Biography of Isaac Hill, of New-Hampshire

Preface

It was a remark of that celebrated female writer Madame de-Stael-Holstein, thai the adventures of almost every individual would, in competent hands, supply the materials for an interesting novel. The truth of this proposjtion, however paradoxical it may at first seem, can hardly be doubted. It is from the common events of a common Ufe, the excited hopes, the pleasing anticipations, the multiplied disappointments, the numerous vexations, the unavoidable accidents, the unexpected reversions of fortune, which make up the every-day round of human existence, connected with the degree of forben ranee, fortitude, patience, resignation, prudence and moderation, with which all these various and varied occurrences have been endured, w'ith their effects upon after life and the developement of character, that useful lessons for tlie regulation of our own conduct may be deduced and much matter of interest and subject of serious contemplation. On the other hand, the biography of some startling individual, some man of a million, who, like the flashing meteor or wandering comet, dashes his eccentric course across the path of the multitude, overthrowing the results of human calculation, and heedlessly striking down the barriers which mankind have by common consent, erected, as the eternal bounds of human enterprize and man's daring, may serve as a record of this miracle of the age, but would be far more likely to check the rising ambition of youth by the immeasurable distance at which its events must be contemplated, than to nourish their aspirations after fame and the possession of an honorable memory.

The object of Biographical writing, it has been aptly remarked, is two-fold, — both to impart historical information by a sketch of the life and acts of some eminent in-

PREFACE.

tittt' Tet^I ^'^pl^p^g those acts in a true and proper light, devoid of false coloring or mis-statemenf tn

miS^fVT"^ T' '°"^^' ^y excitinTfSible Wrir f t? i^'^?^ ^ ^" unconquerable disgust and

horror of the wicked. To effect this latter and by far the

rrt;;?^^''"' '"'^' "°^^'"g ^«"^d be more appr^oprLte particularly m a country where there is no aristocracy of- genius and where poHtical advancement is the chi7f aim of our young men's ambition, than to note for the consideration of youth and theinstruction of ah the pro! gressive steps by which an individual has risen thiXh his own enterpnze, and by the most unconquerab e peV

tTon^riifrtoVT""- S'"^^^-^' f--thel?umblest^a: tionm life, to an honorable rank and comparative emi-

Such is the design of this litUe book-a sketch of the hfe of a man who has borne no inconsiderable pari k the political events of the last twenty years, who ^s d^nt fi ed with the interests and success^of one pa ?y and ^ro^" nent m his opposition to another, has of cou^-se recdvTd his share of partizan abuse and the maliSy of tW Tu'Tho^afwi 11!,^^ '""f^''/ ^^^ -ecessf:;;i?otptd

andS/°""f If."' '^"d to whose industry,Tt:.ly LstiSi'o^;' '^"■'*' '" ^"^ P""^°"^^ acquaintance's' wilf bclr for which the materials were first collcS '^ThT? ^ .tated arc of unquestionable antlou"; of the correct'

Of ]Vew-Hampsliire.

Isaac Hill was born of poor but respectable parentage. His father, also named Isaac, is a native of the present town of West Cambridge, then a part of Cambridge, Mass., and known as the parish of Menotomy. He was a descendant of Abraham Hill of Cliarlestown, who was admitted freeman 1640, and, leaving two sons, Isaac and Abraham, died at Maiden, 13 Feb. 1670. Abraham Hill, the grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was the fourth in descent from the first of that name, (the intermediate generations being Abraham, Abraham and Zachariah,) was a patriot of the French and Revolutionary wars, and died about five and twenty years ago. His wife survived him but a few years. Isaac, their youngest son, and the father of the^ subject of this memoir, was born about the year 1767, and is still living.

