any of you command ten thousand such men ? Can you punish the disobedient? Can all your wisdom direct their strength, courage, or activity to any given point? Would not the least disappointment or un favourable aspect cause a general dereliction of the service? Your new-fangled militia have already given us a specimen of their future conduct. In some of their companies, they have already chosen two, in others, three sets of officers, and are as dissatis fied with the last choice as the first. I do not doubt the natural bravery of my countrymen; aU men would act the same part In the same situation. Such is the army with which you are to oppose the most powerful nation upon the globe. An experienced officer would rather take his chance with five thou sand British troops, than with fifty thousand such militia. [ 290 ] The Massachusettensis Papers I have hitherto confined my observations to the war within the Interior parts of the colonies, let us now turn our eyes to our extensive seacoast, and that we find wholly at the mercy of Great Britain; our trade, fishery, navigation, and maritime towns taken from us the very day that war Is proclaimed : Inconceivably shocking the scene; if we turn our views to the wilderness, our back settlements a prey to our ancient enemy, the Canadians, whose wounds received from us in the late war, will bleed afresh at the prospect of revenge, and to the numer ous tribes of savages, whose tender mercies are cruelties. Thus with the British army In the front, Canadians and savages In the rear, a regular army in the midst, we must be certain that whenever the sword of civil war Is unsheathed, devastation will pass through our land like a whirlwind; our houses be burnt to ashes; our fair possessions laid waste; and he that falls by the sword, will be happy in escaping a more ignominious death. I have hitherto gone upon a supposition, that all the colonies from Nova Scotia to Georgia, would unite in the war against Great Britain; but I believe. If we consider coolly upon the matter, we shall find no reason to expect any assistance out of New Eng land; If so, there will be no arm stretched out to save us. New England, or perhaps this self-devoted province alone, will fall the unpitied victim of Its own folly, and furnish the world with one more in stance of the fatal consequences of rebellion. I have as yet said nothing of the difference in sen- [ 291 ] Two Men of Taunton timent among themselves. Upon a superficial view we might Imagine that this province was nearly unanimous; but the case is far different, A very considerable part of the men of property in this province, are at this day firmly attached to the cause of Government; bodies of men, compelling persons to disavow their sentiments, to resign commissions, or to subscribe leagues and covenants, have wrought no change In their sentiments; it has only attached them more closely to Government, and caused them to wish more fervently, and to pray more devoutly, for its restoration. These, and thousands beside, if they fight at all, will fight under the banners of loyalty. I can assure you that associations are now forming In several parts of this province, for the sup port of his Majesty's Government and mutual de fence; and let me tell you, whenever the royal stand-* ard shall be set up, there will be such a flocking to it, as will astonish the most obdurate. And now. In God's name, what Is it that has brought us to this i brink of destruction? Has not the Government of Great Britain been as mild and equitable in the colonies, as in any part of her extensive dominions ? Has not she been a nursing mother to us, from the days of our Infancy to this time ? Has she not been indulgent almost to a fault? Might not each one of us at this day have sat quietly under his own vine and fig-tree, and there have been none to make us afraid, were It not for our own folly? Will not pos terity be amazed, when they are told that the pre sent distraction took its rise from a threepenny duty [ 292 ] The Massachusettensis Papers on tea, and call it a more unaccountable frenzy, and more disgraceful to the annals of America, than that of the witchcraft? I will attempt In the next paper to retrace the steps and mark the progressions that led us to this state. I promise to do it with fidelity; and If any thing should look like reflecting on individuals or bodies of men, it must be set down to my impar tiality, and not to a fondness for censuring. Massachusettensis, Chapter XVIII Taunton during the Revolution 'T was autumn, bright autumn, and glimmered the weir. The Taunton flowed full on that beautiful day. And kirtled wives gathered the flag-pole anear, 'Mid the old men at prayer and the children at play. They saw the red flag in blue Liberty's dome Wave o'er the valley, Equality's home. And they heard the men say, while their own lips were dumb, "We'll defend with our valor and virtue and votes The red flag of Taunton That waves o'er the Green." BUTTERWORTH. yi T the outbreak of the Revolution, Taun- A-\ ton was a nest of rebels. A letter written -*- -^ in August, 1774, says of her Sons of Lib erty: They seem to be quite awake, and to have awoke in a passion. It Is more dangerous being a Tory here, than in Boston, even if no troops were there. The soil from which bricks, pottery and iron im plements were fashioned, the coastwise shipping, the forests, the tanneries and the fact of its being the county seat, had combined to create a centre of some wealth and prominence, Taunton was relatively of greater importance than to-day. Its people were farmers, sailors, tradesmen, laborers, with a leisure class so limited as to be conspicuous. [ 294 ] Taunton during the Revolution Before the Revolution, men came through thick mud to the town meeting in March, and gave vent to their patriotic zeal in stormy harangues. On High Court days, Taunton was a Mecca for the neighboring rastics who, if matters went against their grain, came cursing, shaking their fists, and shouting incendiary language.^ The court was sometimes obliged to sit in the tavern, because the populace packed the court-room so full the judges could not enter. Excuses given for their conduct were: that fees and court charges were extortionate; that the commissions ran in the name of the King; that extremely obnoxious per sons had been appointed to office, and so on. The Whig might appeal in vain to a tribunal that owed its existence to the Tory power, Abigail Adams wrote to John at Philadelphia, September, 1774: I saw a letter from Eunice Paine wherein she gives an account of the breaking up of court last week in Taunton. Angler urged the court's opening and calling up the actions, but could not effect It, and she says there were two thousand men assembled around the court-house, sent by a committee of nine, who presented a petition requesting that they would not sit. ' A ringleader of these rebels was "Nat" Leonard, who ac quired sufficient experience as mob-leader to secure an import ant command in the Patriot army. [ 295 ] Two Men of Taunton In harrying out of their territory the offensive Loyalists, the Taunton Sons of Liberty directed particular vengeance against Colonel Gilbert of Freetown as herebefore stated. Assembling at Weir Bridge one autumn morning they waited on him to request that he decline the office of High Sheriff, warning him that if he did not, he must abide the consequences. In September, 1774, a convention was held in Taunton of delegates from Berkeley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Easton, Mansfield, Norton, Raynham, Swanzea, and Taunton. Zephaniah Leonard was chosen chairman, and the celebrated Bristol County Resolves were drafted, akin in tone to the earlier Suffolk Resolves, expressing allegiance to the King, but demanding political rights. The Preamble reads: Whereas, our ancestors, of blessed memory, from a prudent care of themselves, and a tender concern for their descendants, did, through a series of un paralleled dangers and distresses, purchase a valu able Inheritance In this western world, and carefully transmitted the same to us their posterity; and whereas for many years past, we have quietly en joyed certain rights and privileges, stipulated by charter, and repeatedly confirmed by royal engage ments; which rights and privileges are now un justly invaded by the pretended authority of a British Parliament, under pretext that It is inexpedient [296] Taunton during the Revolution for us any longer to enjoy them; and as the same per sons which found out the inexpediency, will no doubt, in time, discover that it is Inexpedient for us to enjoy any rights, and even any property at all; we cannot in justice to ourselves and posterity, and in gratitude