The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly resented and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the people had been accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested on all occasions. This is a document of later date, signed by a Bedford committee, which seems not to have been suggested by any outside action, but to have resulted from the impulses of the citizens themselves:
Bedford, May 31, 1783.
To Lieut. John Orr, Representative at the General Court of the State of New Hampshire:—
Sir:—Although we have full confidence in your fidelity and public virtue, and conceive that you would at all times pursue such measures only as tend to the public good, yet upon the particular occasion of our instructing you, we conceive that it will be an advantage to have your sentiments fortified by those of your constituents.
The occasion is this; the return of those persons to this country, who are known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in America, by those of conspirators, absentees, and tories;
We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not receive the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they not deserving favor, as they left us in the righteous cause we were engaged in, fighting for our undoubted rights and liberties, and as many of them acted the part of the most inveterate enemies.
And further,—that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we esteem them as persons not deserving it, but the contrary.
You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are already returned, be treated according to their deserts.
In the War of 1812 there were more than two hundred men in Bedford armed and in readiness to march whenever called upon, and in this two hundred was one company of about sixty men over forty years of age and therefore exempt from military duty. In the War of the Rebellion Bedford invariably filled its quota without draft and without high bounties, and it paid its war debt promptly.
It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom-loving, sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and women, that Zachariah Chandler was born and that the foundations of his character were durably laid.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building was ready for it, and it was loaned to different members; the careful record kept shows how scarce and costly an article it then was.
CHAPTER II.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