Mr. llilPs mother, Hannah Russell, is a descendant of William Russell, who came from England, lived in Cambridge as early as 1645 and left sevjf^ral sons. , She was, likewise, a native of the "'^fTparish of Menotomy, but of that part which be- "longed to Charlestown. The Menotomy boys were 1* far-famed among the " sons of liberty" for their invincible spirit and undaunted courage, and her father, Walter Russell, commanded a company of alarmlist at the battle of Lexington, Avhich did great service in harrassing the enemy, arresting the baggage-wagons, &c. He died 5 March 1783, aged 45.

At the house where this patriot and his immediate ancestors lived and died, Mr. Hill was born on the 6th of April 1788, being but sixteen years younger than his mother and the eldest of a family of nine children, having three brothers and five sisters, all of whom are living, and, with one exception, heads of families. The unfortunate situation of Mr. Hill's family, which might at first view, appear an irreparable injury, in fact proved to him a blessing in disguise. His grandfather returned, at the close of the war, to take charge of a family rendered destitute by the circumstances of the times, and was, in a short time, entir- Jy ruined in his earthly prospects by the depreciation of his wages. The shock proved too great for his mind to bear, and he became subject to that awful calamity, which appears to have been constitutional in the family, partial insanity, which continued in all the gradations from perfect clearness of mind to raging madness, till his death. His father, by nature an industrious, capable man, undertook the charge of a rising family and the care of his ruined parent, when, shocking to relate, scarce yix years had elapsed from his marriage, ere he was overtaken by a similar visitation of Providence, and his intellectual faculties almost entirely destroyed.

The whole burden of course fell upon his mother, and full well did the noble woman fulfil her part. Young Isaac, as the eldest of the family, was early called to share in his mother's responsibilities, and at an age, when other children are hardly permitted out of the reach of their mother's voice, he became to her a useful assistant, counsellor and friend. Incredible as it may seem, this mother, amid all the difficulties, which, to a common mind, would have appeared insuperable, contrived to save enough from the wreck of their ruined fortunes, to purchase a small farm in the town of Ashburnham, fifty miles distant from Menotomy. Hither his parents removed, in the spring of 1798, and here they both still live.

From what has been said, it will readily be conceived that his advantages in early life, as to the attainmentof an education, were exceedingly limited.

Young men, at the present day, can hardly have an idea of the extent of the discouragements against which an enterprising lad, at that time and in the situation in which Mr. Hill was placed, was obliged to struggle to obtain the instruction for which his young mind thirsted. There existed then and in such a place,no public libraries, whence might be drawn food appropriate to the growth of the intellect, and little opportunity for reading, either from the newspapers of the day or from private collections of books. That glorious invention, the Lyceum, which has been, under Providence, the blessed means of great good to the present generation, and which, let Americans, in proportion as they value their political institutions, cherish and sustain, had not yet been established, even in the villages and cities of the land. In addition to all this, in reference to Mr. Hill's particular case, it is to be remarked, that the place which his parents had selected for their future residence, and where young Isaac passed a brief, yet perhaps the most important part of his VI hole life, vi^as a stnall and newly settled country town. It was here, for a portion of the period between the ages of ten and fourteen years, and then only during such intervals as the weather or other circumstances would admit of his being spared from the cultivation of the farm, and under such instruction as such a town would be likely to furnish, that Mr. Hill received most of the schooling that he ever enjoyed.

But, during this period, young Isaac made the most of his limited advantages. It was at this time, that he laid the foundation of that untiring industry and indomitable perseverance, for which he has ever been distinguished, and which have formed the whole secret of his success in private and political life. We have spoken of these four years which Mr. Hill passed at Ashburnliam as perhaps the most important era in his life. We have ventured the remark, because we believe at that age are effected nearly all those important modifications of the natural disposition and character, which exert an essential, an all-powerful influence over the modes of thinking and modes of acting in after life.

