University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.
THE ARREST.—THE PEOPLE OF LIVINGSTON DELIBERATE ON
THE STATE OF AFFAIRS.

But that morning rose in clouds and darkness on the
Pond, its neighborhood, and the town of Livingston.
Rumor of what had befallen was quickly disseminated.
Early in the forenoon an inquest was holden on the body of
young Smith, and it was declared that he came to his death
from violence inflicted by one or more members of the family
of Pluck. The uncertainty of the affair, aggravated by the
disordered condition of the witnesses, rendered it expedient
to arrest the entire household. Shortly on the Brandon
Road, which but a few days before Margaret and Mr.
Evelyn had traversed with so much serene hopefulness and
in the midst of such inspiring beauty, appeared the
Constable, Captain Tuck, armed with a warrant and
supported by a retinue of people, bearing sundry instruments
of offence, and hastening along with mingled imprecations
and laments. There turned up the Delectable Way
a multitude large as once bore Margaret in triumphal
procession over the same ground, who now were in pursuit
of her and her friends with tempers exacerbated by the
rehearsal of atrocious deeds, imaginations inflamed by
horrific suggestions, and a purpose which nothing less than
her own life or that of her best friends could qualify or
extinguish. From the Via Dolorosa poured in numbers
more with swords, axes and pitchforks. The house was
surrounded, and the pressure upon it, if cautious and

fearful, was yet overwhelming. Sibyl Radney, who stood
barring the door with her back, obliged to yield to the
weight of the crowd, was the only moving person to be
seen. Pluck and his wife, stupefied by an intoxication that
had probably been enhanced after the fatal event was
understood, Sibyl had dragged to their bed. The same
faithful creature had endeavored to correct the wantonness
and disorder of the night, and ere the people arrived she
had removed the fragments of the debauch that covered
the floor. Over the decayed and blackened embers of the
fire sat Margaret and Chilion in rigid silence and haggard
immobility; his face dropped into the palms of his hands,
she with her arms closed about her brother's neck, on which
her head was sunk. Hash was discovered, overpowered
by his fears and his potations, under the bed in the garret.
The Widow, foremost in execration of the family and
loudest in clamor for vengeance, declared Nimrod and
Rose had fled on horseback during the night. The Master
was found in a thicket near the water, whither in his own
frenzy and the turbulence of the hour he had betaken himself,
plunged to his knees in mire, and shaking with cold and
alarm.

Margaret and Chilion, without remonstrance or delay,
prepared to obey the summons of the officer, and went
forward a-foot. The other three were carried in a cart to
the Village, where they were all consigned to the Jail,
there to lie until the returning senses of the inebriated
should justify an examination. The Master was taken to
his bed, where, with fever superadded to his surfeit, he had
a prospect of remaining for some time.

Knots of curious and agitated people might have been
seen in all parts of the Green. The more considerable
inhabitants collected at the store of Deacon Penrose. Let

us look in upon them. We may get an insight to the spirit
and manners of the time, and also a comprehension of influences
that surrounded the criminal case about to come off,
and had a bearing on the destiny of Margaret.

“Mysterious is the providence of God,” outspoke Parson
Welles, the first to break the dubious and oppressive
silence. “Some are appointed to damnation by a just
indeed and irreprehensible, but incomprehensible judgment
of God; some he brings to repentance unto life. Let us
not rebel against his most righteous sovereignty. In what
has now eventuated, my brethren and friends, we behold the
Scripture verified, that the carnal mind is emnity against
God. And let all of us, whose desert is the same, not be
high-minded, but fear; let us humble ourselves before the
mighty hand of God, who in this administereth a needed
rebuke for our manifold sins.”

“Can any one tell us how this melancholy affair was
brought about?” inquired Judge Morgridge after a pause.

Deacon Penrose. “As I learn from Mr. Wilcox, who
was providentially present and is able to make a distinct
report, it was an unprovoked and malicious attack of some
members of that depraved family on the unfortunate young
man.”

