USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington papers > Part 6
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jects bought and sold, and what they presumed to manu- facture, and repeatedly he was shrewdly answered. So long as diplomacy and downright, wholesale smuggling availed, the. crisis was averted, but when the wants of the British treasury, and especially of the East India Company, demanded a rigorous enforcement of the laws, the situation became intolerable. To all this was added the threat of vigorous government by lords spiritual as well as lords temporal, from which they had once for all escaped.
The lapse of a hundred years has made the position of the loyalists, who were ready to submit to all demands of their divinely anointed king as a matter of course, a mystery to us whose habitual treatment of our highest magistrate has not trained us in habits of reverence. The graceful sentiments of Sir Walter Scott's heroine have to us an unreal sound :
"Lands and manors pass away, We but share our monarch's lot. If no more our annals show Battles won and banners taken; Still in death, defeat, and wo, Ours be loyalty unshaken ! "
More easily can we understand the sturdy independence of the patriots. They came to these shores, not for religious freedom, which was a principle unknown, but to establish a church of their own and a government of their own, such as their consciences demanded, narrow, as our vision, broadened by two centuries, looks upon them, but established by themselves and for themselves only, where there was no one to be interfered with, and leaving in the more genial regions of the South plenty of room for the colonies of other religious proclivities. How long this exclusiveness could be maintained, time has shown. These
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men, to whom Church and State were one, whose religion was a covenant with God, between whom and themselves they allowed no human mediator, were the men whom George III thought to crush.
On the 31st of March, 1774, the Boston Port bill was signed, and on the 1st of June it went into effect. Its reception in this town will appear in the following letter :
" FARMINGTON, CONNECTICUT, May 19, 1774.
" Early in the morning was found the following handbill, posted up in various parts of the town, viz. :
"' To pass through the fire at six o'clock this evening, in honor to the immortal Goddess of Liberty, the late infamous act of the British Parliament for farther distressing the American colonies. The place of execution will be the public parade, where all Sons of Liberty are desired to attend. '
" Accordingly, a very numerous and respectable body were assembled, of near one thousand people, when a huge pole, just forty-five feet high, was erected, and consecrated to the shrine of Liberty; after which the act of Parliament for blocking up the Boston harbor was read aloud, sen- tenced to the flames, and executed by the hands of the common hangman. Then the following resolves were passed, rem con."
The resolves were spirited, but too long for our present purpose.
The Rev. Samuel Peters, of Hebron, notorious as the author of " A General History of Connecticut by a Gentleman of the Province," and inventor of the so- called " Blue Laws of Connecticut," comments on these proceedings as follows :
"Farmington burnt the act of Parliament in great contempt by their common hangman, when a thousand of her best inhabitants were convened for that glorious purpose of committing treason against the king; for which vile conduct they have not been styled a pest to Connecticut, and enemies to common sense, either by his Honor or any king's attorney, or in any town meeting. We sincerely wish and hope a day will be set apart by his Honor very soon for fasting and prayer throughout this colony, that the sins of those haughty people may not be laid to our charge."
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We shall hear enough of fast days, but they were not proclaimed to bewail the sins of Farmington.
The situation of the once flourishing port of Boston was now most critical, and donations for the relief of its suffering inhabitants flowed in from the surrounding towns. The action of this town on the 15th of June is chronicled at length in the admirable discourse of President Porter. The following is a letter written by Samuel Adams in response to this action, addressed "To Fisher Gay, Esq., and the rest of the Committee in Farmington, Connecticut.
" BOSTON, July 29, 1774.
" Sir,-I am desired by the Committee of the Town of Boston, ap- pointed to receive the donations made by our sympathizing brethren, for the employment or relief of such inhabitants of this town as are more imme- diate sufferers by the cruel act of Parliament for shutting up this harbor, to acquaint you that our friend, Mr. Barrett, has communicated to them your letter of the 25th instant, advising that you have shipped, per Captain Israel Williams, between three and four hundred bushels of rye and Indian corn for the above-mentioned purpose, and that you have subscriptions still open, and expect after harvest to ship a much larger quantity. Mr. Barrett tells us that upon the arrival of Captain Williams he will endorse this bill of lading or receipt to us.
