USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > A historical discourse delivered in Norwich, Connecticut, September 7, 1859, at the bi-centennial celebration of the settlement of the town > Part 4
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The high reputation which Dr. Turner sustained in the army might be shown by numerous papers of the day, but one of the most interesting is a letter from Colonel Jedediah Huntington to his father, General Jabez Huntington. It was never intended to be made public, but as this assembly may be considered a sort of family meeting, I may, perhaps, be permitted to read it. It is dated at camp Kingsbridge, (near New York,) Oct. 2, 1776, and appears to have been called forth by a consciousness that the appropriation made for the payment of a skillful surgeon was not adequate to his maintenance in the army. I read again from the autograph :
" HOND SIR : - I am sorry to find that Doctor Turner has not a sufficient Inducement to continue in the army where he is eminently usefull and necessary ; it is of great Importance to Individuals and Publick
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· that every Life and Limb should be saved. Doctor Turner is blessed with a natural Insight into Wounds and Dexterity in treating them peculiar to himself. Doctor Morgan is well pleased with him and would retain him in Service if he had it in his Gift to reward him with as much Pay as he knows he has reason to expect. I heartily wish our assembly who attend with Pleasure and without Parsimony to the necessities and Convenience of the army, would provide the Troops with a Physician who is esteemed by us as almost essential to the Service - suppose he saves one Limb, that would not be otherways saved, that Limb may save the Publick some Hundreds. You and many others, members of assembly, are well acquainted with Dr. Turner's Character and manner of Living - he is not aspiring after wealth, no one doubts he has Right and in Duty ought to stand for a reasonable Reward of his merits and Services. I wrote you yesterday by the private Post to which refer you and remain with Duty and Respect your affectionate Son.
" JED. HUNTINGTON."
As no truer man was living than Colonel Jedediah Huntington, so no tribute could be more honorable than his eulogy of Dr. Turner.
Some wise writer has remarked that he cared not who made the laws of a nation if he could write the songs.
When the war of the revolution broke out, there
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was resident in Norwich, among other choice spirits, Mr. Nathaniel Niles, now almost equally famous as a political and theological writer, known in early life as Rev. Mr. Niles, (though he was never ordained,) and later as Judge Niles of Vermont. He had graduated at Princeton, in 1766, and studied theology with Rev. Dr. Bellamy. He excelled as a preacher, but was never settled in the ministry, probably on account of his infirm health. Removing to Norwich, he married there a daughter of Mr. Elijah Lathrop, and engaged in manufacturing. He often represented this town in the general assembly, until he removed to Vermont, where he died in 1828, aged SS.
While living in Norwich he wrote an ode which was set to music, and became as great a favorite among the soldiers of the continental army as the Marseillaise in France. It was composed at his own fireside the very evening of the news of the battle of Bunker's Hill reached Norwich. "I remember," says his son, " in my early youth, hearing an aged negro servant who fol- lowed my father's family to Vermont, repeatedly describe the emotions of the whole family while he read that impromptu production for the first time by candle light." If the young musicians of Norwich wish to see in the faces of older singers, who regulated their notes with the old-fashioned pitch pipe, such a glow of enthusiasm, as pleasant recollections alone call forth, let them ask the question, "Do you remember
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the 'American Hero,' an ode which was often sung in the revolutionary army ?" Perhaps it will be their pleasure, as it has been mine, to hear the answer, "I have not sung it for many a year, but I never can forget its stirring melody." It begins,
Why should vain mortals tremble at the sight of Death and Destruction in the field of battle, Where blood and carnage clothe the ground in crimson, Sounding with death groans ?
The tune was called "Bunker's Hill."*
[Governor Buckingham, the president of the day, here interrupted the speaker and said,-"The first impression on my mind of the battle of Bunker's Hill was made by hearing sung this ode. Perhaps it may produce a similar emotion in the minds of the audi- ence, to that which it did in my own. I should like to have it tried." The choir then sang several stanzas of the ode, with thrilling effect, many of the older persons in the assembly joining with them.]
But Norwich furnished not only statesmen to plan, surgeons to heal, and poets to inspire the army; it sent forth gallant soldiers for the sterner service of the camp. To enumerate their services would require a volume. I have already alluded to the efficiency of the four brothers Huntington, who were active in various posts of importance and difficulty, from the
* See note M.
