Middleborough Responds to the Attack upon Senator Sumner, 1856

On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina brutally assaulted Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber. Prompted by a recent anti-slavery speech by Sumner which was harshly critical of the South, Brooks mercilessly beat Sumner into unconsciousness with a gutta percha cane. The shocking brutality of the action further polarized the nation which at the time was riven by the controversy over whether to admit Kansas as a free or slave state, as well as the overall debate on slavery which was becoming increasingly violent.  While lauded as a hero in the South, Brooks was villified in the North. 

In Middleborough, the attack upon Sumner was roundly condemned. Both the Young Men's Literary Union (Y. M. L. U.) and the Philomathean Society passed resolutions concerning the assault and slavery in general.  The Y. M. L. U. "Resolved, That the recent and cowardly assault upon our beloved Senator, at Washington, reflects lasting infamy upon the country, its institutions and people."  It passed a further resolution that "American Slavery totally violates every law of the United States enacted for the peace and prosperity of the Union, is the quintessence of all abuse, and that those who uphold and sanction it are guilty of the blackest treason."

Less literary minded individuals hung Brooks in effigy on School Street, an action which prompted the following letter to the Namasket Gazette:

MR. EDITOR: - Passing up School street last Tuesday morning, I saw suspended from the branch of one of the trees in the Grove, an image in a complete suit of clothes, which a group of "Young Americans" were stoning with great zeal. On inquiring, I ascertained that this was an effigy of Preston S. Brooks, and certainly it looked mean enough to personify the late outrage committed by that dastard. About noon, as I repassed the same spot, a lad flung a stone with such violence as to break the rope, and it had scarcely touched the ground before many "violent hands" were laid upon it, and ere long it was reduced to ashes.

If this treatment of the effigy denoted disapprobation of the conduct of the Slave Power, as exhibited in the assault by Brooks, I have no objection to make to it. But I am doubtful as to the propriety of such demonstrations in reference to individuals. Please solve these doubts, and oblige.

A FRIEND OF FREEDOM

The unknown writer, in fact, was not to be obliged. Editor Stillman Pratt who was also a minister and who was not surprsingly anti-slavery himself, responded that the burning of the School Street effigy was hardly improper when compared to the attack upon Sumner, and was but a weak response to a graver issue.

We do not think that pelting and burning an effigy is so barbarous as the beating of a real live man and still we think there are more effective modes of rebuking sin.

The trouble is that this mode of expressing disapprobation places the wrong doer on an equality with the virtuous.  It is just as easy to hang the effigy of Sumner as that of Brooks.  A change of label on the one alluded to above would make it tell in the opposite direction.

The reason why the bludgeon was applied to the head of our Senator, was because the truths uttered were extremely cutting, and the argument was at the same time unanswerable.  It is hoped that the Slave Oligarchy will be rebuked more effectually for making chattels of God's image, and the beating of men for insisting on "the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," than can be done by hanging, pelting and burning bags of straw.

Illustrations:
"Southern Chivalry", lithograph, John L. Magee, 1856.
Magee's lithograph depicting Brooks' attack upon Senator Sumner was widely circulated and created an indelible impression in the north where the assault was widely condemned.

Senator Charles Sumner (1811-74) of Massachusetts, photograph, c. 1860.

Sources:
Namasket Gazette, May and June, 1856

Middleborough Opposes Gag Rules

In the 1830s and 1840s, the development of a new political party, the Whigs, was in part influenced by local opposition to the “gag rule”, an 1836 resolution adopted by the United States House of Representatives which suppressed Americans’ freedom of petition.

Beginning in 1836, Southern representation in the House of Representatives sought to reduce if not eliminate altogether the number of anti-slavery petitions which were received by Congress from American citizens each year. Frustrated (and frankly inconvenienced) by these petitions which they regarded as an attack upon the rights and privileges of the South as well as an impediment to the smooth conduct of House business, southern representatives were successful in passing a resolution which permanently tabled all such petitions relative to slavery. Petitions received were prohibited from being printed, considered, debated or discussed.

Renewed during each subsequent Congressional session, the resolution was given renewed force when it was adopted as Rule XXI in 1840 and made a permanent part of House procedure.

Several legislators, foremost among whom was former President and then Massachusetts Representative John Quincy Adams, were deeply disturbed by the resolution which they considered an abridgement of American civil liberties. Adams stated as much during the roll call vote on the original resolution on May 18, 1836. Adams and his supporters maintained that what they and their supporters would come to know as the “gag rule” effectively stifled political debate and arbitrarily denied American citizens their right of petition guaranteed under the First Amendment. “Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people,” Adams counseled.

The First Amendment protection afforded to the right of petition was firmly grounded in the American colonial experience when petitions to King George III for a redress of grievances by American colonists went ignored or the right of petition denied outright. The Declaration of Independence articulated the basis for this protection when it stated:

“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions have been answered only be repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

Adams would spend eight years effort challenging the gag rule, increasingly undermining it through the same parliamentary procedure its supporters had used to implement it. Threatened with both censure by and expulsion from the House, Adams’ perseverance, integrity, persuasiveness, and stand for political freedom would ultimately win over the majority of his colleagues. "Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish", Adams once admitted. In December 1844, the House of Representatives rescinded the notorious gag rule and fully restored to the American people their right of petition.

Contemporaneous with the challenge which Adams mounted to the gag rule was the development of a new political party, the Whigs. Originally arising out of disaffection with Adams’ political nemesis, Andrew Jackson, and driven by an opposition to Jacksonian policies, the Whig party was a disparate group which ultimately found common ground on a number of issues. At the time, the Whigs, in contrast to the Democrats were the more liberal of the two parties, favoring a number of social and economic reforms, opposing (for the most part slavery), and challenging the gag rule.

