Various - The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4

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[Illustration: John D. Long]

THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.

_A Massachusetts Magazine._

VOL. III. SEPTEMBER, 1885. NO. IV.

* * * * *

HON. JOHN D. LONG.

Hon. John D. Long, the thirty-second governor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the Constitution, and whose wise,
prudent administration reflected great credit upon himself, was born in
Buckfield, Maine, October 27, 1838.

His father was a man of some prominence in the Pine Tree State, and in
the year in which his more distinguished son first saw the light, he ran
for Congress on the Whig ticket, and although receiving a plurality of
the votes cast, he was defeated.

The son was a studious lad, more fond of his books than of play, and
thought more of obtaining a solid education than of developing his
muscles as an athlete. At the proper age he entered the academy at
Hebron, the principal of which was at that time Mark H. Dunnell,
subsequently a member of Congress from Minnesota.

At the age of fourteen, young Long entered the Freshman class at Harvard
College. He at once took high rank, stood fourth in his class for the
course, and second at the end of the Senior year. He was the author of
the class ode, sung on Commencement day.

After leaving College, Mr. Long was engaged as principal of the Westford
Academy, an old institution incorporated in 1793. He remained at
Westford two years, highly esteemed by his pupils and beloved of the
whole people. As a teacher, he won marked success, and many of his
contemporaries regret that he did not always remain in the profession.
But he cherished another, if not a higher ambition. From Westford he
passed to the Harvard Law School, and to the offices of Sidney Bartlett
and Peleg W. Chandler, in Boston. In 1861, he was admitted to the bar,
and then he opened an office in his native town, to practise his new
profession.

He soon found, however, that Buckfield was not the place for him.
People there were far too honest and peace-loving, and minded their own
business too well to assist in building up a lawyer's reputation. After
a two years' stay, therefore, he removed to Boston, and entered the
office of Stillman B. Allen, where he rapidly gained an extensive
practice. The firm, which consisted of Mr. Allen, Mr. Long, Thomas
Savage and Alfred Hemenway, had their offices on Court Street, in an old
building now on the site of the new Young's Hotel. Mr. Long remained in
the firm until his election, in November, 1879, to the governorship of
Massachusetts.

In 1870, he was married to Miss Mary W. Glover of Hingham,
Massachusetts, to which town he had previously removed his residence.
During his executive administration, he had the great misfortune to
undergo bereavement by the loss of this most estimable lady, whose wise
counsel often lent him encouragement in the perplexed days of his
official life.

In 1875, Mr. Long was chosen to represent the Republicans of the second
Plymouth District in the legislature. He at once took a prominent
position, and gained great popularity with his fellow members. In 1876,
he was re-elected to the House, and soon after he was chosen speaker.
This position he filled with dignity, grace, and with an ease surpassed
by no speaker before him or since. He showed himself thoroughly versed
in parliamentary practice, and his tact was indeed something remarkable.
So great was his popularity that, in 1877, he had every vote which was
cast for speaker, and in the following year every vote but six.

In the fall of 1877, the Republican State Convention assembled at
Worcester, and it at once became apparent that many of the delegates
were desirous to vote for Mr. Speaker Long for the highest office in the
Commonwealth. At the convention he received, however, only 217 votes for
candidate; and his name was then withdrawn. At the convention of 1878,
he again found numerous supporters, and received 266 votes for Governor.
He was then nominated for Lieutenant Governor by a very large majority,
and was elected. In the convention of 1879, Governor Thomas Talbot
declining a re-nomination, Lieutenant Governor Long received 669 votes
to 505 votes for the Hon. Henry L. Pierce, and was nominated and
elected, having 122,751 votes to 109,149 for General Benjamin F. Butler,
9,989 for John Quincy Adams, and 1,635 for the Rev D.C. Eddy, D.D.

On the fifteenth of September, 1880, Governor Long was re-nominated by
acclamation, and in November he was re-elected by a plurality of about
52,000 votes,--the largest plurality given for any candidate for the
governorship of Massachusetts since the presidential year of 1872. He
continued to hold the office, by re-election until January, 1883.

