Radio Script #356
Little Talks On Common Things
November 24, 1957
It is hard to realize that a young person must be more than 20 years old to have any recollection at all of the great depression of the early 1930’s. But those of us who are 0 I der remember those gri m days very we II. We can perhaps understand what Maine people experienced 150 years ago as a result of the Embargo Act.
As trouble with Great Britain increased during the year 1807 — trouble that was eventua II y to lead to the War of 1812 — Presi dent Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass the Embargo Act. I t vi rtua I Iy out I awed a II seaborne comrrerce wiTh foreign nations. It forbade all U. S. ships to leave for any foreign port. Our shi ps engaged in coastwi se trade were requi red to post bonds doub Ie the va I ue of thei r cargoes as a guarantee that the goods would be landed at a U. S. port.
The result was that all along the coast of Maine: as well as on the whole Atlantic seaboard, smuggling became looked upon as a respectable activity. Briti sh merchants cooperated with American merchants who violated the law. All th rough a peri od of eight years, unti I the second war wi th Bri tai n ended in 1815, the Mai ne communities suffered great hardships. Poverty and unemp loyment pressed heavi Iy upon most of the settlements. Along the coast the seamen and fishermen were obliged to turn to other pursuits. There was no longer a market for I umber, so farmers began to c lear the i r waste I ands and extend the i r fie Ids and pastures. Many sold or just abandoned their mortgaged farms. Others searched for wea Ith beneath the soi I . I n short, wi th the resource fu I ness that has always been a prime characteristic of Maine folk, our people adjusted their lives to the depressi ng ti me.
One result was beginning of interest in minerals and metals in Maine. That no one ever uncovered a Comstock lode or a Sutter’s Mi II find in this state is not because Maine men did not try. In 1810 a man named Brown Simpson made some explorations along Muscongus Bay. He purchased the right to dig for ore on a large number of lots. Simpson proceeded to organize a corporation called the Thomaston Coal and Mineral Company. The company struggled along unti I 1820, when even Si mpson hi mse I f became di scouraged. I t never di d any profi tab Ie mi njng of minerals, although Simpson always claimed that his explorations showed favorable indications of coal.
The po i nt I want to make is that, in the blackest years that ever hit Ma i ne business and agriculture, the years 1807 to 1815, Maine folk somahow struggled through. They kept on supporti ng school s and churches. Duri ng the hardest times they actually enlarged their farms so that the grain crop of 1814 was The largest Mai ne had ever reaped. With better times, especi ally after the di sastrous year of no summar in 1816, peop Ie gradua Ily forgot the awful years of the Embargo and The War.
Some pretty good stories of Yankee wit and crafty ways have come down to us from early Trading days in Maine. For instance, over in Readfield was a blacksmith who went into the business of making warranted axes. When a neighbor complained thaT they weren’t any better than ordinary axes, the blacksmith asked, !tv/ho said they was?H nyou did”, was the reply, t:you said you would warrant them”. ~ TTAnd::_that- I wi II”, said the smith, 111 warrant them to be axes.”
Another story is tol d about an 0 I d-ti me storekeeper in Li tchfi e I d. He had served in the Revolutionary War and was called Major. One day his clerk told him that, wh i Ie the Major was out to di nner, a fe II ow had come in and bought a few articles on credit, but the clerk neglected to get his nama. HCharge them to Bi II Barney”, sa i d the Major. HHe’ s cheated me so many ti mes, he owes me a lot more than what That fe Iler bought.”
One day the Major ye lied at his clerk, HS am , have you charged that rum?”
”Haven’t drawn any, Major.” “Yes, you have, two ga lions. Charge it to 0 liver Smi-th. U On another occasion the Major sai d, IVSam , ai n ‘t that Matthew Ke Iler going up the I ane?” “Yes,. sir. n “We II, charge hi m wi th a mug of f lip. ”
If that is the way the Major did business, it is no wonder the neighbors eventua Ily got wi se to him and drove hi m out of town. can assure you he was not typical of the great majority of honest, di ligent merchants in Maine in the early ni neteenth century.
Did you know that an army execution once took place in Maine? It was in 1780 when the Revolution was nearing its end. Command of what was called the Easte rn Department,. between the Pi scataq ua and the St. Cro i x.: ( in othe r words, a I I of Ma i ne)’, was entrusted to Gene ra I Wadsworth. He arri ved at Fa I mouth, (now Portland) on Apri I 6 and set about almost immediately raising troops for his command. The fo II owi ng week he came to the town of St. George, where he set up headquarters. He issued orders stri ctl y forbi ddi ng a II tradi ng wi th the enemy.
When ill icit trading continued, Wadsworth wrathfully decreed that any person caught at it would suffer the death penalty. A man named Jeremiah Brown of Damariscotta was charged with pi loting a British patrol through the back country so that they could pi I I age the outlying set~lements. Since Wadsworth had the whole region under martial law, Brown was tried by court martial, condemned and sentenced to be hanged.
All Brown’s neighbors knew him to be a man of feeble intellect and probably not fully aware thaT he had done anything wrong. Folks therefore decided that Brown’s sentence was only meant to frighten him and prevent a repetition of the offense. Many patriotic citizens interceded with the General for the man’s pardon — in fact they regarded such intercession as hardly necessary, for surely the General did not intend to execute the poor fellow. To their amazement, Wadsworth insisted that the man must be made an example. So, less than 48 hours after the end of the tri a I, Brown was hanged on ga’ lows erected on Li mestone Hi I I in Thomaston. Many friends of the Revolution deplored this action; and years afterward the 0 I d peop Ie who remembered the day condemned Gene ra I Wadsworth as a hard and unreasonable man.
Year: 1957