to our reverend ancestors, tamely stand by and suffer everything that is valuable and dear to be wrested from us; but are resolutely deter mined, at the risque of our fortunes and lives, to defend our natural and compacted rights, and to oppose to our utmost all illegal and unconstitu tional measures, which have been or may be here after adopted by a British parliament, or a British ministry. And though we deprecate the evils which are naturally consequent upon a breach of that mutual affection and confidence which has sub sisted betwixt Great Britain and her colonies; yet we think it better to suffer those evils than volun tarily submit to perpetual slavery. We are sensible that the important crisis before us demands the exercise of much wisdom, prudence, and fortitude, and we sincerely hope that all our deliberation and actions will be guided by the principles of sound rea son, and a hearty desire to promote the true interest of the British empire. In October, a Liberty Pole was erected on Taun ton Green, flying a red flag bearing the words LIBERTY AND UNION! UNION AND LIB ERTY! The Taunton women were not behind their husbands in zeal for the principles expressed [ 297 ] Two Men ol Taunton upon the banner which, made with their own hands, now fluttered in the breeze. While Tory lawyers and ministers were summarily dealt with by the Patriots, the Tory doctors were generally treated more leniently. But when Dr. McKinstry was compelled to seek safety in Boston, his wife (a Leonard, cousin of Daniel) remained at home, and took no pains to conceal her contempt for the Patriots. Her neighbors endured her scom for a while; then, one moming, these women of the New England Taunton, jealous because Mistress McKinstry was still enjoying her aftemoon tea, proceeded to her house on High Street (as the women marched in Old English Taunton dur ing Monmouth's Rebellion), dragged her from her fireside, marched her down to the Green, and around the Liberty Pole in humiliating token of allegiance. In November, when Paine retumed from Con gress as chairman of the Committee on Gun powder, he tumed his attention and that of his wife's family to the making of saltpetre, leaching the mouldy earth found under old buildings for potash, lye, and sulphur. The Committee of Correspondence and Safety was active, and (Febraary 20, 1775) George God frey wrote that "three companies of minute- men" were in readiness; indicating the alacrity to follow the suggestions from Concord, where [298] Taunton during the Revolution Paine and Cobb were doing duty as members of the Provincial Congress. These minute-men were too far away to fight at Concord, but the next day were found among the gathering forces at Roxbury, dust-stained and footsore, under com mand of Captain James Williams. Taunton Green was the campus martius. In ear lier days, Indian captives were displayed here. The corseleted Standish and his followers had crossed it, as well as Captain Church, another In dian fighter. Soldiers on the Louisburg expedition trained upon it. General Sullivan stopped here with his troops on the way to his disastrous cam paign in Rhode Island in 1778. Soldiers left here not only on April 19, 1775, but again, as many remember, on April 19, 1861. Captain Silas Shepard's troops departed hence for the defence of New Bedford during the War of 181 2. The sod has throbbed to the tread of trainbands marching at muster for two hundred years. Once a year still the militia manoeuvre upon the Green to pre serve their perpetual right therein. July 3, 1775, a Committee of Inspection, Safety, and Correspondence was chosen at town meeting. Nicholas Baylies, Colonel George Williams, and Captain John Reed were appointed to take charge of the estate and effects of Daniel Leonard, while some of their neighbors found occupation in picking over the financial remains of other de- [ 299 ] Two Men of Taunton parted fellow-townsmen. Seth Padelford, one of many creditors, whom Daniel Leonard in stracted in the law and whose note for £8i Padel ford held, was appointed agent July 27, 1777; he found Leonard's personal estate to realize £156 6s. id., or, reduced to silver, £68 45. iiyid. The list of Leonard's creditors (some of whom he claimed were imaginary) included nearly every person in Taunton who had a spare pound. The ravenous Whigs, debt-loaded and intoxi cated by success, felt the power of numbers. Having little fear of punishment, a few gave loose rein to their passions and resorted to malice and violence. They held Loyalist property as free booty. Few dared to defend an absentee. By the practice of the court, when there was no appear ance of a defendant he was defaulted and judg ment entered without a jury of inquiry. On a general declaration for goods sold, labor per formed, services rendered, or for money loaned, no evidence was required, not even the oath of the plaintiff. Within two years the defendant might bring writ and service for a new trial. The court, upon recommendation, November, 1782, of a committee consisting of James Wil liams, Josiah Crocker, and Apollos Leonard, allowed clauns against Leonard by Charles Durfee, John Tuck, Thomas Barstow, Mahitable Emett, William Baylies, David Cobb, Elijah [ 300 ] TAUNTON GREEN SOON AFTER THE REVOLUTION Leonard's House indicated by arrow on left Paine's House indicated by arrow on right Taunton during the Revolution Dean, McWharter & Stevenson, Abijah Hodges, Susan Smith, Edward Winslow, Levi White, Ebenezer Sever, the County of Bristol, Abiathar Leonard, Dr. McKinstry's estate, Tabitha Briggs, Josiah Quincy, William Browne, Pradence White, Colonel George Leonard, William Baylies, Guard ian Nancy Leonard, and Estate of Col. White. Daniel Leonard acknowledged debts of £278 lls.8}4d. His property was sold when the British troops were victorious and the future value of land seemed small. In final adjustment the Leonard estate yielded, according to the report of July 5, 1783, at the rate of 2s. 6d. if. to the pound. May 16, 1783, George Godfrey and others, ap pointed to sell the property, had paid into the treasury the total sum of £3266. As an inland town, Taunton was a Bethel of refuge for alarmed citizens of Boston and New port. The refugees escaped the actual terrors of war along the seaports, but did not find them selves beyond the sound of hostilities. A man in Norton, putting his ear to a fence-rail, protested, in spite of scoffing skeptics, that he felt the vibra tion of cannonading at Bunker Hill; an old lady in Berkeley, some forty years afterward, declared that her china was shaken off the shelves during this battle, and she produced the cups, broken and cracked, to corroborate her story. Dr. Ezra Stiles, who came up to Dighton, records that he [ 301 ] Two Men of Taunton plainly heard the sound of cannon at the siege of Boston, and at the battle of Long Island. When the war broke out, the English held New port, and a large number of timorous souls, largely women and children, came from there to Taunton for safety. The population of the town was some thing over four thousand. These people were a homogeneous race — from the south of England, interspersed with few foreigners, save some four hundred negroes, imported from Africa, and an occasional lingering red man, a few deported Irish convicts, a vagrant Dutchman, Frenchman, or wandering Jew. In this year 1909, we may ride in a trolley car with Scotch conductor and Irish motorman, sitting between an Englishman and a Spaniard; go to a French-Canadian barber's; send laundry to a Chinaman; have a colored maid to wait on the door; a Swede in the kitchen; a Portuguese In the stable; an Italian selling frait; a Greek to shine shoes; Poles and Hungarians digging in the streets; a German conducting a bakery; a Filipino restaurateur; a South African calling for "junk"; a Russian Jew for alderman. This Babel of tongues forces home the fact that Tadnton is becoming a polyglot cauldron of na tionalities as diversified as the witches' broth in "Macbetii." The influx of Newporters is evident in the necro logy, kept by Deacon George Godfrey. From [ 302 ] Taunton during the Revolution these brief records, imagination readily constracts a homely picture of the life here with its varied hu man touches, and someof its local "characters." Negor man of Daniel Leonard, Esq., died Febru ary, 1775- Old Granney Macomber died 3d day of April, 1775. John Cobb kill'd with thunder July 11, 1775. Allmost all ye Rest of ye family struck down. Old William Simmons of Swanzey died In Taun ton with drunkeness August, 1775. Old Hope Tripe, Indian woman, died 19 May, 1776.1 Rev. Caleb Barnum Died as soposed August 22d day at Pittsfield, 1776. Olde Deacon Brown of Newport Died August, 1777. The