Several important acts were passed during the administration of Governor
Long, and notably among these was an act fixing the penalties for
drunkeness,--an act providing that no person who has been served in the
United State army or navy, and has been honorably discharged from the
service, if otherwise qualified to vote, shall be debarred from voting
on account of his being a pauper, or, if a pauper, because of the
non-payment of a poll tax,--an act which obviated many of the evils of
double taxation by providing that, when any person has an interest in
taxable real estate as holders of a mortgage, given to secure the
payment of a loan, the amount of which is fixed and stated, the amount
of said person's interest as mortgagee shall be assessed as real estate
in the city or town where the land lies, and the mortgagor shall be
assessed only for the value of said real estate, less the mortgagee's
interest in it.

The creditable manner in which Mr. Long conducted the affairs of the
State induced his constituents to send him as their representative in
Washington. He was elected a member of the Forty-eighth Congress, and is
now a member also of the Forty-ninth. His record thus far has been
altogether honorable and characterized by a sturdy watchfulness of the
interests entrusted to his care.

As a man of letters. Governor Long has achieved a reputation. Some years
ago, he produced a scholarly translation, in blank verse, of Virgil's
_AEneid_, which was published in 1879 in Boston. It has found many
admirers among students of classical literature. Governor Long, amid
busy professional and official duties, has also written several poems
and essays which reflect credit upon his heart and brain. His inaugural
addresses were masterpieces of literary art, and the same can be said of
his speeches on the floor of Congress, all of them, polished, forceful
and to the point.

Mr. Long is a very fluent speaker, and, without oratorical display, he
always succeeds in winning the attention of his auditors. It is what he
says, more than how he says it, that has won for him his great
popularity on the platform. When, in February last, the Washington
monument was dedicated, he it was that was chosen to read the
magnificent oration of Robert C. Winthrop.

As a specimen of Mr. Long's happy way of expressing timely thoughts, the
following passage, selected from an address which he delivered at
Tremont Temple, Boston, on Memorial Day, 1881, deserves to be read:--

"Scarce a town is there--from Boston, with its magnificent column
crowned with the statue of America at the dedication of which even the
conquered Southron came to pay honor, to the humblest stone in rural
villages--in which these monuments do not rise summer and winter, in
snow and sun, day and night, to tell how universal was the response of
Massachusetts to the call of the patriots' duty, whether it rang above
the city's din or broke the quiet of the farm. On city square and
village green stand the graceful figures of student, clerk, mechanic,
farmer, in that endeared and never-to-be-forgotten war-uniform of the
soldier or the sailor, their stern young faces to the front, still on
guard, watching the work they wrought in the flesh, and teaching in
eloquent silence the lesson of the citizen's duty to the state, How our
children will study these! How they will search and read their names!
How quaint and antique to them will seem their arms and costume! How
they will gather and store up in their minds the fine, insensibly
filtering percolation of the sentiment of valor, of loyalty, of fight
for right, of resistance against wrong, just as we inherited all this
from the Revolutionary era, so that, when some crisis shall in the
future come to them, as it came to us, they will spring to the rescue,
as sprang our youth, in the beauty and chivalry of the consciousness
of a noble descent."

* * * * *

CONCORD MEN AND MEMORIES.

By George B. Bartlett.

On a pleasant June morning after a long drive through shady country
lanes, the little pile of rocks was reached, which for two hundred and
fifty years has marked the western corner of the lot, six miles square,
granted to form the plantation at Musketaquid on the second of September
1635. Resting here in the shadow of the pines, listening to the busy
gossip of the squirrels, many scenes and people which have made the town
of Concord, Massachusetts, so noted, seemed to pass in review, some of
which will here be recounted.

Perhaps on this spot Simon Willard and his associates may have stood,
and these rough rocks been laid in place by their hands. Peter Bulkeley,
the wise and reverend, may have consecrated this solemn occasion with
prayer in accordance with the good old custom of the time. To the two
gentlemen above-mentioned the chief credit of the settlement of Concord
is mainly due. Attention was early called to the broad meadows of the
Musketaquid or 'grass grown river' and a company marched from the
ancient Newtown to form a settlement there early in the fall of 1635.
Few of the thousand pilgrims who arrive every year over the Fitchburg
and Lowell railroads can imagine the discomforts of the toilsome journey
of these early settlers as they penetrated through the unbroken
wilderness and wet and dreary swamps, devoting nearly two weeks to the
journey now easily accomplished in forty minutes. Many of their cattle
died from exposure and change of climate, and great heroism and courage
were required to make them persevere. They were kindly received by the
Indians who were in possession of the lands along the rivers, and who
finally consented to part with them so peacefully, that the name of the
town was called Concord.

