<\/p>\n
Today presidents of the United States travel far and quickly. It was not so in George Washington’s day. It was a tedious journey even from Philadelphia to Mount Vernon, so tedious that Washington made it only a few times while he was president. So it was indeed a momentous occasion when President Washington visited Boston in 1789. I am so fortunate as to possess a contemporary account of that visit. It is contained in a copy of the Massachusetts Sentinel for October 28, 1789. Here is what that paper said 170 years ago: “Information having been received that the President would enter town on Saturday at noon, at 10 A.M. the inhabitants assembled and formed their procession in the Mall — from thence, preceded by the band of his Most Christian Majesty’s squadron, they proceeded to the Fortification, where the Governor had previously ordered the military corps of the metropolis to parade. On the arrival of the procession at the entrance to the town, the whole opened ranks, facing inward, thus forming an avenue all the way to the State House, for the President to pass through.<\/p>\n
“At one o’clock the President’s approach was announced by several discharges from Capt. Warner’s battery at Roxbury, from the Dorchester artillery posted on the celebrated heights, from Capt. Johnson’s battery at the entrance of the town, from Castle William, and by a royal salute from the ship of his Most Christian Majesty’s squadron (the French fleet) and by the ringing of all the bells in the town.<\/p>\n
“The procession was in the following order: the military commanded by Col. Bradford; the light infantry under Major Otis; the Independent Fusiliers under Capt. Laughton; Capt. Johnson’s artillery; and the Independent Cadets under Major Scolley. Next came the selectmen, the deputy sheriffs, the sheriffs of Suffolk and Middlesex counties on horseback, the council and the Lt. Governor in carriages.<\/p>\n
“Then came the President, on an elegant white horse, attended by Major Jackson and Mr. Lear, his secretaries. He was followed by the Vice President, the Hon. James Bowdoin and others in two carriages. Behind them were the Committee of Arrangements, the Treasurer of the State, the Representatives to the General Court, the clerk and treasurer of the town, and the town magistrates. These were followed by the Reverend Clergy of the town, the lawyers and physicians, the merchants and traders, the revenue officers and masters of vessels, officers of the late American army, preceded by Mr. Eustis with a flag and a Union cockade.<\/p>\n
“Then came the artisans, tradesmen and manufacturers, arrayed alphabetically by their calling, from bakers to wheelwrights. Finally there were the scholars of the several schools under the care of their respective masters, each with a quill.<\/p>\n
“On the arrival of the procession at the Old Brick Meeting House, the military, the selectmen and the council conducted the President through the Triumphal Arch erected across the Main street to the Senate Chamber, by the east door of the State House.<\/p>\n
“The number of people who gathered to see their beloved President it is impossible to compute. The streets were crowded. Yet not a single accident marred the pleasure of this auspicious day. Fireworks were exhibited in several parts of the town — in State Street, at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, at the Eastern Coffee House, and at Hoyt’s. General fireworks were let off from the Castle and from the French ship, which were beautifully illuminated.”<\/p>\n
Now there is one omission in this account that seems strange. Although the list of artisans and tradesmen contains nearly fifty trades, including goldsmiths and jewelers1 there is no mention of silversmiths. Yet right in Boston lived and worked the most prominent silversmith of Revolutionary times, Paul Revere. Where was Paul Revere when Washington came to Boston in 1789?<\/p>\n
Visiting Harvard College on that day, Washington was addressed by President Willard and made a brief reply. In the Senate Chamber of the Old State House on the street afterwards named for him, the President listened to a long address made by James Otis on behalf of the inhabitants, and himself made only a very short reply. In the evening a great state dinner was given by the Governor and Council in Faneuil Hall. At the dinner there were no formal speeches, and there, at least publicly, Washington uttered not a word, responding to the toasts only with a grave bow.<\/p>\n
That is how President George Washington came to Boston in 1789. It is interesting to compare it with President Eisenhower’s introduction to Maine lobsters when he visited Skowhegan only a few years ago. The account in the old Boston paper doesn’t say what Washington had to eat at that state dinner 170 years ago. Perhaps it was baked beans and Boston’s sacred codfish.<\/p>\n
In the early days of our Republic, publishers of newspapers had a hard time getting a sufficient supply of newsprint. Some of them even went so far as to make it themselves, as witness this ad in the Newport (Massachusetts) Mercury on October 27, 1781: “Cash and the highest price given for clean cotton and linen rags and old sailcloth, by the printer hereof.”<\/p>\n
In “Kennebec Yesterdays” I have given an account of an old store in Augusta in the year 1800. That was the day of the truly general store, but how general the merchant’s stock was at any given time depended upon what the boats brought in. Newburyport was a prominent New England port; so a man named Nathan who kept store near Newburyport’s Brick Market could spread quite an ad in that 1781 issue of the Mercury. Here are a few of the things he had for sale: brown Russia sheeting, black everlasting, Barcelona handkerchiefs, chest locks, spectacles, best brown soap for shaving, double and single refined load sugar, brimstone, flints, shot of different sizes, Malaya raisins, shoe and knee buckles, pig-tail tobacco, Virginia shag tobacco, testaments, spelling books,primers and psalters. And he called special attention to a new book entitled the “Young Man’s Best Companion”.<\/p>\n
