Moultonborough, New Hampshire, and the Constitutions
By Jane Rice
Since we are just at the time of year to celebrate the Declaration of
Independence, and by extension the Constitution that has preserved our
freedom over the last 215 years, it seems appropriate to examine the
role that Moultonborough and New Hampshire have played in those two
documents.
New Hampshire’s delegates to the Continental Congress in 1776, which
produced the Declaration of Independence, were Josiah Bartlett, Matthew
Thornton, and William Whipple; and they were two physicians and a
merchant, respectively. None were born in New Hampshire: Bartlett was
born in Amesbury, Mass, Thornton in Ireland, and Whipple in Kittery,
Maine. Whipple died in 1785, and thus did not live to see the
Constitution written and adopted, but Bartlett lived until 1795, and
Thornton until 1803, and he saw the new Republic into its third
President before he passed away.
New Hampshire was wrestling with the question of how to govern itself
once colonial governor John Wentworth was forced to flee from the colony
on August 23, 1775, sailing from Portsmouth on a ship called the
Scarborough, along with his lovely wife, Lady Frances Wentworth, and
infant son. Among other possessions, he left behind his summer estate in
Wolfeboro, which gives them the claim of being the “first summer resort
in America.” There was a legislative assembly under Gov. Wentworth, but
only towns whose citizens were known to be of pro-British sentiment were
allowed to send representatives. Because this was not truly
representative, a Provincial Congress began meeting in Exeter in 1774,
and 85 towns were represented. It was an argument over seating Wentworth
supporter John Fenton, ending with a cannon drawn up to the door of the
Wentworth mansion in Portsmouth, which led to the departure of the
Wentworth family.
This left no legal authority of any kind in the state, and they were
advised by the Continental Congress in December, 1775, to call together
a representation of the people to form a state government.
Moultonborough was represented in this Provincial Congress by Daniel
Bede, Esq. In 1776 that group adopted the first “state” constitution,
drafted by a committee of four, including Dr. Matthew Thornton. It might
be noted that New Hampshire also drafted its own Declaration of
Independence on June 15, 1776
The constitution was meant to last only until the war ended, possibly
with peace restored between the colonies and the mother country, when it
would be more convenient to draft a permanent document. There were some
problems with the 1776 constitution, however, and in 1778 the world’s
first constitutional convention sat in Concord to create a more lasting
article. Draft constitutions were voted down in 1779 and 1781, and
finally, on October 31, 1783, voters ratified a new constitution by the
needed two-thirds majority, to go into effect on June 2, 1784.
Moultonborough does not appear to have been represented at this
convention, although James Brewer represented
“Sandwich, etc.” Detailed records of the convention were not
preserved.
Many of the same problems with royal government which were addressed in
the U.S. Constitution in 1787 were also addressed in New Hampshire’s own
“Bill of Rights” and constitution, including unlimited search and
seizure, quartering of troops, cruel and unusual punishment, unfair
trials and hereditary government were all forbidden. Constitutional
conventions are mandated every ten years to make needed changes, but
Article 10, Right of Revolution, remains a part of the current document,
and we are also the only state to retain the governor’s council as one
side of a “split executive” branch, as the founders were quite wary of
placing too much executive power in the hands of the governor alone.
U.S.
Constitution
We know that the Articles of Confederation that were originally adopted
in 1781 was too weak a document to bind the states together in national
unity. It remained in force eight years, by which time the national
government, unable to collect taxes or exercise executive or judicial
power, could not even pay the interest on foreign debts or the back pay
due to the Revolutionary army.
A convention was called in the spring of 1787 to rectify this situation,
and New Hampshire chose four representatives: John Langdon and John
Pickering of Portsmouth, Benjamin West of Charlestown, and Nicholas
Gilman of Exeter. Only Langdon and Gilman attended. Both were leaders in
state government and in the Revolution, with Langdon among the party
that seized the gunpowder at Fort William and Mary in 1774, also
pledging personal funds to raise the brigade of troops under Gen. John
Stark that fought at the Battle of Bennington, as well as being New
Hampshire’s very first U.S. Senator, and first President of the Senate.
Gilman was adjutant of the 3rd N.H. Volunteers in the
Revolution, and later a U.S. Congressman and Senator.
The draft of the new federal constitution was reported to Congress in
September, 1787, and referred to the states for approval, with a
majority of nine of the thirteen states needed to bring the constitution
into effect in the ratifying states. The convention for the
“Investigation, Discussion, and Decision of the Federal Constitution”,
sat at Exeter on February 13, 1788, at which time it had already been
ratified by six states-unanimously in Delaware, New Jersey, and Georgia,
and by vote in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, which
adopted it by a vote of only 187-168. Moultonborough, Tuftonboro,
Wolfeboro and Ossipee were represented by Nathaniel Shannon of
Moultonborough. Many of the delegates to the New Hampshire convention
had instructions from their districts to vote against the document, and
although many became converts during the ten days of discussion, they
still felt obliged to vote against it due to the feelings of the folks
back home. The convention therefore adjourned without a binding vote, in
order that the Federalist party could explain the document to the voters
and possibly convert them to their side.
The convention reassembled on June 18, 1788 in Concord, at the Old North
Meeting House. Maryland and South Carolina had meanwhile voted for
ratification, and New York and Virginia were also then in session. The
next state to ratify would cast the deciding vote. In spite of
determined opposition by abolitionists who were concerned because the
Constitution did not ban the practice of human slavery, the delegates
voted on June 21, 57-47 in favor of ratification, with Nathaniel Shannon
among the party voting in favor, although his constituents, objecting to
the concessions to slavery, had originally instructed him to vote
against. Shannon began as a clerk in Jonathan Moulton’s store in
Hampton, became one of the 12 Proprietors of the town, and served in
many public offices. Little New Hampshire thus became the state that
brought the United States Constitution into force and effect among the
states that had so far voted.
Express riders immediately set out to carry the word to New York and
Virginia, as well as to Gov. Hancock of Massachusetts, and to various
parts of the state. Since it was the Lord’s Day when word reached
Portsmouth, the citizens contented themselves with prayers of
thanksgiving in all the churches, until at 1:00 a.m. Monday morning a
joyful peal was rung on the bells, saluting the members of the
convention and their work. The following Thursday a grand procession was
held of men of all professions, plus a ship representing the UNION,
drawn by nine horses, with music written for the occasion, additional
salutes by cannon, and a picnic, and the state-house illuminated with
nine candles in each window. The “New Hampshire Gazette” carried the
headline, “The Ninth and Sufficient Pillar Raised”, giving New Hampshire
the honor of laying the top stone to “the grand Federal Edifice”, which
has kept our nation going ever since.
