Part 11
Among the reptiles of Connecticut are the black, the water, milk, and streaked snakes, all harmless. The belled or rattle-snakes are large, and will gorge a common cat. They are seldom seen from their rocky dens. Their bite is mortal if not speedily cured; yet they are generous, and without guile; before they bite they rattle their bells three or four times, but after that their motion is swift and stroke sure. The Indians discovered and informed the English of a weed, common in the country, which, mixed with spittle, will extract the poison.
The toads and frogs are plenty in the spring of the year. The tree-frogs, whippoorwills, and whooping owls, serenade the inhabitants every night with music far excelling the harmony of the trumpet, drum, and jews-harp.
The tree-frog cannot be called an insect, a reptile, or one of the winged host; he has four legs, the two foremost short, with claws as sharp as those of a squirrel; the hind-legs five inches long, and folding by three joints. His body is about as big as the first joint of a man’s thumb. Under his throat is a wind-bag, which assists him in singing the word I-sa-ac all the night. When it rains, and is very dark, he sings the loudest. His voice is not so pleasing as that of the nightingale; but this would be a venial imperfection, if he would but keep silence on Saturday nights, and not forever prefer I-sa-ac to Abraham and Jacob. He has more elasticity in his long legs than any other creature yet known. By this means he will leap five yards up a tree, fastening himself to it by his fore legs, and in a moment will hop or spring as far from one tree to another. It is from the singing of the tree-frog that the Americans have acquired the name of Little Isaac. Indeed, like a certain part of them, the creature appears very devout, noisy, arbitrary, and phlegmatic, and associates with none but what agree with him in his ways.
The oysters, clams, quauhogs, lobsters, crabs, and fish, are innumerable. The shad, bass, and salmon, more than half support the province. The sturgeon is made no use of. From the number of seines employed to catch the fish passing up to the lakes, one might be led to suppose the whole must be stopped; yet, in six months’ time they return to the sea with such multitudes of young ones as to fill Connecticut River for many days, and no finite being can number them.
_Population and Inhabitants._--Connecticut, in proportion to its extent, exceeds every other colony of English America, as well in the abundance of people as in cultivation of soil. The number of the first settlers at Saybrook, in 1634, was 200; in 1636, at Hertford, 106; in 1637, at Newhaven, 157; in all, 463. In 1670 the residents of these three settlements amounted to 15,000, of whom 2000 were men capable of bearing arms; the rest old men, women, and children. In 1680 the residents were 20,000; in 1770, 200,000. Hence it appears that the people of Connecticut did, during the 90 years, double their number ten times over. Should the 200,000 which existed in Connecticut in 1770 double their number in the same manner for the ensuing 90 years, the province will, in the year 1860, contain 2,000,000; and if the fighting men should then be in the same proportion to the rest of the inhabitants as they were in 1670, they will amount to no less than 266,000. I see no reason in Nature why it may not be so.
Since 1670, emigration from Europe, or elsewhere, to Connecticut, has been trifling, in comparison to the emigration from Connecticut to New-Jersey, Newhampshire, Massachusets-Bay, Nova-Scotia, &c.
_Manufactures._--The inhabitants manufacture coarse and fine flannels, linen, cotton and woollen cloths, woollen stockings, mittens, and gloves, for their own use; they spin much cotton and flax, and make common and the best kind of beaver hats. Ship-building is a great branch of business in Connecticut, which is carried on much cheaper than in Europe, by means of saw-mills worked by water. The planks are cut by a gang of ten or twelve saws, more or less, as occasion requires, while the carriage is backed but once. Great part of the ship-timber is also cut by water. Anchor-making is done by water and trip-hammers, without much fatigue to the workmen. Distilling and paper-making increase every year. Here are many rope-walks, which want neither hemp nor flax; and formerly here were rolling and slitting works, but they have been suppressed by an act of Parliament, to the ruin of many families.
_Commerce._--The exports of Connecticut consist chiefly of all sorts of provisions, pig and bar iron, pot and pearl ashes, staves, lumber, boards, iron pots and kettles, anchors, planks, hoops, shingles, live cattle, horses, &c. &c. To what amount these articles are annually exported, may be judged from the following very low estimate:
Pork 98,750_l._ Beef 100,000 Mutton 5,000 Horses 40,000 Wheat 340,000 Butter, cheese, rye, oats, onions, tobacco, cider, maize, beans, fowls, eggs, tallow, and hides 90,000 Ships’ anchors, cables, cordage, pig and bar iron, pots, kettles, pot and pearl ashes, boards, and lumber 250,000 ------- 918,750_l._
besides hay, fish, &c. &c. The salmon, large and small, are exported both pickled and dried.
