The following obituary was transcribed from The Vermont Patriot and State Gazette, Page 3, 17 June 1833.
Another Revolutionary patriot has gone. – It is our melancholy duty to announce the death of Rev. Solomon Aiken, of Hardwick, Vt. He died at his residence after a severe illness of one week on the morning of the 1st of June, in the 75th year of his age. – Tho’ the weight of years was upon him, this veteran of the cross and of two wars, was in body erect and manly as when he first buckled on the armor of War, in the cause of Freedom and Independence. – Age had not dimmed the keen lustre of his eye, faintly were its furrows traced upon his placid brow; his locks were raven-like; firm and elastic was his tread, when death his and our last enemy humbled the venerable patriarch to the dust. Endued with an excellent constitution, so strict and uniform was his regimen that he used frequently to remark that for forty years he had never known what sickness was. His mental vigor was unscathed by time. – While wrestling in the relentless gasp of death, conscious that his last hour had come, the strength, clearness and placid serenity of his mind were most remarkable. He wore the resigned expression and saintly air of him, who has buried all the idolizing joys of earth and looks away to his imperishable treasure in the heavens. He gathered around him, his disconsolate family, pronounced a pious father’s valedictory blessing and then calmly feel [sic] asleep. Such were the last moments of this Patriotic but persecuted man; distinguished alike for his talents, virtue and intelligence. It is due to the character of the deceased, to public opinion, to satisfy the claims of friendship, and stop the extreme poverty; which drew upon him the vengeance of excommunication and pursued him to the grave with cruelty, relentless and inhuman.
Solomon Aiken was born in Hardwick, County of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, in July, 1759. He served above two years in the War of Independence. At the conclusion of this service, he took to study and was graduated at Dartmouth College. He afterwards embraced the profession of the Ministry, and for thirty years was pastor of the Congregational Society at Dracutt, Massachusetts. Here he distinguished himself as a Clergyman. During the violence of party spirt in the administration of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Aiken openly seceded from the political sentiments of the Congregational Clergy and fearlessly proclaimed himself a Republican. This was his unpardonable sin. This act marked him as the conspicuous and common object of clerical party vengeance. He did not quail before his enemies – but maintained a steady support to the leading measures of the administration. He wrote much and exposed the corrupt and dangerous doctrines of the Federal Leaders; especially did he disclose the impious & unhallowed designs of the Calvinistic the Clergy waging political war with Drs. Spring, Osgood, Steel, Parish, and others; men who were ever ready to rejoice at any event which might embarrass the administration and disgrace the country. For several years he represented the town of Dracutt in the State Legislature. He actively supported the last war and in the latter part was Chaplain. At the period referred to, Mr. Aiken as a politician, was well known through the New England States. – The combined influence n the clergy was made to bear upon him; their hostility became inveterate and implacable. At length pious mouths of gainsayers and calumniators, that some prominent incidents of his life should be noticed.
It is just and proper that those who deserve well of their country, should be embalmed in her memory. It is due, as an example to the rising generation, that those who have devoted themselves to the cause of liberty, though in comparative obscurity, should be rescued from oblivion and help up to admiration. To the distinguished man, whose sudden exit we are now called to notice and deplore, these remarks have a most just and peculiar application. A life of vicissitude as his; the ease and affluence of wealth and the bitterness of poverty were known to him. Amid all its vicissitudes he was always uniform and contented with his lot; always patriotic.
It is an act of strict justice on the part of friends at this time, to publish to an impartial public a very few incidents of his life, which procured for him, the warm friendship of the old Republican party in New England on the one hand and the bitter execrations of the Federalists, the implacable, relentless persecution of the Congregational Clergy on the other, which reduced him from affluence to fraud, reckless calumny and persecuting vengeance ousted him from his pastoral charge, reduced him to poverty and drove him from his native state. He retired among his relatives in Hardwick, Vt.; but the zeal of persecution sought out his retreat – his enemies were not satisfied with his humiliation; the enjoyed a most singular and savage delight in triumphing over his misfortune, and lacerating this fallen victim. Thy were like blood hounds, ever upon the track. One incident which happened a few years since, and which he had concealed even from his family until a few weeks before his death, will show the spirt and character of their persecution. While at Hardwick to relieve the distress of a dependent family, he went away into the State of New York – commenced preaching and continued to labor about six months; was successful and gave general satisfaction. His Christian persecutors at length ferreted out their victim. – The result was that he was dismissed, lost the benefit of this services – begged his passage across the Lake and returned home on foot and without one penny to his family. His talents and integrity were ever appreciated by intelligent and honest freeman. He represented the town of Hardwick for several years in the State Legislature. But he has gone to rest.He has left a fair and illustrious fame, purified in the furnace of affliction, strengthened and exalted by persecution – aloof from calumny – adorned with the chaplet of patriotism, it will descend to posterity and live in the hearts of freemen when his reckless persecutors shall merge into oblivion or be remembered only to be despised.
Works by Solomon Aiken
- An oration delivered before the Republican citizens of Newburyport, And its Vincity, July 4, 1810
- A letter, addressed by the Rev. Solomon Aiken, A.M. pastor of the First Church in Dracutt, to the Rev. Samuel Spring, D.D. pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newburyport, on the subject of his sermons, delivered April the 6th, 1809
- The Rise and Progress of the Political Dissension in the United States A Sermon, Preached in Dracutt, May 11, 1811
- An Address to Federal Clergymen, on the Subject of the war Proclaimed by the Congress of the United
Posts