wife of Mr. Barron from Newport died 1777. The wife of Mr. Earle of Newport died Novem ber 27, 1777. The daughter of Mr. A of Newport died November 27, 1777. The negor Gerle of Abiel Smith drowned Decem ber 17, 1777. * This Indian squaw, Hope Tripe, was probably the one who carae to dinner at the Lincoln home one day, and, finding they were to have tripe for dinner, asked if she might cook it. They permitted her to do so, and as it sizzled in the skillet, the im patient woman found her mouth watering so that she could not wait until it was cooked, but began to eat it; by the time it should have been ready to serve, she had eaten the whole of it, which gave her that succulent name. [ 303 ] Two Men of Taunton A poor Continental soldier named Bunn died at Lieut. Wm. Thayer's June, 1778. Elizabeth Waldron from Newport died August, 1778. Childe of Wm. Thurston from Newport died December 7, 1780. The childe of Capt. Bently from Newport died some time this year. Old Polorck the Jew died November, 1782, sud denly. A certain Indian Squaw named Abigail Mabolne died with drunkenness as supposed August 18 or 17, 1780. Old Mr. Makepeace the oyster catcher died May 27, 1783. Old Cuff Cobb, Late Negor of Thomas Cobb, Esq., June, 1784. The negor woman formerly at Dr. McKinstry's died 1783. Poor Anthony Fry drowned, soposed fell off Neck o' Land bridge, 1780. The child of Beny Richmond he had of Betty Sole died Octob'r 14, 1782. The women who gathered to make linsey- woolsey shirts and knit stockings for the soldiery did not lack for topics as they patriotically brewed their " liberty tea " of raspberry leaves. The town was alarmed in 1778, by smallpox ravages, re quiring the erection of a pest hospital at Prospect Hill. Dr. Cobb writes that one hundred and fifty [ 304 ] Taunton during the Revolution died that year of the disease. At the sound of the town-crier's bell the knitters paused to listen for news of the fortunes of war. Letters from Taunton's distinguished citizens, in field and forum, were awaited with eagerness, and brought a thrill of elation when the news was of a victory. General Godfrey and General Cobb were in the army, while Paine was in Congress. From neigh boring precincts came General Baylies of Dighton, one of Washington's fighting family, and Toby Gilmore of Raynham, a faithful body servant who polished the boots of the commander-in-chief. ^ Mrs. Paine dwelt upon the visit of the great Benjamin Franklin in November, 1775, when he stopped to inquire if he could serve as post-rider, to carry letters to her husband. A day or two later she wrote: Taunton, November 10, 1775. I had the happiness of seeing Doctor Franklin on his return to Philadelphia. He was so kind as to call at our house for letters or anything else that I wanted ' At the close of the war, the General gave Toby a small field- piece. "Old Toby," as this gun was called, was accustomed for many years to "speak a piece" in the early morning on the Fourth of July. Toby was a slave kidnapped on the shore of Africa at the age of sixteen. He was bought and brought up by Captain Gilmore, of Raynham, and offered to take the place of the Captain who was drafted for the war. Through the in fluence of David Cobb, he was appointed a body-servant to Washington. [ 30s ] Two Men of Taunton to send you. He made but a short stay with us and we would have been glad for more of his company. There are a great many families moved to this town from Newport and Bristol. The Cobbs are making salt peter. June 5, 1776, at town meeting, the citizens voted to pledge lives and fortunes if Independence should be declared. One day in the summer of 1778, a red-headed youth on a white horse dashed into town, took a hurried lunch at the tavem, and sped on to the northward. It was Lafayette, on his famous seven-hour ride from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to Boston. Another visit of noto riety in that same year was by an adventurous Rosalind, attired in male apparel belonging to Samuel Leonard of Middleboro, in which dis guise she enlisted for the war as a soldier boy.^ The coming of General Sullivan's troops into town in August, 1778, was an exciting event. General Cobb followed him and under his command per formed distinguished services in Rhode Island. Dr. Ezra Stiles, the minister of Newport, driven inland to Dighton, occasionally occupied the Taunton pulpit, wearing a full-bottomed wig. A delightful character, he was urged to settle here; but about this time another call came, to the presidency of Yale College, and, much as he liked ' Deborah Sampson. Leonard was so offended by the un- sexing of his garments that he contemptuously burned them. [306] Taunton during the Revolution the Taunton people, he chose New Haven. Caleb Barnum, a six-footer in a long wig, showed his patriotism by leaving the pulpit to march away as chaplain (with his body-slave, Darius), only to die of camp fever the following year. After Barnum's departure, the candidating for a new minister resulted in the choice of Ephraim Judson, who pleased the youngsters of the congregation by preaching seated in a chair (some said from laziness). During the sweltering days of summer, he would give out the longest psalm, leave his pulpit, and stretch himself under a tree — pos sibly not so much to escape the heat as the sing ing of the congregation, who sometimes held the last note so long as to catch their breath once or twice. The ladies raised such a cry of indignation and threat of boycott because Nathaniel Bird refused to accept "Continental Currency" in payment for dry goods that the shop-keeper pub licly confessed his wrongdoing. During the siege of Boston, a shipload of British soldiers, taken from a stranded vessel at Nantasket, was quartered at Taunton under guard, arousing curiosity among the gentier sex. Several were employed in the Adams factory, where they gave instraction in English nail-making. One of the last American celebrations of Guy Fawkes's Day was held in Taunton. In accord ance with the English custom, fantastically F 307 ] Two Men of Taunton masked men carried in procession, with a dark lantern and matches, a "dummy" representing Guy Fawkes, which was finally burned in a bon fire. During the French wars the Pope was sub stituted for Fawkes, and finally, on the eve of the Revolution, King George himself; as his adherents were similarly treated, a scarecrow figure of Daniel Leonard, the bete noir of Taunton, was probably dragged through the streets and cast into the flames upon the Green. ^ While the hated Tory was being burned in effigy and his quondam friend was deep in councils of state, Mrs. Paine or Eunice might be seen, in mob- cap and morning gown pottering in the kitchen garden, the contents of which we know from this inventory made by Mr. Paine in 1775: Spinage Marble Pease Paper Grass Pole Beans Lima Beans (own growth) Amaranthus Radish (own growth) Bell Vines ^ Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia, who stopped here awaiting the end of the siege of Boston, leaves this record in his diary: We stayed a few months in Philadelphia (after the 19th of April, I775)> and then returned to Taunton, in Massachusetts, in order to be ready to enter Boston as soon as the British should evacuate the town. It was here at Taunton that I distinctly recollect seeing the procession of the Pope and the Devil on the 5th of November (1775), the anniver sary of the Gunpowder Plot. Effigies of these two illustrious personages were dragged around the Common, and this was perhaps the last ex hibition of the kind in our country. Sentiments of great liberality and toleration have contributed to abolish the custom heretofore annual, and to root out all violent prejudices against the good Bishop of Rome and the Church which he governs. 