Near the present site of the hotel stood an oak tree under which
tradition locates the scene of these amicable bargains. On a hill at the
junction of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers, rumor also locates the lodge
of the squaw who reigned as queen over one of the Indian tribes, and
thus introduced into the village female supremacy which has steadily
gained in power ever since. Later the Apostle Eliot preached here often,
and converted many dusky followers into "Praying Indians." Remnants of
their lodge-stones, arrow-heads and other relics were abundant half a
century ago in the great fields and other well known resorts, and a
large kitchen-miden or pile of shells, now fast becoming sand, marks the
place of one of their solemn feasts. The early explorers seem to have
built at first under the shelter of the low sand-hills which extend
through the centre of the town, and perhaps some of them were content to
winter in caves dug in the western slopes. Their first care was for
their church which was organized under the Rev. Peter Bulkeley and John
Jones as pastor and teacher, but after a few years Mr. Jones left for
Connecticut with one-third of his flock. Many other things occurred to
discourage this little band, but their indomitable leader was not one to
abandon any enterprise. Rev. Peter Bulkeley was a gentleman of learning,
wealth and culture, as was also Simon Willard who managed the temporal
affairs of the plantation. It is a curious commentary on the present
temperance question to learn from early records that to the chief men
alone was given the right to sell intoxicating liquors. In many of the
early plantations the land seems to have been divided into parcels,
which were in some cases distributed by lot, and this fact may perhaps
have originated the word _lot_ as applied to land. A large tract
near the centre of the town was long held in common by forty associates,
the entrance to which was behind the site of the former Courthouse, now
occupied by the Insurance Office. Before many years had passed this
little town lost in some degree its peaceful reputation, and became a
centre of operations during King Philip's war, many bodies of armed men
being sent out against the savages, and one to the relief of Brookfield,
under Mr. Willard. Block houses were built at several exposed points,
the sites of which, with other noted places will soon be marked with
memorial tablets.

Trained by this Indian warfare, the inhabitants of Concord were prepared
for the events which were to follow, and when, in 1775, their town
furnished the first battle-field of the American Revolution, they were
able to offer "the first effectual resistance to British aggression." In
the old church built in 1712 was held the famous Continental Congress
where the fiery speeches of Adams and Hancock did so much to hasten the
opening of the inevitable conflict between England and her provinces.
The same frame which was used for the present building echoed with the
stirring words of the patriots as well as with the fearless utterances
of the Rev. William Emerson, who, on the Sunday before Concord fight,
preached his famous sermon on the text "Resistance to tyrants is
obedience to God." The events which preceded the Revolution need not be
recorded here, nor any facts not intimately connected with the history
of the town, which had been quietly making preparations for the grand
event. Under Colonel James Barrett and Major Buttrick, the militia and
other soldiers were drilled and organized, some of whom under the name
of Minute-men were ordered to be ready to parade at a moment's notice.
Cannon and other munitions of war were procured, which with flour and
provisions were secreted in various places.

Tidings of these preparations was carried to the British in Boston by
the spies and tories who abounded in the town, and on the evening of the
eighteenth of April, an expedition consisting of about eight hundred men
was sent out to counteract them. Paul Revere having been stopped at
Lexington, was able to spread the news of the attack by means of Dr.
Prescott who had been sitting up late with the lady whom he afterwards
married. Love overleaps all obstacles, and with cut bridle-rein the
Doctor leaped his gallant steed over walls and fences and reached
Concord very early in the morning. At the ringing of the bell the
Minute-men flocked to their standard on the crest of Burying Hill where
they were joined by Rev. William Emerson, whose marble tomb stands near
the very spot, and also marks the place where Pitcairn and Smith
controlled the operations of the British during the forenoon.

