Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/169

 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER WEBSTER.

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��At this period of the war Salisbury had also twelve of her men enlisted for three years in Capt. Gray's com- pany, Col. Scammel's regiment, name- ly, Moses Fellows, Eph. Heath, Benj. Howard, D. Fitch, Matthew Greely, Philip Lufkin, Joshua Snow, Wm. Bailey, John Ash, Josiah Smith, Reu- ben Greely and Joseph Webster. It was the darkest hour of the Revolu- tion, but her citizens put forth energies equal to the emergency.

In August, 1778, Capt. Webster, in obedience to a request of the Com- mittee of Safety, with a company en- listed in his neighborhood, repaired to Rhode Island, and participated in the events that then occurred there. Again, in 1780, Capt. Webster enlisted and marched another company for the relief of the army stationed at West Point. This was a short time before the treason of Arnold. We heard one of his soldiers remark that the evening after the treason of Arnold was dis- covered by Washington, Capt. Webster was called to his tent by Washington, and commanded to guard his tent that night, remarking, " I believe I can trust you." Capt. Webster with a por- tion of his company performed sentry duty during that eventful night. His nephew, Stephen Bohonon, one of his soldiers, used to relate the incident •that Washington did not sleep that night, but spent his time either in writing or walking his tent. Capt. Webster performed six months' service at West Point, and in subsequent pe- riods of the war two other short cam- paigns in defense of our northern frontiers.

Thus we see that when congress or the state called for aid, Capt. Webster met the demand by the good example of leading his men rather than by pointing the way.

The principle of equality was estab- lished by Salisbury in raising and pay- ing her men for the war, as will be seen by the adoption of the following vote in 177S :

" Voted, That Capt. Ebenezer Web- ster and Capt. John Webster be chosen

��a committee to aid the selectmen to make an inventory of each man's estate, and estimate what each man has done in this present war, and estimate the currency upon the pro- duce of the country, and that those men who have not done according to their interest, be called upon by tax or draught, till they have done equal to them that have already done service in the war."

The selectmen of that year, who had for a chairman Dr. Joseph Bart- lett, an able and efficient patriot and father of Ichabod Bartlett, and a family all highly respectable, united with the other members of the committee, and they assessed the people according to the spirit of the foregoing resolution. All acquiesced except the richest man of the town, who had performed no military service, and he demurred to the tax as being too large and illegal, and declined to pay. The committee waited upon him, and Judge Webster addressed him : "Sir: Our authorities require us to fight and pay. Now, you must pay or fight." He paid up.

By act of congress of February 25, 1 780, New Hampshire was required to furnish one million, one thousand and two hundred pounds of beef, as her quota for the support of the army. The legislature of New Hampshire, June 17, 1780, owing to the depressed state of the currency, passed an act authorizing each town to furnish, in five equal supplies, their proportion of this beef. The state assessment on the town of Salisbury was nine thou- sand two hundred and forty pounds of beef. Capt. Eliphalet Giddings, of Exeter, was appointed Collector Gen- eral of beef for this state.

All the beef was to be returned to Capt. Giddings, estimated and accept- ed by him, and then to be forwarded to the American army.

The selectmen of Salisbury, in 1 780, were Capt. Ebenezer Webster, Dr. Joseph Bartlett, and Edward Eastman, grand father of Joel Eastman, of Con- way. They assessed this tax in money, but gave notice in the warrant to trie

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