308] Taunton during the Revolution Dutch Turnip Mandrake Parsley Virginia pumpion Sweet Marjoran French Marygold Dwarf Pease (not good) Pink Common Lettuce Winter Cabbage Musk Melon Crown Pease Thyme Cucumbers Marrowfats (most a pint) Carrot Seed Corn Turnip Seed Celery Sugar Pease Beets Honeysuckle Bertram, the naturalist of Philadelphia, gave Paine a root of tantoxilium for his garden. Aunt Eunice kept house with Mrs. Paine and helped to care for the children, who could roll their hoops round the bare, lopsided pasture, now the Green, without ranning into iron fences or being reprimanded by blue-coated policemen, or could fly kites with no danger of leaving them in the tree-tops, a frazzled reminder of childhood's sor row. On pleasant afternoons. Madam Paine could put on her calash and drive her chaise to Attle boro to call upon former neighbors. The rejoicing, when the long strain of warfare was over, is in timated in this letter from General Cobb to Squire Paine after the surrender of Cornwallis : Head-Quarters, near York, Virginia, Oct. 28, 1 78 1. My Dear Sir, — My not writing you hereto fore has not been owing to a want of an affectionate [ 309 ] Two Men of Taunton remembrance of you and your family, but of a proper opportunity and a certain mode of conveyance. You must be Informed before this of the interest ing event that has taken place In this quarter, which I should have Informed you of at the time, but the despatches for Congress were sent so suddenly that I had only a moment just to Inform Governor Hancock: As Lord Cornwallis surrendered at least seven days sooner than we expected, I will give you some of the particulars of our operations: on the Sth Inst., after great exertions and fatigue In bring ing up our heavy artillery and stores, we opened our first batteries upon his lordship; these required finishing; and putting our first parallel In a proper state of defence detained us till the evening of the 14th, when two of the enemy's advanced redoubts, through which we Intended running our second parallel, were stormed and carried, and our second parallel, together with all Its communications, was completed by morning. Most of the two following days were employed in erecting batteries on our advanced parallel; soon after they were completed, and we had opened sixty pieces of artillery, his lord ship, on the morning of the 17th, sent a flag, which was the first that had passed, with proposals for the surrendering of the posts of York and Gloucester. Hostilities ceased. After an Interchange of flags, by which the principles of the surrender were explained, commissioners were appointed on the i8th to settle the articles, and on the 19th, at two o'clock p.m., the British army marched out and grounded their [ 310 ] Taunton during the Revolution arms, — most joyful day! Most of the officers are paroled for Europe, and their troops marched, three days after their captivity, for their lodgment at Winchester, in this State. The British army, in cluding ofiicers, is above seven thousand, and a thou sand naval prisoners. We have taken two thousand suits of clothes, seventy-five pieces of brass artillery, and a hundred and forty-one Iron, together with a quantity of powder and other military stores, — not forgetting the military chest, with two thousand pounds sterling in it, and nine thousand stands of arms, — about sixty sail of vessels, including a frigate and sloop-of-war, all which belong to the French. A forty-gun ship was burned by us In the siege. This Is the greatest blow our enemies have re ceived during the war, more particularly as It has happened in that part of the continent they thought themselves perfectly secure of, and must, with a continuance of our exertions, soon put us In pos session of our wished-for peace. Arrangements are now forming for the future dis posal of the troops, and I suppose those troops that belong northward will soon march for their old posi tion on the Hudson. His Excellency will return with them. General Greene will be reinforced; and Count Rochambeau with his army will perhaps re main In this State. Count de Grasse, with the first fleet in the world, will. If the British dare face him, give them another flogging, and then pursue the orders of his master. [311] Two Men of Taunton I can't write you any more. Give my love to Mrs. Paine and family, and remembrance to all friends. Don't forget honest Joe. You will probably hear from me again when I come a little nearer to you; at present I am out of the world. My best wishes attend you, and believe me ever your sincere friend. David Cobb. Hon'ble Robt. Treat Paine. Chapter XIX First Attorney-General of Massachusetts No rogue e'er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law. Trumbull. POLITICS is a maelstrom more difficult to emerge from than to enter. For thirty-five years, Paine was never without some sort of political office in Massachusetts, always care ful not to let go with one hand until he caught a good grip with the other. He was Representa tive in the General Court, Delegate to Congress, Attorney-General, Judge of the Supreme Court, and Member of the Council. When he came back from Philadelphia, he ceased to be a national figure, but bore an important part in transform ing his native province into a republican com monwealth. After the Declaration of Independ ence, Congress began to wane in importance. Paine preferred a seat in the Massachusetts As sembly, where he could be of greater service as well as nearer to his family and base of supplies. In August, 1777, he was elected Attorney-General to succeed his former companion, Sewall, now fled with the Loyalists and writing from London: I hope to God that I shall not live to see the day when America shall become independent of Great [ 313 ] Two Men ot Taunton Britain, nor have to entertain the penumbra of a doubt how the game will end.^ As first Attomey-General of the Commonwealth, he upheld Govemors Hancock and Bowdoin in bringing social order out of chaos and giving equal opportunity under the law. His duties were arduous and diversified; there were many difficul ties to overcome, many snarls to unravel. War had paralyzed business, reduced thousands to poverty, let down the bars of morality, and left a heavy debt, compelling onerous taxation. Conflicting interests were to be reconciled; restless spirits to be subdued; visionary schemes to be exploded; abuses, riots, and insubordination to be suppressed. He had to deal with counterfeiters, murderers, traitors, embezzlers, and all the slippery, evasive, case-hardened, vicious, and incorrigible charac ters bred by revolution. Paine's spare moments were consumed in committee with Timothy Pickering, James Bowdoin, and the Supreme ' Paine accepted the appointment in these words: To the honourable the Council and House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts Bay. Gentlemen, — I consider myself much honoured by your appoint ment of me to the office of Attomey-General for this state. I hope the importance of my political Engagements will be con sidered as an Excuse for not giving an answer sooner. I accept of the Office, and I hope whilst I am in it I shall answer the reasonable expectations of my Constituents. With the greatest Esteem I am Y'r obedient h'ble Ser't R. T. Paine. August 26,' 1777. [314] First Attorney-General Court judges, revising the Province laws, weed ing out all references to the King, and compiling a digest for the new Govemment. During his term of office, three episodes now stand out as brightly as the stars in Orion's Belt — the confiscation of Tory estates, the drafting of the State Constitution, and the prose cution of the leaders in Shays's Rebellion. The claims of creditors against Tories required im mediate attention. One of the early acts of the reorganized General Court was the confiscation of the property of absentees, on the ground that, when a majority of a nation is at war, its citizens must render service; if they decline to aid, they are enemies; consequently, their "goods and chat tels, rights and credits, lands, tenements, and hereditaments of every kind, shall escheat, inure, and accrae to the sole use and benefit of the gov emment and people of the state." The Attomey- General was empowered to bring action against such estates, and to attach notices of sale upon the deserted houses. He could exhibit to the Court a complaint against any absent Loyalist. Thus it happened, by an ironical turn of Fate, that Mr. Paine could take action of confiscation against Colonel Leonard's estate; order a notice of its sale to be posted on his mansion, and name a com mittee to appraise his property, of which Paine secured a portion in settlement of a personal debt. [315] Two Men of Taunton The tangled estates of the Tories had not been straightened out, before Paine was called to take part in drafting a State Constitution. He was one of twelve persons to whom was entrasted the framing of a constitution, of which an original preliminary draft is preserved in his handwrit ing. This first constitution was accepted by the Legislature, but rejected, five to one, by the people, as too hastily prepared, and not contain ing a Bill of Rights. In this discussion of a con stitution, Paine urged that a single legislative chamber was better than two, a view held also by Franklin and Cushing. Massachusetts had no governor from 1775 to 1780, the Council being then the governing board of the State. To this Council, Painewas chosen in placeof Hopkins, in 1779. From the 17th of June, 1774, Massachusetts practically became a free and independent State. In that year commissions were ordered to run in the name of