USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I > Part 22
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gaged in mortal combat with the enemy; fully one-quarter of the command were buried in the New York wilderness, Con- necticut alone losing ninety men.
The colony had passed through various phases of a cir- culating medium common to all newly discovered and settled countries. The use of the Indian wampum, and of bullets, and of corn and other cereals, as legal tender for trade, had been followed by the coinage in Massachusetts of the so- called pine, oak, and willow tree shillings, and likewise coin of smaller denominations. Connecticut was among the first of the colonies to issue paper or fiat money. The first emission was made in 1709; previous to that year she had liquidated her obligations by direct tax levied upon the peo- ple. The taxes had risen to seven or eight pence on the pound, and this to struggling agricultural communities was ruinous. The need of a circulating medium, and the extra war expenditures, obliged the colony in June 1709 to issue £8,000 in paper currency; the notes were not legal tender, but were received at premium for payment of taxes, and for their redemption a special tax was levied of ten pence on the pound, payable in two annual installments. The same year an additional issue of £11,000 was made, to be paid in six an- nual payments.
The colonists were still alarmed by the threatening attacks of the Indians, who remained faithful to their French allies. The waning affections of the Five Nations made but a slight bulwark between the English colonists and their enemies. In the latter part of 1709 a conference of the colonial governors was held, to adopt a uniform plan of operation and solicit aid from the mother country. This resulted in the expedition against Port Royal, to which army Connecticut furnished three hundred men in obedience to the Queen's request, and
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in four weeks they completed their quota and reported in transports at Boston.
This expedition's success in capturing Port Royal stimu- lated the mother country in the following year to forward a fleet to assist the colonies in subjugating Canada. This was the nucleus of the luckless Hovenden Walker's armament. By a disagreement of the pilots, eight transports with 885 English soldiers were wrecked near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River; this loss so disheartened the commander that after holding a council of war, the British fleet weighed anchor for England.
A land force was organized in connection with this water campaign to make a simultaneous onslaught on Montreal. This army consisted of troops from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey; the Connecticut contingent being under the command of Colonel William Whiting. The invading army began its march for Montreal on the same day that Ad- miral Walker's fleet sailed from Boston, but was obliged to abandon its project on receiving the news of the disaster to the latter expedition. This was the third fruitless attempt of the American colonies to subdue Canada, and the treaty of Utrecht suspended all open hostilities between the rival col- onies. The cessation of warfare was to be the harbinger of almost thirty years of peace; though the growth of settle- ment in the English colonies, and the hounding on of the In- dians by the French Jesuits to murderous raids, were to lead to many Indian depredations, none of which, however, were within the confines of Connecticut. The colony of Massachu- setts became involved in war with the eastern Indians, and a demand from her governor for soldiers in aid was refused by the General Assembly. The colony placed her frontiers in a condition of defense, and aided the new county of Hamp-
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shire in Massachusetts by sending a detachment of fifty men to defend her borders.
These constant warfares on the part of her sister colonies were the cause of several thousand pounds' expense to the colony, though not a life was sacrificed; the expenditures led to various issues of paper currency; and though pro- visions were made by special taxation to redeem these obliga- tions, the evil consequences could not be entirely avoided. The notes were made legal tender in 1718, but the frequency of the issues and the alarming extent of counterfeiting de- moralized business. This system of fiat money had brought the once conservative colony into a deplorable condition finan- cially; it was augmented in 1733 by the issue of £30,000, di- vided into loans among the counties. As paper money was is- sued, silver steadily increased in value; in 1708 it was worth eight shillings an ounce, in 1732 the price was eighteen shil- lings, and 1744 it reached thirty-two shillings. The price of commodities had advanced in proportion, and wages had not kept pace therewith. The colonial authorities seemed to have lost all caution, and the colony's accounts were kept so carelessly and in such a puzzling manner that it became practically impossible to arrive at a correct financial balance. There had been issued in paper money previous to 1740, £156,000, all of which had been redeemed, excepting £6,000; there was outstanding indebtedness to counties £33,000, mak- ing £39,000 unliquidated.