Locally, the Whigs got off to a slow start, not surprisingly as Middleborough was a bastion of conservatism, known at the time as the “Gibraltar of Democracy” in Plymouth County. Local Democratic politics (and by extension all local politics) were dominated in the 1830s by local political leader and merchant Peter H. Peirce.

Throughout the late 1830s and early 1840s, however, Peirce’s influence along with that of the local Democratic Party waned for a number of reasons among which was the controversy stirred up by implementation of the gag rule. Democrats were caught between their loyalty to a party which by in large insisted upon the rule, and their political conscience which knew the rule to be unconstitutional combined with a New England heritage which had always promoted citizen access to government. Given this tension, they were consequently deeply divided.

Meanwhile, the Middleborough electorate, which had for several years been told that increasing control of the Federal government by southern interests would lead to an erosion of civil liberties and a suppression of democracy, could only regard the gag rule and see their worst fears confirmed. As a result, support began to shift towards the Whigs locally during the 1840s, accelerating with the defeat of the gag rule in 1844.

Local Whig political success was consolidated in the mid and late 1840s with a series of elections which saw the Whigs victorious. In 1847, Whig William H. Wood who was elected as a state senator also defeated Democrat Eliab Ward for the position of Middleborough Town Moderator, sending a signal that perhaps the Democratic dominance of town affairs was in jeopardy. The following year, in 1849, Middleborough in a Congressional election voted Whig for the first time in its history. The Whig success culminated with the election of Philander Washburn (ironically the nephew of Democratic war horse Peter Peirce) as a state senator in 1849 and 1850.

While the Whigs (or at least the northern branch of the party) would within a decade be subsumed within the emergent Republican Party, their initial success, though brief, was in part directly attributable to opposition to Congress’ infamous attempt to deny the right of petition.

“The right of petition … is essential to the very existence of government; it is the right of the people over the government; it is their right, and they may not be deprived of it.” – John Quincy Adams

Illustration:
John Quincy Adams, photograph by Philip Haas, 1843 (detail)

Adams was photographed by Haas the year prior to his political victory in repealing the notorious gag rule implemented by the House of Representatives in 1836. Though never overwhelmingly popular locally, Adams and his formidable opposition to the curtailment of American civil liberties contributed to the rise of the Whig party locally.

Political Rivalry and Two Streets

The naming of two streets near Middleborough Four Corners in the second quarter of the 19th century was the product of a local adversarial political relationship between Peter H. Peirce (1788-1861) and his nephew, Philander Washburn (1798-1882).

Peirce, whose fortune would later benefit Middleborough as the Peirce Trust, was an astute businessman, operating a store on North Main Street and holding an interest in various industrial operations locally. Peirce was able to parlay his commercial success into an influential political position as a Democrat at a time when that party was noted for its conservatism. Nathan King later described Peirce as having “more influence than any other, perhaps, among his Democratic friends” while James Burgess flatly stated that “Peter H. Peirce ran the democratic party”. Consistently described as a “Democrat of the old school”, Peirce was likely to have supported typical Democratic issues including states rights, minimal government, and the Jeffersonian ideal of the nation as a populist agrarian society. And while many Democrats took a pragmatic stance upon what would become the key issue of the day, slavery, Peirce avowed in 1839 that he was “opposed to slavery in all its forms, and would, were [he] possessed of the power, remove the same from the Land and the World.” (This assertion notwithstanding, Peirce supported pro-slavery presidential candidate John C. Breckinridge in 1860).

Peirce would serve three terms (1826-28) as a Democratic state senator, and his dominance of local Democratic party affairs would help consolidate Middleborough’s position within Plymouth County as the “Gibraltar of Democracy”, a community which was regarded as reliable in its conservatism. The mid-1820s, however, would mark the peak of Peirce’s political fortune, and in the 1830s and 1840s, he would consistently be defeated in political contests by opponents, including representatives of a new political party – the Whigs.

Formed in 1834 as an opposition party to Andrew Jackson and his policies, the Whig party was a coalition of diverse forces united largely by their antipathy towards Jackson, though certain objectives such as support for the creation of a national bank and federal spending for internal improvements were generally commonly shared by its members. In contrast to the conservatism of the Democratic Party at the time, the Whigs became the liberal party of the era, promoting educational and prison reform, an expansion of the democratic franchise, and temperance, and opposing territorial expansion, capital punishment and (for the most part) slavery.

Representing these views locally was Peirce’s nephew, Philander Washburn, the son of Peirce’s sister Elizabeth (Peirce) Washburn. Though less driven by an entrepreneurial spirit than his uncle, Philander Washburn nonetheless owned a number of interests in burgeoning industries locally and he was a prominent economic force within the community. (His South Main Street home now houses the offices of the Middleborough Gas & Electric Department).

The characterization of Whigs like Washburn as richer and more urbane than the average American, though intended by Democrats to damage their opponents, did little to dissuade voters from choosing Whig politicians. (Peirce, in fact, was no less well off than Washburn).

Middleborough, traditionally conservative in its politics, continued to vote for Democrats throughout the 1840s, though Whigs increasingly made inroads with voters. In 1847, Whig William H. Wood who was elected as a state senator also defeated Democrat Eliab Ward for the position of Middleborough Town Moderator, sending a signal that perhaps the Democratic dominance of town affairs was in jeopardy. The following year, in 1849, Middleborough in a Congressional election voted Whig for the first time in its history. This upsurge in Whig support would also help sweep Philander Washburn into office as a state senator in 1849 and 1850.