Esquire Beach. “I think I can inform your Honor
more explicitly, that it is probably a result of anterior and
long-cherished animosities on the part of the persons
apprehended, against the family of Mr. Smith, arising from
indentures in the hands of said Smith of grants and
covenants, on the part of said persons, yet unfulfilled and
for a considerable period delayed.”

Deacon Hadlock. “Why do we mince the matter? I
can tell you all it is owing to defect of justice; that we
havn't heavier penalties, tighter execution, more wholesome

laws. If these persons had only been kept under, or been
enough broke by the chastismeents they have already had,
they would never have gone these lengths. Truly we can
say, we let the wicked go unpunished. For their Sabbath-breaking,
their disobedience to rulers, their unbelief, their
blasphemies, their hardness of heart, their stiff-neckedness
and perverse ways, has this come upon them. And for
our sinful remissness has this judgment lit upon the town.”

Parson Welles. “It behoveth us in truth that we consider
of our wicked declensions and great provocations
before God, whereby he hath reached forth to us this bitter
cup of shame and sorrow. And, brethren, is it not meet
that we appoint a Fast, touching this matter, as has been
the practice of our fathers in like calamitous visitations?”

Little Girl. “Daddy wants a quart of cider-brandy.

Deacon Pemrose. “Mr. Wilcox, wait on this child, and
then fetch in some glasses and a measure of our best New
England.”

Captain Tuck. “We had a heavy frost last night, the
air is raw and piercing this morning, and this is trying
business. I well remember during the War standing sentry
by the General's markee half the night, in the depth of
winter, on the solid snow, barefoot, with never a drop to
cheer or warm one with.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “It takes two to make a quarrel, and
I count there must have been something hard said or done
on t'other side.”

Esq. Beach. “Our worthy Deacon would do nothing
that should prejudice the case or compromit the parties
concerned, nor interpose obstacles to the due process of
justice and impartial effect of the laws. His generous
feelings we know always tempt him to act in behalf of those

who may be called to suffer; but he should remember that
law, Law is the essence of the Deity, the genius of the
Bible, the guardian Angel of humanity; and that Law
ever must be and ever shall be sustained.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “I don't know much about law, but
I know something about nater. A cow won't kick when
she is milked unless she has either core in her dugs or
chopped tits, and is handled roughly; and she always
knows who is a milking of her. Cap'n Tuck speaks
about the last War. I recollect when we was in the
Provinces down to Arcady, where the Black Flies come
out thick as birds arter a thunder storm, they won't let you
feel the sting till arter you see the blood. I guess there
has been a great Black Fly about here; andnow the blood
has come we begin to feel the sting.”

Parson Welles. “We have convened on a serious intendment,
and Brother Ramsdill would be in the way of Scripture
to avoid foolish jesting which is not convenient, and
whereby the brethren may be offended.”

Judge Morgridge. “Is it understood how many persons
are supposed to be involved in this deed? Is it thought
the younger female member of the family is to be accounted
either principal or accessory? I know not that in the
present stage of the affair I ought to make this inquiry;
nor, considering my own position, whether it becomes me
to raise any question at all. I do it, not on my own account,
but for the sake of others. Pardon me, fellow-citizens, if I
sometimes remember that I am a man.”

Deacon Hadlock. “I know of no vessel of wrath more
fitted for destruction than that gal. She is so hardened in
iniquity that any abominable conduct is to be looked for in
her. We have compassionated her ignorance, but it is of

no avail; we have done all that could be done for her, but
she braces herself agin God, despises divine truth, breaks
the holy Sabbath.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “Sows over-littered eat their own
pigs. Perhaps you have done too much for her, Brother
Hadlock. Mabby she hasn't forgot the bed you spread
for her when she was down here to meetin' a few year ago,
and when she had the School this summer past.”

Deacon Penrose. “Will the Parson taste a little of our
New England? We call it a prime article, and think this
the very best we ever manufactured.”

Abel Wilcox. “It has as handsome a bead as I ever
saw; and we think it possesses a flavor very much like
West India.”

