Part 19
“That no town within this jurisdiction shall entertain any Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such like notorious heretics, or suffer them to continue in them above the space of fourteen days, upon the penalty of 5_l._ per week for any town entertaining such persons. But the townsmen shall give notice to the two next magistrates or assistants, who shall have the power to send them to prison, for securing them until they can conveniently be sent out of the jurisdiction. It is also ordered that no master of a vessel shall land any such heretics; but if they do, they shall be compelled to transport them again out of the colony, by any two magistrates or assistants, at their first setting sail from the port where they landed them; during which time the assistant or magistrate shall see them secured, upon the penalty of 20_l._ for any master of any vessel that shall not transport them as aforesaid.”--ED. NOTE.
[26] Mr. Dudley, while president of the commissioners, had written to the Governor and Company, advising them to resign the Charter into the hands of his Majesty, and promising to use his influence in favor of the colony. Mr. Dudley’s commission was suspended by a commission to Sir Edmund Andros to be Governor of New England. He arrived in Boston on the 19th of December, 1686. The next day his commission was published, and he took on him the administration of the government. Soon after his arrival he wrote to the Governor and Company that he had a commission from his Majesty to receive their Charter, if they would resign it; and he pressed them, in obedience to the king, and as they would give him an opportunity to serve them, to resign it to his pleasure. At this session of the Assembly the Governor received another letter from him, acquainting him that he was assured, by the advice he had received from England, that judgment was by that time entered upon the _quo warranto_ against their Charter, and that he soon expected to receive his Majesty’s commands respecting them. He urged them, as he represented it, that he might not be wanting in serving their welfare, to accept his Majesty’s favor, so graciously offered them, in a present compliance and surrender. But the colony insisted upon their Charter rights, and on the promise of King James, as well as of his royal brother, to defend and secure them in the enjoyment of their privileges and estates, and would not surrender their Charter to either. However, in their petition to the king, in which they prayed for the continuance of their Charter rights, they desired, if this could not be obtained, but it should be resolved to put them under another government, that it might be under Sir Edmund’s, as the Massachusetts had been their former correspondents and confederates, and as they were acquainted with their principles and manners.
This was construed into a resignation, though nothing could be further from the designs of the colony.
The Assembly met, as usual, in October, and the government continued according to the Charter, until the last of the month.
About this time Sir Edmund and his suite, and more than sixty regular troops, came to Hartford, where the Assembly were sitting, and demanded the Charter, and declared the government under it dissolved. The Assembly were extremely reluctant and slow with respect to any resolve to surrender the Charter, or with respect to any motion to bring it forth. The tradition is, that Governor Treat represented the great expense and hardships of the colonists in planting the country; the blood and treasure which they had expended in defending it, both against the savages and foreigners; to what hardships and dangers he himself had been exposed for that purpose; and that it was like giving up his life now to surrender the patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long enjoyed. The important affair was debated and kept in suspense until the evening, when the Charter was brought and laid upon the table where the Assembly was sitting. By this time a great number of people were assembled, and men sufficiently bold to enterprise whatever might be necessary or expedient.
The lights were instantly extinguished, and one Captain Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, carried off the Charter and secreted it in a large, hollow tree, fronting the house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peaceable and orderly. The candles were relighted, but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it or of the person who had conveyed it away.
It was said that the Charter was delivered up, and that same evening the apartments of Sir Edmund were entered and the patent abstracted; but this does not appear to have been the case. Sir Edmund assumed the government, and the records of the colony were closed in the following words:
“At a General Court at Hertford, October 31, 1687, His Excellency Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, and Captain-General, and Governor, of his Majesty’s territories and dominions in New England, by order from his Majesty James II., King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the Colony of Connecticut, it being by his Majesty annexed to Massachusets and other colonies under his Excellency’s government.
“FINIS.”
Sir Edmund appointed officers civil and military. His Council at first consisted of forty persons, and afterward of nearly fifty. Four among the number--Governor Treat, John Fitz Winthrop, Wait Winthrop, and John Allen, Esquires--were of Connecticut.--ED. NOTE.
