01 of 56 · New Hampshire
BARTLETT
A Physician's Guide
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
He treated bodies and then a country. When the roll was called, he did not wait.
Josiah Bartlett · 1729–1795 · Physician · judge · first to vote
01
The First Aye
1 of 4
Be first on the roll.
“The New Hampshire delegates think it their duty to act agreeable to the minds of their constituents and in an affair of that magnitude desire the explicit directions of the legislature of the colony and that it may be forwarded to us as soon as possible.”
Letter to Nathaniel Folsom · 1776
The list is read north to south. New Hampshire is called first. He did not freelance a country. He asked for orders, got them, and said aye loud enough that the rafters remembered it. Authority is not a mood. It is a paper you can hold up when the room turns.
Wait for the instruction. Then do not wait.
“Your letter conveying the instructions to vote for independence came very seasonably to hand.”
Letter to Meshech Weare · 1776
Seasonable means: in time to matter. Late courage is a eulogy. The colony told him to break with the king. He broke. A vote is a delivery, not a performance.
The frightful word is the work.
“Portsmouth is very much afraid of the idea conveyed by the frightful word Independence. Lend the pamphlet round to the people; perhaps on consideration there may not appear anything so terrible in that thought as they might at first apprehend, if Britain should force us to break off all connections with her.”
He mailed Common Sense the way a doctor mails a powder. Fear is a fever. Circulate the argument. Do not shout down a town that has not read yet. Reading is how a frightful word becomes a policy.
Virtue is the test, not the toast.
“The time is now at hand when we shall see whether America has virtue enough to be free or not.”
Letter from Philadelphia · 1776
Freedom is not a climate. It is a proof. He put the question the way a physician puts a crisis: the next hours will tell. If the people will not pay, the parchment is stationery.
Ask for the paper. Then spend it.
“The New Hampshire delegates think it their duty to act agreeable to the minds of their constituents and in an affair of that magnitude desire the explicit directions of the legislature of the colony and that it may be forwarded to us as soon as possible.”
Letter to Nathaniel Folsom · 1776
He would not freelance a country. Instruction is not delay. It is the difference between a delegate and a mood. Get the paper. Then the aye is a delivery, not a performance.
North is called first. Answer first.
“Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.”
Resolution of Independence, first aye · 1776
Geography handed him the opener. He did not waste the luck. The first aye is weather. Make it loud enough that the next twelve can stand in it. A small colony still speaks when the roll is written that way.
Magnitude is a postage problem. Solve it.
“Your letter conveying the instructions to vote for independence came very seasonably to hand.”
Letter to Meshech Weare · 1776
Small men stall because the thing is large. He mailed because the thing is large. Seasonable means: in time to matter. The letter that arrives after the vote is a souvenir. Write home while the room is still hot.
02
Treat the Cause
2 of 4
Cool the fever. Kill the cause.
“May the supreme disposer of all events in due time put an end to the troubles of America and settle her liberties on a solid foundation.”
Letter from Philadelphia · 1775
Throat distemper took a hundred and fourteen in Kingston. He used bark and cool liquids when the fashion was to cook the patient. Treat the cause, not the theater of the symptom. A country is the same animal. Independence is bark. Rhetoric is a warm cloth.
Carry the kit into the field.
“I have been for about a week on a committee of one member from each colony to form a Confederation or Charter of firm and Everlasting Union of all the United Colonies.”
Letter to Mary Bartlett · 1776
He sat the medical bag and the charter committee in the same year. After Bennington he treated the wounded instead of orating about them. Skill that stays in the parlor is a hobby. Take it where the blood is.
Rebuild the house the same week.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Tories burned his house in 1774. He rebuilt on the same lot. A man who will not be smoked out of his own timber will not be smoked out of a vote. Fortune, in the pledge, is not a metaphor. It is joists.
The body is the first republic.
“The greatest state paper ever conceived by the mind of man.”
On the Declaration of Independence · 1776
He said that as a doctor, not a poet. A state paper that cannot keep men alive is a sermon. He spent the war on committees and on the wounded. Theory that will not set a bone is decoration.
Bark before bleeding.
“May the supreme disposer of all events in due time put an end to the troubles of America and settle her liberties on a solid foundation.”
Letter from Philadelphia · 1775
The fashion was to cook the patient. He used bark and cool liquids on throat distemper. Fashion kills. Evidence saves. A country has the same fever. Do not apply the fashionable heat. Treat the cause.
Stay for the body count.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Kingston lost a hundred and fourteen to the distemper. He stayed. A physician who leaves a body count for a better room is not a physician. The same muscle later held him in Philadelphia. Presence is a treatment.
The wounded do not need a speech.
“I have been for about a week on a committee of one member from each colony to form a Confederation or Charter of firm and Everlasting Union of all the United Colonies.”
