We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union,...provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty.... Preamble to the Constitution,
1787
The fledgling American government aimed to foster an environment
where individuals and businesses could thrive fairly. It had to define
citizenship and immigration policies, mediating among intensely different
points of view toward an 'Open Door.' During the nineteenth century the original
thirteen States increased to forty-five. Territorial, economic, and
population expansion took on mythic
values interrupted by cycles of crash and conflict that elicited a growing
response in government regulation. The evolution of Cape Ann granite commerce
from an artisan to industrial enterprise coincided with all these trends.
The Constitutional mandate to "provide for the common
defense" was exacerbated by our own expansionism and by the shifting
ambitions of European powers. In 1812 the United States was at war again with
England. Government expenditures for coastal defense gave early impetus to the
granite industry.
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|
Fort Warren, Boston
Harbor 1 |
Many of the first quarry developments here between 1824 and
1842 resulted from shoreline resource explorations to supply stone for the fortification
of Boston Harbor islandsarbor islandsi
engineered by Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, and the development of naval yards at
Charlestown and Portsmouth. 2
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Norfolk (VA) Naval
Yard dry dock under construction, 1918.
Stone supplied by the
Rockport Granite Company. 3
|
Government appropriations continued to fund large opportunities
for the granite industry throughout its history. Cape Ann artisans learned to
satisfy ornate as well as structural standards. Local granite companies crafted
dimension stone and facades for many handsome edifices around the country, such
as these pictured below. 4
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|
Boston Custom House |
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|
Essex County
Courthouse, Salem |
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|
The Longfellow Bridge
connecting Boston and Cambridge |
 |
Stock purchase
agreement by incorporators of the Rockport Granite Company
Authorized by
Internal Revenue stamp October 4, 1864 5
|
The new
American political economy met the Industrial Revolution by experimenting with methods
of business formation. In Europe, up to the middle of the nineteenth century, the
typical corporation was a privileged monopoly created by rulers in return for
favors promised by the company, and few such entities existed. Early America
was not so different. It appears that only seven business corporations were
created in the Thirteen Colonies, and another twenty eight up to 1790. By 1860
state legislatures had chartered more than 30,000 corporations. 6
Chartering
corporations by special acts of state
legislatures became a system susceptible to corruption. Incumbent or aspiring corporations
would bribe or otherwise influence legislators. The solution to these problems
after they became increasingly evident was the general incorporation statute, which makes the granting of
corporate charters a routine function of the executive branch. This was the
environment in which the Rockport Granite Company sought legislative sanctification
in 1864, followed by the Cape Ann Granite Company in 1867.
Governing
functions expanded inexorably with the growth of America. Public support, or
demand, envisioned an increasing role to "promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty." The government sector gradually assumed a
vital presence in education, transportation, utilities, commerce, health, safety.
Public works benefitted consumers and producers.
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The proposed Sandy Bay Harbor of Refuge, 1894 7 |
Maritime support, a traditional service of government,
resulted in significant boons to the Cape Ann granite suppliers. Sandy Bay
Harbor received its defining enclosure by the federally funded Long Cove
Breakwater project of 1836-1840. The maritime sanctuary concept was extended
remarkably by a petition for the Sandy Bay Harbor of Refuge. Construction of a
granite wall nearly two miles long emerging from sixty-foot depths of the
Atlantic Ocean was sponsored by Congressional appropriations from 1885 to 1915,
bringing headline notice from the New
York Times "To Have Second Largest Harbor: Rockport, Mass., Will Rank
Next to Cherbourg, France, When Breakwater is Completed." 8
Local newspapers carried accounts of bountiful speeches and banquets as each
segment was completed and new rounds of expenditure proposed.
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| Placing
capstones on the Sandy Bay Breakwater, c. 1915 3 |
To supply the prodigious amount of stone required for one
substantial phase of the Sandy Bay (Rockport), Dog Bar (Gloucester), and
Newburyport breakwaters in 1896 the three major Cape Ann granite companies
"hitherto in deadly competition" successfully combined their bid. 9
One of the boons of this type of construction was a compensated dumping ground
for the jagged quarry waste stone which could lock together desirably in a
breakwater foundation. Supplying huge dimensional stones for the superstructure
gave rise to new quarry developments on Folly Point and Halibut Point.
The budgetary strains of World War One halted the breakwater
boon. It never revived as engine-powered vessels coming to the fore after the
Age of Sail had less need for a Harbor of Refuge. Increasing governmental
consideration for the welfare of labor in the twentieth century counted as
another factor in the untenable circumstances of the granite industry here.
Notes
1. 1906 photo from the Detroit Publishing Co. collection, The
Library of Congress.
2. Lemuel Gott, History
of Rockport, 1888.
3. Sandy Bay Historical Society photos.
4. Arthur Wellington Brayley, History of the Granite Industry
of New England, Volume 2, 1913.
5. Rockport Granite Company Collection, Baker Library, Harvard
Business School.
6.
Richard Sylla, "How the American Corporation Evolved Over Two
Centuries,"
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 158 No. 4, December
2014.
7. Sketch from "The
Building of a Breakwater" by Herman Babson, New England Magazine, October 1894.
8. New York Times, September 27, 1914. Erkkila notes, Cape Ann Museum.
9. The Boston Globe, September 28, 1896. Erkkila notes, Cape Ann
Museum.
