Radio Script #869

Little Talks on Common Things
November 29, 1970

Last week we ended the broadcast by telling how Quakers became exempted from military service by the Constitution of Maine. Of course that referred only to the state militia, which was then and right up to the Civil War, the most effective defense organization in our country. In 1820 the United States had practically no standing army and as late as 1861, the only way President Lincoln could get troops to defend the Union was to call on the states to raise regiments.

Now let us turn to education above the common school, that is the academies and the colleges. The Dartmouth College case, by which the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the autonomous integrity of a private college without interference from a state legislature, had frightened many people who feared the expansion of such self-regulating institutions. That is the reason why there was written into the Constitution of Maine a provision that caused repeated trouble until it was changed. This is what the constitutional convention decided: “No donation, grant or endowment shall at any time be made by the legislature to any literary institution unless at the time of making such grant the Legislature shall have the right to grant any further powers, alter, limit or restrain any of the powers already vested in the institution, as shall be judged necessary by the Legislature.”

While the provision was obviously aimed at Bowdoin College, it would also affect Colby, for it was well known that the Waterville College’s chief legislative sponsor, William King, intended to see that the first Maine Legislature convening under the new constitution should grant to Waterville the right to confer degrees. Judge Dana of Fryeburg argued strongly for the provision. He said: “If founders and endowers of literary establishments exercise some power over them, as in- deed they do, why should not the state have the same power over those it supports? I am told that our seminaries of learning need no such guards and checks, that they will best succeed when least controlled by the legislature. That may be true today, but then the present trustees are gone and control passes to other hands, we have no assurance of wise or even proper management. Absolute power to perpetuate themselves and their successors in office may become obnoxious to the community and detrimental to the institutions themselves.”

Judge Parris, the man who later became governor, disagreed. He said: “The provision seeks legislative control over college charters. It is Bowdoin College which is the target, and we may as well name it. I am willing you should control academies endowed by the state, but you have no right to suspend their charters. By the present charter of Bowdoin, there are two boards, Trustees and Overseers. The latter has ultimate control of funds. Not a dollar can be spent by the Trustees without sanction of the Overseers. To alter that charter would be outrageous.”

An influential voice in that convention was John Holmes of Alfred, close friend of the presiding officer, William King. In an impassioned speech, he won over a majority for the provision. He said: “To retain the legislative right to enlarge, restrain or regulate a charter is safe and wise. This is not untrodden ground. Observe the long record of Massachusetts control over Harvard. Observe the very restraints written into the Bowdoin charter. We should never make any grant to an institution unless we can in some way have a voice in its expenditure.”

Vote in favor of the provision was 151 to 18.

The issue of apportionment of state senators, thought to have been settled, came up late in the convention for reconsideration. It was moved that the number be changed from 23 to 24 in the first legislature, so that Kennebec would have 4 instead of 3. General Chandler of Monmouth asked “If York with 50,000 people is entitled to 4 senators, by what logic is Kennebec with 55,000 people assigned only three? Mr. Jarvis of Strong objected: “The eastern counties will not be satisfied if you give another senator to Kennebec. Penobscot and Hancock together have 53,000 people and only three senators. If you give another senator to Kennebec, I demand one for the eastern section as an act of justice.”

It was John Holmes again who offered a compromise: “Let the first legislature have only 20 members, and let the legislature itself decide the number and apportionment of subsequent senators.” That was what the convention voted. Wingate of Ellsworth now wanted the apportionment of representatives also reconsidered. He said: “We had decided that no town shall have more than seven. Let us see what may happen in less than 30 years, by the middle of the century. By that time Portland will have as many people as Boston has now. Cumberland County will then be too large for efficient county business. Suppose Portland becomes so large that it is made into a separate county, as has already happened in the Boston area. The county would be entitled to 20 representatives, according to our formula, yet as a town Portland could have only seven. That would be absurd. Now suppose that all other towns in the county had only one tenth of Portland’s population; those towns would get 13 representatives, while Portland, with nine tenths of the county’s people, got only seven. How is that for equality and justice?”