In the above statement of exports I have allowed only for horses bred in the colony, and not for those brought for exportation from Canada and other northern parts, which are very numerous. The calculation of the wheat, the common price of which is three shillings sterling per bushel, is founded upon the allowed circumstance of the exportation being equal to the consumption, viz. 2,600,000 bushels among 200,000 persons, according to the acknowledged necessary portion of thirteen bushels to one person. The pork is estimated according to the reputed number of houses in the province, viz. 30,000, allowing one and a quarter barrels for each house, at 2_l._ 10_s._ per barrel.
The imports in 1680, when the number of inhabitants was 20,000, amounted to 10,000_l._, i. e. at the rate of 10_s._ for each individual. Supposing the increase of imports only to keep pace with that of the people, they would, in 1770, when the province contained 200,000 souls, amount to 100,000_l._; but I believe that to be not above one-quarter of their value.
Boston, New-York, and Newport, have the greatest share of the exports of Connecticut, and pay for them in English or Dutch goods at cent. per cent. profit to themselves, upon a moderate computation. What few of them are sent from the colony to the West Indies, are paid for honourably in rum, molasses, sugar, salt, brandy, cotton, and money.
Consequences very prejudicial attend the commerce of Connecticut, thus principally carried on through the medium of the neighbouring colonies. I will here point out one material instance: Connecticut pork, a considerable article of exportation, excels all others in America, and fetches a halfpenny per pound more. Of this difference in the price the merchants in New-York, Boston, &c. have taken care to avail themselves, by mixing their own inferior pork with that of Connecticut, and then selling the whole at the full price of the latter. This fair dealing was managed thus: The pork of Connecticut was packed up in barrels, each of which, according to statute regulations, must weigh 220 lbs. and contain not more than six legs and three half heads. The packer is to mark the barrel before it is shipped, and is liable to a heavy punishment if there should be found four half heads and seven legs in the barrel when it is delivered for exportation. But of large pork, two legs and half a head will be a sufficient proportion of those parts in a barrel. This gives the New-York and Bostonian merchants an opportunity of taking out the best part of the Connecticut pork, and substituting in its place an equal weight of their own, whereby it often happens that four legs and two half heads are found in a barrel of reputed Connecticut pork. Though it then remains a barrel according to the statute, it cannot but be supposed that the practice must greatly hurt the credit of Connecticut pork with all who are not apprised that it passes through the renounded provinces of Massachusets-Bay and New-York.
The people of Connecticut have long been sensible of the many great impositions and disadvantages which beset their commercial system; yet, though sufficient power is in their own hands, they have no inclination or resolution to attempt a reformation of it. The reason is, the mutual animosities and rancour subsisting between the dominions of New-London, Hertford, and Newhaven, each of which prefers the general ruin of the province to a coalition upon any terms short of conquest. The seeds of this discord were thus sown by these two insidious neighbours. The port of New-London is by far the best in the province, and extremely well calculated for its capital and grand commercial emporium; and about fifty years since, a number of merchants there began to export and import goods, seemingly to the satisfaction of the whole colony, but to the great displeasure and chagrin of those of New-York and Boston, whom it threatened with ruin. Something was necessary to be done. The poor Bostonians, according to custom, privately sent for their faithful allies at Hertford, to infuse into them an idea that their town ought to be the capital, and not New-London, which belonged to the Dominion of Sassacus, who had murdered so many christians; adding that, if they would engage in such an attempt in favour of Hertford, the Boston merchants would supply them with goods cheaper than they could buy them at New-London. The good people at Hertford, forgetting their river was frozen for five months in the year, remembering how they had obtained their Charter, hating Sassacus, and loving self, immediately gave in to the designing Bostonians’ suggestions, and refused to receive any more goods from New-London. The friendly Mynheers of New-York played off a similar trick upon Newhaven, and promised to support that town as the capital of the colony. The plots succeeded. Contentions and quarrels arose among the three parties, the effects of which remain to this day. The merchants of New-London were obliged to quit Connecticut, and the trade of the province was chiefly divided between New-York and Boston, at cent. per cent. disadvantage to an ill-natured colony, and at the same time advantage to its cunning neighbours. When party spirit yields to self-interest, New-London will again become the emporium of Connecticut, where merchants will settle and import goods from foreign countries at 35_l._ per cent. extra profit to the consumers, and 15_l._ per cent. extra profit to themselves, and withal save as much in the exports from Connecticut, by taking the full price and bounty of its goods at foreign markets, instead of yielding the same to the people of New-York and Boston, who have too long kept 200,000 as negroes on their own farms, to support twice 20,000 artful citizens. Thus has Connecticut, by contention and folly, impoverished and kept in obscurity the most fruitful colony in America, to support the fame and grandeur of Boston and New-York among the trading nations of Europe. When I view the less fertile soil of Boston, the conscience of merchants, the pride of the pretended Gospel ministers, the blindness of bigotry, and the mercantile ignorance of farmers, I forgive Boston, New-York, and Rhode-Island, but condemn Connecticut. I will leave a legacy to the people of my native country, which possibly may heal their divisions, and render them partial to their own province, as the Bostonians are to theirs. It consists of two lines:
“But if men knaves and fools will be, They’ll be ass-ridden by all three.”