But he had manifested at a much earlier period, his love of knowledge and desire of instruction. Before he was eight years of age, he had read the Bible through in course, dwelling, with particular pleasure, upon the historical portions. Indeed, historical information was that which he most longed to acquire. At six years of age, he had greedily laid hold of a brief account of the war of the revolution, contained in one of the school-books of Webster, which he read till he had committed to memory. Then, for want of a more complete record of the events of that stirring period, he would seek from his grandparents and his uncles an account of the martial scenes which had occurred in their immediate vicinity, and in«which they had participated. The stories of the " Concord fight" and the burning of Charlestown were often described for his amusement, with a clearness, because from actual observation, that laid in his breast the foundation of that hatred of tyranny and arbitrary rule which has ever been the governing trait in his character.

At seven years of age, Mr. Hill participated with the elder boys in speaking dialogues, and getting up mimic theatricals, in which they were encouraged by their instructor. At that period, his industry and love of learning, rarely allowing him to leave the school room during the hours of recreation, to mingle with the sports of his comrades, were held up by the master as worthy of imitation. He read every thing which came in his way, even from a few tattered leaves of a "Call to the Unconverted," which his father chanced to own, to the two penny tales which he found in the possession of his neighbors.

Ashburnham, at the period when Mr. Hill resided there, was at the distance of twelve miles from the nearest post-town. The inhabitants, however, for a part of the time, were united in a company to take a small weekly paper then printed at Leominster, each going-, by turns, to bring this precious repository of the news of the day. When it fell, in its round, into the possession of young Hill, every word was greedily devoured before it was suffered to drop out of his hands. The town, being sparsely settled, the winter school, as in many new towns at the present time, was kept but a few weeks in each district, and the boys were allowed, at the close of the school, to attend at some other district, in any part of the town. Of this privilege, Mr. Hill gladly availed himself, even at his tender age, lame and of weak constitution, at the cost of a daily journey of four or five miles in the severe storms of that mountainous region. Rich would he have considered himself, could he have gained the situation of the humblest charity scholar at a common academy !

Mr, Hill had, from necessity, been early inured to severe labor, but his constitutional infirmities did not admit of his following the pursuits of the agriculturalist, or those professions in which bodily strength is the principal requisite. Besides this, the younger children were fast growing up to fill his place, and he could better be spared from the care of the family. Next to the attainment of an education, it had been his highest ambit-ion to follow the trade of a printer, which he had thought would afford him the opportunity of obtaining what he most desired- — knowledge. He

BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC HILL. 1 I

had never seen a printing office, and knew, thought nor cared any thing for the severity of the labor or the expense of carrying on the business.

In these views his father and mother acquiesced.

It was at the age of fourteen, and after the enjoyment of such slender privileges, that the parents of Isaac Hill, with commendable prudence and an honorable desire to contribute to the future welfare of their son, determined to provide him with means amply sufficient to render him independent of every reverse of fortune, by sending him to acquire the rudiments of a useful and lucrative trade. This was, without doubt, the wisest course that could have been pursued. Deprived, by their situation and circumstances in life of the blessed privilege of giving their son a liberal education, they did not, as far too many parents do, suffer their child to pass the important period of youth, in learning the lessons of idleness, dissipation and vice ; to grow up, as it were, a sort of left-hand member of society and to find himself a man in stature and years but destitute of the means and destitute of the disposition to sustain his proper place among his fellow-men.