Parson Welles. “Truly, in the words of Scripture, we
may say, Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish,
and wine to those that be of heavy hearts. We need something
to make our faces shine these dark times.”

Deacon Penrose. “Gentlemen, help yourselves.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “Down to Arcady, when a rattlesnake
bit one, his comrade sucked out the pizen; if he
didn't, the fellow died. I think we had better try and see
if we can't get some of the pizen out of these poor folk,
instead of taking it into our own bodies. I know it's a
cold morning, but sap runs best arter a sharp frost, and
my blood, old as it is, is enough moved without any
urging.”

Deacon Hadlock. Dark times, indeed, Brother Penrose;
we have contempt in the Church, as well as abuse in the
State. Things are getting worse and worse every day.
We are all at loose ends. Judgment follows judgment.
The Christian religion itself is just tottering to fall. The
Univarsalists I heard, yesterday, had appeared a little to

the west of us, at Dunwich Equivalents; their preacher,
John Murray, is drawing away people by hundreds. The
Socinians have broke into the fold at the Bay. But for
the elects' sake, who should be saved!”

Judge Morgridge. “It is an old story, Deacon, that the
times are deteriorating; I have heard it ever since I was a
boy. The world has stood some pretty hard shocks, and it
seems to be able to survive a good many more. So the
Worthy Fuller records, more than a century ago, `I have
known the City of London forty years,' says he; `their
shops did ever sing the same tune that trading was dead;
and when they wanted nothing but thankfulness, this was
their complaint.' Let us be patient, Deacon, and the
coming tide will lift us from the rocks. The hand that has
smitten will heal our wasted and torn condition.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “Time is the stuff that life is made
of, as Poor Richard says. I think if we would spin and
weave it better, we should not have so much raggedness to
complain of; and things wouldn't be falling to pieces so.”

Captain Tuck. “Raggedness and ruin! what do gentlemen
mean? Have we not had a glorious War! Are we not
independent! Isn't this a great country? Was there
ever an era like the present? and will there ever be
another such a one? Isn't America the envy of all worlds,
and isn't it honor enough to have fought her battles even if
we had lost our all? Does she not shine like the meridian
sun in his splendor? Our children will sigh and pine for
the golden period in which we now live.”

Esq. Bowker, a junior practitioner, and recent settler in
Livingston. “I think, if I may take the liberty to express
my thought, that I partially agree with our friend Captain
Tuck. We discern indisputable signs of improvement.
There is an amelioration in the order of events; there is a

softening of the crude and undigested matter with which
the breast of the ages has been so long gorged; Influence
has a vigorous but better regulated pulse, gladness and love
are on its countenance; History is emerging from its corruptions
and appears in a regenerated form; there is a
breaking up of corrupt Organization, and a tendency towards
the Unity of Love; the iron and mailed hand of
Public Opinion greets you less violently; Prerogative is
disposed to relinquish some of its self-will and austerity;
Literature is beginning to replenish itself from the infinity
of Virtue; Religion is becoming more humanized; and we
can scarcely hope to enter upon the new century that is
now opening to us, without leaving at the threshold much
trumpery and feculence, and bearing with us abundant
elements of a renovated condition.”

Deacon Hadlock. “Alas the day, that I should come
to this! Alas the day, that my old eyes should see what
they now see! I stand like a man cutting the gravestones
for his own wife and children. I sarved under the old
king, I fought agin the Spanish and French and the
Indians; I buckled to among the first for our liberties, I
gave a hand through all the tug of the War, I helped build
up our Constitution and Laws, and now we are worse off
than ever. Woe is me! A sorer pest than any before has
overtaken us.”

Mr. Adolphus Hadlock. “What, Uncle, what, the
Small-pox has not broke out anew? Aristophanes, my
son—”

Deacon Hadlock. “No, Adolphus, worse than that;
worse than Throat Distemper, or Putrid Fever, or any
thing else. Jacobins. the Jacobins are in amongst us; all
the bloodhounds of the French kennel are let loose upon
us, Freethinkers, Illuminatists, Free Masons, Papists.”