Reflecting the disparate political views of Peirce and Washburn was the choice of the names they chose to bestow upon the streets they developed during the period.

In the 1830s, when Peirce developed the roadway linking his store on what is now North Main Street with the industrial operations on the Nemasket River (in which Peirce held an interest), he informally called it Jackson Street, named for Andrew Jackson, the hero of all Democrats.

Not to be outdone, Washburn later developed a street himself and named it for a favorite politician of his own. Running between the Central Congregational Church and Washburn's home, the street stretched southeastwards towards the Nemasket River from South Main Street. Though the street remained largely undeveloped until the 1870s, as early as the mid-1850s, it was known as Webster Street, named for Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, one of America's foremost Whig politicians.

Jackson and Webster Streets remain, equally distant from Middleborough Four Corners, a reminder of the 19th century political rivalry of both Democrats and Whigs, and Peter Peirce and Philander Washburn.

Illustration:
"Webster Street, Middleboro, Mass.", Taunton, MA: H. A. Dickerman & Son, publisher, picture postcard, c. 1910.
Webster Street is depicted looking northwestwards towards South Main Street. The street was named for Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts by local Whig Philander Washburn. Two blocks away, Washburn's uncle and political opposite Peter H. Peirce developed Jackson Street which he named for Democrat Andrew Jackson.

"Bull Moose" Progressivism in Middleborough & Lakeville, 1912

The following item is posted in response to a query I had regarding President William Howard Taft's 1912 visit to Middleborough. The article was originally published in the Middleboro Gazette and republished in the Middleborough Antiquarian in May, 1989.


Though progressive Republicanism was never as influential along the East Coast as it was in the West and Midwest, it did create an enormous pull on sympathies of Middleborough voters. At the start of this century, as many of the state's urban voters began taking to the Democratic Party, many rural communities in southeastern Massachusetts, including Middleborough, began developing a progressive Republican bent. The high water mark of progressive Republicanism in Middleborough was the brief period of 1912-13. During that time, the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party, under the aegis of Theodore Roosevelt, exerted a tremendous impact upon the political life of both the town and the nation. The 1912 presidential campaign brought both Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft to Middleborough in a clash of progressive and conservative Republicanism. The 1914 elections, however, sounded the death knell for Bull Moose Progressivism in Middleborough as previously disaffected progressive Republicans returned to the fold of a liberalizing Republican Party or joined the ranks of the burgeoning Democratic Party.

Bull Moose Progressivism, itself, was an indirect consequence of a political maneuver made by Roosevelt. Following election to the White House in his own right in November, 1904,the progressive Roosevelt renounced a third term for himself as president in the "bully pulpit," though this did not prevent him from personally hand-picking his successor - Secretary of War William Howard Taft. Despite a year-long African safari with his son Kermit followed by a triumphal European tour, Roosevelt could not arrest the presidential itch and by February, 1912, considering Taft disloyal to the cause of progressive Republicanism, Roosevelt declared, "My hat is in the ring" for a third presidential term.

Vying with Roosevelt for the Republican bid were progressive Wisconsin Senator Robert "Battle Bob" La Follette, who sought to deprive Roosevelt of the mantle of progressive Republicanism, and President Taft, candidate of the conservative or "stand pat" Republicans. La Follette virtually disqualified himself at the beginning of February with a rambling and incoherent speech, a consequence of overwork, while Taft had his own drawbacks. Taft's tendency to fall asleep in public (once, as a front row mourner, he drifted off at a funeral to the utter horror of his military aide, Archie Butt), his obvious corpulence, his heavy reliance upon arch-conservative Speaker of the House "Uncle Joe" Cannon of Massachusetts and his responsibility for the loss of the House Republican majority in the 1910 election were all detriments to the Taft campaign. Nor did it help that the president self-deprecatingly referred to himself as both a "cornered rat" and a "straw man" in the campaign.

In contrast, the dynamic T. R was enormously popular with the rank and file Republican voters and he hoped to win numerous delegates in the 13 presidential primaries, 1912 being the maiden year of the primary system. The Massachusetts primary was scheduled for Tuesday, April 30, and both Roosevelt and Taft spent much time in the commonwealth posturing for the event.

On Friday evening, April 26, President Taft gave a major address in Boston which left him physically and emotionally exhausted. Taft told the Boston audience, "I do not want to fight Theodore Roosevelt, but sometimes a man in a corner fights. I am going to fight." At Boston, Taft raised the third term issue, concerned that Colonel Roosevelt "should not have as many terms as his natural life will permit." Ironically, it was just this issue which was responsible for a foiled assassination attempt of Roosevelt by a disgruntled New York bartender in October in Milwaukee.

Roosevelt was the first of the two contenders to speak in Middleborough, arriving April 27 , three days before the primary. Roosevelt's stop in Middleborough was part of his second trip to New England since the beginning of April. Interrupting the New England tour was a side journey to Kansas and Nebraska which nearly cost T. R's voice, so strenuous were the speaking engagements. Because of the strain of the tour, Roosevelt knew it would be futile to mount a full-scale railroad car campaign when he returned to New England at the end of April. "It is folly to try to make me continue a car-tail campaign," he said. Consequently, Roosevelt scheduled appearances only at Fall River, New Bedford and Boston for the morning and evening of the 27th. Due to the efforts of the local Roosevelt Club, however, the itinerary was altered to include brief stops in Brockton, Middleborough and Taunton.