" The Committee have a very grateful sense of the generosity of their friends in Farmington, who may depend upon their donations being ap- plied agreeable to their benevolent intention, as it is a great satisfaction to the Committee to find the Continent so united in opinion. The town of Boston is now suffering for the common liberties of America, and while they are aided and supported by their friends, I am persuaded they will struggle through the conflict, firm and steady.
" I am, with very great regard, gentlemen, " Your friend and countryman,
" SAMUEL ADAMS. "
Five weeks later, on the 3d of September, the following agreement was drawn up in the handwriting of Major William Judd, and bears the signatures of seventy of the principal inhabitants of this village :
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"We, whose names are hereunto subscribers, promise and engage to be in readiness and duly equipt with arms and ammunition to proceed to Boston for the relief of our distressed and besieged brethren there, and to be under the direction of such officers as shall be by us appointed, as witness our hands this 3d day of September, A. D. 1774."
A roll of honor on which we may well be pleased to see the names of our ancestors recorded.
Town meetings followed in quick succession. On the 20th of September the Rev. Levi Hart of Preston was invited to preach to the assembled freemen of Farmington on Liberty. He preached them a sermon on "Liberty Described and Recommended," but his text must have sounded strangely in their ears as he read, " While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." There was not a word about British tyranny, but a fervid discourse to our merchant princes on the horrors of the slave trade.
Strange doctrine this. Did not the good men of that day rejoice in thus delivering benighted souls from the heathen darkness of Africa? West India shippers, not only of this, but of all trading communities, universally engaged in the traffic. Times have changed. Let us judge men by the light of their own day. We, no doubt, will need like favor badly enough an hundred years hence.
The meeting, at the close of the discourse, proceeded to vote thirty hundred-weight of lead, ten thousand French flints, and thirty-six barrels of powder. A little later they voted " that the several constables should have a large staff provided for each of them with the King's arms upon them." The authority of the King was as yet unquestioned.
On the 12th of December the town approved of the Association of the Continental Congress and appointed a Committee of Inspection to carry out its provisions. This
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committee of fifty-two men at once met at the tavern of Amos Cowles, and while they are busy with the public good, and, very likely, with the good of the house, let us take a little rest from the contemplation of these warlike proceed- ings and look about us. The inn of Amos Cowles stood just south of the church, on or about the site of the house of the late Chauncey D. Cowles, Esq. It has long since disappeared, as have all but about a half-dozen of the houses of that day, and they, for the most part, have been reconstructed past recognition. The village street, certainly not since broadened with age, ran as now, and along it passed the pedestrian, the horseback rider, and the un- wieldly cart of the farmer. Pleasure carriages were un- known. When the minister of that day brought home his bride in the first chaise his parishioners had ever seen they lined the street to welcome him, and the first man who caught sight of the coming chaise shouted, "The cart is coming." Mail coaches were unknown. In 1778 Joseph Root advertised in The Connecticut Courant as follows :
"This is to notify those that have friends in General Parsons' brigade that I have undertook to ride post for the town of Farmington, the letters to be left at my house and at Landlord Adams', Southington; at Landlord Smith's, New Britain; at Landlord Hayes', Salmon Brook; at Esq. Owen's, Simsbury; at Joseph Kellogg's, New Hartford, and at Robert Mecune's, at Winchester. Those who have letters to send are desired to leave them at either of the above places by the first day of next month, at which time I shall set out.
"N. B. Letters may also be left at Lieut. Heth's, West Hartford, and at Landlord Butler's in Hartford.
"'FARMINGTON, June 12, 1778."
The travel between the two capitals of the colony then, as now, passed on the other side of the mountain through Wethersfield and Wallingford, but the exigencies of war required new lines of communication, and this quiet street
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was soon to be familiar with the measured tread of armies. Thomas Lewis, writing to Lieut. Amos Wadsworth at Rox- bury Camp, says :
"The same night" (that is, July 19, 1775,) "lodged in this town a captain with a company of riflemen, who appeared to be, many of them, very likely young gentlemen. The officers informed me a great number of their soldiers were men possessed with fortunes worth three or four thou- sand apiece. These are from Philadelphia and on their march to join the army. The Captain told me he expected one thousand more of the same troops would pass the town next week for the like purpose."
After the evacuation of Boston the line of communica- tion from Newport and Hartford to the Highlands above New York passed through this village.