_Revenue and Expenditure._--In 1680 the whole corporation were estimated to be worth 120,000_l._ They had 30 small vessels, 26 churches, and, as above mentioned, 20,000 inhabitants. If their value had increased only in proportion with the inhabitants, who, as I have said, amounted to 200,000 in 1770, the corporation would then have been worth no more than 1,200,000_l._, a sum not equal to 10_s._ per acre, though in a great measure cultivated, and surrounded with stone walls which alone cost 10_s._ by the rod; but in that year, viz. 1770; land sold in Connecticut from 4_l._ to 50_l._ per acre; their vessels, also, had increased to about 1200, and the churches--least in proportion--to about 300. The true method, therefore, of forming the valuation of Connecticut in 1770, is not by calculating upon this State in 1680, but by estimating the number of its acres, appreciating them by purchases then made, and adding a due allowance for the stock, &c. Now, Connecticut has been reputed to contain 2,500,000 solid acres, which, at the very moderate price of 8_l._ each, are worth 20,000,000_l._ sterling; and 14,000,000_l._ being added as a reasonable allowance for stock, shipping, &c. the whole valuation of Connecticut would amount to 34,000,000_l._ The annual income, supposing the 2,500,000 acres and stock rented at 10_s._ per acre, one with another, would be 1,250,000_l._ A list of rateables, called the General List, is the foundation upon which the revenue is raised in Connecticut, being the valuation of a man’s property by the year. It is formed in the following manner:
One acre of land, per annum 0_l._ 10_s._ One horse 3 00 One house 3 00 One ox 3 00 One swine 1 00 One cow 3 00 One two-year-old heifer 2 00 One yearling do. 1 00 One poll or male, between 16 and 60 years 18 00 One lawyer for his faculty 20 00 One vessel of 100 tons 10 00 -------------- 65_l._ 10_s._
Every person annually gives his list, specifying the property he possesses, to the selectmen, who send the sum total of each town to the General Assembly, when a tax of one shilling, more or less, according to public exigencies, is imposed on each pound.
According to the general list of the colony for 1770, I have underrated its annual worth, which then was fixed at 2,000,000_l._; for, though that list includes the poll-tax of 18_l._ per head for all males above sixteen and under sixty years of age, the faculty tax, and the tax on shipping, all which may amount to 600,000_l._, there nevertheless remains a surplus of 150,000_l._ above my calculation. But, supposing a tax of one shilling in the pound (the common colonial assessment) on 1,250,000_l._, the produce will be 62,500_l._, exclusive of the poll, faculty, and other taxes. Small, however, as this assessment is, it has never been collected without much difficulty and clamour; yet the people lose, by trading with Boston, New-York, and Newport, in exports and imports, 600,000_l._ annually; and that for nothing but to oblige the traders of those towns, and disoblige one another.
The annual expenditure of the colony is as follows:
Salary of Governor 300_l._ 00_s._ “ Lieutenant-Governor 150 00 “ Treasurer 150 00 “ Secretary 150 00 “ the twelve assistants in Council with the Governor 800 00 “ 146 Representatives 2,500 00 “ 300 Ministers, 100_l._ each 30,000 00 Allowance for contingencies 28,450 00 ------------------ Total 62,500_l._ 00_s._
The above-mentioned list of the colony, including the poll-tax, &c. would afford 32,500_l._ more for contingencies.
