Some time ago we passed on to you several interesting items from Drew’s\u00a0Rural Intelligencer, published in Augusta In 1855. In all fairness, It is time\u00a0that, – we ca lied attenti on to the fact that an Augusta newspaper stl II pub” shed\u00a0today was In ci rculation even earlier than 1855. I refer to the Kennebec Journal.<\/p>\n
I have before me right now a copy of the Journal which is Vol. IX, No. 24,\u00a0dated Wednesday morning, March 2, 1853.\u00a0At a time when most newspapers were weeklies, the Kennebec Journal In 1853\u00a0was a I ready on I ts way to becoml ng a dally, though I t had not quite reached that\u00a0d I sti ncti on. I twas pub I I shed, th ree ti mes a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A greater part of thIs Issue of March 2nd Is taken up wIth the happenings\u00a0In the Maine legislature. There was sharp controversy between House and Senate\u00a0on a proposa I to grant al d to the Passamaquoddy I ndi ans to bui I d houses and\u00a0barns. Advocates pointed out and, mind you, this was a hundred years ago, that\u00a0even then the Indians’ hunting and fishing rights were giving out; they had be …\u00a0come poor and needy. The Indians remaining at Pleasant Point were vagrant paupers,\u00a0gettl ng thel r I i vi ng by makl ng baskets, wanderi ng about from p I ace to p I ace;\u00a0but those who were already at the place where the proposed resolve would aid\u00a0others to settle were relatively prosperous. Opponents said those Indians were\u00a0natura Ily sh i ftless and unre Ii ab Ie, that they wouldn’t stay on good Icilnd I f put\u00a0there, and any money spent helping them bui Id houses and barns was, Just so much\u00a0poured down the drain. Finally humanitarian Interests prevailed and the,bill\u00a0was passed.<\/p>\n
The ,!-buse had Just cast their votes for Major General of the 8th Division\u00a0of the StateMi litia, electing E. C. Belcher with 69 votes to 45 forL,.D. Palner.\u00a0Some joker cast one VOTe for the Baskahegan Grant. IT wou I d be Interestlng to\u00a0know how that term originated. Where was Baskahegan and what was its grant?\u00a0Sorre of the petiTions presented in that 1853 Legislature strike us as very\u00a0strange today. At thaT time one secured a divorce, not in the courts, but by\u00a0petitioning the legislature. $0 one of the 1853 petitions was that of Calvin\u00a0Hopkins for divorce. Isaac Bragg petitioned to construct a plank road from Bangor\u00a0to Old Town. Samuel Chase petitioned for remuneraTion for clothes lost by\u00a0his ward George Minot~ in the burning of the Insane Hospital. John Dulin petitioned\u00a0for the right to change his name.<\/p>\n
In one column of This issue of March 2, 1853 appears this jovial account of\u00a0the State Prison: “This institution for gentlemen who have been unfortunate in\u00a0business operations appears to be in its usual flourishing condition. Seventythree\u00a0of these unfortunate individuals are now avai ling themselves of the quiet\u00a0and wholesome Influence of this sequestered retreat, occupying their time princi\u00a0pa Ily In contemp I at i on and cobb II ng.”<\/p>\n
Some of the bewildering doings in Washington have led to the remaking of\u00a0certain dictionary definitions. Perhaps you would like to know what some good\u00a0English words have come to mean in the national capital.\u00a0A lip rogram” I s any ass I gnment that cannot be CO”” leted by one telephone call.\u00a0An “expediter” is one who confounds confusion with commotion whi Ie riding fast\u00a0trains or faster planes and staying at the best hotels. On that basis you could\u00a0make your own definition of an “efficiency expert”. He, of course, is a man who\u00a0trains expediters; and a “coordinator” is one who has a desk between two expediters.<\/p>\n