Here in 1781 marched the army of Rochambeau. The diary of one of his aids, accompanied with a map of the route, records, under date of June 24th :
"In the afternoon I went to see a charming spot called Wethersfield, four miles from East Hartford. It would be impossible to find prettier houses and a more beautiful view. I went up into the steeple of the church and saw the richest country I had yet seen in America. From this spot you can see for fifty miles around.
"June 25. In the morning the army resumed its march to reach Farmington. The country is more open than that we had passed over since our departure, and the road fine enough. The village is considerable, and the position of the camp, which is a mile and a half from it, was one of the most fortunate we had as yet occupied."
On the return of the army in 1782 Rochambeau made a halt in Farmington on the 29th of October, and the next day in Hartford.
Of the journeys of Washington through this town he leaves us but brief mention. In May, 1781, he writes :
"I begin at this epoch a concise journal of military transactions, etc. I lament not having attempted it from the commencement of the war."
In this journal he writes :
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"May 19th. Breakfasted at Litchfield, dined at Farmington, and lodged at Wethersfield."
Also :
"May 24th. Set out on my return to New Windsor, dined at Farming- ton, and lodged at Litchfield."
This is all we gather from his own writing, but we know that on the 18th of September, 1780, he bade adieu to General Arnold at Peekskill and was in Hartford on the 21st. The commonly traveled road between the places lay through Farmington. After his conference with Rochambeau, he leaves Hartford on the 23d and arrives at Litchfield on the same day. Two days later he heard of the flight of Arnold. On the 2d of March, 1781, he left New Windsor, and arrived at Hartford on the 4th, and, returning on Sunday the 18th, was back at his headquarters at New Windsor on the 20th. He seems, therefore, to have passed through Farmington, six times: on the 20th and 23d of September, 1780, the 4th and 18th of March, 1781, and the 19th and 24th of May, 1781.
What house had the honor of entertaining his Excel- lency is uncertain. An idle tradition one hears over and over again tells us that once, being overtaken by a sudden storm, Washington took refuge in the newly erected meet- ing-house, but if there is anyone with any military experi- ence before me, I will leave him to determine into which the General would most likely turn his steps, the hospitable inn of Amos Cowles, or the house of God with closed doors, standing there side by side. The means of entertainment at that day were ample. As he rode down the mountain slope from the east and first came in sight of the meeting- house spire, the tavern of Samuel North, Jr., greeted him on the left. A little farther on, where the Elm Tree Inn
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now stands, Mr. Phineas Lewis would have been happy to entertain the General. He could also have been cordially welcomed by Mr. Seth Lee, where are now the brick school buildings of Miss Porter. If he succeeded in passing all these attractions, the newly erected inn of Mr. Asahel Wadsworth, grandfather of the late Winthrop M. Wads- worth, Esq., hung out its sign, and just as he turned off from the main street into the wilderness toward Litchfield there was still the well-known inn of Captain Solomon Cowles to prepare him for the rough journey before him. This last tavern was famous in its day. The weary teamster on his journey with supplies for the army hailed it with delight. One Joseph Joslin, Jr., a revolutionary teamster from Killingly, left a racy diary which ought to please the modern advocates of phonetic spelling. He says :
" April 21, 1777. We set out again and went through Harwinton into Farmington, and it was very bad carting indeed, I declare, and we stayed at a very good tavern, Old Captain Coles', and we fare well, and did lie in a bed, I think."
The hay mow by the side of his cattle was usually con- sidered good enough for a revolutionary teamster. Three days later he says:
"I went to Farmington to old Captain Coles' again."
But alas! the hopes of man are deceitful. It was a Fast day, and all he could get with a little cold, raw pork. But it is time for us to return to our Committee of Inspection, " whom we left at the house of Amos Cowles. William Judd was made chairman and John Treadwell clerk, and their business was to carry out the requirements of the fourteen articles of the Association of the Continental Con- gress. This agreement, signed by the representatives of
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the twelve colonies at Philadelphia on the 20th of October, 1774, was not so much sustained by law as by the merciless power of public opinion. The transgressor was looked upon as Achan with his wedge of gold in the Israelitish camp before Jericho. A single instance will illustrate the spirit of the times and help you to understand what is to follow. Samuel Smith, merchant, of New Britain, had been con- victed by Isaac Lee, Jr., justice of the peace, of selling metheglin at too high a price, namely, at eight shillings the gallon, and hens' eggs at the enormous price of one shilling the dozen. He brought his humble petition to the General Assembly, in which he says :
"But when your memorialist reflects on the disability he is under, a sort of political death or disfranchisement which must render him incapable either to provide for or save himself from insult, or to serve the public in this time of calamity, which he always has and still wishes to do, he cannot but in the most humble manner pray this honorable Assembly to take your memorialsist's case into your wise consideration and grant that he may be restored to his former freedom."