Arriving from Brockton one hour before the scheduled arrival time of 12:30, Roosevelt's motorcade of nearly 12 autos dressed with streamers and enormous Roosevelt placards, came to a halt at the Station Street depot. Roosevelt addressed the crowd of approximately 1,500 from his auto.

Frustrating the Colonel's initial attempts to speak, several motors remained annoyingly running, whereupon Roosevelt protested, asserting, "I cannot talk against the hum of industry."

He continued: It is a pleasure to be in Massachusetts and to ask your support in as clean drawn a fight between the people and the professional politicians as there ever was in history. We who fight as progressive Republicans fight more than a factional or party fight. The people have a right to rule themselves, to bring justice, social and industrial, to all in this nation. I want justice for the big and little man alike, with special privilege to none. I am glad to see you and to fight your fight. Put through next Tuesday in Massachusetts what Illinois and Pennsylvania have done (T. R. swept both of those states' primaries). ...I ask Massachusetts to support us in this campaign, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. I appeal to you because this is the only kind of fight worth getting into, the kind of fight where the victory is worth winning and where the struggle is difficult. Here in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, we have against us the enormous preponderance of the forces that win victory in ordinary political contests.

Upon the conclusion of the Colonel's remarks, the motorcade began to proceed, but was impeded by the crowd, surging towards Roosevelt, anxious to shake his hand. The Gazette reported "for a minute it appeared that an accident could not be averted." Fortunately, no such accident occurred. Because Roosevelt had not been anticipated to arrive until after noon, workers from the George E. Keith Company shoe plant on Sumner Avenue had only begun trekking over the Center Street railroad bridge at noon when they came upon the departing hero, who graciously stopped and shook nearly 100 hands. Roosevelt then departed for Taunton, escorted by Spanish-American War veterans and Mayor Fish of the city.

Two days later, on Monday, April 29, one day before the primary, President Taft arrived in a special train in Middleborough at 12:30 to speak before a crowd estimated at 2,000. It is extremely doubtful that Taft would have stopped in town had it not been for Roosevelt's presence a few days earlier. Despite the large crowd, the president was, according to the Gazette, "rather coolly received, there being but a faint cheer." Taft was introduced to the crowd by Town Republican Committee Chairman George W. Stetson. Still reeling from an address made by Roosevelt on April 3 in Louisville, Kentucky, making much of the Republican bosses' support for Taft, the president was clearly on the defensive in Middleborough:

Ladies and Gentlemen. I am very sorry to take up your time to listen to a voice nearly gone. I come here from a strong sense of duty. It does not make any real difference to me whether I am re-elected President or not so far as my comfort and happiness and reputation are concerned. I fancy, after having had three years' experience in the Presidency, I could find softer and easier places than that, and I am willing to trust to the future for vindication of my name from the aspersions upon it ... (but) if I permit attacks unfounded upon me, I go back on those whom I am leading in that cause (of progress).
Therefore, I have come here, I cannot help it, and I have got to look into your eyes and tell you the truth as near as know it.

It is said that all the bosses are supporting me. I deny it. Mr. Roosevelt and I are exactly alike in certain respects, a good deal of human nature in both of us and when we are running for office we do not examine the clothes or the hair or previous condition of anybody that tenders support. But the only way by which he can make true the statement that all the bosses are supporting me and none of the bosses are supporting him but are opposed to him is to give a new definition to "bosses" and that is that every man in politics that is against him is a boss and every man that is for him is a leader.

Following the speech, the train left for Boston amidst cheers as Taft waved a flag. One ironic side note to the Middleborough speech did not bode well for Taft. Upon Taft's arrival, a local man decided to welcome the president with a cheer. "Three cheers for Ted Roosevelt!," he cried. Realizing his gaffe, he quickly corrected himself, "I mean President Taft." Taft, within earshot, remained unruffled. Smiling, he told the would-be cheerleader in his stentorian tone, "Don't make that mistake tomorrow."

Apparently, many Middleborough voters did make just that "mistake," for the primary vote in Middleborough heavily favored Roosevelt. The primary was called to order promptly at 6 a.m. by clerk Chester E. Weston and "voting was immediately in order." Of 635 Middleborough Republicans voting, 406 gave their preferential vote to Roosevelt, 184 to Taft and a dismal 5 to La Follette. The town also voted nearly 3-1 for the slate of Roosevelt delegates.

Of all 13 primaries, the Massachusetts contest witnessed the closest race between Roosevelt and Taft. Taft took 86,722 Massachusetts votes, followed by Roosevelt's 83,099 and La Follette's 2,058. The popular vote notwithstanding, the Massachusetts outcome was indecisive for, though Taft won the preferential by slightly more than 3,500 (technically making him the victor), Roosevelt's slate of 8 at-large delegates trounced Taft's slate by some 8,000 votes. Roosevelt, perhaps a little disparagingly, wrote his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts: "Well, isn't the outcome in Massachusetts comic? Apparently there were about 80,000 people who preferred Taft, about 80,000 who preferred me and from three to five thousand who, in an involved way, thought they would vote both for Taft and me!"

The final primary was held the first week of June. Of the 13, Roosevelt won nine, losing Wisconsin and North Dakota to La Follette and his native New York and Massachusetts to Taft. As a consequence, Roosevelt received 278 delegates, Taft 48 and La Follette 36.

Because of his victory in the primaries, Roosevelt could joke about the skewed Massachusetts results, but the Massachusetts outcome would cause further clamor at the Republican convention held in Chicago, June 18-22. At Chicago, Taft hoped his control of the National Committee and the southern delegations (whose states did not hold primaries) would offset Roosevelt's popularity.