The good old verb “to activate” means to make a lot of carbons and add a\u00a0lot of names to a memorandum. The phrase “under consideration” means “Never\u00a0heard of it”; “under active consideration” means ”We’re looking in the fi les for\u00a0it”. “In transmittal” means “We’re sending It to you because we’re tired of\u00a0be Ing hounded about It j it’s your turn A~”. A “conference” is a p lace where\u00a0conversatl(i)n Is substituted for the dreariness of labor and the loneliness of\u00a0thought. A “modification of pollcy”means a co~lete reversal whIch nobody\u00a0admits. “Synthesis” Is a co~ounding of detal led bewl lderman1- Into a vast but\u00a0comfortable confusion which offends no one. “Research work” means hunting for\u00a0the fellow that moved the files; as for the research itself, copying from one\u00a0book is plagiarism; copying from two books is research. And the poor “economic\u00a0expert”, the new definition for him is a man who tells you wha1- to do with the\u00a0money you would not have if you had followed his advice.<\/p>\n
Some day an unbiased, objective study will be made of Father Rasle of colonlal <\/em>days in Norridgewock, and his part In <\/em>the Indian wars of the l8thcentury.\u00a0So bitter was both the national and the religious feuding generated and perpetuated\u00a0th rough the years by the vi 0 lent death of Father Ras Ie, and the passage of\u00a0time has obscured so many of the facts that It Is difficult to tell what part the\u00a0missionary father really played In <\/em>the politIcal and military 51-rIfe between the\u00a0English and the French, In theIr bItter contest for control of the North American,\u00a0continent.\u00a0I n any event, because Fa the r Ras Ie was such a noted pe rson I n the 0 I d days\u00a0of the Kennebec Va Iley, we owe him attention on th i s program.<\/p>\n The flrst French miss I on on the St. lawrence began as early, as HH4 under\u00a0the patronage of Champlain. In 1625 three Jesuits set up a mission with Quebec\u00a0as Its center \u2022\u2022 The first mission church was bui It opposite the mouth\u00b7.of.,the\u00a0Chaudiere, was endowed by a French countess, and was given the name of St. Joseph ofSlllery. Its first missionary of consequence was Father Gabriel Druillettes,\u00a0who patiently learned the language of the Algonquin Indians.\u00a0When the Abenakis of the Kennebec first came In contact wl1-h the Jesuits Is\u00a0uncertai nj but I t was sure Iy as early as 1631, when a party of Kennebec I ndi ans\u00a0went ‘to Quebec to buy beaver skins to sell to the Plymouth traders. We knOt that\u00a0in 1640 aA Algonquin from Quebec brought his fami Iy to Old Point at Norri dgewock,\u00a0and In 1642 an Abenaki chief was taken to Quebec for Christian baptism.<\/p>\n In 1646, when the Abenakis requested that a priest be. sent to them, Father\u00a0OJ”uil fe’ttes left Quebec on August 29 of that year, went up the Olaudiere 90 mi les\u00a0to Lake Megantic, crossed the di vide to the head waters of the Kennebec, ~nd in\u00a0the middle of September reached Old Point at Norridgewock, which was then the\u00a0prl nci pa I upper vi “age of the Abenakis.\u00a0Fathe r Druil1ettes di d not rema in at 01 d Poi nt .He went on dOtn the ri ve r to\u00a0Cushnoc (the Dresent site of Augusta) where he was kindly received by John Winslow;\u00a0‘then he took the long trip dOtn to the mouth of the river and along the\u00a0coast ‘to Castine, to confer with the Capuchin priests there. On his return he did\u00a0not go back 10 Norridgewock, but set up his first mission at an Indian village\u00a0about a mile above the Cushnoc tradl ng post, at Gilley’s Point. He ca lied that\u00a0mission ”The Mission of the Assumption on the Kennebec”. In 1647 Father Oruillettes\u00a0accompanied the Abenakls on their winter hunt to tIoosehead Lake.\u00a0After he returned to Quebec in the spring of 1647 it was three years before\u00a0he again returned to Maine. Then he went far beyond the Kennebec waters. He went\u00a0to BostOR and to Plymouth, to plead with the English settlements there for aid\u00a0to his I ndian friends against the marauding I roquols. In 1651 he went as far as\u00a0New Haven on the same errand, but he was ob I i gad to record in his Journa I that\u00a0“Christi an New Eng land woui d not be roused to protect the Christian I zed I ndrans\u00a0of the Kennebec.”<\/p>\n In 1685 the Quebec mission was moved across the St. lawrence to a point a\u00a0few miles up the Chaudiere, and its name was changed to the “Mission of St. Francis de Sa les”. Soon afterward Jesuit priests from that mission traveled a long\u00a0the Kennebec and built a chapel at Old Point, thus reviving the mission that had\u00a0been closed there for thi rty years.