_Religion and Government._--Properly speaking, the Connectitensians have neither, nor ever had; but, in pretence, they excel the whole world, except Boston and Spain. If I could recollect the names of the multifarious religious sects among them, it might afford the reader a pleasant idea of the prolific invention of mankind. I shall mention a few of the most considerable, specifying the number of their congregations:
CONGREGATIONS. Episcopalians 73 Scotch presbyterians 1 Sandemanians 3 Ditto Bastard 1 Lutherans 1 Baptists 6 Seventh-day ditto 1 Quakers 4 Davisonians 1 Separatists 40 Rogereens 1 Bowlists 1 Old Lights 80 New Lights 87 --- 300
An account of some of these sects is to be found in the history of Munster; but the Bowlists, Separatists, and Davisonians are peculiar to the colony. The first allow of neither singing nor prayer; the second permit only the elect to pray; and the third teach universal salvation, and deny the existence of a hell or devils. The presbyterians and episcopalians are held by all to be the enemies of Zion and the American Vine; nay, the former are even worse hated than the Churchmen, because they appear to be dissenters, and are not genuine enemies to episcopacy, but “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Some travellers have called the fanatical sects of Connecticut by the general name of Legionists, because they are many; and others have called them Pumguntums, Cantums, &c. because they groan and sing with a melancholy voice their prayers, sermons, and hymns. This disgusting tone has utterly excluded oratory from them; and did they not speak the English in greater perfection than any other of the Americans, few strangers would disoblige them with their company. Their various systems are founded upon those of Peters, Hooker, and Davenport, of which I have already spoken; yet the modern teachers have made so many new-fangled refinements in the doctrine and discipline of those patriarchs, and of one another, as render their passions for ecclesiastical innovation and tyranny equally conspicuous. But the whole are enveloped with superstition, which here passes for religion, as much as it does in Spain, France, or among the savages.
I will instance that of an infant, in 1761. Some children were piling sand-heaps in Hertford, when a boy, only four years old, hearing it thunder at a distance, left his companions and ran home to his mother, crying out, “Mother, mother, give me my book, for I heard God speaking to me!” His mother gave him his book, and he read A, B, C, D, &c.; then gave up his book, saying, “Here, mother, take my book; I must go to my sand-houses: now I am not afraid of all the thunder and lightning in the world.”
As to their government, we may compare it to the regularity of a mad mob in London, with this exception: the mob acts without law, and the colonists by law. They teach that legal righteousness is not saving grace. Herein they are right; but it appears they believe not their own doctrine, for legal righteousness is their only shield and buckler. In January County Court, at Hertford only, 1768, there were about 3000 suits on the docket; and there are four of these courts in a year, and perhaps never less suits at a court than 2000.
In the course of this work my readers must necessarily have observed, in some degree, the ill effects of the democratical constitution of Connecticut. I would wish them to imagine, for I feel myself unable adequately to describe, the confusion, turbulence, and convulsion arising in a province where not only every civil officer, from the governor to the constables, but also every minister, is appointed as well as paid by the people, and faction and superstition are established. The clergy, lawyers, and merchants or traders, are the three efficient parties which guide the helm of the government. Of these, the most powerful is the clergy, and, when no combinations are formed against them, they may be said to rule the whole province; for they lead the women captive, and the women the men; but when the clergy differ with the lawyers and merchants, the popular tide turns. In like manner, when the clergy and lawyers contend with the merchants, it turns against these; and is the same when the clergy and merchants unite against the lawyers. This fluctuation of power gives a strange appearance to the body politic at large. In Hertford, perhaps, the clergy and merchants are agreed, and prevail; in Weathersfield, the clergy and lawyers; in Middletown, the lawyers and merchants; and so on, again and again, throughout the colony. Thus the General Assembly becomes an assembly of contending factions, whose different interests and pursuits it is generally found necessary mutually to consult in order to produce a sufficient coalition to proceed on the business of the State.--_Vos ipsos pseudo-patres patriæ, veluti in speculo aspicite?_--Sometimes, in quarrels between the merchants and lawyers of a particular parish, the minister is allowed to stand neuter; but, for the most part, he is obliged to declare on the one side or the other; he then, remembering from whence he gets his bread, espouses that which appears to be the strongest, whether it be right or wrong, and his declaration never fails to turn the adverse party.--_En rabies_ _vulgi!_--I must beg leave to refer my readers to their own reflections upon such a system of government as I have here sketched out.