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CHAPTER 10 "Mightier Things Than Personal Griefs" T he sorrowful events in Fanny and Lawrence Chamberlain's lives in 1860 could only have left them with melancholy memories. But no personal tragedies, nor even family happiness could insulate them from the menacing omens of the tempest about to break upon the country. The year 1861 opened with a dreadful sense of foreboding for many, and, while Lawrence witnessed the slow decline of his brother Horace, he feared that he might hear the death knell for his country as well. It is difficult to determine Lawrence and Fanny's political feelings in the years before the war. Their correspondence with each other and with their families contained no political dialogue. But there are some observations that can be made regarding Father Chamberlain and Rev. Adams' political leanings. Their influence should be viewed with some caution, however, for in politics as in religion, the child does not always follow the father. There is considerable evidence that Father Chamberlain was a devoted Democrat . While he named his first-born son after a naval hero of the War of 1812, he named two of his other sons for prominent Democratic politicians. Tom was named after Maine Democrat Thomas Davee, a remarkably successful mid-Maine businessman and politician, and a shining example of the self-made man. But it is the naming of his third son, John Calhoun Chamberlain, after the man best remem- fO& Sfixsvupand'ffisAua/ bered as the fiery defender of states rights, secession and slavery from South Carolina , that many find startling. Biographer Willard Wallace cites a Chamberlain family tradition that Father Chamberlain was simply enamored of all things Southern after touring the region as a young man. But a look at the family's history, as well as that of the state, suggests ample ground for such a tribute. Many Maine people, feeling they had suffered from the national government's high tariffs and policies on trade and currency, saw John C. Calhoun, the mastermind behind nullification and its challenge to federal authority, as a champion.1 Father Chamberlain, as a young lad, knew first hand of his own shipbuilding father's near economic ruin when President Thomas Jefferson's embargo on trade, from 1807 to 1809, paralyzed the industries reliant on seafaring. Nor did ship masters fare much better under President Adams' Non-Intercourse Act, harassed as they were by both the British and the French. Many in Maine had also opposed the War of 1812, the conflict during which Lawrence's grandfather, Col. Chamberlain, suffered the destruction of two of his ships by the British at his Orrington shipyard. It was an economic loss from which it is said he never recovered, and an episode that would have left quite an impression on young Joshua, Jr. The Colonel held on in Orrington after the close of the war, with its promise of a resumption of trade. But the Tariff of 1816, designed to protect the United States' new industries, soon dashed the hopes of New England seafarers and shipbuilders, and those of the trade-reliant Southern states as well. In 1818, Col. Chamberlain abandoned his Orrington shipyard, and brought his family to Brewer to start over again, where fanning and timber would supplement his shipbuilding. By the time Lawrence's father had grown to manhood and was seeking his own fortune, there was still considerable opposition in Maine to what was viewed as the national government's interference on issues of trade and currency, which were believed to have impacted negatively on Maine fortunes. In 1833, five years before John Chamberlain's birth, John C. Calhoun, in order to openly oppose national tariffs and defend South Carolina's nullification law, resigned as vice-president of the United States to again become senator for his state. As the champion of nullification, he was credited by many with forcing the confrontation that would result in compromise and a lowering of tariffs. In the year before John Calhoun Chamberlain's birth, many Americans also believed that the economic panic of 1837 was caused by President Jackson's policies on the nation's banks and currency. Senator Calhoun's previous denunciation of both Jackson and his policies had seemingly proved right, and Calhoun enjoyed such popularity in Maine that a movement in the state's Democratic party advocated his candidacy for president.2 While the demand for lower tariffs caused many Mainers to see their Southern countrymen as political allies, the defense of state...

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