The first order of convention business was to elect a temporary chairman and the Massachusetts delegation split evenly between Taft-backed Elihu Root and Wisconsin Governor Francis E. McGovern, whose backing by Roosevelt was a concession to appease the La Follette forces. Root squeaked by, 558-501, with the vote of each delegate being taken individually. The close vote set the tone for the remainder of the convention, which the Taft forces intended to dominate by denying Roosevelt's disputation of the credentials of some 250 Taft delegates, and which the Roosevelt forces were determined to keep in turmoil.

During the frequent lulls in convention activity, the New Jersey delegation would rise on cue and begin cheering for Roosevelt. T. R.'s young cousin Nicholas Roosevelt would later recall how the New Jersey delegation would generally be followed by the Massachusetts delegation which, in a cheer led by historian and Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart, would shout: "Massachusetts 18! Massachusetts 18! Massachusetts 18! Roosevelt first, last and all the time!" (the 18 referring to the state's number of electoral votes).

On Saturday, June22, nominating began with Taft being nominated by fellow Ohioan Warren G. Harding who, by calling Taft "the greatest progressive of the age," must surely have made Roosevelt apoplectic. The only other name place in nomination was that of La Follette.

Though most Roosevelt delegates abstained from voting at the direction of Roosevelt, there were no serious problems until the vote of the Massachusetts delegation was called. The chairman of the delegation responded that the commonwealth "casts all 18 votes for Taft with 18 abstentions." When the tally was questioned, a roll of the individual Massachusetts delegates was called, the first being Frederick Fosdick, pledged to Roosevelt.

Fosdick: Present, but I refuse to vote. (cheering)
Root (silencing the crowd and leaning from the platform): You have been sent here by your state to vote. If you refuse to do your duty, your alternate will be called upon.
Fosdick: No man on God's earth can make me vote in this convention.

Root then made good his threat and called upon Fosdick's alternate who, due to the contradictory primary results in Massachusetts, happened to be a Taft man. Root continued through the Massachusetts delegation, calling each alternate, whereby Taft succeeded in gaining two votes.

Though the convention was not stopped following the interruption, Roosevelt was livid over the Massachusetts outcome. In the July 6 issue of The Outlook, an irate T. R. labelled his former friend and Secretary of State Root a "modern Autolycus, the snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" who "publicly raped at the last moment (two delegates) from Massachusetts."

Roosevelt refused to consider a compromise candidate such as associate Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (who would lose to Wilson in 1916) or Missouri Governor Herbert S. Hadley. Said Roosevelt: "I'll name the compromise candidate. He'll be me. I'll name the compromise platform. It will be our platform." Subsequently, Taft won the nomination with 561 votes to Roosevelt's 107, La Follette's 41, Iowa Senator Cummins' 17 and Hughes' 2. However, 344 Roosevelt delegates had abstained from voting.

A week later, the Democratic National Convention was convened in Baltimore and today is notable for being as inharmonious as the Republican Convention of the previous week. In contention for the nomination were House Speaker "Champ" Clark of Missouri, New Jersey reform Governor Woodrow Wilson, Senator Judson Harmon of Ohio and House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood of Alabama. Later in the balloting, the name of Massachusetts Governor Eugene N. Foss, to whom the majority of Massachusetts delegates were pledged, was put forth, but the momentum had already begun to swing towards Wilson, who was selected on the 46th ballot. The selection of Wilson relieved many delegates who had from the start been opposed to Clark, embarrassed by his testimonial for Electric Bitters: "It seemed that all the organs in my body were out of order, but three bottles of Electric Bitters made me all right."

The following month, Roosevelt formally bolted the Republican Party to form the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party which took its nickname from the Colonel's statement that he was "as fit as a bull moose." The Progressive platform called for workmen's compensation, minimum wages for women, the establishment of a federal regulatory commission in industry and the prohibition of child labor. The party was financed, in part, by George W. Perkins, a partner in the House of Morgan, who became known as the "Dough Moose." Taft, too, had financial difficulties. When the Republican National Committee made it known that it once again expected the President's elder half-brother Charley to pick up the tab, Charley Taft protested, "I am not made of money!"

When it was suggested that Taft and Roosevelt cooperate to prevent a Democratic victory, T. R. responded, "I hold that Mr. Taft stole the nomination, and I do not feel like arbitrating with a pickpocket as to whether or not he shall keep my watch."

The 1912 presidential election in Middleborough was basically a repetition of the primary. Though Roosevelt won Middleborough, he lost the state to Wilson. Of 1,358 votes in Middleborough's two precincts, Roosevelt received 545 votes; Wilson sneaked into second place with 378 votes ahead of Taft with 360 votes. Roosevelt, however, was unable to carry the state and, in fact, finished third behind Taft. In total, Wilson won 40 states, Roosevelt six and Taft two.

Whether it was favoritism for Roosevelt or a genuine progressive Republican impulse in Middleborough, the town favored Progressive Party candidates in 7 of 13 races on the ballot in 1912, giving progressive candidates the town's first vote for president, governor, lieutenant governor secretary of state, state treasurer, 2nd Plymouth District senator (Alvin C. Howes of Middleborough) and Plymouth County commissioner (Lyman P. Thomas of Middleborough).