Judge Morgridge. “Don't you remember, Deacon,
when the news of Braddock's Defeat, in the year '55, was
brought here, what an alarm we had? Every man,
woman and child, ran out of their houses to learn the news;
all was despair. `The country is betrayed by Government.'
`They have sold us to the French.' `They'll
make Catholics of us all,' were cries that filled the streets;
and your father, a gray-headed old man, and our good
minister, then a young man, spoke to the people from the
Meeting-house steps, and told them not to be afraid, but to
put their trust in God. We recovered from our reverses,
and have passed safely through a good many difficulties
since. The French indeed have done us much good, and
in the War we courted their alliance and were glad of their
aid.”

Deacon Hadlock. “I know what you say, Judge—I
never liked the French, I was always agin that contract.
But we never had such trying times as these; so many
intarnal, as well as extarnal foes to our peace and prosperity.
Things never looked nigh so dark.”

Mr. Whiston, a Breakneck. “I agree with the Deacon
exactly; he has put the case right on its own legs.
For one, I am near about done for. I havn't hardly a hair
left to my hide or a pewter fip in my pocket. Taxes, taxes
are eating us all up; taxes upon your whole estate; taxes
on all you eat and drink; taxes paid by taxes, taxes
breeding taxes; and when all is gone, then tax the body
and lug it off to jail.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “Misery makes us unacquainted with
strange bedfellows, Judge.”

Judge Morgridge. “You see, Deacon Hadlock, into what
company you fall; Mr. Whiston is one whom I believe you

committed for being concerned in the late disturbances in
these States.”

Deacon Hadlock. “Just as I say, Judge, we are too
lenient, we didn't put on the screws half hard enough.
The Insargents ought to have been hung, or banished from
the country, or else condemned to imprisonment for life.
The State was not cleansed of the plague that was upon it,
and the sore waxes fouler every hour.”

Mr. Whiston. “'Tis true I harbored the men; 'tis true
I fell in with the movement; and I wish to Heaven we
could have a rebellion—I will say it here if I have to swing
to-morrow for it. I wish Shays could have carried the
matter through all the States. I helped throw off one
government, but I little calculated how I was going to be
sucked in by another. Courts, lawyers, sheriff fees, constable
fees, justice fees, imposts, stamp duties, continental bills,
paper tender, forced sales, have swept off every thing. The
grubs of the law have gnawed into us, and we are all
powder-post. How many actions did you try in one term,
Judge? Was it less than a thousand?”

Judge Morgridge. “Let that go, Mr. Whiston; it is
past, and we will endeavor to forget it.”

Mr. Whiston. “I shan't let it go, it an't past, and it
can't be forgotten. Can I forget the cries of Bly and Rose,
up there in Lenox? Not so easy. We fought for liberty
in the War, and if a man hasn't liberty to own his own,
to use his own, to be his own, what are our liberties good
for? Government is Lord God Almighty, and skin-flint
besides. Where is my title to my estate? Government
has got it. Where is my income? Government has got
it. Where is the disposal of my person? Government
has got it. Where is the control of my actions? Government
has got it. Where are my boys? Gone to fight the

Government battles agin the Indians. Where are my
gals? Spinning out Government taxes. What is the
Government for? To protect me, you say; yes, as the
wolf did the lamb, by stripping me of all I have. We help
make the Government? No. Didn't we petition to have
the Constitution altered, some of the courts abolished, and
the under officers set aside? Were our petitions granted?
They were not admitted; Government spurned us and our
petitions together. Such bungling and frippery never were
seen. I wouldn't give a fiddlestick's end for all the
Constitutions in creation. They take the best of every thing,
and leave us only the orts and hog-wash. Times are
mopish and nurly I don't mean to be scrumptious about
it, Judge, but I do want to be a man, if I am a Breakneck,
and havn't so much eddecation as the rest.”

Judge Morgridge. “It is getting warm here; we shall
be called to the examination soon, and we need all calmness
of mind.”

Mr. Whiston. “I am ready to stay and argufy the matter
out with any body. I have no notion of hushing it up
so.”

