Not-so-good old days

Even though slavery was banned in Maine, and the paper actively supported abolition, in 1845, it was clear that an uprising of slaves could do more than upset the economy of the region.  The following is an item that ran in the Oxford Democrat on January 14, of that year:

Monstrous Conspiracy Found Out

At New York, in the latter part of last week, there were arrested four colored men, William Wales, alias Bombay, Jeremiah Summons, Geffrey Overton and Samuel Finney, on complaint of another colored man named George d. Morse, whose life they had threatened to take. The circumstances attending the case, the News says, are as follows: It appears that a conspiracy had been formed amongst the colored inhabitants of Princess Ann County (Va) to murder the white population of the eastern shore, and such of the black as would not join them in their deeds of murder in the course of the holidays. Several negroes in New York, were cognizant, if not actually engaged in aiding the insurgents, and one of the number, named Hodges, had gone hither to take a part in carrying out the plans. The facts of the contemplated insurrection and the names of several engaged in it, having come to the knowledge of Morse, whose parents live in the section of the country refereed to, and for whose safety he felt alarmed, he wrote, or caused to be written, a letter to the authorities of Virginia, communicating all he knew on the subject, which led to the arrest of Hodges, and several others implicated in the matter. Waslse, Simmons, Overton and Finney, having by some means been apprized of what had transpired, suspected Morse of having communicated the information to the authorities, became so enraged against him as to threaten to take his life; whereupon he applied to the Police, who caused them to be arrested and held to bail in the sum of $300 each. — Port. Amer.

Note, however, this two-sentence blurb that ran on the same page:

The Southern papers are urging the establishment of cotton factories in the Southern States. Slave labor is to be employed in them.

On a nonpolitical, purely crime note (as if they weren't at times one and the same) here's another report that appeared in that issue of the Democrat.

Execution at Worcester, Mass — The extreme sentence of the law as executed on Friday upon Thomas Barrett, convicted of the murder of Mrs. Ruth Houghton, an elderly woman, who lived in Lunenburg. The execution took place in the jail at Worcester, and was strictly private, only about twenty persons being present, who were invited by the sheriff to witness the awful spectacle.

It goes to show that even back in those days, when the practice was much more common than today, executions were newsworthy events. It's interesting to note that nineteenth-century yankees were as concerned with Congressional extravagance toward what we call the "military-industrial complex" as are we in the twenty-first. This shocking news speaks for itself in that regard, but we can't help but remark that a return to the 1845 standards would go a long ways to eliminating the deficit. Sailors, by the way, were paid per cruise, so their salary scale was not mentioned, but it likely wasn't much higher than the others.

Pay of the Army

The bill before the House, introduced by the Hon. James A. Black, to reduce the pay of the army, is nearly a copy of that which passed the House of Representatives during the last session of Congress. It makes a very material reduction in the rates of pay. All pay for extra services is cut off by the bill. It fixes the term of service at West Point to four years, and authorizes all supernumerary officers to be selected from West Point. The number of quarter masters was reduced, in the bill, to 10. The pay of privates is six dollars per month, and one dollar in addition for each soldier and musician who receive an honorable discharge. Corporal punishment is abolished; but an enlisted man may be sentenced to hard labor for desertion from the Army or Marine corps, for a period of not less than one or more than six years. All supplies, it is required, shall be purchased by contracts with the lowest bidder.

As is our custom, we try to exactly reproduce the grammar, spelling, punctuation and style of the original. Commas might appear where least expected and remain absent where we’d expect them if the item was written nowadays. On the other hand, consistency was not considered of utmost importance, so variations of a spelling might appear within one story. In addition, some words were abbreviated differently than today. Where brief explanations of terms are considered necessary, they are presented in brackets [] within the quote. Otherwise, explanations appear at the beginning or at the conclusion, without quotes. Parenthesis () used in a quoted passage appeared in the original.