its "govern ment and people," in lieu of the King's name. On the 17th of June, 1779, precepts were sent out for the election of delegates to assemble in the follow ing September, exactly five years after the Re presentatives at Salem locked the door against Govemor Gage and took their first step for self- govemment; and four years from Bunker Hill day. Through those years their capacity for self- government, and inborn reverence for law, their [316] First Attorney-General pervading moral sense and love of justice, their self-denial and self-control, enabled the people of Massachusetts to keep the ship of state from foundering in a sea of chaos. The year 1780 saw the birth of the Constitu tion which Paine bore a part in fathering. The convention which framed the constitution met in the meeting-house in Cambridge, September i, 1779, and after seven days took a recess until October 28. January 5, 1780, it again met in the Old State House at Boston, where its labors were completed on the 2d day of March. A committee of thirty, to whom was referred the work of pre paring a plan and form of government, included Paine; the task was by them entrasted to a sub committee consisting of President Bowdoin and the two Adamses, who in tum delegated the labor to John Adams alone. He approved a compul sory support of worship, Congregationalism being the state religion of Massachusetts; and this ar ticle was made even more narrow by the conven tion. Compulsory taxation for compulsory reli gious worship lingered from the Puritan period, in which the perfect church and perfect common wealth were held inseparable. According to the first draft of this constitution, no one might hold office who was not a Protestant. Though it was not adopted, this indicated the trend of feeling towards greater toleration than had been granted [ 317] Two Men of Taunton by the original constitutions of the Massachusetts colonies, which declared that no one should hold office who was not a member of the Congregational Church.^ The founders studied the ancient European governments. Using as models the King, Lords, and Commons (words now unpalatable to Ameri cans), they established a Govemor, Senate, and House of Representatives, their powers and duties somewhat modified by the changed sit uation and circumstances, but not essentially altered in elementary principles.^ Office-holding was made dependent on a property qualification. A local residence of Representatives was required, on account of some recusant Bostonians who held seats for country towns, following British cus tom. The encouragement of learning was a strong point in the Bill of Rights. Massachusetts, having small agricultural and mineral resources, must depend on the superior enlightenment and skill of its people to maintain a leading place. Hence * Upon the divorce of Church and State by legislative act in 1833, many church-goers felt that the Christian Common wealth had sunk into a secular corporation. In the progress of toleration and liberality we find in our Legislature to-day, Jew and Gentile, Roman Catholic and Christian Scientist, voting side by side. ^ The other day, James Bryce stated, from the Massachu setts Speaker's desk, that this legislative body was nearest to the old English Parliament of any institution in the world. f 318I First Attorney-General education has always been a pet hobby of this State. Another noticeable feature was the injunc tion that citizens cultivate good humor, — proving that even the testy John Adams set store by a kindly disposition. This constitution guaranteed to the people of Massachusetts the right to be tried by "judges as fair, impartial, and independ ent as the lot of humanity allows." On the 2Sth day of October, 1780, a proclama tion was made from the balcony of the Old State House that Governor Hancock had taken the oath of office as the first Chief Magistrate elected under the new constitution. The govemment had not been firmly established when an insurrection broke out under the lead of General Daniel Shays. Most of his followers were soldiers of the Revolution, ill-clad, ill-fed, ill- paid, ill-tempered. There was a reason for the uprising. After the war, paper currency fell in value, debts increased, people forgot their eco nomical habits, morals were lowered by the long closing of the schools and churches. There was widespread poverty, disaster, and despair. Many advocated repudiation and the State's credit was much impaired;. The chief exports had been furs, sheep, potash, codfish, lumber, flaxseed, oil, and vessels. The war had paralyzed trade; there was little money; business was transacted by barter, and New England ram went a long way toward [ 319 ] Two Men of Taunton liquidating obligations.^ Horses, wagons, oxen, cows, and farm implements were seized by tax collectors and sold at auction for a song. Any thing that the collector left, other creditors at tached. Frequent insolvencies caused endless prosecutions. Unthinking Patriots considered taxation an insult to American freedom. Certain malcontents held a socialistic idea of wiping out all state debts by an act of the Legislature; and a "society for the avoidance of personal obliga tions" was proposed. Continental paper money so depreciated in value that the expression was coined, " not worth a continental." ^ This increase in civil actions was a bonanza to the legal frater nity, whose unpopularity had its head and front in Attomey-General Paine, arch-lawyer of the State.* It was not his office to show mercy; he must see the laws obeyed and violations duly punished — an ungrateful task at best. His pres ence was minatory, his countenance fulminant. Harsh backbiters charged him with pitilessly following criminals to the jail and gallows, and threatening letters were tossed over his fence at 1 Edward Bellamy in the Duke of Stockbridge calls the rebel lion a "gentilities war." ' Rhode Island issued so much paper money that it came to be known as "Rogue Island." ' The town of Salisbury sent remonstrances to the General Court because too many lawyers were drafting the Constitution of 1780. [ 320 ] First Attorney-General night.^ Popular conventions endeavored to thwart the course of justice. Outbreaks occurred in va rious parts of the State in the fall of 1786.^ The leaders were captured and under Paine's prosecu tion were convicted, but were pardoned by Gover nor Bowdoin. A seditious member of the Legis lature was sentenced to sit in the gallows with a rope about his neck. Paine was on a committee to confer with Gov ernor Bowdoin on the alarming situation. Fore seeing trouble in Taunton, he had Dr. Cobb em powered with full military authority to deal with the crisis. In his diary, Paine speaks of being at Taunton September 12, 1786, during the outbreak, and witnessing the dramatic action of his brother- in-law, who thus threatened the mob gathered under command of David Valentine, "Away with your whining! I will hold this court if I hold it in blood." That was on a rainy day in September. In October, when court again convened, there ' In 1778, Paine had the unpleasant duty of prosecuting Bathsheba Spooner, of Worcester, daughter of Timothy Ruggles, for instigating the murder of her aged husband in order that she could marry a youthful lover; although about to be come a mother she was executed before a large concourse — the last woman to receive capital punishment in Massachusetts. * One day in Worcester the Judges thought that Birnam Wood had come to Dunsinane, for a body of tatterdemalions besieged the court-house, each bearing a small pine tree as a badge of Liberty. [ 321 ] Two Men of Taunton was further trouble. A double line of soldiers was drawn up on the southerly side of the Green, and General Cobb, donning his old regimentals, brought out "Old Tobey," and gave his order to the rebels, "Cross that line and I fire; the blood be upon your head!" Paine's diary reads thus: October 25, at noon, mob came to the Green headed by David Valentine; In numbers about 140 arrived. They paraded on south side of Green and In the afternoon sent In a petition to the court, finding the militia commanded by General Cobb to be about 380 well armed, and efficient with a field-piece. Wheeler with his party marched off and disbanded and we heard no more of them. October 29, 1786. Superior Court of Judicature held at Taunton. Militia came from Raynham, Bridgewater, and other parts. Public sentiment triumphed as usual. The rebellion was suppressed without serious blood shed. Soon came the ratification of the Federal Constitution by a convention in which Paine was a delegate. In politics, a man not only finds strange bedfellows, but turns strange somer saults. To make a Conservative of a Radical, give him property to protect or an office of re sponsibility. As a young man, Paine was a free lance and espoused the cause of the multitude against centralized British Government (although at heart more aristocratic than Tory Leonard). [ 322 ] First Attorney-General With years came responsibility and caution. Find ing himself with a family to provide for and pro perty to protect and holding high office, he became a Conservative and advocated the most advanced measures of the Federalists, among whom there was much trepidation lest the national constitu tion should not be adopted, so strong was the opposition.