Again it was John Holmes who won the day for the original decision. He said: “Suppose the smaller towns do combine against Portland, which is by no means certain. You still have the senate. No, the larger towns are not in danger.”

The Wingate resolution was defeated 88 to 54, and the original apportionment of representatives remained unchanged.

When the whole Constitution was finally drafted, Low of Lyman, oldest member of the Convention, had a parting word. He said: “I have spoken little in this convention, but I have been an attentive observer. Although in the past I have been strongly opposed to separation, I have been pleased to see the way the important business of this convention has been conducted. I think the result is judicious and correct, and I shall endeavor to persuade the people to adopt this constitution. I sincerely hope that no bitterness will linger to mar the harmony of our state.”

Before we turn to the personnel of that convention, it is well to remind ourselves about the Maine counties in 1820. Last week I pointed out that in 1785 there were only three counties: York, Cumberland and Lincoln. Thirty-five years later, in 1820, the number had grown to nine, most of them carved out of the once immense Lincoln County. The additional six were Kennebec, Hancock, Oxford, Somerset, Penobscot and Washington. As you all know, Maine now has 16 counties. Seven of them were formed after Maine became a separate state. Those seven are Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Knox, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc and Waldo. So, when the 1819 convention tried to apportion the senators, they had to consider only nine counties.

Now we can take a look at some of the men who attended that constitutional convention. Waterville had two representatives, Ebenezer Bacon and Abijah Smith. Bacon was active in securing the legislative act that separated Waterville from Winslow in 1802. He was elected selectman at the first town meeting and served for eleven years. In 1808 he paid a town tax of $10.94. Before Maine became a state, Bacon had served in the Massachusetts legislature. He died in 1847 at the age of 81.

Abijah Smith had married a daughter of the early settler and wealthy land owner, Dr. Obadiah Williams. He was elected the first town clerk of Waterville in 1802, served the town later as treasurer, was captain of Waterville’s first fire company, and in 1808 paid a tax of $7.39. Matching the original gift of his father-in-law, who gave land for the town house and schoolhouse, Smith gave adjoining land for a town common, now the small park in Castonguay Square. He died in 1842.

Samuel Redington, the representative from Vassalboro, had come to Maine with his brother Asa at the close of the Revolution, and had settled in Vassalboro, where he chose to remain when Asa moved to Waterville. He was selectman and treasurer of the town, and represented it in the Massachusetts legislature for nine terms. When Maine secured statehood, Redington served in the new state’s first legislature. His son Alfred was the first mayor of Augusta.

Fairfield was represented in the constitutional convention by General William Kendall. He too had come to Maine soon after the Revolution and had settled on the Nye-Dimmock grant in Fairfield. He built lumber and grist mills on the Kennebec at the small hamlet that was given his name of Kendalls Mills. It is now Fairfield Village. He was a senator in Maine’s first legislature and sheriff of Somerset County. His military rank came from his appointment as major general of the state militia.

As I have said earlier in these broadcasts, a leading figure in the convention was John Holmes of Alfred. He had graduated from Brown University in 1796 and had begun the practice of law in the York County seat at Alfred. He had been a Federalist who, largely under the influence of William King, had turned Democrat. He had served in both the House and the Senate of Massachusetts. He was appointed by President Madison, a commissioner to the Council of Ghent, to arbitrate the ownership of islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. He was Representative to Congress for four years and served the six-year term in the U.S. Senate. No wonder he was chosen chairman of the committee to draft the constitution that was presented to the convention.

Of course the most influential person at that momentous gathering in Portland’s First Parish Church was the presiding officer, William King. With long service in the Massachusetts legislature and a staunch Jeffersonian, King had led the cause of separation for several years before the convention of 1819. Bath’s wealthiest citizen, long before the rise of the famous Sewall family, King owned several ocean-going ships, a large fleet of coastal schooners, and had his hand in many a Maine business deal. But he was above all a skillful politician, knowing how to make friends and influence people. While presiding at that convention with even-handed justice, he manipulated behind the scenes, especially through his friends Holmes of Alfred and Herrick of Bowdoinham. He richly deserved to be chosen the first governor of the new state.

And that is the story of how Maine gained independence and set up its first constitution.

Year: 1970