However, in the long run, progressive Republicanism fared badly, both in Middleborough and the nation as a whole. Though the 1913 elections saw Middleborough give its first place vote to eight progressives in 13 races, it was beginning to lose influence to the Republican Party which began to re-absorb its lost members. In fact, in a three-way race in 1913 for the 7th Plymouth District between Middleborough residents Charles N. Atwood (R), Stephen O'Hara (D) and Lyman P. Thomas (P), Thomas finished third, an indication of progressivism's waning appeal. Running for the same position in 1914, Thomas was the only Progressive candidate on the ballot not to be relegated to a third place finish by the Middleborough voters. In fact, the 1914 elections saw few Progressives run and they even failed to contest the gubernatorial race. Many Bull Moose Progressives not rejoining the Republican Party in 1914 found solace in such candidates as progressive-minded David I. Walsh, the successful-Democratic candidate for governor in 1914 and 1915.

Roosevelt's declination of the 1916 Progressive presidential nomination and his endorsement of fence-straddling Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes effectively mended the breach between Republicans and Bull Moose Progressives. In the 1916 elections, Middleborough voted overwhelmingly for Hughes, who received 743 votes to Wilson's 476. The Democratic share of the 1916 Middleborough vote, however, was nearly 35% greater that the Democratic share in 1912, while the Republican share was down 12.5% from the combined Republican-Progressive share of 1912, an indication that many Middleborough Bull Moose Progressives had moved to the Democratic Party by 1916.

In a fitting epitaph for Bull Moose Progressivism, Roosevelt wrote James R. Garfield, son of President Garfield and Roosevelt's secretary of the interior: "We have fought the good fight, we have kept the faith and have nothing to regret."

Click here to hear Roosevelt's "Progressive Covenant with the People" address. Photograph and audio recording courtesy of the Library of Congress. Captioned by Michael J. Maddigan.

Illustrations:

Theodore Roosevelt by John Singer Sargent, oil on canvas, 1903

"Progressive Fallacies", unidentified political cartoon, 1912

In this cartoon from the 1912 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt has usurped the progressive mantle from Wisconsin senator Robert M. LaFollette who sits sulking on a nearby sofa. Roosevelt is accompanied on the piano by Miss Insurgency, who's contention that Roosevelt sings better than LaFollette was refelctive of the Republican rank and file's view of the former President.

Theodore Roosevelt campaigning, photograph, 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

William Howard Taft, photograph, 1908, courtesy Library of Congress

William Howard Taft, Middleborough, MA, halftone from a photograph taken April 27, 1912

Standing to the left of Taft is George W. Stetson, Middleborough Town Republican Committee Chairman.

"Floor-Manager Taft" by Edward Windsor Kemble, Harper's Weekly, February 12, 1912, pp. 14-15

In this political cartoon, Roosevelt tries to do the "Grizzly Bear" with the "dear old lady" otherwise known as the Republican Party. The cartoon is indicative of the disruption Roosevelt caused in the 1912 Republican campaign.

1912 Presidential Vote by County courtesy photobucket.com

Plymouth and Barnstable Counties had the highest percentage of votes in Massachusetts for Roosevelt.

Voting Precincts, 1893

At the Middleborough town meeting in 1891, residents voted to divide the town into two voting precincts under the provisions of Chapter 423 of the Acts of 1890 (the "Election Act of 1890"). The action was taken upon the basis of a petition, presumably by residents of North Middleborough which was created Precinct One, with the remainder of the town, including Middleborough center, becoming Precinct Two. As part of their duties, the registrars of voters were required to interview those seeking registration as voters, a task which necessitated their appearance within each precinct. Apparently, the initial foray to North Middleborough following the creation of Precinct One was fraught with inconvenience. The following year's jaunt, in the depth of winter was no less successful as indicated by this clipping from the Middleboro Gazette believed to date from 1893.

Isn’t it possible that it was a mistake to have divided the town of Middleboro into two voting precincts? It at least appears to have been a mistake to mark the first precinct set off from the main territory number one. Having been set off and a precinct with all its paraphernalia established it soon began to be found that it was not so very convenient or useful as anticipated. On making their visit to precinct number one, the registrars found that they had a wearisome time of it; they could not get a meal of victuals anywhere in the precinct, and one of them, who had left his house without his usual breakfast, was quite ill from long fasting, and could not eat his supper, but was compelled to seek his couch for the night. This year, yesterday, the registrars, in compliance with the law, visited precinct number one again. After their first experience they have since carried their food with them, therefore they were well provided in that matter, but the roads were in bad shape, and travelling difficult. The four men, Nathan King, Charles T. Thatcher, Charles H. Carpenter, and Thomas C. Collins, started out with a stout horse and covered carriage from Otis Briggs’ stable. After crossing the railroad track and getting out on to the less frequented road where no carriages had preceded them, the horse had much hard work to draw his load, and, with frequent stops, made slow progress, until at last, Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Collins decided to relieve him by walking; the roadway was rough, uneven, and decidedly uncomfortable for walking. Mr. Collins pushed on ahead and was making better progress than the horse with his light load. Mr. Carpenter was behind the carriage, making such progress, as he could. It was not long before Mr. Collins was attracted by a shout, and looking back saw Mr. Carpenter needed his help. He returned and found him unable to walk farther alone, being ill. He helped him to the carriage and saw him comfortably fixed, and then trudged along again on foot. At twenty minutes to one o’clock the registrars arrived at their destination, took their seats and rested, got help for Mr. Carpenter, who soon somewhat recovered. After due sojourn, and finding no business to be transacted, they began to discuss ways and means of getting home. A kind resident came to their assistance and procured a two-seated sleigh, and they congratulated themselves over their probable easy journey home. They were all seated and had comfortably adjusted the lap-robes and started out, homeward bound. Not far had they proceed when the sleigh struck a deep cut in the snow, and one side went up while the other side went down, and the inmates went overboard rolling into the snow easily, and there they laid. The driver, Mr. Collins, hung to the reins, the horse behaved well, the capsized registrars recovered their equilibrium without injury, and righted the vehicle, and journeyed on, arriving home safely and glad to get here. So much for precinct number one; a full day for four registrars, a hired team, an expense of ten or fifteen dollars, and not an item of business!