We are all, in some degree, mutually dependent upon each other — and this dependence is a necessary consequence of civilization. But if there is any portion of the community which can be termed independent, it is the laboring class ;— the mechanic and the farmer. They are the " bone and sinew of the republic ;" the right hand of freedom ; free from the taint of aristocratic associations, they are neither prepared servilely to obey or haughtily to command. In our country and under our happy form of government, those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow are peculiarly fortunate in their situation. It is here more particularly, that they assume their proper place in society, the first file in the ranks of the free ; it is here that they are made proudly sensible of their own political importance. Government, contrived for the express purpose of attaining the '' greatest good of the greatest number," is here chiefly based upon a regard for their welfare, and instead of being a grinding curse to the faces of the poor, it is here particularly designed to encourage their honest efforts and defend them in the possession of their inalienable rights, from the selfish grasp of the purseproud oppressor. The officers of government are here, not their masters, but their servants ; not placed in authority by divine right, but by the free suffrages of a free people. The laboring class here are not disfranchised or deprived even partially of the rights nature has bestowed upon them. To them equally with the rest, is open the path to political preferment, to honors, to fame, to the respect of their fellow citizens. There is, in our country no royal road to distinction ; no young mechanic need envy the lot of a son of luxury. He is now acquiring lessons of manly independence, is learning to think for himself, is gaining the rich stores of experience — all, acquisitions which eminently fit him for any station, however exalted, to which Providence and his own enterprize may yet raise him. The numerous bright instances which the history of our own country

BIOnRAPHY OF ISAAC HILL, 13

can furnish, where persevering industry, worth and moral principle have triumphed over the fortuitous obstacles of rank and situation in life, are so many burning and shining lights for the encouragement of all who feel that they are at present below the sphere for which they were by nature intended.

But to return from this digression, to which our subject has naturally led us. An unlocked for opportunity for the accomplishment of their wishes was soon offered Mr. Hill and his parents. Mr. Joseph Gushing, a young printer, had just established a printing office at Amherst, N. H., and was in want of an apprentice. Hearing of young Hill, his situation, capacity and wishes, and supposing him to be likely to suit his purpose, he came to his father's residence to see for himself. Young Isaac was much mortified at being found by his future master, a genteel young man, in his ragged working dress and laboring on the farm, but Mr. Gushing was sensible enough to rely more upon what he had previously heard of him, than upon his casually unprepossessing plight. The bargain was soon made with his father, and in a short time after on the 3d of December 1802, young Hill found himself in company with the elder Mr. Gushing and on his way to a new scene of action.

The first number of the Farmers' Cabinet was issued on the 11 Nov. 1802, consequently but three numbers had been printed before the commencement of Mr. Hill's apprenticeship,or rather his residence with his master, for he was never an indented apprentice. The transition from the 2 drudgery of a small farm in a thinly settled town to the bustle of a printing office in a pleasant country village, was to Mr. Hill, like an entrance into a new world.

It was in truth an important era in his life ; an event which fixed his future destiny. The change was great ; the theatre on which he had now entered was comparatively a vast one. To an inquiring mind such as he possessed, there was much that was instructive, even in the dull and laborious round of the duties of the youngest apprentice. His opportunities for the acquisition of useful information, were greatly multiplied, and the temptations to which his inexperience rendered him subject, were equally increased.

We can afford only a brief space for a detail of the particulars of this portion of the life of Mr. Hill, of which, much of the information we possess, has been acquired from a conversation lately held with his old master.* Of course what we can advance, may be considered authentic. He was. during this period, remarkable as an excellent, faithful young man. His previously formed habits of perseverance and patient, untiring industry were now confirmed and were exhibited not less in his daily labors, than in his devotion to intellectual improvement. During a seven years' apprenticeship, from his boyhood till he became of age, not an incident occurred to inter-

* Mr. Cushins; left Amherst and removed to Baltimore about the time of the expiration of Mr. Hill's apprenticeship. He has for nearly thirty years been in business in that city as a publisher and bookseller, and is now on® of its representatives in the legislature of Maryland.

rupt the constant liarmony which existed between his master and himself. Both parties concur in an affectionate remembrance of each others goodqualities. The one was kind, the other obedient ; the master showed no inclination to insist upon an undue subserviency on the part of the apprentice,and the latter felt in nowise disposed to rebel against reasonable demands. He was conscious that whatever might be his fortunes, he was himself to be their architect, and that he could hope to acquire assistance, patronage and support in no other way than by his own industry, morality and good conduct. He had early been accustomed to assume important responsibilities ;and the severe lessons which necessity had taught him, were not without their fruits. He was remarkable for the firmness of his principles and his power to resist temptation, and no instance is remembered of dereliction on his part from the path of rectitude and from the duty which he owed to his God, his master and his fellows.