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beginning to the close of the war, and although, at this time, I can not dwell upon their manifold achieve- ments, our country could not if it would, it would not if it could, dispense with the services of any one of these distinguished patriots .*
Jedediah, the eldest, after graduating at Harvard College, in 1763, engaged in business at Norwich until the war broke out. He was one of the earliest to respond to the call for troops, and being already colonel in the Connecticut militia, he marched, in the spring of 1775, to Boston, with his men. During the perilous winter which preceded the evacuation of that city by the British troops, he remained at Roxbury, undergoing the hardships of the camp, while his spirits were oppressed by the death of his wife, (a daughter of Governor Trumbull,) who had chosen to accompany him. From that time onward, to the close of the war, we trace him in active service. In 1777, he was appointed brigadier general, the duties of which post he faithfully and honorably discharged. At one time he was an aid of General Washington, and a member of his family; and throughout life he was honored
* Just before the delivery of this discourse, the kindness of Mrs. Henry Strong, and Mrs. Wolcott Huntington, placed in my hands a very large number of letters exchanged by these members of the Huntington family during the revolutionary war. So much light is thus thrown upon those times, that I withhold from the press, the biographical sketches which I had prepared in this connection, in order that a deliberate perusal of the correspondence may render them more accurate and full.
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with the warm friendship of that great man. Many of the letters of General Huntington, written in suc- cession from the camps at Roxbury, New York, Kingsbridge, Peekskill, Valley Forge, West Point, and a number of less important stations are still preserved. Addressed to his father, and father-in-law, his brothers, and brothers-in-law, who were all deeply concerned to hear the army news, they are models of correspond- ence, free and familiar, while, at the same time, accurate and business like. Almost invariably, they close with a devout reference to the Almighty power on whom the issue of the battles would depend.
Jedediah's brother, Andrew, acted as a commissary, collecting the rich offerings which Norwich and vicinity made for the army, and forwarding them to various posts.
Joshua, after having been in the active army at Bunker Hill, was appointed to build a frigate for the continental congress. The result of his labors, "The Confederacy," launched in the Thames, not far below the landing, did good service in the infantile navy of the rising republic.
Ebenezer, the youngest of the four, was a senior in Yale College when the news reached New Haven of the battle of Lexington. He had previously written home for a work not included in the regular course of studies - a handbook of infantry tactics - and now he requested leave of absence. As this permission
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was not granted, he left without a dismission, and join- ing a company of volunteers, marched on to Boston. Rising from one office to another, he remained in the army till the victory of Yorktown, in which he participated .*
I might tell you of Durkee, " the bold Bean Hiller ;" of Tracy, who fell an early victim to the cause of freedom; of Joseph Trumbull, the first commissary general of the United States; of Williams and the Fannings; of Kingsbury; of Peters, the hero of Groton; of Edward Mott, already mentioned in the exploits at Ticonderoga, and his older and more eminent brother Samuel, chief engineer of the north- ern army ; of Nevins, the prompt and faithful carrier of tidings; of Dyer Manning, the famous drummer; of John Trumbull, the publisher of " the Norwich Packet ;" of Elijah Backus, the armorer at Yantic, whose anchors and guns were of service at sea and on land. Most of these persons were natives of Nor- wich, and all of them residents here during the war.
I might take you to the navy and tell you of the " Confederacy " and the "Spy ;" of Captain Harding and Captain Niles, the latter of whom is particularly distinguished by a valiant exploit which was of marked importance to the united colonies. The ratification of the treaty with France was sent across the ocean by
* His portrait was included by Colonel Trumbull in his celebrated picture of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.
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· three separate vessels, and the only one which eluded the vigilance of the English vessels was that of Captain Niles. But I forbear, for "the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel, . who escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."
Yet I seem to hear from some before me, the murmur that the speaker mentions a score of officers in the state and army, but he has not spoken of the people, nor what the multitude were about while this struggle was in progress. Let the record answer. The same love of liberty which had been manifested in the days of the stamp act, burst forth again at the opening of the actual revolution.
On the Ist of June, 1774, the odious Port bill -- by which Lord North had hoped to starve the people of Boston into submission to the king - began its opera- tion. "Pay for that tea, or be blockaded," was the alternative submitted to the capital of New England. You know the choice of Boston.