Illustration:
Register & Vote stamp, United States Postal Service, designer V. S. McCloskey, engraver R. M. Bower, Scott catalog number 1249, 1964

Socialist A. H. Dennett

At the turn of the last century, Middleborough resident A. H. Dennett looked to awaken the community’s social and political conscience. Concerned about the conditions of the working class, Dennett, a market gardener who resided on Summer Street, was active in social democratic circles in the years immediately following 1900. In October, 1900, he was a keynote speaker at a social democratic rally in Cushing’s Hall in Middleborough, along with Isaac W. Skinner of Brockton. At the time, Dennett was running for the office of Massachusetts Representative for Plymouth District No. 7 (Halifax, Middleborough and Plympton). While his opponent Judge George D. Alden of Middleborough initially agreed to debate Dennett, Alden probably realized that such an act might provide Dennett with too much credibility as a candidate and he quickly rescinded his acceptance. The debate never came off.

The following year, in 1901, Dennett again ran for Representative, finishing third behind William Perkins, Jr., of Plympton (Republican), and Dr. T. S. Hodgson of Middleborough (Democrat). Undeterred, Dennett ran on the Social Democratic ticket for Massachusetts Secretary of State in 1902, again finishing third behind Republican William M. Olin of Boston and Democrat W. B. Stone, but ahead of candidates from the Socialist Labor and Prohibition parties.

Locally, Dennett proved the nemesis of more conservative-minded individuals in Middleborough, and in 1901 grocer Matthew H. Cushing appears to have been a particular antagonist. The 69-year-old Cushing was an astute politician, having served as a state representative, himself, as well as a member of the Governor's Council, and since 1867 he had operated a grocery store at the Four Corners.

For the town meeting of March, 1901, Dennett proposed by popular petition a number of warrant articles, moving that street laborers be paid $2 a day, that town employees be given an 8-hour work day and be paid 25¢ an hour, that the local street railway companies provide shelters for passengers along the line of their route, that future franchises for street railways make provision for the free transportation of public school children, that the town obviate future conflicts of interest by barring town officials from holding office with or receiving “emolument” from corporations holding or securing a franchise with the town, that the town provide caps and gowns for high school and grammar school graduates and that Middleborough Town Hall be “given free to the different political parties for the discussion of public questions.”

While, today, none of these proposals appear strikingly radical, at the time they were depicted as the vanguard of a larger socialist movement which threatened to overwhelm conservative Middleborough and they accordingly received great attention, eliciting considerable debate at the town meeting of March. And while the initial meeting passed several of Dennett’s motions, protracted proceedings forced its adjournment and the re-adjourned meeting ultimately overturned most of the previous meeting's actions. “The triumph of the followers of A. H. Dennett at the first meeting was short-lived, as the citizens were in an antagonistic mood and undid about all that the Dennetites accomplished” previously.

In response to Dennett’s proposal that day laborers working for the town (primarily in the street department) be paid $2 a day, grocer Matthew H. Cushing argued against the article, dismissing it as a “cranky socialistic idea.”

I will yield to no one in consideration for the laboring man, but I do not believe in favoritism. Let the pay be as before. The superintendent of streets can now hire at different prices and pay what a man is worth, while with this scheme all get $2 whether worth it or not. Why adopt class legislation? Is it for individual popularity? The town has run to my knowledge for 50 years without the intervention of these cranky socialistic ideas.

Dennett disputed Cushing’s characterization of the matter, stressing that the issue was strictly one of social justice, and he took umbrage of the depiction of socialism as cranky, making note of the strong social imperative within Christianity:

That’s right, gentlemen, but the Encyclopedia Britannica says that “the ethics of socialism and the ethics of Jesus Christ are identical.” “Woe unto ye, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, that devour widows’ houses and for a pretence make long prayers, for yours is the greater damnation.” Aren’t the town’s laborers entitled to a good living? Those who championed other appropriations, why don’t they support these? Could they live on $2?

Dennett’s last question was particularly pointed, given the fact that Cushing owned nearly $20,000 in property at the time, a considerable sum and one which would take a lifetime for a working man to accrue at the pay rate of $2 a day. When Dennett emphasized that he had witnessed first hand children employed in mines for meager pay, Cushing retorted, “That isn’t in Middleboro.” Dennett’s response was that “Middleboro does not constitute all the known world to others, even if it does to you.” The motion, nonetheless, was lost.

Dennett had equally poor luck with defending his effort to prevent conflicts of interest, though the warrant article, itself, appeared unimpeachable: “To see if the town will vote to amend the by laws of the town so as to forbid any official of the town holding any office of trust or emolument in any corporation holding or securing a franchise from this town.”

The ultimate failure of this article, however, had less to do with the result it sought to bring about and more with the fact that it was seen as being directed at one individual in particular who apparently held both a town office as well as a position of trust with an enfranchised company. Leading the opposition was Middleborough postmaster Augustus M. Bearse.

I do not see why the townspeople should vote to amend the by-laws in such a manner …. I do not believe that any of the town’s officials would use personal office for public gain. Furthermore, the official affected is one who has worked side by side with me, and has been one of the town’s best benefactors.

Bearse’s reasoning displayed a perhaps naïve view of public officialdom, though in his defense, voters during the period in question were less jaundiced regarding the political process. Consequently, the town meeting tabled the article, effectively killing it.