[27] Scarcely anything could be more gloomy and distressful than the state of public affairs in New England at the beginning of this year. But in the midst of darkness light arose. While the people had prayed in vain to an earthly monarch, their petition had been more successfully presented to a higher throne. Providence wrought gloriously for them and the nation’s deliverance. On the 5th of November, 1688, the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, in England. He immediately published a declaration of his design in visiting the kingdom. A copy of this was received at Boston by one Mr. Winslow, a gentleman from Virginia, in April, 1689.
Governor Andros and his Council were so much alarmed with the news, that they ordered Mr. Winslow to be arrested and committed to jail for bringing a false and traitorous libel in the country.
They also issued a proclamation commanding all the officers and people to be in readiness to prevent the landing of any forces which the Prince of Orange might send into that part of America. But the people, who sighed under their burdens, secretly wished and prayed for success to his glorious undertaking. The leaders in the country determined quietly to await the event; but the great body of the people had less patience. Stung with past injuries, and encouraged at the first intimations of relief, the fire of liberty rekindled, and the flame, which for a long time had been smothered in their bosoms, burst forth with irresistible violence.
On the 18th of April the inhabitants of Boston and the adjacent towns rose in arms, made themselves masters of the castle, seized Sir Edmund Andros and his Council, and persuaded the old Governor and Council at Boston to resume the government.
On the 9th of May, 1689, Governor Robert Treat, Deputy-Governor James Bishop, and the former magistrates, at the desire of the freemen, resumed the government of Connecticut. Major-General John Winthrop was at the same time chosen into the magistracy, to complete the number appointed by the Charter.
The freemen voted that, for the present safety of that part of New England called Connecticut, the necessity of its circumstances so requiring,
“They would reëstablish government as it was before and at the time Sir Edmund Andros took it, and so have it proceed, as it did before that time, according to charter, engaging themselves to submit to it accordingly, until there should be a legal establishment among them.”
The Assembly, having formed, came to the following resolutions:
“That, whereas this Court hath been interrupted in the management of its government, in this Colony of Connecticut, for nineteen months past, it is now enacted, ordered, and declared, that all the laws of this colony, made according to Charter, and courts constituted for the administration of government, as they were before the late interruption, shall be of full force and virtue for the future, and until this Court shall see cause to make further and other alterations, according to the Charter.”
The Assembly then confirmed all military officers in their respective posts, and proceeded to appoint their civil officers, as had been customary at the May session.--ED. NOTE.
[28] “AN ADDRESS TO KING WILLIAM, JUNE 18, 1689.
“TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY: The humble address of your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Governor and Company of your Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut, in New England.
“GREAT SOVEREIGN: Great was that day when the Lord, who sitteth upon the floods, and sitteth King forever, did divide his and your adversaries from one another, like the waters of Jordan forced to stand upon an heap, and did begin to magnify you, like Joshua in the sight of all Israel, by those great actions that were so much for the honour of God and the deliverance of the English dominions from popery and slavery; and all this, separated from those sorrows that usually attend the introduction of a peaceable settlement in any troubled state: all which doth affect us with the sense of our duty to return the highest praise unto the King of Kings and Lord of Hosts, and bless him who hath delighted in you, to set you upon the throne of his Israel, and to say, Because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore has he made you king, to do justice and judgment, &c.; also humble and hearty acknowledgement for the great zeal that by your Majesty has been expressed in those hazards you have put your royal person to, and in the expense of so great a treasure in the defense of the Protestant interest. In the consideration of all which, we, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects of your said colony, are encouraged humbly to intimate that we, with much favour, obtained a Charter from Charles II., of happy memory, bearing date April 23, 1662, in the fourteenth year of his reign, granted to the Governor and Company of his Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut, the advantages and privileges whereof made us indeed a very happy people; and, by the blessing of God upon our endeavours, we have made a considerable improvement of your dominions here, which, with the defense of ourselves from the force of both foreign and intestine enemies, has cost us much expense of treasure and blood; yet in the second year of the reign of his late Majesty, King James II., we had a _quo warranto_ served upon us by Edward Randolph, requiring our appearance before his Majesty’s court in England; and although the time of our appearance