Besides a faithful attention to his daily labors, Mr.Hill became, during this period, a hard student. True, his studies and course of reading were very desultory, having no other guide than his own judgment or inclination, but the information which he was enabled to acquire, was precisely of that kind most needed for the practical purposes of life. He became thoroughly conversant with the general routine of business belonging to his profession, to which his long apprenticeship enabled him to add a perfect practical knowledge of the business. He waslong an active and efficient member of a Debating Club, established by the young men of the vicinity, and the Records, during the time he was secretary of the Society, r^re still in existence. Several of the members of tliis association have since found their way, in different parts of the world, to comparative distinction and opulence. Judge Swann of Ohio is remembered as one. It is related, that young Hill, when defeated in debate, was inclined to yield to his mortification and needed the encouraging voice of a kind master to relieve him of his despondent feelings. Mr. Gushing really loved him, placed the most implicit confidence in his abilities and integrity, and often entrusted to him the entire care of the office.

Mr. Hill's industrious habits were further displayed in the acquisition of a beautiful, rapid and clerkly style of penmanship — of the rapidity of his handwriting, he has to this day certainly lost nothing. He acquired it wholly by practice, writing in his leisure hours, almost incessantly. Extracts and annotanda derived from his reading, at first afforded employment for his pen. He soon launched out into speculations and essays, both political and miscellaneous, and his first attempts of this descrii>tion are strongly tinged with the peculiarities of his intellectual character. Although the newspaper which was published at the office where Mr. Hill was employed, was then and always has been since, considered as belonging to the anti-democratic party,and notwithstanding his beloved master was a decided thougli moderate and consistent federalist, the youthful apprentice remained true to the republican principles in which he had been nurtured and from

BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC HILE. l7

wliich he has never yet swerved. At that early period, he often contributed to the public prints of the day.

As was perfectly natural in one of his character who looked forward to the practice of his profession as the means of earning his daily bread and ensuring a respectable and comfortable subsistence, Mr. Hill had long contemplated the opening ot an office and the establishment of a newspaper, whenever the expiration of his apprenticeship should occur. Accordingly, on the fifth of April 1809, the day before he was twenty one years of age, he left his master and came to Concord.

About six months previous,* the American Patriot, a small weekly newspaper, had been established at Concord, and published by Mr. William Hoit, Jr., a practical printer, who still follows his trade and is the senior of his profession in that place. It was considered a republican paper, and as far as it went was consistent in the defence of republican principles and measures ; but it had neverbeen conducted with that efficiency and regularity, without which, under such circumstances, and struggling against such an opposition as that with which it had to contend, it was likely to prove rather an hindrance to the progress of truth than a useful auxiliary in the cause of republicanism.

Mr. Hill was therefore advised by those who knew his principles and felt confidence in his abilities, to purchase the establishment, and com-

* The first No. was issued on the 18 Oct., 180S. 2* mence the life of the editor of a political newspaper. The idea was grateful to him, the transfer was speedily executed, preparations were made immediately and with his customary alacrity, and, on the 18th of April, two weeks after he hecame a citizen of Concord, the first number of the publication, which has since become so deeply rooted in the affections of the people of New-Hampshire, was issued from his office. The press on which this and many succeeding numbers were primed, was one of the old Ramviage kind, and the identical press on which had been struck the first impression of the old Connecticut Courant, forty-five years l>efore; that is, in December, 1764. This press was afterwards purchased and used in printing his religious periodical, by the self-taught brother of the type, Elder Ebenezer Chase of Enfield.