In the midst of Connecticut's financial troubles occurred the death of Governor Saltonstall; he was succeeded by Jo- seph Talcott, who had filled the office of Deputy Governor during the last year of Governor Saltonstall's adminis- tration. Governor Talcott was first elected by the people in 1725, and held the office for every consecutive term till his
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death in 1741 ; he was the first native citizen elected Gov- ernor. Governor Talcott was born in Hartford on the 1 1th or 16th day of November, 1669, and was the son of Colonel John Talcott, who gained military renown in King Philip's war. From the age of twenty-three until his death, he was identified with the political life of the colony; while not a brilliant man, he was possessed of good common-sense, was a faithful servant to his public trusts, not an extremist in any direction, and displayed excellent judgment in managing pub- lic affairs, somewhat to the prejudice of his private interests.
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CHAPTER XXI THIRD INTERCOLONIAL WAR
T HE next war into which the European en- tanglements dragged the colonies was due to the conflict of English and Spanish commer- cial interests, principally the slave-trading rights granted to England by the Treaty of Utrecht. Spanish revenue vessels captured English trading ships accused of smuggling, and were accused of barbarously misusing the masters and crews; one captain had an ear cut off, and the resultant war was nicknamed by its opponents "The War of Jenkins' Ear."
At the session of the Connecticut General Assembly held in the fall of 1739, forecasting this war, measures were taken to place the colony in a defensible position. The coast defenses were strengthened; and the militia was formed into thirteen regiments with a full roster of line officers, the Gov- ernor being made commander-in-chief with the rank of Captain-General. The Spanish-American colonies were to be the object of attack by the English, and an overwhelming armament was organized to capture their strongholds; the expedition was commanded by Admiral Edward Vernon, the head of a successful campaign against Porto Bello in 1739.
The New England colonies were called upon by the home government to furnish four provincial regiments, and every effort was made by the authorities of the colony to obtain their quota of one thousand men, to join the English at Ja- maica. The volunteers were given the privilege of electing their own officers, and every able-bodied male was urged to enlist.
A new issue of paper money amounting to £45,000 was voted, £8,000 of which was to be used for the redemption of outstanding issues known as "old tenor"; £23,000 was to be loaned, the interest on which was to create a sinking fund for
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the liquidation of the "New Tenor" or new issue. The legal- tender clause was abolished in obedience to the demands of the Board of Trade and Plantations.
Energy was infused into the preparations by the old ques- tion of Catholic vs. Protestant. In the fall of 1740 the ar- mada, consisting of twenty-five ships of the line, with a cor- responding number of auxiliary vessels, sailed from England; the commander was Lord George Cathcart, whose death en route deprived it of a capable leader who had won distinction in Continental wars. The command devolved upon Briga- dier-General Wentworth, who was practically unknown in army and naval circles. The union of this force with Vice- Admiral Vernon at Jamaica aggregated twenty-nine ships of the line and as many frigates, with 15,000 seamen, besides 12,000 soldiers. The tropical climate of the West Indies proved dangerous to the northern soldiers, and their ranks were soon diminished by sickness.
A council of war was held on Jan. 10, 1741, and the Eng- lish commanders deemed it wise to ascertain the intentions of a large fleet of French war vessels before attempting the con- templated attack on Cartagena. The French fleet having sailed for Europe, the English forces on March 4 sighted the beacons of Cartagena; this strongly entrenched Span- ish seaport was situated on the Caribbean Sea, and had bla- zoned on its portals "Defiance to the World." The procrastination of the English had allowed the Spanish to re- inforce its garrison until it numbered about 4,000 men; and nature, helped by the science of fortification, had made it nearly impregnable. The English force, while it had suf- fered from disease, was at least five times the number of the enemy.
