The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-01-21
OUR CONSTITUTION and THE CATHOLICS
Major Dickey's "reminiscences Of
Early Maine Days.
The Bold and Crafty Captain of the
Schooner Hester.
Remarkable Romance of the Lonely
Boy Of Damarlscotta.
Especial to the Press. !

Especial to the Press.1
AUGUSTA, Jan. 19.-Major William Dickey
had been before the Judiciary committee the
other day explaining the Madawaski claims
and was in mood for "reminiscences. Here
is one which he gave the PRESS correspon-
dent 1t relates to very interesting episode
in the constitutional history of Maine:
when the Convention of the Province of
Maine met in Portland in 1919, to form a
State constitution" said Major Dickey, ''the
delegates adopted. among many other feat
ures of the old Massachusetts constitution,
clause denying to Catholics the right to
hold office. On the morning after this clause
was adopted the Chairman of the Convention.
Il think John Holmes was the map.-found
on his desk sealed envelope. He opened it
ana found within an argument against the
discriminating clause. No name was signed
to 1t. but so strong was the argument that
when the Chairman read it to the Convention
the ant-Catholic article was reconsidered
and stricken out by an unanimous vote.
Who the author of the anonymous letter was
was not known for many years. / dis
covered him in peculiar way. Edward
kavanagh. Of Damariscotta. Governor Of
Maine about lS43, was an intimate friend of
mine. He was one of the most modest as
well as one OF the ablest men In Maine One
day he dropped in my presence an expression
tnat LED me to suspect that he was the au-
thor OF the letter that had so powerfully
influenced the Convention. L remembered
the incident; and some years after his death
| called on his sister, Miss Winnifred
Kavanagh, at Damariscotta. She gave me
permission to examine the Governors S papers
which were in a great chest up stairs
After several hours. of search 1 found the
original manuscript in full of that argument
that turned the Constitutional Convention.
1t was In Kavanagh's handwriting and was
endorsed on the back by Bishop Fenwick, an
early Catholic divine of New England.
i VINO 8 was an intimate friend,
Kayanagh. Kavanagh wrote the article
while finishing his education at Montreal.
Not daring to trust his own Judgment he
sent 1t to Bishop Fenwick for approval.
Ihat approval was given. aDd the
remarkable results. Kavanagh was a re-
markable man and a great scholar as well.
He was on the Northeastern Boundary Com
mission, where his knowledge Of French
made him very useful. Being President of
the State Senate when John Fairfield was
elected to the National Senate, he succeeded
to the Office of Governor which he could new
er have filled, probably, but for his modest
but powerful argument addressed to the
Constitutional Convention of 1919. He was
afterward foreign minister"
Damariscotta has warm place in Major
Dickey's heart; for about the old village
cluster some of his proudest and most ro-
mantle memories,-for Major Dickey has
share of both, though you might never sus-
pect it until you come to know well the men,
Der from Fort Kent. His father was Cap
tain John Dickey, an old Damsriscotta sea
captain, who commanded staunch DANA
riscotta ship that went down with all hands
IN 1919. Major Dickey was a boy nine years
of age on that sad year for his family, but he
remembers his father, who seems to have
been man more than usually enterprising,
and fertile OF resource. This is shown by an
event that happened long before Major
Diekey's birth. Captain John one summer,
about 1898, was in command of the good
schooner Hester, and with crew of four
men and boy was making good progress
under favoring skies and breeZes from the
West Indies to Damariscotta 1t was in the
days Ct the French Republic and of our
trouble with that country. One day, as the
Hester was nearing Damariscotta, Captain
Dickey discovered a strange sail bearing
down upon him. As it came nearer it proved
% be a French priyateer, the Gustave de
I.annes, a craft much to be dreaded by any
American merchantmen. To resist would
be useless; Captain Dickey had Yankee
sense enough to know that. But he also had
axpedients that carried the people of the
young nation through many trials, and have
not even been exhausted yet Ordering his
Iour men into the forecastle, Capt. Dickey and
.he boy remained on deck, where they were
aboring hard to work the ship when the
French officer came aboard. The officer on
taking possession was naturally curious to
know why Captain Dickey was sailing his
schooner with the help of boy only. Cap
tain John was not long in explaining that
his four men were sick in the fOrecastle
with West India fever The French officer,
Ligate the health Of the four men, put prize
crew of five men aboard, and thinking them
sufficient to take care of captain, boy and
four men likely to die soon of terrible few
er. sailed away leaving the prize to make its
way to French port. Captain Dickey wait
ed until the Privateer was well out of sight.
Then, in favorable moment, and at given
signal his four men convalesced with re-
suddenness, and rushed upon the
bewiidered te,s Frenchmen. Captain Dickey
cutlass, and, though himself wounded,
the weapon out of the hands of
the Gaul. The other four Frenchmen had
meanwhile been disarmed and captured.
Captain Dickey was again master of the
Hester, and he turned her head towards
Damarscotta with glad heart. He arrived
without incident. and the five Frenchmen
were lodged in the old Jail at Pownalboro,
now Wiscasset. The bilt of the cutlass
which Captain Dickey wrested from the
into spoons which became an heirloom In the
Dickey family.
The most inteterting incident connected
with this gGair, however, was neither Cap
tain John Dickey's strategem nor the happy
result of it; but an episode in which the
present Major William Dickey figured more
than generation after. 1t was about 1898
that the Gustave de Lannes overhauled the
Hester. Another Wiscasset vessel sailing
not far away saw the captain, and, escaping,
carried the sad tidings to Wiscasset, Now
Captain John Dckey had half brother
named George Cox, the son of Captain Dick
sy's mother by her second husband. The
ages OF the two young men were not In great
disparity; and they, with Captain Dickey's
own sister Betsy, were, of all the brothers
voted to each other. When George Cox,
then young man of about 25, heard the
news of his half brothers capture he was
nconsolable. He always leaned upon Cap
tain John for advice and help; and now that
captivity and probably death had overtaken
his friend and protector, he declared that he
didn't care whether he lived or died. He
soon did something that convinced the peo
pie OF Damariscotta that his words were not
idle. One fair day, loading his small sail
bOdt WIN ootlC QllcQ CDuucu tuhL D6 0d0
caught and cured and taking along his pet
dog, he sailed out of Damariscotta river with
his only possessions; and from that day no
one In Damarisc0tta ever saw him. To what
seas he sailed or on what strands be landed
no one of his friends ever knew whether he
laid his bones in the depths of the sea or be-
came an exile in a strange land was the great
mystery Of Damariscotta. This was about
The year 1898.
Here Major Dickey passes In his narrative
10 the days of the Civil War and the winter
Of 1864. The Union army then occupying
J Jacksonville moved out one fine February
day to the little Florida hamlet of Olustee,
and then fought battle with the Confeder-
ates. Major Dickey was with the Union
army as an assistant in the sanitary depart
ment. The Union armies were not fOrtu-
nate on that day at Olustee, and many a
bleeding northern soldier was borne back to
Jacksonville in cars hauled over the railroad
by the willing hands of the negro regiments
The wounded officers we're laid In cots In the
Methodist church 10 Jacksonville; among
them a tall captain who wore the number of