So much for events close to, but actually outside of Maine in the late eighteenth century. Let us now get back into our home state by turning to the files of a staunch Whig newspaper in 1837, when that bitter enemy of the Whigs, Martin Van Buren, was President of the United States. John Dorr started publication of the Waldo Patriot at Belfast on Saturday, December 30, 1837. That first issue contained a letter from Daniel Webster to the chairman of the national Whig convention, agreeing to speak in Boston at a Whig meeting to celebrate the election of a Whig governor in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Not only had Massachusetts elected a Whig governor, but the state had also gone for the defeated presidential candidate William Henry Harrison, who was destined to win the presidency three years later in 1840. Maine had joined the procession in September of ’37, going as the opposing Democrats put it “Hell bent for Governor Kent” The editor of the Waldo Patriot vented his spleen in a full-column editorial, denouncing what he called lithe disastrous principles of Andrew Jackson and extolling the “conservative common rerise” of the Whig party.<\/p>\n
Not all of the paper was taken up by political contention. In March, 1838 the editor gave attention to a bill concerning academies which had been introduced into the Maine Legislature. The bill provided that any academy in Maine which, during 1838, should receive $1,000 in private contributions, should then be entitled to $300 from the state. The editor then warned interested persons that the money from private donations would have to be actually paid, not merely pledged, before the state would hand over the $300.<\/p>\n
In March, 1838, there appeared this unusual item in the Waldo Patriot: “Some time last year Mr. Samuel White of Frankfort gave notice that he had given his son Daniel his time. Since then Daniel contracted a debt to Josiah Hall and gave his note. On refusing to pay the note, Daniel White was sued by Hall. At the trial White pleaded minority, produced evidence that he was not yet 21 years old, and got clear of paying the note. We therefore caution the public against trusting or trading with minors, as by the court decision in this case it appears that no such debts are recoverable at law.”<\/p>\n
It is interesting to see what changes were desired in the Belfast schools in 1838. The school committee recommended: “When large classes read, it is best that they remain seated, but individually rise and read when their turn comes, and then resume their seats. We do not approve of the prevailing practice of having all members of a class remain standing through a whole reading exercise.”<\/p>\n
Textbooks were a problem in the early Maine schools. It was many years after 1838 when the law was passed requiring free textbooks in the public schools. Parents had to furnish their children with books, and there was no requirement that pupils in a given school must all have the same books. The Maine law in 1838 did allow the school committee to recommend what books should be used. The Belfast committee thought its recommendations ought to be better regarded than was the case. It said: “A great variety of geographies, grammars, arithmetics and spellers is a great evil in any school. A pupil who has a book different from others needs almost as much attention from the teacher as do all the rest of the class. Scholars should also be furnished with slates, pencils, quills, paper and ink, all of the best quality. To send them to school without the necessary tools is as absurd as to send them into field or shop to work without suitable implements.”<\/p>\n
The Belfast committee objected to the constant prompting by the teacher of a pupil learning to read. “In reading, a great fault of teachers consists in prompting the pupils too much. They should be strictly required to study their lesson, and when reading should have time to think, when they come to a hard word.”<\/p>\n
In those days it was common to close each school term with an oral examination of the pupils, which parents and neighbors were invited to attend. The Belfast committee was extremely critical about some of those examinations. “The term examination”, they said, “should not be an exhibition in which both sexes seek to display their theatrical powers, acting the part of knaves and dupes, of gamblers, robbers, drunkards and other scandalous characters. Such exhibitions are detrimental to manners and morals. Public declamations by boys may prove beneficial, but to the appearance of young females on the stage we are wholly opposed. What we recommend is a strictly literary examination of all scholars, and an exhibit of specimens of their mode of reading, their penmanship, and their original compositions.”<\/p>\n
In Maine communities 125 years ago, it was customary for a person traveling to one of the larger places to do errands for his neighbors. Sometimes a man made a regular business of it, charging a commission. Such a man was Peter Smith of Lincolnville, who placed his ad in the Waldo Patriot in 1838. He advertised: “I intend to go to Boston between the middle and last of this month. All those who desire that I make purchases for them will please leave their orders at my house or at Mr. Soule1s tavern in Belfast before the tenth of the month. There are some who have not paid me for past services. They are earnestly requested to make immediate payment. I can wait no longer and I now give them suitable warning.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1958<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #391, Broadcast on October 26, 1958<\/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":[744,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7897"}],"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=7897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}