Letter to Mary Bartlett · 1776
After Bennington he treated the wounded instead of orating about them. The kit is the argument. Men who speech over a tourniquet are a second injury. Bind first. Charter second. Both are medicine.
03
Hold the Line
3 of 4
Take the bench you already earned.
“I now find myself so far advanced in life that it will be expedient for me, at the close of the session, to retire from the cares and fatigues of public business to the repose of a private life.”
Resignation message to the New Hampshire Legislature · 1794
Justice of the peace, then chief justice, then governor. He did not skip steps to collect titles. The line is held by men who already know how a case is built. Retire when the work is done, not when the room is bored.
Lose the king's commission. Keep the work.
“I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America.”
Attributed remark on the cause · 1776
The royal governor stripped his offices in 1775. He kept showing up. Rank that can be revoked was never yours. The town still needed a physician and a vote. Hold those.
Ratify what you will have to live under.
“A firm league of friendship with each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.”
Articles of Confederation, signed by Bartlett · 1778
He sat the committee that drafted the first union and later backed the Constitution at New Hampshire's convention. Drafting is not a souvenir. You will be judged by the machine you leave running.
Wish the state peace. Then leave the chair.
“Best wishes for the future peace and prosperity of New Hampshire.”
Resignation message to the Legislature · 1794
He did not die in the seat to prove loyalty. He closed the session and went home. A clean exit is also a line. Overstaying is a different fever.
Sit the cases until the cases sit you.
“I now find myself so far advanced in life that it will be expedient for me, at the close of the session, to retire from the cares and fatigues of public business to the repose of a private life.”
Resignation message to the New Hampshire Legislature · 1794
Justice of the peace, then chief justice, then governor. He did not skip steps to collect titles. The line is a sequence. Skip it and you are a tourist with a gavel. Retire when the docket is quiet, not when the room is bored.
A stripped office was never the work.
“I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America.”
Attributed remark on the cause · 1776
Wentworth took the royal commissions in 1775. The town still had fevers and disputes. Rank is a coat. The work is a body. Keep showing up in your own clothes. What can be revoked was never yours.
Sign the first union. Then improve it.
“A firm league of friendship with each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.”
Articles of Confederation, signed by Bartlett · 1778
He sat the committee, signed the Articles, later backed the Constitution at New Hampshire's convention. Loyalty to a draft is not loyalty to a people. Build. Then rebuild when the machine seizes. You will be judged by the thing you leave running.
04
New Hampshire
4 of 4
Represent one man only if you must. Then demand a second.
“I request that delegates may be appointed and sent here as soon as may be, as the representing a Colony is too weighty and important to be left to one man.”
Letter to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety · 1776
He was, for a stretch, the entire vote of a colony. He asked for help. Ego wants a monopoly of the errand. The errand wants a bench. Write home before you become the bottleneck.
A small colony still speaks first.
“Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.”
Resolution of Independence, first aye · 1776
Geography is not a personality. The roll starts at the north because someone wrote the list that way. When your name is called, the size of your town is not in the question. The aye is.
Go home and govern the actual place.
“I now find myself so far advanced in life that it will be expedient for me, at the close of the session, to retire from the cares and fatigues of public business to the repose of a private life.”
Resignation message to the Legislature · 1794
Philadelphia is a season. Kingston is a life. He came back, sat the court, sat the governor's chair, and left both in order. The capital that cannot survive your absence was never a capital.
The town is the proving ground.
“Lend round to the people; perhaps on consideration there may not appear anything so terrible in that thought as they might at first apprehend.”
He did not convert London. He converted Portsmouth. A republic is a stack of towns that have been lent the argument. If your own harbor will not read, you do not have a country. You have a club.
Philadelphia is a season. Kingston is the crop.
“Best wishes for the future peace and prosperity of New Hampshire.”
Resignation message to the Legislature · 1794
He came back. Court, governor, the actual acres. A man who stays in the capital to be important has already left the country. The country is the town that still uses your name as a neighbor. Govern that.
One vote is a bottleneck. Say so.
“I request that delegates may be appointed and sent here as soon as may be, as the representing a Colony is too weighty and important to be left to one man.”
Letter to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety · 1776
Ego loves the monopoly. The colony needed a bench. Write the request before you become the story of the missing man. Help is a kind of patriotism. A republic is not a solo.
Convert the docks that fear the word.
“Portsmouth is very much afraid of the idea conveyed by the frightful word Independence. Lend the pamphlet round to the people; perhaps on consideration there may not appear anything so terrible in that thought as they might at first apprehend, if Britain should force us to break off all connections with her.”
He mailed Common Sense the way a doctor mails a powder. Fear is a fever. If your own harbor will not read, you are a delegate from a club. Convert the docks. Reading is how a frightful word becomes a policy.