6S
��THE LEGISLATURE.
��self once a member of the Senate, and Hon. Thomas W. Thompson, Speaker of the House in the years 1813 and 1814, and Senator in Congress from 1814 to 1817, entertained members of the "Great and General Court;" and at a later period, Hon. Isaac Hill, John George, William and Joseph Low, entertained Governors and prospective Congressmen. Jeremiah Mason, Daniel and Ezekiel Webster, and other lights of the early part of the present century, made domestic dwel- lings their adding place when in Con- cord. Such was the custom of thetimes; and there yet remain people amongst us who relate with much satisfaction the agreeable occurrences in their parent's houses, when politicians, wits, clergy- men, lawyers and others, of a now long gone period, were inmates of those habi- tations. The drift into the public houses of Concord is of comparatively modern date; utterly unknown during the pe- riod here under consideration. In early days, members of the Legislature came to town in their own vehicles or upon the backs of their own horses; put those an- imals out to pasture, and the owners, in many instances, did not return to the towns they represented until the close of the session.
THE ELECTION SERMON.
From 1784 to 1831 — both years included — sessions of the Legislature were pre- ceded by public religious services in some meeting-house, where the session was held ; a discourse being delivered by a clergyman appointed by the Governor. Those were occasions of the utmost "pomp and circumstance," and such of them as took place in Concord are in dis- tinct remembrance by people who still live. The Governor and Council, the Senate and House of Representatives, many clergymen, walking by themselves, two and two, gentlemen in the various positions of life, preceded by martial mu- sic and a military corps, all on foot, with a miscellaneous crowd on the sides of the street as spectators, proceeded to the ancient and then only meeting-house in Concord. The number of people in that ancient, spacious and well remembered house during those religious services was
��very great; and when all had become composed for the exercises of the day T the spectacle was of very impressive character.
PREACHERS OF THE ELECTION SERMON.
The following are the names of preach- ers of the "Election Sermon:" Rev. Messrs. McClintock of Greenland, (1784), Belknap of Dover, Haven of Portsmouth, Langdon of Portsmouth, Noble of New Castle, Ogden of Portsmouth, Evans of Concord, Morrison of Londonderry, Wood of Weare, Rowland of Exeter, Peabody of Atkinson, Gay of Dover, Pay- son of Rindge, Burnap of Merrrimack, Woodman of Sanbornton, Hall of Keene, Porter of Conway, Paige of Hancock, Miltimore of Stratham, Bradstreet of Chester, McFarland of Concord, Row- land of Exeter, Shurtleff of Hanover, Beede of Wilton, Bradford of Frances- town, Holt of Epping, Sutheiiand of Bath, Dickinson of Walpole, Merrill of Nottingham West, [now Hudson], Allen of Hanover, Howe of Claremont, Brad- ford of New Boston, French of North- Hampton, Tyler of Hanover, Cooke of Acworth, Ellis of Exeter, Williams of Concord, Bouton of Coneord, Moore of Millord, Crosby of Charlestown, and Lord of Hanover, [1831.]
DISCONTINUANCE OF RELIGIOUS SER- VICES.
In the House of Representatives, June, 1831, Benjamin M. Farley, Esq., of Hollis moved that a committee be appointed on the part of the House to select some per- son to preach the Election Sermon. Charles F. Gove, Esq., of Goffstown, moved that the resolve of Mr. Farley, be indefinitely postponed; which motion prevailed, 107 to 81 ; and so the ancient custom was abolished, after its observ- ance for forty eight years. Thenceforth, the assembling of the Legislature has been of less remarkable character than under the old order of affairs. Only in exceptional cases has there been a mili- tary parade, and in some instances, Gov- ernors elect have passed, with no other escort than the committee of the two houses, from their boarding place to the Representatives' hall, and been quietly inaugurated.
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