The colonial contingent were subjected to insults by the
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English officers; menial duties were assigned them, they were placed with the Jamaica negroes to construct trenches, and on bombarding expeditions were required to carry scaling ladders and grenades for the English grenadiers. Although the Spanish outposts were captured one by one, the city still resisted the siege, which was partially due to the antagonism between the commanders of the naval and land forces of the English. The last fatal English assault was made by the army, unsupported by the navy, on the fortress San Lazaro; of the five thousand English that took part in the engage- ment, more than one-fifth were left dead on the field of battle.
Rumor was circulated that the city was saved by paying a ransom of nine million pounds sterling. On the fifteenth of April the siege was raised, and in the early part of the fol- lowing month the English fleet set sail for Jamaica; it after- wards engaged in attacks upon points on the Island of Cuba, but disease again invaded their ranks, the loss reaching a thousand men a day ; of the Connecticut quota to this unfor- tunate campaign, only one-tenth returned to the colony.
The death of Joseph Talcott occurred in the latter part of 1741, and Jonathan Law, who was Deputy Governor at the time, officiated as acting Governor during the interim; he was elected Governor in the spring of 1742, and was re- elected each succeeding term till his death in 1751. Gover- nor Law was born at Milford, Aug. 6, 1674, graduated from Harvard College at the age of twenty-one, and for a number of years was a member of the judicial bench of Con- necticut. He was a strong conservative in his religious opin- ions, and a steady opponent of the revivalists of the day. Na- ture had endowed him with high talents and accomplish- ments, which, with his acquaintance with civil and ecclesi-
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astical subjects, placed him among the foremost men of the colony.
The war with Spain gradually widened into a general European contest. France, though at first pretending to maintain neutrality, openly declared war against England on the fourth of March, 1744. Before the news reached New England, a French officer took possession of Canso, Nova Scotia, and attempted to capture Port Royal, but was re- pulsed by the provincial garrison. Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was one of the strongest fortified seaports on the At- lantic coast and was a rendezvous for French privateers, who preyed upon the trading and fishing vessels of New England. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, having been informed by returning prisoners of war that it was protected only by a small and dissatisfied garrison, conceived a scheme for its cap- ture. The design was to dispatch an army of five thousand troops to Canso, which was to assault the fortress in connec- tion with a naval flotilla. The governor sought aid from England; but the project was abandoned on account of the heavy expenses, and also because in the event of its success, the enterprise would redound to the glory of the mother country rather than to the colonies. The waning of com- merce and the destruction of the fishing and coasting busi- ness caused the matter to be again agitated; but the colonies outside of New England refused to take part in the enter- prise. The Connecticut legislature agreed to furnish five hundred men for the service, offering them a bounty of ten pounds, and requiring them to furnish themselves with arms, knapsacks, and blankets; these troops were divided into eight companies and ordered to embark at New London, under the protection of the colonial sloop of war "Defense." The popularity of Sir William Pepperrell, the commander-in-
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chief of the army, and of Deputy Governor Roger Wolcott, second in command, led many of the best citizens of Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut to enlist in the expedition. The naval forces of the New England colonies consisted of twelve vessels,-three snows, two sloops-of-war, two ships, one brig, one brigantine and three small sloops; the naval com- mander was Captain Ting; the entire armament, excepting ten eighteen-pounders which were loaned by the province of New York, was furnished by New England.