The Liberty-pole occupied the next eminence, a few rods farther east.
Here the little band of patriots awaited the coming of the
well-disciplined foe, ignorant that their country-men had fallen on
Lexington Common before the very muskets that now glittered in the
morning sun. Some proposed to go and meet the British, and some to die
holding their ground; but their wiser commanders led them to
Ponkawtassett Hill a mile away, where the worn and weary troops were
cheered by food and rest, and were reinforced by new arrivals from Acton
and other towns, until they numbered nearly three hundred men. After
destroying many stores in the village, and sending three companies to
Colonel Barrett's in vain search for the cannon, which were buried in
the furrows of a ploughed field, a detachment of British soldiers took
possession of the South Bridge, and three companies were left to guard
the old North Bridge under command of Captain Lawrie.

[Illustration: Henry D. Thoreau.]

Seeing this manoeuvre the Americans slowly advanced and took up their
position on the hill at the west of the bridge which the British now
began to destroy. Colonel Isaac Davis of Acton now offered to lead the
attack, saying, "I have not a man who is afraid to go," and he was given
the place in front of the advancing column, and fell at the first volley
from the British, who were posted on the other bank of the river. Major
Buttrick then ordered his troops to fire, and dashed on to the bridge,
driving the enemy back to the main road, down which they soon retreated
to the Common, to join the Grenadiers and Marines who there awaited
them. The Minute-men crossed over the hills and fields to Merriam's
corner when they again attacked the British, who were marching back to
Boston, and killed and wounded several of the enemy without injury to
themselves. Meanwhile the three companies had returned from Colonel
Barrett's and marched safely over the bridge which had been abandoned by
both sides, and joined the main force of the British who had waited for
them on the Common.

After the skirmish at Merriam's corner, the fighting was continued in
true Indian fashion from behind walls and buildings with such effect
that the British would have been captured had they not been re-enforced
at Lexington by a large force with field pieces.

In 1836, the spot on which the British stood was marked by a plain
monument, and in 1875 the place near which Captain Isaac Davis and his
companions fell was made forever memorable by the noble bronze statue of
the Minute-man by Daniel Chester French in which the artist has
carefully copied every detail of dress and implement, from the ancient
firelock, to the old plough on which he leans.

[Illustration: THE OLD BATTLE GROUND.]

In order to prove her claim to the peaceful name of Concord, this
village seems to have taken an active part in every warlike enterprise
which followed. Several of her men fought at Bunker Hill and one was
killed there. In Shay's Rebellion Job Shattuck of Groton attempted to
prevent the court, which assembled in Concord, from transacting its
business, by an armed force. In the war of 1812, Concord men served
well, and in the old anti-slavery days many a fierce battle of tongue
and pen was waged by the early supporters of the then unpopular cause.
John Brown spent his fifty-eighth birthday in the town the week before
he left for Harper's Ferry, and the gallows from which his "soul went
marching on." The United States officials who came to arrest Mr. Sanborn
for his knowledge of Brown's movements were advised by the women and men
of Concord to retreat down the old Boston road _a la_ British; and
when the call came for troops to put down the late Rebellion, Concord
was among the first to send her militia to the field under the gallant
young farmer-soldier, Colonel Prescott, who at Petersburg,

"Showed how a soldier ought to fight,
And a Christian ought to die."

[Illustration: R. Waldo Emerson]

In memory of the brave who found in Concord "a birthplace, home or
grave" the plain shaft in the public square was erected on the spot
where the Minute-men were probably first drawn up on the morning of the
nineteenth of April. 1775 to listen to the inspiring words of their
young preacher, Rev. William Emerson, and ninety years after in the same
place his grandson R.W. Emerson recounted the noble deeds of the men who
had gallantly proved themselves worthy to bear the names made famous by
their ancestors at Concord fight. The Rev. William Emerson in 1775
occupied and owned _The Old Manse_, which was built for him about
ten years before, on the occasion of his marriage to Miss. Phoebe Bliss,
the daughter of one of the early ministers of Concord. Mr. Emerson was
so patriotic and eager to attack the invaders at once, that he was
compelled by his people to remain in his house, from which he is said to
have watched the battle at the bridge from a window commanding the
field. He soon after joined the army as chaplain and died the next year
at Rutland, and his widow married some years after the Rev. Dr. Ripley
who succeeded him in his church and home, and lived until his death in
the Manse which has always remained in the possession of his
descendants. Dr. Ripley ruled the church and town with the iron sway of
an old-fashioned New England minister, and the old Manse has for years
been a literary centre. In the old dining room, the solemn conclave of
clergymen have cracked many a hard doctrine and many a merry jest,
seated in the high-backed leather chairs which have stood for one
hundred and twenty years around the old table. Here Mrs. Sarah Ripley
fitted many a noted scholar for college in the intervals of her
housekeeping labors before the open kitchen fireplace. In an attic
room, called the Saint's chamber, from the penciled names of honored
occupants, Emerson is said to have written _Nature_, and perhaps
other works, as much of his time was spent in the Manse at various
periods of his life. Here Hawthorne came on his wedding tour and lived
for two happy years and wrote the _Mosses from an Old Manse_ and
other works. In his study over the dining-room, his name is written
with a diamond on one of the little window panes, and with the same
instrument his wife has recorded on the dining-room window annals of
her daughter who was born in the house.