At the period of which we are now speaking, there were only three printing offices in Concord, the business of which, taken together, was very small, and the whole of the work of the Patriot as well as such jobs as happened to be committed to his care, was executed by Mr. Hill himself, his younger brother Walter, Vv'ho had been his fellowapprentice and was afterward his partner in business, and a single journeyman. Of course, Mr. Hill, in making the change in his situation by his removal from Amherst to Concord, and his advancement from subordinate to principal, could not have contemplated a life of ease or indulgence, but rather an increase of labor and responsibility. He was a thorough and experienced workman and was by no means inclined to suffer his energies to rust through want of exercise. Besides the wear and tear of brain, which, as editor of the paper, he was forced to underg-o, he took upon himself the oversight of the mechanical part of the operations, performed six times a week the days' work of a journeyman, directed all his papers with his own hand, and when circumstances required, did not hesitate to circulate them at the doors of his village customers. Such industry and such resolution, could not go unrewarded.

The paper, in its early stages was little more than half its present size, and the fourth page was devoted, under the caption of " The Museum," to poetical, literary and miscellaneous pieces. — The advertising patronage was at first small, but gradually and constantly increased. Mr. Hill thought proper to alter its title from ^American PairioV to ' The JVew- Hampshire Patriot,^ presuming, as he said, that a New-Hampshire Patriot would always be an American Patriot, and to distinguish it from the pseudo-American Patriots which had been started in various parts of the country. The additional title of the " State Gazeife," was not added till after the lapse of several years.

The first number of the New-Hampshire Patriot bears for its motto, the well known words of James Madison, "Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights of others, it shall be our true glory to cultivate peace by observing justice." Mr. Hill's introductory address in this paper, being brief and the first document he ever, over his own name, presented to the public, is here given entire :

20 BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC IIILL.

" TO THE PUBLIC.

" Amidst the conflicts of animosity and infuriated zeal — when the unerring genius of improvement is cramped by the persevering advocates of corrupt systems of polity — when the evil spirit of Federalism is stalking up and down our land seeking whom it may devour — when the avowed and secret projects of internal and external enemies are aimed at the vitals of our republic — it becomes every one v;hose views are American, whose sentiments coincide with those of our fathers of the revolution, to inculcate the sound doctrine of rational liberty, to espouse the cause of his country and his God. Educated in the simplicity of truth, early taught to revere the patriots of '75, and feeling the loss of personal connexions, the fruit of British barbarism at Menotomy and Bunker-Hill, the juvenile years of the Editor have been republican ; he has detested tyranny, in whatever specious garb she has arrayed herself; — and he trusts the judgment of maturer age never will sorrow for past political follies, or wilfully persevere in future errors. The axioms of political morality, as expressed by Washington in his valedictory, by JErFEp..soN and Madison each at the commencement of their presidential career, and so well practised in all their lives, are engraved on the heart of every American, and are precisely those we would adopt. Possessing no motives for personal enmity, having quarrels with no men on the score of private pique, our cause is the cause of our country — our only enemies, those who are seeking its ruin.

" In our views of parties in this country, we cannot consider the contest, as between two political sects having equal claims for patriotism and love of country ; but as between the friends of our own independence, of our government, and our rights — and our enemies, the friends of a foreign nation, which is striving not only to distract our councils and influence the decisions of our government, but to bring us into a close connexion with her own destinies,either virtually or avowedly. In saying this, we do not say that political honesty is exclusively attached to republicans : we believe many federalists have acted from upright intentions ; hut theirs noio is the cause of the Essex Junto, whose leaders, Pickering and Gore, have averred that " England has done us no essential injury" — that she is '' disposed to trtiat with us upon the principles of equity and justice" — assertions in the face and eyes of the most conclusive evidence to the contrary : — Theirs is the cause of Great-Britain, inasmuch as they coincide with and justify her agressions on the principles of right and justice, on the laws of nature and of nations : — Theirs is the cause of our enemy, because they stigmatize our government in every act whatever its tendency, and because no subterfuge, however mean, is left unessayed to incite to distrust and opposition.