A circular was sent through the country asking countenance from the other colonies, and requesting aid for the Boston poor in danger of actual starvation. On the receipt of this circular in Norwich, a town meeting was called by the selectmen, in a document
* See note N.
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which is an amusing illustration of the caution which was exercised by the conservative men of the day, and also of that sovereignty of the people, so eminently characteristic of a New England town. In a dozen lines the inhabitants are summoned "to take into consideration the melancholy situation of our civil Constitutional Liberties, Rights and Privileges which are Threatened with Destruction by the Enemies of his Majesty's Happy Reign," and in a single line at the close of the call they are also bidden "to take into consideration some memorials for Highway, Praid for in Said Town and also to act upon any Thing Else that may be fairly offered." In more senses than one they. were to mend their ways !
The meeting was held on the 6th of June, at the town house, and was so crowded that an adjournment was immediately made to the neighboring meeting house. A committee, of which Hon. Samuel Hunt- ington was chairman, was appointed, "to draw up some sentiments proper to be adopted, and resolutions to be come into, in this alarming crisis of affairs Relative to the natural Rights and Privileges of the People."
On the same day, on receiving the report of the committee, it was " Voted, that we will, to the utmost of our abilities, assert and defend the Liberties and immunities of British America; and that we will co-operate with our Brethren in this and the . other
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Colonies, in such reasonable measures as shall in General Congress, or otherwise, be Judged most proper to Relieve us from Burthens we now feel, and secure us from greater evils we fear will follow from the Principles adopted by the British Parliament respect- ing the town of Boston."
At the same meeting, it was also voted, "that Captain Jedediah Huntington, Christopher Leffingwell, Esq., Doct. Theophilus Rogers, Capt. William Hubbard and Capt. Joseph Trumbull be a standing Committee for keeping up a Correspondence with the Towns in this and the neighboring Colonies, and that they transmit a copy of these Votes to the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston."
Fortunately, some of the correspondence which this assembly called forth, has recently come to light. The town meeting had hardly adjourned before Jo- seph Trumbull, in the name of the committee. forwarded to Boston the resolutions which had been adopted. "Stand firm," he writes, "in your Lots, and from the apparent Temper of our People, we may assure you of every support in the Power of this Town to afford you in the glorious struggle." A few days later, another letter went forward from Norwich to Boston, proposing material aid, to which Samuel Adams replied, "that the valuable Donation of the worthy Town of Norwich will be received by this Community with the Warmest Gratitude, and dispos'd of according
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to the true Intent of the Generous Donors. The Part which the Town of Norwich takes in. this Struggle for American Liberty, is truly noble."
In August, Captain Christopher Leffingwell, in behalf of the committee, sends forward the first instalment of the donation, "being two hundred and ninety-one sheep, which [we] wish safe to hand," and Joseph Warren, in acknowledging the safe arrival of the welcome flock, remarks that "Mr. Gage" (for so the vicegerent of Great Britain was entitled) "is aston- ished at the spirit of the people. He forbids their town meetings, and they meet in counties. If he prevents county meetings we must call provincial meetings, and if he forbids these, we trust that our worthy brethren on the continent, and especially of the Town of Norwich, in Connecticut, will lend us their helping arms in time of danger, and will be no less conspicuous for their fortitude than they now are for their generosity."*
You may smile if I tell you that the record of this transaction is so complete that we even have the drover's account-book of the expense he incurred in going to Boston. At each station he mentions what he received and paid. One entry is - At Col. Israel Putnam's, one mug of flip, gratis.
In September, 1774, when the rumor reached Nor- wich that the citizens of Boston had been massacred,
* See note O.
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a company of nearly five hundred men marched imme- diately, (although it was a Sabbath morning,) to carry relief. Colonel Durkee commanded them.
In the same month, a meeting of delegates from New London and Windham counties was convened in Norwich. William Williams and Jonathan Trum- bull were there from Lebanon; Colonel Salstonstall and Mr. Shaw, from New London; Mr. Mc Curdy, from Lyme; Dr. Perkins, from Plainfield; Colonel Israel Putnam, from Pomfret, and other such men, to the number of forty delegates. Their address to the general assembly of Connecticut, breathes forth the free spirit of the town in which they were gathered.
