<\/p>\n
Today we have a few final items from the diary of Hezekiah Prince of Thomaston, in the first quarter of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
Hezekiah Prince was keeping his diary at the time of one of the most hotly contested elections for President of the United States. When the votes were counted in November, 1824, no candidate had a majority in the electoral college, and, according to the Constitution, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives. The final result was the choice of John Quincy Adams who, even up to our own time, has been the only man to be the presidential son of a presidential father.<\/p>\n
It is a common characteristic of old Maine diaries that they reflect the relative unconcern of the people with national affairs. But Hezekiah was close enough to political leaders so that he did manifest some interest in both state and national elections. Let us see what he has to say about that bitter contest of 1824. On the last day of the year 1823 Hezekiah wrote: “In March, 1825 President Monroe’s second term will expire. He will then have served eight years and another will take his place. Such a change has been the cause of political strife through the country for some time past. A number of candidates are warmly supported by their friends. Crawford of Georgia, Adams of Massachusetts, Calhoun of South Carolina, Jackson of Tennessee, Clay of Kentucky, and Clinton of New York are all supported strongly in their own states. They are all good men and the pride of their country.”<\/p>\n
“Nov. 1, 1824 – This was the day for choosing electors of President of U.S. In the afternoon about 80 citizens of Thomaston assembled at the meeting house and gave their votes as follows: for the Adams ticket, 49; for the Crawford ticket, 33.”<\/p>\n
“Dec. 31, 1824 – The electors have given in their votes and there is no choice for President. There is much excitement throughout the country. It now becomes necessary for the House of Representatives of the Congress to elect the President from the highest three candidates, who are Jackson, Adams and Crawford.”<\/p>\n
“Feb. 15, 1825 – Laid a bet with Mr. O’Brien that General Jackson will be our next President. Expect to hear tomorrow who is elected.”<\/p>\n
Hezekiah lost his bet, for on the next day he recorded in the diary: “The mail this morning brought the news of the election of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency. He was elected by the House of Representatives, 13 states to 11. Thus has the agitating subject been finally put to rest. Although General Jackson was my own choice and I should have even preferred Crawford to Adams, I am satisfied that Adams is qualified to fill this highest post in our nation. Here in Thomaston a salute of thirteen guns was fired on the meeting house hill, the bell was rung for an hour, and there was great rejoicing among the Adams men.”<\/p>\n
Mail robberies were not uncommon in the early years of the 19th century. In January, 1823, when Hezekiah Prince, Sr. was postmaster at Thomaston, three letters containing money mailed at Thomaston failed to reach their destinations. At that time all letters for places west of Portland were put in a separate package marked “western” and not opened until they were resorted at Portland. All three letters were directed to a man named Pierce in Boston. He failed to receive them. and inquiry indicated that they had never reached Portland. So Pierce brought suit against the Thomaston postmaster to recover the money. Prince insisted that the letters had been properly placed in the “western” bag, and, determined to prove his own innocence, he demanded a public trial. The case dragged on, however, until in June, 1823 there came its sudden solution. On June 27 Hezekiah Prince, Jr. wrote in his diary: “This morning the joyful news arrived that the person who has done all the mischief in robbing the mail has been discovered. His name is Lambert, a young law student in Bath, of very respectable family. The cause of his detection was his stealing a draft on a Portland bank sent by Mr. Green of Thomaston to Mr. Foster, Green’s partner, who was then in Boston. The draft had not reached Boston when Mr. Foster left there for home. When he learned that it had been sent some time before, they ordered payment stopped at the Portland bank. This led the bank to investigate, because the draft had already been cashed. The cashier was able to identify the fellow who cashed it as the law student at Bath. They recovered all the money except about $400. Whether the man had accomplices is not yet known.”<\/p>\n
“June 30 – Mr. Green arrived home from Bath after having done all in his power to bring the mail robber to justice. The man was tried for the crime of forgery, which he admitted; but because the prosecutor wanted to wait for missing witnesses, he was bound over to the next day, and now the fellow cannot be found. It is suspected that he has gone to the West Indies.”<\/p>\n
Whether the missing Lambert was ever apprehended the diary does not say.<\/p>\n
On August 5, 1824 there occurred in Thomaston a memorable event, the arrival of the first steamboat ever seen in that port. Let us see what the Prince diary says about it: “About 7 a.m. the steamboat which was expected yesterday arrived at the wharf and the party which had signed to go out in her, began to stir themselves and rally aboard. I walked over with Henrietta Marsh and my sister Deborah, and about 9:30 we started out from Knox’s wharf. Our number was 54, the most respectable of our married and young people. It was unanimously agreed that we should go to Monhegan, about 30 miles distant.”<\/p>\n