On the point of embarkation of the expedition, Governor Shirley received intelligence that the English commodore stationed at the West Indies, owing to the disablement of his ships, would not co-operate with the flotilla. This did not deter the governor from forwarding the campaign; and dur- ing the month of April the troops rendezvoused at Canso, where, much to their surprise, they were joined by Commo- dore Warren, with four ships of the line. He had been or- dered by the home government to give all possible aid to the success of the enterprise. After a consultation between the military and naval commanders, it was decided to sail for Louisbourg harbor, where the fleet arrived on the thirteenth of April; the beleaguered fortress stood a siege of forty- nine days, and capitulated on the seventeenth day of June, 1745, to the impoverished provincial army, which was great- ly reduced from hardships and lack of ammunition. General Pepperrell had already asked for recruits and fresh sup- plies of ammunition, and Connecticut had responded by vot- ing to raise 300 additional troops, offering the same induce- ments as were given to those that first enlisted. The news of the surrender of Louisbourg reached Boston on the third of July, and was the occasion of much rejoicing among the colonists, who by their combined efforts had inflicted on
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France the first serious blow in the New World. The fort was garrisoned by New England volunteers for eleven months after its surrender, and more than 5,000 troops shared in the capture and garrisoning of the fortress, of which number Connecticut furnished about 1, 100. To meet the expenses incurred by the Louisbourg expedition, Con- necticut made fresh issues of "new tenor" amounting to £80,- 000, which brought her whole emission for the war to the enormous sum of £131,000 on a total tax valuation in 1743 of £900,000; these bills soon began to depreciate in value, though one of the "new tenor" was equal to three and one half of the "old tenor."
The success of the Louisbourg expedition stimulated the desire of the English to subjugate Canada; while France, to avenge her defeat, determined to devastate the entire At- lantic coast of the English provinces. A colonial army of 7,200 troops was raised, of which New England furnished 5,300 men, 1,000 being from Connecticut; the General As- sembly voted a bounty of £30 to each soldier, and if food supplies could not be obtained, these were to be impressed. The active arrangements to invade Canada were suspended on receipt of news that a large French fleet was organized to lay waste the seacoast; 6,000 of the New England militia were brought to Boston to help defend the town, and anxiously was the ocean scanned for the appearance of an English fleet. Disasters attended the French squadron : losses at sea, delay in the arrival of expected reinforcements, the death (probably by suicide) of the two commanding of- ficers, and the interception of false dispatches of the sailing of the English fleet, caused them to return to France without attempting to strike a blow.
The capture of Louisbourg and the unsuccessful attempt
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upon the British colonies had prepared the way for peace; a treaty was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle Oct. 18, 1748, which for a time terminated the struggle between the French and English in America. The English Parliament agreed to re- imburse the colonies for the expenses incurred in their efforts to subdue the French, and returned to the latter the fortress of Louisbourg.
The Deputy Governor's position had been held during Governor Law's administration by Roger Wolcott, a member of the bench of Connecticut for over ten years, where he held the office of Chief Justice of the Superior Court. Roger Wolcott was born in Windsor, Jan. 4, 1679, and tradition says that he did not attend a common school one day in his life; in his youth he learned the trade of weaver, and on his arrival at maturity he engaged in that business for himself, and by great industry acquired a comfortable competency. His first election as Governor occurred in the Spring of 1751. The predecessors of Wolcott under the Royal Charter-ex- cepting Governor Treat, who had declined a re-election- held the office from their first election until their death. Gov- ernor Wolcott was elected for three terms; but owing to a difficulty for which the colony was blamed, and which bore the stigma of being due to official negligence, he lost his third re-election. The trouble grew out of the fact that a Spanish ship in distress put into the harbor of New Lon- don, where she was robbed of half of her cargo; the Crown, on complaint of the Spanish ambassador, attempted to hold the colony responsible for the loss, and blame for the wrong conditions fell upon the chief executive. After his retire- ment from political life, Governor Wolcott devoted his time to literary pursuits, and lived to see his eighty-eighth birth- day.
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In response to letters from the Board of Trade and Plan- tations, a meeting of commissioners from each colony met at Albany in June 1754, to devise a general plan of union, to prepare for defense against a common enemy, and to nego- tiate leagues with the Indians in the King's name. The Con- necticut commissioners were William Pitkin, Roger Wolcott, Jr., and Elisha Williams. They were instructed to urge the defenseless state of the provincial governments in America, in view of the encroachments of the French and the waning allegiance of the Indians; to beseech the King for protec- tion and care, and to submit a statement of the great expenses the colony had incurred during the late wars, which were far in excess of those of the southern provinces, who had also reaped a substantial benefit in the increase of their Indian trade. The Commissioners were cautioned not to establish a precedent by pledging the colony to any portion of future ex- penses; they were to make the Indians no presents unless it was sanctioned by the other provinces, and were to oppose any measures of that character. Their influence was to be used, in the event of raising troops, to see that the Connecti- cut contingent should be attached to the eastern rather than the western wing of the army; all their actions were subject to the approval of the Assembly.