Through the anxious winter which followed, many were the discussions, at the fire-side and in the shop, which involved the most important principles of civil government. Dark clouds were gathering. Early in the next spring, the town committee of correspondence appointed some fifty gentlemen of influence and wealth, " to solicit the further Charitable Contributions of the Humane and Sympathizing Inhabitants of the Town, for Relieving and alleviating the Distresses of the Poor of that Devoted Town [Boston] and make return of their doings and collectings, at a meeting of the sd Gentlemen and others to be holden at the Court House in this Town on the third Tuesday of April next."
The very day appointed for this second meeting was the eve of the battle of Lexington.
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So began the revolution in Norwich. "Well begun is half done," says the proverb. Not so said our fathers. They foresaw a long and arduous war, and they prepared to meet it. Resolutions and correspond- ence were indeed important, but only to prepare the way for more significant demonstrations. As Lexing- ton found Norwich ready, so Bunker's Hill bore witness to the promptness with which the town re- sponded to the earliest call for troops. As an illustra- tion, I may mention that one evening Colonel Joshua Huntington received a commission, and before dawn the next morning sixty brave men had been enlisted by him, so popular was he, and so patriotic they. The , same spirit continued throughout the war. Over and over again were contributions made for the army. " The gifts of Norwich to its soldiers," writes a distin- guished officer from the memorable camp at Valley Forge, "are cheering indeed."
General Jabez Huntington gave up his fortune to the colony, permitting even the leaden weights by which his windows hung to be cast into bullets; and his generous example was imitated by others, each being liberal in proportion to his means.
Let me read to you the summary which Miss Caulkins gives. Speaking of the earlier periods of the contest, she says, "the town's quota of soldiers was always quickly raised, and the necessary supplies fur- nished with promptness and liberality. The requisi-
* History of Norwich, page 235.
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tions of the governor were responded to from no quarter with more cheerfulness and alacrity. In Sep- tember, 1777, when extraordinary exertions were made, in many parts of New England, to procure tents, canteens, and clothing for the army, many householders in Norwich voluntarily gave up to the committee of the town, all they could spare from their own family stock, either as donations, or, where that could not be afforded, at a very low rate. The ministers of all the churches, on thanksgiving day, exhorted the people to remember the poor soldiers and their families.
"In January, 1778, a general contribution was made through the town for the army. The ladies, with great industry, assembled to make garments, and bring in their gifts. The whole value of the collection was placed at a low estimate at £1,400 - [continental money, probably ; real value, uncertain.]
" Cash, &258; pork, cheese, wheat, rye, sugar, corn, rice, flax, and wood in considerable quantities; 386 pair of stockings, 227 do. of shoes, 118 shirts, 78 jackets, 48 pair overalls, 15 do. breeches, 208 do. mittens, 11 buff caps, 9 coats, 12 rifle frocks, and 19 handkerchiefs.
" Every year while the war continued, persons were appointed by the town to provide for the soldiers and their families at the town expense ; but much also was raised by voluntary contributions."
So you see that the people were as ready as their
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leaders, to vote, to fight, and to pay for the main- tenance of the principles at stake.
When at last the war was over, the sufferings of these brave patriots were not ended. They had bought the freedom, not of the town nor of the state only, but of the continent. But they had bought it at the sacrifice of time, and labor, and health, and prosperity. The old families were many of them sadly depressed in financial circumstances. New men came into town enterprising and unembarrassed -- business revived and the community prospered. But in this period of prosperity, in this hour of jubilee, let gratitude and honor be unsparingly bestowed on the memory of those who pledged for us "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor."
The story of these days is long: but the half remains untold. Norwich was a store house, where grain, molasses, tents, blankets and other necessaries. were kept in readiness for the army; a magazine, whence powder and ball were issued on demand ; a city of refuge, to which shrewd tories like Dr. Church could be sent for confinement, with no fear of their escape ; a council chamber, where the gov- ernor and committee of safety could conveniently assemble ; an armory, where Backus could cast the needed iron; a navy yard, where Joshua Huntington could build a frigate for the continental congress ; a port, from which armed vessels of the government,
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to say nothing of privateers, could conveniently sail, and which the continental army, under Washington, could select as " the most favorable place for taking the boats," between Boston and New York; a camp where the troops of various generals could be safely quartered, among them those of the brave Lafayette, (the anniversary of whose birth occurred but yes- terday - let us hold it in honorable remembrance ;) a treasury, the drafts on which were never dishon- ored; a mount of sacrifice, from which the incense of devout petition to the Lord of Hosts continually arose.