Bearse also opposed Dennett’s motion to require street railways to provide suitable shelters at the intersections of cross streets with the trolley lines outside the center of Middleborough. Bearse (who most likely only rode the trolley infrequently) argued that the company in question – the New Bedford, Middleboro and Brockton Street Railway – “intends to deal with fairness and generosity towards the town”, a sentiment again marked by a degree of naivete. While the original motion by Dennett had passed, Bearse was successful in persuading the town meeting to consider an alternate motion that the street railway “erect one or more booths between here and North Middleborough.”

The 1901 town meeting appears to have been the culmination of Dennett's efforts locally to persuade voters to adopt a social democratic platform. Just a few years later, Dennett would relocated to Virginia where he continued to labor for the Socialist Party.

Illustrations:

Socialist Party of America seal

Sources:
Brockton Times, October 12, 1900; February 15, 1901; February 20, 1901; “Socialists Beaten”, March 18, 1901

International Socialist Review, 8:12, June 1908, pp. 722-24

A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, 1901 (Stoughton, MA: A. M. Bridgman, 1901), p. 175

A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, 1902 (Stoughton, MA: A. M. Bridgman, 1902), p. 129

Middleborough's "Red Scare", 1919-20

Before the days when McCarthyism sent Americans scurrying to check underneath their beds for Communists, America experienced its first "red scare" in 1919, in the wake of an aborted attempt by presumed alien radicals to mail 36 bombs to various American men of prominence and power, sychronized to detonate, appropriately enough, on May Day, 1919. Fueled by the apparent success of the Russian Revolution and the dramatic increase in immigration from Eastern Europe to this country, the fears of many Americans were that a similar revolution could occur here, and they were whipped into an anti-Communist frenzy led by U. S. Attorney General (and intended bombing target) A. Mitchell Palmer. A general strike in Seattle, the police strike in Boston, a major steel strike which saw martial law implemented in Gary, Indiana, and numerous race riots throughout the nation exacerbated growing fears of industrial and political unrest during early and mid-1919.

Despite May Day bombings at Boston and Newtonville which did bring the scare closer to Middleborough, the town remained free of any direct Communist agitation until October 1919.

While the Middleborough Nest, No. 1824, Order of Owls (or O. O. O.), a local fraternal organization certainly did not have a history of inviting Communist agitators to the community, that is precisely what it did when it lent its hall to two unnamed Middleborough men for what was to have been a "socialist rally" on October 28. The rally, in fact, was a Communist Party rally headed by John J. Ballam, the acknowledged leader of the Massachusetts Communists, and editor of the Worker, a Communist paper published twice a month at Boston.

Ballam, at the time of the Middleborough meeting, had only recently been released from a one-year stint in the Plymouth County House of Correction for violation of the Espionage Act. Just weeks prior to the Middleborough rally, Ballam had attended the first convention of the Communist Party of America in Chicago where Ballam acted as chairman on the sixth day.

At Middleborough, Ballam "gave expression to the most radical statements ever heard in this vicinity," stressing the importance of "Force and Revolution." Following "slurring talk of 'You Americans,' 'Your Religion,' etc.," Ballam "scored the American government in regular Bolshevik terms" and "told the audience that if they wanted any of the lands about them they were theirs; they should seize them and he advocated using force to hold the property if necessary." Ballam, himself, considered his Middleborough speech as going far beyond his previous forays in Communist incendiarianism. He "said that he had served a year in jail for his utterances and on occasion he had never said one-half as much as he had this evening."

What possessed Ballam to believe that Middleborough was ripe for socialist revolution is unfathomable as it was a staunchly conservative community. Though active locally, labor unions were not particularly strong, or excessively adversarial, and they were even sometimes suspect for their generally warm relations with management.

Ballam's appeal at the October, 1919, rally seems to have been directed towards newly-arrived immigrants in the community, yet it met with little response. Like residents elsewhere, Middleborough residents were too caught up in national differences to notice any grievious social or economic inequities which may have existed. In 1897, ten Armenians had walked out of Leonard & Barrows' shoe manufactory not because of economic or social inequities, but because the firm had hired a Turk whom the Armenians suspected of being an Ottoman agent. Nearly a quarter of a century later, these divisive attitudes lingered among the various nationalities locally, and could still prove the foil of international social revolution.

Ballam achieved little result for his efforts at Middleborough other than, undoubtedly, embarrasssing the Owls. He was arrested a month and a half later at New Orleans on board the steamship Mexico bound for Mexico, on an indictment by the Suffolk County Grand Jury charging him with making incendiary speeches and "advocating Bolshevism and Communism."
Middleborough was little troubled by the event, and the Gazette's coverage of the whole incident was simply and mildly headlined: "Some Radical Talk."

The following May, 1920, a second attempt to incite the populace was attempted by two unknown men who began anonymously distributing Communist circulars throughout town, but again with minimal success. The circulars, headed "Hail to the Soviets - May Day Proclamation by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party in America" apparently contained a rant similar to the one provided by Ballam several months earlier, calling for a cessation of work on May Day "as a demand for the release of industrial and political prisoners and as a demonstration of the power of the workers." Again, the community took little notice of the propaganda, other than curiosity, and notice of the item was not even deemed newsworthy enough for the front pages locally.

With these two salvos, Communist attempts to incite the local population to revolution in 1919-20 failed dismally. Confident and comfortable in its conservatism, and secure in the knowledge that ideas such as Ballam's held no appeal to the mass of local residents, Middleborough was able to avoid the worst excesses of America's initial "Red Scare."