Dr. Spoor. “More parties than one have been implicated.
I think our worthy Deacon named the Free
Masons, a fraternity to which I deem it an honor to
belong.”

Deacon Hadlock. “Yes, I did mention them; they
are rising in France, Germany and England; they are
leagued with the Jacobins on both sides of the water, and
threaten the destruction of all this 'varsal world.”

Dr. Spoor. “They acknowledge the three cardinal
doctrines, Faith, Hope and Charity.”

Deacon Hadlock. “I know it, they are as bad as the
Socinians; under cover of religion they would destroy

religion itself. Hasn't Tom Jefferson threatened he would
burn up all the Bibles in the land, if he comes in President?
Isn't he the jawbone of Jacobinism in this country?
Havn't town meetings been called agin Jay's Treaty?
Hasn't John Jay himself been burnt in effigy? Yes, in
Boston he was carted through the streets, with a watermelon
shell on his head, carried past Governor Adams's house,
where they made him salute the old man, and then took
and burnt on the Common. Houses were broken open,
persons assaulted. What is all this but playing into that
whale's hands, Bonaparte, who means to swallow us all
up?”

Captain Hoag. “These things are jest so. We heard
in our part of the town last week, that he had taken the
city of London, and was burning over all England; that
he had made the Pope God of the whole airth, and that
they were both coming to America, were going to put us
all into the Inquisition, and then set fire to't.”

Deacon Ramsdill. “You eat nothing if you watch the
cook; I think we had better be thankful for what we have,
and God will give us what we want.”

Mr. Pottle, from Snakehill. “I believe the Deacon made
a fling at the Universalists?”

Dcacon Hadlock. “They are the seed of the old
Sarpent; they are leagued with the Devil himself; they
take advantage of the natural heart to entrap us with their
soul-destroying doctrines; they make a fling at the righteous
justice of God.”

Mr. Pottle. “For one I must say, my eyes have been
opened; I an't a going to be hoodwinked any longer. I
do not believe God is a wrathful being, I do not believe he
will keep us in a red-hot Hell to all Eternity for what we
do in this short life.”

Deacon Hadlock. “O! O! We are undone. I am
the man that has seen affliction.”

Mr. Pottle. “I believe the Atonement is broad enough
to cover the whole race.”

Parson Welles. “God be praised, his decrees shall
stand against all the lying deceit of man!”

Esq. Weeks. “We do, indeed, seem to be quite in a
toss. I have said nothing hitherto, because I have had so
many other things to think about. There are sometimes
domestic and personal calamities which seem for the
moment to outweigh all public concerns; and how many in
our midst are even now, we must believe, in deepest
affliction. But I cannot well let what has been here expressed
pass without at least offering a word of encouragement
and hope. I agree with Mr. Whiston, that our
Government is not all we could desire. I did not vote, as
you well know, for the Constitutions either of the State or
the Nation. But having been adopted by a majority of the
people, I am willing to give them my cordial support. I
have confidence in the people; and believe that they will right
what is wrong, and better what is bad. I concur in the
old maxim, that that government is best which governs
least, and I think the evils we deplore will be remedied in
time.”

Esq. Bowker. “There is a principle of health in
Time itself, agreeably to which we may hope that the
diseased body politic will ultimately recover, the tumid
aspect of society subside, noxious sentiment be thrown off,
and the clouded atmosphere of our public life clear away.”

Esq. Beach. “There are some gentlemen who have
the urbanity of the original Tempter himself; who pursue
by indirection what they dare not openly propose,
and under the guise of flattery harbor the deadliest intent.