\u00a0Father Rasle came to the Old Point mission in 1693. One historical faction\u00a0contends that his mission was entirely rellglous~ to continue the conversion of\u00a0the Indians and hold them true to the faith and ceremonies of the Roman church.\u00a0Another group of historians decJare that Father Rasle’s reasons for coming to\u00a0Old Point were more pol itical than religious. As one historian puts it, “French\u00a0statesmen and Canadian governors sought through the machinery of the church to\u00a0manipulate the Indian tribes of Maine against the English.”\u00a0In 1694 the English stupidly arrested and imprisoned Sonescen, Chief of the\u00a0Abenakls, thus inflaming the tribe to war on the side of the French. Dreadful\u00a0massacres ensued. What are spoken of as six separate Indian wars occurred In the\u00a0next 30 years, though I t was a II a part of the long strugg Ie between the French\u00a0and English for supremacy. Each side paid the Indians for the other sides’\u00a0scalps. Both French and English kept prodding the tribes to kill the white men\u00a0on the othe r side.<\/p>\n In the midst of this hatred and bloodshed stood the priest. Was he merely a\u00a0religious leader of the Indians, or was he a national patriot of New France? The\u00a0English were sure he was the latter, and In 1721 the General Court at Boston demanded of the Kennebec I ndi ans that they hand over Father Ras Ie to English arrest.\u00a0The Indians refused. So In December, 1721 Col. Westbrook led a battalion of 230\u00a0soldiers on snowshoes up the Kennebec. At Old Point they found Father Rasle’s hut\u00a0deserted and the priest hiding in the forest. They seized his books and personal\u00a0effects, including his precious manuscript of a dldtionary of the Abenaki tongue,\u00a0and his strong box. believe those two items are now preserved In the Maine\u00a0Historical Society at Portland.\u00a0The raid by Col. Westbrook, though unsuccessful, had terrible repercussions.\u00a0The Abenakls; now thoroughly aroused, went on the warpath. They ki lied and scalped\u00a0and burned. The worst disaster was the burning of the enti re settlement that later\u00a0became the town of Brunswick and the slaughter of some forty of Its Inhabitants.\u00a0Acti ng quick Iy, the government at Boston offered a reward of 200 pounds for\u00a0Father Rasle, dead or alive. On August 19,1724 Captain Moulton, with a party of\u00a0208 men, started out from Fort RI chmond, determined to capture Father Ras Ie.\u00a0Laavi ng the i r boats aT Ti con i c Fa II s, the Mou I ton party went ove rl and the twenty\u00a0mi les to Old Point above Norridgewock. Inexplicably they were able to take the\u00a0I ndi an vi Ilage by surpri se. Let us nON <\/em>have the story as to I din Coverse Francis’\u00a0“Life ofSebast,j,an Rasle”:<\/p>\n “The Indians rushed out of their huts in terror and dismay, the warriors\u00a0seizing their guns and fired them wildly. The soldiers poured Into the Indian\u00a0ranks volley after vol ley. The hope less survi vors scattered to the she Iter of\u00a0the woods, on Iy to encounter ambuscades of sol diers. At the fi rst onset, Father\u00a0Rasle ran out of his dwelling to the place of the vi I I age cross. A few terror\u00a0stricken followers had gathered about him, as if to shield him or be shielded by\u00a0his priestly person. Suddenly the soldiers caught sight of his clerical dress and\u00a0recognized him as the person upon whom the hate of all New England was concentrated.\u00a0Selecting his breast as a target, they sent a shower of bullets that laid\u00a0him life less bes i de the miss i on cross.”<\/p>\n Thus died the most famous of those sturdy, devout Jesu I ts who mi n istered to\u00a0the Maine Indians in the 18th century. Whether he died a martyr to his faith, or\u00a0as a French plotter against the English, historians wi II continue to dispute for\u00a0many years to come. On one point the disputants firmly agree: Father Rasle was\u00a0a man of unflinching determination and courage.<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #110, broadcast on May 27, 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}