The royal governors were all in favor of a union of the colonies; Benjamin Franklin visited Boston to confer with Governor Shirley, who was favorably inclined towards the plan, but differed with Franklin as to how it should be ef- fected. Shirley desired it to be accomplished by a fiat of the British government, and stated that he should immedi- ately propose a scheme of union to the Ministry and Parlia- ment, advocating a tax on the colonists. Franklin would
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not consent to this method of forming a colonial union; he wished the source of power to be with the people.
The Congress at Albany was attended by committees from the assemblies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the New England colonies. The principal object for as- sembling the convention was the renewal of the treaty with the Six Nations; but though this was accomplished, the In- dians were not more than half satisfied, fearing that, for want of unanimity among the colonies, they would be left to con- tend alone against the French. The confederation and union of the colonies for mutual defense was taken under considera- tion, and a plan was introduced by Franklin.
The important features of this were that the general gov- ernment of the colonies should be invested in a President- General appointed and supported by the Crown, and a Gen- eral Council elected for three years by the colonial assemblies, to consist of not less than two nor more than seven members from each province; these were to receive ten shillings per diem for the session, and mileage at the rate of one day's pay for every twenty miles traveled. The number of repre- sentatives was to be governed by the contributions of each province to the general treasury. The General Council was to meet annually, the first meeting to be held at Philadel- phia, and the length of the session was not to exceed six weeks. A quorum was to consist of twenty-five members, though each colony was to be represented. The President- General's assent was required to all acts, and it was his duty to see that they were executed. The General Council was to have charge and direction of all matters pertaining to In- dians, and to have the control over new settlements until they were organized by the Crown; they were to raise soldiers, and to commission officers on land and sea : but were not to
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have the power of impressment, of building fortifications or coast defenses, or of levying direct taxes or customs. The laws passed by the General Council were to receive the sanc- tion of the King in Council before being effective. These reso- lutions, which contained the germ of the Articles of Confed- eration and the Constitution of the United States, were adopted; the delegates from Connecticut being the only ones dissenting.
The opposition of the Connecticut delegates represented the general colonial feeling more accurately than the assent of others. The colonies dreaded consolidation and the loss of their cherished independence much worse than the French and the Indians together; they objected to the veto of the President-General as a little pinchbeck royalty, giving them two kings instead of one, and the second likely to be much the more unbearable; and most of all they resented the with- drawal of the power to appoint and commission their own military and naval officers-a patronage claim which nearly wrecked the Revolution afterwards. Connecticut, in particu- lar, having had a pure democracy, except for eighteen months of a royal governor whom they regarded as legally a mere usurper, would not endure the change. The
colonial orators assailed it without mercy, and the colony in- structed its agent to use every means of defeating it before the Council. The latter body spared them the pains, how- ever, regarding it on their part as a long step towards a colonial union which would annihilate their authority, and disallowing the whole scheme. Thus the Crown thought the President-General would be an agent of the colonies, the col- onies that he would be an agent of the Crown.
An act of Parliament in 175 1 forbade the issues of paper currency except for taxes for the current year, or to be se-
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cured by taxes payable in five years ; and Connecticut by buy- ing up its outstanding "old tenor" obligations at eleven per cent. of their face value, the enforcement of taxes, and the as- sistance of £29,000 in coin from the English Parliament, which she received in 1756 to reimburse her for her share of expenses incurred during the late war, nearly liquidated the £340,000 of her paper issue outstanding in 1751.
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