It seems that the boat was propelled by both steam and sail, for Hezekiah wrote: “Captain Rand crowded both steam and sail, and we went off rapidly before a stiff breeze and a fair tide. We arrived at Monhegan about 2 p.m., took dinner on the boat, then went ashore to explore the island. We had a nice sail home, arriving about 9 p.m. The expense of the cruise was $3 for myself and two ladies, and about a dollar for other little things to treat the ladies on.”<\/p>\n
The year 1824 was eventful because of the visit to this country of the venerable hero of the Revolution, Washington’s friend, the Marquis de Lafayette. On August 21, 1824 Hezekiah Prince put into his diary this entry: “Our papers this morning brought the news that General Lafayette with his son has arrived in this country. He came in the ship Cadmus to New York. He will be received with great respect in whatever parts he may visit. Arrangements are made in Boston and all the principal towns to receive this illustrious foreigner, the early friend of our country, companion of Washington during our struggle for freedom, our defender and benefactor in days of adversity.”<\/p>\n
Lafayette stayed in this country nearly a year. In June, 1825, after speaking in Boston on the occasion of laying the cornerstone of Bunker Hill Monument, the General came to Portland. Hezekiah Prince recorded the event thus: “June 27, 1825 – Mr. Ruggles returned from Portland, where he has been to meet LaFayette, who visited that place last Saturday. They gave him a very handsome reception. His arrangements are such as to make it impossible for him to visit Thomaston, as we had hoped and expected. He is to be in New York on the Fourth of July.”<\/p>\n
Earlier in 1825 young Hezekiah had himself visited Portland. Here is what the diary says about that visit: “February 6, 1825 – We arrived in Portland about 3 p.m. and put up at the tavern of Mr. Gates who was formerly in Warren.”<\/p>\n
“February 7 – Visited the reading room and various parts of the town. Called at the State Treasurer’s Office and paid him $215 sent from Waldoboro. A three dollar bill of that money turning out to be counterfeit, I paid the $3 from my own pocket and hope to get recompense from Lash, for whom I was paying the money. Swapped my sleigh bells for a lighter string, giving 25 cents to boot. In the evening I went to the museum and other places. Was in the House of Representatives, where Mr. Ruggles, our representative from Thomaston, is the Speaker.<\/p>\n
“February 8 – Heard some interesting debate in the House. Did a little shopping, spent the evening with Mr. Ruggles, who wrote some letters to send home by me.<\/p>\n
“February 9 – Jerry Berry will ride home with me while Joseph Berry has his own horse and sleigh to carry a prisoner to the State Prison. I called at the Secretary of State’s office and got my father’s commission as Justice of the Peace. About 10:30 we started for home. We took dinner at Freeport. crossed on the ferry at Bath about sundown, and proceeded to Wiscasset. We put up for the night at Turner’s.”<\/p>\n
“February 10 – We had breakfast. paid our bill. and started for Thomaston about 8 a.m. Stopped at Newcastle half an hour, had dinner in Waldoboro and left for Mr. Lash his receipt and the counterfeit $3 bill. Lash’s clerk Groton agreed to see that I was paid for my advancement of the $3. and would have Mr. Lash send it to me by mail. We arrived home about 3 p.m.”<\/p>\n
I want to close today’s broadcast with reference to an important educational problem that has long historical background in Maine — a problem that must be faced and must somehow be solved. The problem is this: as administrative school districts comprising several towns expand allover the state, how can any academy which has long served in lieu of a public high school in the area continue to survive?<\/p>\n
The tendency is for the new district to erect its own high school, large enough to accomodate the 300 required students, in order that the system may be publicly controlled, not subject to a private board of trustees. But many of the academies serving as high schools have a long, distinguished history of turning out accomplished and well trained graduates. and their private resources, especially their endowments providing annual income, have saved the towns a lot of money.<\/p>\n
Until 1872. when the Maine legislature passed our free high school law, the academies were the only form of education between the common school (what we now call the elementary school) and the college. As time went on, many of the academies took advantage of a law passed in 1873 that permitted them to hand over their property to the town and become actually public high schools. later others accepted joint boards of trustees made up of the publicly elected school committees and the privately chosen academy trustees. But to this day some of the largest and strongest of the academies continue to render true public service, although managed by private boards.<\/p>\n
Since the foundation of our state in 1820 the partnership between public and private education has been happy and efficient. Whether a town has contracted with an academy for education of its high school pupils, or has simply allowed attendance on a per pupil tuition basis, as authorized by the Maine statute, the system has worked. Now, because of the rapidly proliferating administrative school districts, the academies have grave fear for their future. The State Board of Education has agreed to make thorough investigations and, with the cooperation of academy trustees and public school officials, to attempt to reach a solution that will give justice to all.<\/p>\n
Year: 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #682, Broadcast on March 6, 1966<\/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":[42954,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564"}],"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=8564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}