^ Paine urged upon grand jurors the protection of property and individual rights; saw to it that the laws were duly executed for the support of schools, and that every town of fifty or more in habitants maintained a school-house. He insisted that religious principles were a necessary found ation for morality and virtue, and that the in structions of a learned clergy were indispensable. He backed up Governor Hancock in his effort to suppress Sheridan's "School for Scandal," on the ground that the theatre was undermining the character of the people; of which he soon had a practical illustration coming close home to him. Paine was a reconstractionist. He had as sisted in laying the corner-stone of the new na tion in 1776 and in establishing a state constitu tion in 1780. Four years later, he was one of a committee in Boston to recommend a change in ' "If you do not believe in a central common union, then let Shay be made Governor" was an effective argument. [ 323 ] Two Men of Taunton the municipal govemment. Two plans were re ported; one for a mayor, aldermen and council- men, the other for a president and selectmen. The people overwhelmingly rejected both plans — they had not forgotten that the Revolution had been accomplished under the town-meeting system and were quite satisfied with the outcome of that straggle. The bread-and-butter problem of existence pressed home to Paine in every calculation. While Attorney-General, he writes to Governor Han cock confessing his reduced circumstances: To his Excellency Governor Hancock, September II, 1787. R. T. Paine, Attorney-General, begs leave to represent that In the execution of his office he must set out on Monday next on the Western Circuit to attend the sessions of the Supreme Court, and he feels himself unhappy to be obliged to say that he cannot command money enough to bear his ex penses and support his family at home who depend on the dally expenditure of money for their sub sistence, etc. He therefore prays your excellency and honor that a warrant may be granted him for half a year's ser vices — and that your excellency and honor would consider the necessity of his being paid to enable him to execute his office. [ 324 ] First Attorney-General From his wife's family, he received money to as sist in building his Taunton home, and his wife's sister, Hannah, paid for the burial lot in which his son was laid. He claimed that he never received pay for services in the confiscation of Tory pro perty. In his later years he was charged with mis appropriation of thirty pounds while at the Con tinental Congress. Washington himself was not immune from tramped-up charges of peculation, and when Franklin was accused with extrava gance in having spent a hundred thousand dollars of American money, during his services for the Revolution, he replied, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." After thirteen years' service in helping the infant commonwealth upon its feet, Paine felt that he should occupy a position of more dignity with and leisure befitting his years. To John Adams he wrote: Boston, April 13, 1789. Much respected Friend: When we were going to the first Congress our worthy friend Hawley gave us In writing some broken hints — I take liberty to imitate him In the method tho' not in the matter. I intended to have done myself the great pleasure to wait on you at Braintree for the benefit of so cial conversation, but innumerable Accidents have prevented. I wish to Communicate a few Ideas re- [ 32s ] Two Men of Taunton specting my Official Situation, and hope this method may not be disagreeable. I have tolled In public business from the first movlngs of the Revolution with all my Exertions of mind and body, eleven Years In my present Office, and what with the difficulties of the time, and the contracted Ideas some Influential men have of Supporting public Officers, I have spent my well-earned monies I had on Loan for the neces sary Support of my family, and In lieu thereof have demands on Government which bear no Interest and which I receive In a manner too scanty for my Support — twice have I been honored with an ap pointment to the Sup. Court, the first while at Congress I declined because I thought I could be more Serviceable (In our precarious State) In the political line, — when I returned from Congress In '77 I accepted the present Office, on the Unex pected Call of Government, because I saw It was necessary for the Existence of the Commonwealth, that it should be executed In the manner which I have endeavored, and every Lawyer who was cap able was immersed In more profitable business — I cannot describe the fatigue of It, nothing but a Sense of Honor and Duty prevented my resigning — In '83 I was honored with an appointment to the Sup. Jud. bench which I declined because I hoped my Office would have yielded me more income which my family wanted than a Judgeship, but I have been sadly disappointed, and have the mortification to find myself outranked by all my juniors in Politicks, [326] First Attorney-General and having no Income to recompense It, and drudg ing in an Office which, tho' of essential Importance to the Government, I have been out of the line of public notice, and am not without Appreciation that the change of Government may still further reduce me — I have not sought Popularity but endeavoured to do my duty, expecting that this which first brought me into notice would continue me In It — My age, abilities, political pretensions, of all which you will judge for yourself, make me wish for some Station less exposed to drudgery and fatigue than that I am In, but my Family Circumstances oblige me to attend to that Income. If a Judgeship, or quam dies office should turn up It would suit me better than the one I am in, and If I should be appointed to this with reasonable support I shall be thankful — I do not mean to solicit anything Improperly, and If I should, I am sure It would have no effect on you — I present these observations because I have always known you attentive to a Propriety of Conduct and desirous of a state of facts, and I have no other wishes than that as Op portunity offers you would do respecting the premises what you think proper to be done. I think General Washington cannot have forgotten me, my Vote, when he took charge of our Army to support him with life and fortune and my signing the Charter of our Independence — It would be galling to me to find that those who In the times of greatest dan ger were acting a questionable part, should now catch [ 327 ] Two Men of Taunton the bird from the bush which I have beaten — but I will trouble you no more, but wishing you health and all happiness. Subscribe your friend and Servant R. T. Paine. P.S. If there is Occasion for any particular in formation, pray favour me with a line. Chapter XX A Supreme Court Justice Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping. Harrdet. ALEXANDER HAMILTON once remarked that he was never contented unless he had ^ three good friends to love and three bad enemies to hate. Paine was a strong admirer of Hamilton's scheme for a centralized government and a national bank, and impatiently awaited the stage-coach bringing the weekly " Federalist," to read the contributions from the fine mind of "Publius." Paine was somewhat akin to the "Little Lion," for he had the hot temper which goes with black eyes. Although a London magazine, inspired by vindictive Loyalists, spoke of him as "a weak, insignificant tool of Sam Adams"; and in the next breath says, "John Adams spoiled an able ploughman, porter, or butcher." Without the acumen and initiative of Hamilton, he was not so positive a force to win strong friends, and make fierce enemies. Paine held aloof from bosom companionship. Not only was he wanting in genial personal magnetism, but he lacked the [ 329 ] Two Men of Taunton lodestone of an overflowing purse, which Leonard found effective in drawing a circle about him. Paine's office of Attomey-General was one to bring him more foes than friends. He was not al ways careful to veil his opinions, and he had a taste for controversy in politics