[Illustration: Nathaniel Hawthorne.]

On the hill opposite, the solitary poplar, the last of a group set
out by some school-girls eighty years ago, still stands. Each of its
companions died about the time of the decease of its lady planter, and
as the one who set out the present tree has lately died, the poplar
suffered last year from a stroke of lightning which may cause it to
follow soon.

Nearly opposite the Manse on the road toward the village is the well
preserved house, formerly the home of Elisha Jones, which bears in the
L the mark of a bullet fired into it on the day of Concord fight. On
the same side of the way a little farther down is a house, a portion of
which was built by Humphrey Barrett as early as 1640. As the route of
the retreating British from the bridge is followed for half a mile down
this road the common is reached, which is bounded on the Northern end by
the stores, from which the British took flour and other Continental
supplies, and at the opposite end stands Wright tavern which the gallant
Pitcairn immortalized by stirring his brandy with a bloody finger,
unconscious that the rebel blood he promised to stir would cause his own
to flow at Bunker Hill.

Opposite Wright tavern is one of the oldest burying hills in the
country, on which may be seen the stone of Joseph Merriam, who died in
1677 and those of Colonel Barrett who commanded the troops, and of Major
Buttrick who led them at the bridge, and of his son the fifer who
furnished the music to which they marched. Here also is the inscription
to John Jack famous for its alliteration, and the tablets of the old
ministers and founders of church and State. Some of these headstones
bear coats of arms and rough portraits in stone, while others more
symbolic, are content with the winged cherubim or solemn weeping willow,
and others older still preserve the antique coffin shape. About one
quarter of a mile in the rear of this historic Burying Hill is Sleepy
Hollow, the cemetery now so famous, which will be for centuries as now,
the Mecca of pious pilgrims, for here Emerson sleeps beneath the giant
pine of which he loved to write and which in grateful recognition ever
whispers its solemn dirge over the dead poet, who will live forever in
his writings. His grave is now marked by a rough rock of beautiful pink
crystal-quartz, and his son Waldo lies close beside him, with no
monument but the imperishable one of _Threnody_. Mrs. Ruth Emerson,
the mother of the poet and his brothers, nephews and grandchildren rest
near him, and close by is the grave of Miss Mary Moody Emerson, the
eccentric genius whom he well appreciated.

[Illustration: THE STUDY IN THE TOWER OF THE WAYSIDE.]

Ridge Path leads up the steep hill past the grave of Emerson and also to
most of the noted burial places. On ascending this path at the western
end, Hawthorne's lot is first reached, surrounded by a low hedge of
Arbor Vitae and the grave of the great writer is marked only by two low
white stones one of which bears his name. At his head lies his little
grandson, Francis Lathrop, and by his side Julian's little daughter
Gladys. Behind is the grave of Thoreau, a plain brown stone, and very
near are the graves of two of the little women, Amy and Beth, by the
side of their noble mother, Mrs. Alcott. Colonel Prescott and many noted
citizens are buried on this path which has for a chief ornament the
handsome monument of the Honorable William Whiting, nearly opposite
which is the Manse lot, with its memorials to Mrs. Ripley and her sons.
On the side of this hill is the Monument to Honorable Samuel Hoar which
bears upon its upper portion an appropriate motto from Pilgrim's
Progress, and an oft-quoted inscription which with the one in the same
lot to his daughter, is recommended to all lovers of pure English as
they are true records of the pure souls they commemorate.

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