A grateful task awaits the writer, who shall under- take to prepare a volume on "Norwich in the Revo- lution." The town that can point to its citizens, active as counsellors, as surgeons, as commissaries, as soldiers, as ship builders, as store keepers, as gun makers, and not least honorable, as song writers for the cause of civil independence, may glory in her sons; and though her hills be rough and her rivers small, it will always be an honor to claim Norwich as a home.
The close of the war was followed by a period of great activity and prosperity. The trade which, in 1760, had been so extensive and profitable, and which had been sadly interrupted by the troubles of the country, now rapidly regained its former character, and the success which, some thirty years
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before had crowned commercial skill, was equaled and surpassed. The wharves at the landing and the spacious warehouses up-town alike bore evidence of energy and thrift; but "the scepter had departed from Israel." Chelsea soon eclipsed the old town plot, and the record of 1795, drawn up for the pur- pose of securing a post office at the landing, reports that of the shipping then belonging to Norwich, only 210 tons were owned in the old parish, and the remainder, 4,102 tons, were owned in the port.
Breed, Ripley, Lathrop, Howland, Perkins, Mum- ford, Spalding, Leffingwell, Rogers, Huntington, Hyde, Hubbard, Coit, Griswold, Bill, Trumbull, Dewitt, Kinne, Williams, Dunham, Fitch, Eels, Marvin, Brown. Thomas, Carpenter, were among the most active of the citizens of Norwich, about 1800. Nor should the spiritual labors of the Rev. Dr. Strong, in the first church, be unmentioned at this time, whose honored ministry extended over a period of sixty- seven years; nor those of the excellent Mr. Tyler, for fifty-four years the rector of Christ Church; nor those of Mr. King, pastor of the church in Chelsea nearly a quarter of a century .*
But these names are those of your fathers and grandfathers; men who are well remembered by many in this audience. It would be presumptuous for me to dwell upon these times in the presence
* See note P.
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of those whose own recollections extend through the last fifty years, and who received from the lips of those who were influential at the close of the previous half century, the history of their deeds. I should delight to speak of the growth of the town since 1800, of the rise of manufactures, of the in- fluence of steam upon our trade and locomotion, of the settlements at Greeneville and the Falls, as well as at Yantic and Bozrahville, and other places where the busy whirl of the spindle is heard; of the pros- perity which marks the religious and educational institutions of the town; of the influence which the sons of Norwich are exerting in different important . posts at home and abroad; and of the number of ministers of the gospel, of public officers high in rank, of college graduates, of successful merchants, of ingenious mechanics, who received their early training here.# But the historical investigations of Miss Caulkins, the genealogies of Chancellor Wal- worth and others, the commemorative discourses preached last Sunday, by the several clergymen of the town, and the papers which skillful hands are preparing in respect to the physicians, the lawyers, the press, and the schools of Norwich, forbid me to enter upon any of these inviting themes. + Among all the transactions of this period, there is none which succeeding generations will regard with
* See note Q
¡ See note R.
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more gratitude and honor, than the foundation of yonder institution of learning, THE FREE ACADEMY, in which the best instruction is freely open to all .*
The connection between Norwich and the various colleges of the country, it has given me especial pleasure to trace through the whole history of the town. There is a list before me which is intended to include the names of all graduates who were born within the limits of "the nine miles square," or whose paternal residence was here during their col- lege course. It begins, as we should expect it to begin, with the son of the first minister, and it closes, as it ought to close, with scholars from the Free Academy. The whole list contains two hundred names, three-fourths of whom are graduates of Yale College. It includes five college presidents - Fitch. Backus, Nott, Haskell and Wentworth; twenty other officers of colleges ; } four senators of the United States - Tracy, Lanman, Huntington and Foster: fourteen representatives in congress ; nearly seventy clergymen of different denominations, fourteen of whom are doctors in divinity ; beside judges, lawyers. physicians, merchants, and teachers of eminence, to tell whose names would be to repeat the catalogue.
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