and religion. He dis covered an intriguing correspondence between Thomas Cushing and John Adams, which dis closed an attempt to supplant him in the good opinion of his constituents. There were intervals in his life when relations were strained between him and James Warren and Judge Dana, as well as with Daniel Leonard. When we call the roll of his intimate friends, we find: John Han cock, William Cushing (the only one of the last five Provincial Judges who held to the Patriot side); Samuel Eliot, great-grandfather of Pres ident Eliot; General Palmer, Col. Orne, Richard Cranch, Increase Sumner, Dr. Cobb, and Oliver Wendell, with whom he frequently dined on July 4. The intimacy between the Paine and Hancock families existed in earlier generations — the fathers of John and Robert had preached in adjoining parishes, Braintree and Weymouth, occasionally exchanging pulpits. Both the boys attended the Boston Latin School and Harvard College; both were sons of ministers; both tardy in marrying; both members of the Legislature and of the Continental Congress. When Hancock [ 330 ] JOHN HANCOCK A Supreme Court Justice wrote his name on the Declaration "big enough for King George to see across the Atlantic," Paine saw to it that his name, crowding close up to that of the presiding officer, was second in bigness. These two men were much together, travelling, dining, legislating, and many a time walked side by side as pall-bearers for departed comrades.^ Hancock, as Governor, appointed his friend a Justice of the Supreme Court. Paine had pre viously declined this honor. In 1775, after the overthrow of the Supreme Court of Judicature, a new bench was chosen of which Paine was a member; but when he heard that John Adams was to be Chief Justice, and he, five years older, to play second fiddle, he made excuses, and found his services of greater value to his country at Philadelphia. Governor Hancock first appointed Paine to the bench in 1783 ; but he then preferred to continue as Attorney-General on the plea that the salary of Judge was too small. The position was again tendered in 1790. This time Paine found plenty of reasons for accepting. Accord ingly, he donned the scarlet and black robe and white-topped boots so noticeable when the Court marched through the streets of Boston.^ ' Judge Paine made his last appearance in the great court wig on the occasion of Hancock's funeral. ^ Judge Dana had been minister to Russia and brought back the Muscovite habit of protecting his fingers in a muff and wore [ 331 ] Two Men of Taunton He brought abundant qualifications to his new office. The practical, bred of experience, and the instinctive ideal were united in him. He was as sociated with Judges Sargent, Sedgwick, Dana, Sumner, and Cushing. Every October, Paine came to Taunton, to receive a welcome from old friends and sit as Judge in the Court-House, which he had frequented as barrister and Attorney- General. As we see him in flowing robes standing meditatively in bronze before the City Hall, so we may picture him in corpore crossing the Com mon to enter the old Court-House, which he and Daniel Leonard had been the committee to build in their humbler days. As justice in eyre, he was obliged to make a round of circuits to various parts of Massachusetts, which then included Maine. In March, 1800, Judge Paine speaks of riding his circuit when the roads were "flooded belly-deep to a horse." It was a dreaded annoyance tomake the long joumey to Maine, and the judges found curious excuses in their efforts to shirk this duty. Beneath the calm exterior of judicial gravity volcanic fires were smouldering, as the following letters bear witness : a white corduroy surtout lined with fur. His high-heeled shoes lifted him to a scant five feet in stature, and he appeared so grotesque in his gaudy apparel that the court soon discarded the red gown for the sable one in which judges becloud them selves to-day. [ 332 ] A Supreme Court Justice Ipswich, June 24^ 1796. Sir: I am not about to solicit any favors of you ; I too well know the gratification you would receive In refusing It If I should. My present design Is to state a few circumstances for your consideration. Two years successively, if I mistake not, you requested to be excused from the eastern circuit, on account of two of your sons graduating. I freely acquiesced In the proposition, not only because I foresaw I should wish a reasonable Indulgence on a similar occasion. That time has now come. Judge Sumner had already been caUed off by the death of his mother. Whether he will go to York is uncertain. Your presence there as well as In the lower counties will become necessary if he should not return. I have understood (not from what passed be tween us only) that you have Intended to absent yourself from this term and York term also, and so oblige me to attend both. Now If such continues to be your design, I give you reasonable notice that I shall return home from this place and shall not go on to York, or either of the lower counties. You will act your pleasure. I am. Sir, your obedient and humble servant, F. P. Dana. Paine sent back this Roland for his Oliver: Boston, July 26, 1796. Sir: It Is very disagreeable to me on many accounts that I find myself under a necessity of remarking [ 333 ] Two Men of Taunton on y'r very extraordinary letter, and lest you may have forgotten the first sentence which seems to be the principle that dictated the whole, I copy it, in these words. . . . The rankness, coarseness, groundless assertion of this introduction are as tounding. When you can recollect any conduct of mine that bears any resemblance of a want of re spect and a disposition to serve you as far as I could consistent with the duty I owe to myself and family, I sincerely wish you to make It known to me and If the charge seems to be well supported I shall cer tainly repent and set about a reformation. Judge Paine then refers to records to show that he had been as faithful as Dana and explicitly explains why he wishes to be absent from York court. He continues : Had you given any reason for not attending at York, I should have listened to It, but to be told In so unjustified a manner that you would not attend at York Is a mode of conduct that neither profits nor pleases. When you point any error In this state ment I shall attend to It; till then I must submit that nothing In that occurrence can justify the sentiment and style of y'r letter. Then follows a precise statement of absences of both judges taken from the records — of no advantage to Dana. Paine shows how he is hard- pressed to support a large family and concludes : There are other matters also worthy of your at- [ 334 ] A Supreme Court Justice tention which at present I do not mention, but rest these matters for your consideration, hoping you will acquit me of the grievous charges you have brought against me and that It will prove to have been the production of a momentary Impulse. I am yours very respectfully, R. T. Paine. A more humorous episode occurred in Maine. Paine had been on the bench but a year when, with Justice Sumner, the Attorney-General, the Clerk of Courts and his friend, the French Con sul, he was going from Portland to Pownals- burgh. The court adjourned at Portland on Fri day and, to reach Pownalsburgh on Tuesday, they jogged along while the folks of Freeport were at Sunday meeting. The procession would have slipped by unnoticed had not the Frenchman, who rode iri a "chair," trotted down into the heart of the town In search of the hairdresser with the result that his vehicle broke down, causing a delay which attracted attention. The warden came out, and in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts arrested the whole company for wilfully profaning the Lord's Day. In vain the Judge and Attorney-General pleaded that it was a case of necessity. They represented that the roads were bad, the time was short, and the weather inclement; that there was a case of mur der on trial, and unless they arrived in time it [ 335 ] Two Men of Taunton would be postponed a year. The officious war den, to gratify his own caprice, refused to be si lenced. The party was at length allowed to pass on, but the Frenchman's popularity was under a temporary cloud. When the court at Pownalsburgh came to ad journ, Paine went out to the row of sheds behind the town house, and in the stall where he had left his horse he found a similar-looking steed, but of inferior speed and value. Some careless citizen had exchanged horses while the court was in ses sion, and was already beyond recall. "Maybe you think more of my chaise now?" said the Frenchman, shragging his shoulders, as, with a twinkle in his eye, he invited Paine to take a seat in his