was elapsed before the serving the said _quo warranto_, yet we humbly petitioned his Majesty for his favour and the continuance of our Charter, with the privileges thereof; but we received no other favour but a second QUO WARRANTO: and we well observed that the Charter of London, and of other considerable cities in England, were condemned, and that the Charter of Massachusets had undergone the like fate, plainly saw what we might expect; yet as we not judged it good or lawful to be active in surrendering what had cost us so dear, nor to be altogether silent, we employed an attorney to appear in our behalf, and to prefer our humble address to his Majesty, to entreat his favour quickly upon it; but as Sir Edmund Andros informed us he was empowered by his Majesty to regain the surrender of our Charter, if we saw meet to do so, and to take ourselves under his government, we withstood all these motions, and in our reiterated addresses we petitioned his Majesty to continue us in the full and free enjoyment of our liberties and property, civil and sacred, according to our Charter. We also petitioned that if his Majesty should not see meet to continue us as we were, but was resolved to annex us to some other government, we then desired that (inasmuch as Boston had been our old correspondents, and people whose principles and manners we had been acquainted with) we might be annexed rather to Sir Edmund Andros his government than to Colonel Dungan’s, which choice of ours was taken for a resignation of our government; though that was never intended by us for such, nor had it the formalities in law to make it a resignation, as we humbly conceive; yet Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned by his Majesty to take us under his government: pursuant to which, about the end of October, 1687, he, with a company of gentlemen and grenadiers to the number of sixty or upward, came to Hertford (the chief seat of this government), caused his commission to be read, and declared our government to be dissolved, and put into commission both civil and military officers through our colony, as he pleased, when he passed through the principal parts thereof.
“The good people of the colony, though they were under a great sense of injuries they sustained hereby, yet chose rather to be silent and patient than oppose, being, indeed, surprised into an involuntary submission to an arbitrary power; but when the government we were thus put under seemed to us to be determined, and we being in daily fear and hazard of those many inconveniences that will arise from a people in want of a government; being also in continual danger of our lives by reason of the natives being at war with us, with whom we had just fears of our neighbouring French to join, not receiving any order or directions what method to take for our security, we were necessitated to put ourselves into some form of government; and there being none so familiar to us as that of our Charter, nor what we could make so effectual for the gaining the universal compliance of the people, and having never received any intimation of an enrolment of that which was interpreted a resignation of our Charter, we have presumed, by the consent of the major part of the freemen assembled for that end, May 9, 1689, to resume our government according to the rules of our Charter, and this to continue till further order; yet, as we have thus presumed to dispose ourselves, not waiting orders from your Majesty, we humbly submit ourselves herein, entreating your Majesty’s most gracious pardon; and that what our urgent necessity hath put upon us may no ways interrupt your Majesty’s grace and favour toward us, your most humble and dutiful subjects, but that in your clemency you would be pleased to grant us such directions as to your princely wisdom may seem meet, with such ratifications and confirmations of our Charter, in the full and free enjoyment of all our properties, privileges, and liberties, both civil and sacred, as therein granted to us by your royal predecessor, King Charles II., which may yet further insure it an inheritance to us and our posterities after us, with what further grace and favour your royal and enlarged heart may be moved to confer upon us; which, we trust, we shall not forget nor be unprofitable under; but as we have this day, with the greatest expressions of joy, proclaimed your Majesty and Royal Consort King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, with the dominions hereto belonging, so we shall ever pray that God would grant your Majesties long life, and prosperously to reign over all your dominions, and that the great and happy work you have begun may be prospered here, and graciously rewarded with a crown of glory hereafter.
“ROBERT TREAT, _Governor_.
“Per order of the General Court of Connecticut.
“[Signed] JOHN ALLEN, _Secretary_.”
[29] Dr. Douglas was a naturalist, and a physician of considerable eminence in Boston, where he never attended any religious worship, having been educated in Scotland with such rancorous hatred against episcopacy, that, with his age, it ripened into open scepticism and deism. However, his many severities against the Episcopalians, New Lights, and Quakers, procured him a good name among the Old Lights, and the mongrel christians of New-York, whose policy and self-interest have always domineered over conscience and morality. For these reasons, his brother Smith, in his History of New-York, frequently quotes him, to prove his futile assertions against New-England, New-Jersey, and Pensylvania.