Heavens! has it come to this! shall drivelling be substituted
for sound reason, phrenzy for dispassionate conduct! O
Humanity, where is thy blush? O Virtue, where hast
thou fled? Was is not the firmness of President Washington
in resisting the overtures of the French, that saved
us from that gulf? Was it not the explosion of Randolph's
connection with Fauchet that prevented the worst of
calamities? Are not French emissaries scattered through
the land, corrupting our citizens, and disturbing our
politics? Have we not seen the Tricolored Cockade, that
emblem of massacre and blood, voting at our polls? Has
not France twice dismissed our envoys with ignominy?
No Festival is so celebrated in this country as the Birth of
the Dauphin; yes, we revere the birth of a Monarch more
than the virtues of Washington! You cannot, gentlemen,
have forgotten the refined patriotism of one our Judges,
who recently invested the city of Providence with a regiment
of soldiers, and endeavored to arrest the celebration
of the Anniversary of our Independence, and prevent the
ratification of the then ninth pillar of the Federal Constitution,
New Hampshire. The Gazettes of that clique are
distributed with a diligence worthy a better cause. Our
own mails, yes, to my shame and sorrow I repeat it, the mails
of this good old Federal town of Livingston are loaded
with their prints; Chronicles, Auroras and Arguses, are
circulated in our midst, through which the great monster
of evil belches forth his falsehoods, seditions, blasphemies
and calumnies upon our population. This Anglophobism
is the most malignant and incurable of maladies.”

Esq. Weeks. “Yes, enough of it worse than Gallophobism.
We have no dastardly refugees voting at our polls
—no. Reams of Russell's Gazettes, Courants, Centinels,
Spys, are not every week brought to our village—no. They

are full of truth, religion, candor, sweetness—yes. We
have no readers of Porcupine's Gazette, a writer who is an
avowed British subject—no. The Editor of the Aurora
was not recently whipped in the streets—no. How many
Black Cockades could I count in this room? But, soberly,
Sam Adams's threadbare coat must give place to John Hancock's
lace and ruffles. Our ladies must have negroes to bear
their trains through the streets as their mothers did. Capt.
Hoag here would have us kneel to his Spread Eagle and
Blue Ribbon, and we must barter our old-fashioned pewter
for Cincinnati plates, and cups and saucers. We must import
mustard, muffs, tippets and Flanders lace. We must baptize
all things into the mild spirit of Federalism; we have
a Federal Congress, Federal Gazettes, Federal Hotels,
Federal Theatres, Federal Circuses, Federal Streets, Federal
Warehouses, Federal Flour, Federal Babies; we have
long had a Federal Gospel—no offence to our good minister—and
must look for a Federal Heaven.”

Esq. Beach. “I shall make no reply to matters like
these I know we are somewhat diverted from the objects
that brought us here. But one thing I would have impressed
on all minds; there are three political sects in the
United States. The first in number as well as in sense,
without umbrage to Brother Weeks, are the Federalists,
who believe mankind are in need of the restraints of good
government. The second are the Jacobins, who see in
every book of acts and resolves, gibbets, pillories and jails.
But there is a third sect, who are less despised and yet
are more contemptible, the Illuminatists. These will have
it that government is unnecessary. They want common
sense to such a degree, that they do not know their want of
it. They are underworkers to the Jacobinical purpose of
power, plunder and vengeance.”

Abel Wilcox. “'Lexis Robinson is here again with his
notes, sir.”

Deacon Penrose. “I dare say. He is punctual to a
day. He holds some of the consolidated notes and Quartermaster
General's certificates, and comes every year to dispose
of them. I offered hlm eight and sixpence on the
pound; then as they depreciated, four shillings, and at last,
when they were good for nothing, in pure compassion, I
told him I would give one and six; but he wouldn't be
easy without the full face. He might have taken advantage
of the funding.”

Mr. Whiston. “That is what we tried to bring about, a
means to pay the old soldiers; but we could not do it.
Poor 'Lex, his face half gone, his wits nigher done for, his
old sores still running—well if the country for which he
fought can give him sward enough to cover his bones!”

Deacon Ramsdill. “He that lives upon hope will die
fasting, as poor Richard says; if this belongs to 'Lexis I
guess it will apply to some other folks. What is the hour,
Judge?”

Judge Morgridge, “I think we had better give attention
to the prisoners. The warrant was issued from your office,
Squire Beach, I believe; shall we not adjourn there?”

Parson Welles. “God send the right.”