carriage for the rest of the joumey. The judges were fined a round sum for their Sabbath-breaking and at once prepared a long memorial to the General Court, which has been preserved, stating that they had as "much respect for the Sabbath, as the Christian religion re quired"; that they were the persons to decide whether the case was one of necessity; and if they thought for a moment they had broken the law, they would have paid the fine. Paine was cha grined to think that, having been instramental in drafting the Sunday law, he should be charged with breaking it. To protect the court from mor tification, the Sunday laws relating to travelling [336] A Supreme Court Justice were repealed, and the indictment against the court was annulled. At Plymouth, a society had been formed which annually celebrated the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and at its meetings Leonard and Paine were frequent guests, both having Pilgrim an cestry. Its festival was colloquially known as the "Feast of Shells." ^ The name was derived from the fact that the company first attempted to take their soup with cockle-shells, after the pio neer fashion. They speedily discovered that these utensils were spoiling too many satin breeches, and therefore called for silver spoons ; although appear ances of luxury were supposed to be avoided ih imitation of the worthy ancestors. This feast was transferred to Boston after the Revolution. Judge Paine always attended and joined in the post-prandial choras. "The Independent Chron icle" December 30, 1802, commenting on the convivial features of the occasion, said that one of the thirty-one speakers was introduced by the popular song, "Go to the Devil and Shake Your self," — adding: This Is a pretty ditty for the Sons of our pious ': A contemporary says of it: "It was become fashionable of late for a few of the rich and well-born gentry to celebrate what they call the anniversary of the landing of our forefathers at Cape Cod and Plymouth. Not out of new-fangledness, or other such like giddie humor, but for sundrie, weightie, and solid reasons." [ 337 ] Two Men of Taunton Forefathers — what an appearance must General Lincoln and Judge Paine make In company with Stephen Higginson, Fisher Ames, Timothy Picker ing, Dr. Parker, and Rev. Mr. John Gardiner, etc., etc., while attentively listening to the music of "Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself." This is piety with a vengeance. In his later years, Paine was subject to fits of abstraction. Never gifted with the elegance and suavity which endeared Colonel Leonard to his associates, he earned the sobriquet of "Ursus Major" among the young lawyers. As deafness shut him off from the world and old age pressed upon him, he became arbitrary. The manners of the bench at that time were not wholly Chester- fieldian. Fisher Ames once unfeelingly remarked that to practise before the Supreme Court a lawyer should carry a club and an ear-trampet. After serving fourteen years, Paine's increasing infirmity compelled him to resign. Upon his re tirement, in 1804, his several titles were aug mented by an honorary LL.D. from Harvard. He had been addressed successively as Captain, Reverend, Squire, and Judge; now he was com plimented with the title of Doctor. Chapter XXI Daniel in the Lions' Den But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. — Dan. 11:49. THE scene now shifts across the Atlantic. Enter Leonard, a coach passenger, his eyes feasting on the novel sights, as he rides from Falmouth up to the capital of the British Empire through the thrifty, well-kept farms of southern England. August 12, 1776, he first sets foot in London. Now at last Daniel finds himself in the den of the friendly British Lion. He has passed four anxious months in fog bound Halifax. He has learned of the forthcoming Declaration of Independence. Apprehensive, he has set sail for England to ascertain the prob able outcome, leaving his family in Halifax. While he is crossing the ocean, the umbilical cord of the colonies is severed. Arrived in London, he seeks out his friends, Hutchinson, Oliver, Sewall, Browne, and other intimates, who, not insensible to their situation, greet him with a smile which seems to say, "Well, here we are again!" But the veneer of forced mirth covers misgivings deep and sore. With other New England fugitives, many of them "grass widowers," he frequents the [ 339 ] Two Men of Taunton Adelphi Tavem on the Strand, and the New Eng land Coffee House in Threadneedle Street, where every Friday aftemoon there is a dinner party at which American affairs are discussed by a ramp Congress.-^ These Tories, shortening sail, lived in "shabby- genteel" quarters at Brompton Row, Kensington, and only by rigid economy could they preserve a respectable exterior. They had small source of income, and were little more than remittance- men awaiting drafts from America. Leonard, for example. Indulged in no new raiment, was abste mious in food and drink, borrowed newspapers, and sought invitations to dinner. He could not take snuff with the big-wigs ; did not find the doors of high society open to him; nor was there a warra welcome in smaller social circles, as at home. He could not appear to advantage at Almack's or Newmarket, or cut a good figure at Bath or Rane- ' The New England Club formed in London, January, 1776, included: Richard Clark, Joseph Green, Jonathan Bliss, Jona than Sewall, Joseph Waldo, S. S. Blowers, Elisha Hutchinson, William Hutchinson, Thomas Hutchinson, Samuel Sewall, Samuel Curwen, Samuel Quincy, Rev. Isaac Smith, Harrison Gray, David Greene, Jonathan Clark, Thomas Flucker (once secretary of the assembly), Joseph Taylor, Daniel Silsbee, Thomas Branley, William Cabot, John S. Copley (the painter), Nathaniel Coffin, Samuel Porter, Edward Oxhard, Benjamin Pickman, John Amory, Judge Robert Auchmuty, Major Urqu- hart. Colonel Saltonstall, Sir William Pepperrell, Colonel Daniel Leonard, William Browne, Colonel Thomas Brattle. [ 340 ] Daniel in the Lions' Den lagh, so slender was his purse. He found himself neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring. In America, these exiles had been wealthy and successful; their lives passed in dignified occupa tions. In England, they were nobodies anxiously waiting for the war at home to cease. Very few could kiss the hand of their sovereign at state levees, and they listened intently to Hutchin son's account of royalty, happy if he gave them an entree to court circles. Leonard, having time on his hands, bethought himself to look up his family connections. He hunted out Lord Dacre, a Leonard, with whom he searched up and down the branches of their family tree. Consanguinity was acknowledged with proper ceremony and libation. Rumor whispered that a baronetcy was offered Daniel. When the story reached Taunton that Leonard had spurned this offer, the towns people shook their heads — they knew his weak nesses too well. Eagerly the Tories read newspaper advices from America; the British victories of Long Island, White Plains, Fort Lee, Fort Washington, the capture of New York, elated them. They passed the gilded snuff-box, sneezed in contempt of Amer ican Whigs, and grew hilarious over their punch and claret. What could the raw Provincials do against the well-disciplined troops of Sir William Howe and Clinton.'' They maligned the Patriot [341 ] Two Men of Taunton leaders — Sam Adams was light-fingered, em bezzling the town funds; Hancock was a "pea cock," defaulting as treasurer of Harvard; Paul Revere had stolen silver plate; Paine was the "upstart son of a broken-down minister"; John Adams was soured against the Govemment be cause he had failed to get a Crown appointment. They pitied the discomfiture of "King Hancock," one of their own kind, accustomed as he had been to good society. One exile had brought away a half-bushel of the paper Continental currency. This they rolled into pipe-spills to light their meerschaums. Ha! ha! they laughed, tossing the half-bumt money upon the floor, — Washington would soon be hanged, and those ragged Patriots would be best off who could ran the fastest. As for the United Colonies, — a democracy, they sneered, is a govemment in which the lowest rale. When the Declaration of Independence was an nounced, they prophesied that intemal disputes, rivalries, and jealousies would soon bring them all back into Great Britain's arms. "As well have thirteen tomcats in a bag for harmony," said Sewall. "Ho! ho! ho!" they roared, slapping one another on the back, and emptied bumpers to great King George. But the King took down his Bible and read in Isaiah i: 2: "I have nourished children and brought them up, and even they have revolted from me." [ 342 ] Q Z