[30] Perhaps their success was facilitated by the consideration, that the quit-rent payable to the Crown in New-York is 2_s._ 6_d._ per 100 acres, but only 9_d._ in Newhampshire. The same may be said, with still more reason, in regard to the lands acquired by New-York from Massachusets-Bay and Connecticut, where the quit-rent is--nothing.
[31] In 1680, the number of Indians, or aborigines, in the whole Province of Connecticut was 4000. This was allowed by the General Assembly. How much greater their number was in 1637, may be estimated from the accounts given by Dr. Mather, Mr. Neal, Mr. Penhallow, and Mr. Hutchinson, of the deaths of Englishmen in the Indian wars, for the space of forty-three years. It has been computed, that from 1637 to 1680, upon an average, one hundred Englishmen were killed yearly in those wars, and that there were killed, with sword and gun, and smallpox, twenty Indians for every one Englishman. If this calculation is just, it appears that the English killed of the Indians, during the above-mentioned period, 86,000, to which number the 4000 Indians remaining in 1680 being added, it is clear that there were 90,000 Indians in Connecticut when Hooker began his holy war upon them; not to form conjectures upon those who probably afterwards abandoned the country. This evinces the weakness of the Indian mode of fighting with bows and arrows against guns, and the impropriety of calling Connecticut an howling wilderness in 1636, when Hooker arrived in Hertford. The English in one hundred and thirty-six years have not much more than doubled the number of Indians they killed in forty-three years. In 1770 the number of Indians in Connecticut amounted not to 400 souls.
[32] Many years afterward the author’s attention was called to this statement; he replied, as to the expression above, by saying, he meant that the pressure of the stream was so great that a crowbar, not having sufficient specific gravity to sink, would actually be carried down the stream upon its surface. As incredulous as this may appear, we have it substantiated by no less a person than the late eminent engineer, John A. Roebling, who built the suspension-bridge over the river at the Niagara Falls, in the following letter:
“SUSPENSION BRIDGE, _April 28, 1855_.
“SAMUEL WILKESON, Esq.
“DEAR SIR: I received a copy of _The Democrat_, with your account of my attempting to sound the river. After you left, another attempt was made, with a similar iron, of about forty pounds’ weight, attached to a No. 11 wire, all freely suspended, so as not to impede the fall of the weight. I then let the weight fall from the bridge, a height of 225 feet. It struck the surface fairly, with the point down--must have sunk to some depth, but was not longer out of sight than one second, when it made its appearance again upon the surface, about 100 feet down stream, and skipped along like a chip, until it was checked by the wire. We then commenced hauling in slowly, which made the iron bounce like a ball, when a cake of ice struck it, and ended the sport.
“I am satisfied that no metal has sufficient gravity to pierce that current, even with the momentum acquired by a fall of 226 feet. The velocity of the iron, when striking, must have been about equal to 124 feet per second, and, consequently, its momentum near 5,000 pounds. Its surface, opposed to the current, was about fifty superficial inches. This will give an idea of the strength of that current, and, at the same time, hint at the Titan forces that have been at work to scoop out the bed of the Niagara River.
“I am now satisfied that our friend, the English captain, was sounding in vain.
“Yours respectfully and truly, “JOHN A. ROEBLING.” --ED. NOTE.
[33] Of the separation from the standing churches an account has been given, and of the disorders and oppressions of those times when they commenced. Churches of this character were formed in New London, Stonington, Preston, Norwich, Lyme, Canterbury, Plainfield, Windsor, Suffield, and Middletown. Some of these churches and congregations were nearly as large as some of the standing churches. There were ten or twelve churches and congregations of this denomination, first and last, in the colony. Some of them carried their enthusiasm to a greater extent than others. In New London they carried it to such a degree that they made a large fire to burn their books, clothes, and ornaments, which they called their idols, and which they now determined to forsake, and utterly to put away.
This imaginary work of piety and self-denial they undertook on the Lord’s-day, and brought their books, necklaces, and jewels, together in the main street.
They began by burning their erroneous books, dropping them, one after another, into the fire, pronouncing these words: “If the author of this book died in the same sentiments and faith in which he wrote it, as the smoke of this pile ascends, so the smoke of his torment will ascend forever and ever. Hallelujah! Amen.”