The petition was signed by Justice Lee and twenty-six of the principal men of New Britain. The Assembly promptly granted his petition. Our committee held sev- eral meetings, and considered numerous complaints which the Sons of Liberty had to make concerning the patriot- ism of their neighbors and of each other. It required cool heads and ripe wisdom to satisfy this red-hot zeal and do justice to all offenders. I will note only a few representative cases. Samuel Scott was accused of labor- ing on a Continental Fast day. This solemn day was to be kept with all the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath, and in its entirety. "Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid- servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy
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gates." It was not alleged that he had himself performed any labor on that sacred day, but there was some suspicion that one of his hired men might have done some work not strictly necessary. For this and similar cases the com- mittee drew up a form of confession, in which the accused affirmed his fervid patriotism and regretted any breach of the fourteen articles he might possibly have been guilty of. Another case made our worthy committee more trouble. Captain Solomon Cowles and Martha, his wife, were complained of for allowing Seth Bird of Litchfield and Daniel Sheldon of Woodbury to drink India tea at their tavern. From the time of the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor nothing so roused the wrath of the pat- riots as any dalliance with this forbidden luxury. Their wives, who had patriotically abstained from their darling beverage and looked with regretful eyes on their unused china, could not endure such intemperance as this. The guilty parties printed their humble apology in The Con- necticut Courant. Seth Bird was exceedingly wroth, and published in the next paper his version of the affair, this tempest in a teapot, as it seems to us, laying all the blame on the landlady, and accusing her and the committee of making him infamous. It was the old story of the forbid- den fruit and the ignoble reply, "The woman gave me and I did eat." He says :
" About the middle of the month of March last past I called for break- fast at Captain Solomon Cowles'. The landlady said she would get some, and asked what would suit, and added, says she, 'I suppose you don't drink tea.' I answered that I had not practised it, to be sure, since March came in, but as I feel this morning it would not wrong my conscience to drink a dish or two, if I could come at it, for I had a new cold by riding in the wet the night before and had slept very little, etc. The landlady replied that if I felt unwell she supposed she might get me some, and accordingly went and prepared it, and I drank thereof."
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The committee do not seem to have taken any notice of Mr. Bird's disrespectful paper. Litchfield was a far country, and, like the immortal Dogberry, they no doubt thanked God they were well rid of one offender. More serious still were the complaints against the Tories. Some one petitioned that Nehemiah Royce, " a person politically excommunicated," be prevented from sending his children to the public school. The committee wisely declined any such action, and, moreover, voted that the evidence against him " is not sufficient to justify the committee in adver- tising said Royce in the gazette." Every week there ap- peared on the first page of The Courant, in the blackest type Mr. Watson possessed, a list of enemies of their country, and confessions from parties accused appeared from every part of the State. Matthias Leaming, they voted, should be advertised in the public gazette "for a contumacious violation of the whole Association of the Continental Congress," and then voted to defer the ex- ccution of their sentence. By the middle of the following September the committee had had enough of the business, and voted "to request a dismission from the office, it being too burthensome to be executed by them for a longer time." A new committee were appointed, who passed a few votes, and then we hear no more of them. There were more important matters to occupy the public mind. The persecution of Matthias Leaming, however, was not yet ended. As late as 1783 his petition to the General Assembly sets forth that, being involved in debt, he had conveyed his real estate to a brother without his knowledge and without receiving one penny in consideration. Unfor- tunately for Matthias, his brother joined the enemy in New York, and the land, being found recorded in his name, was confiscated.
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A very long and minute report by the legislative com- mittee is on file, in which they decided adversely. Three years later another long memorial met the same fate, but in 1787 the Assembly gave him £80 in treasury notes, payable on the 1st of the next February. Before that day the treasury was virtually bankrupt. In October, 1788, Governor Treadwell drew up another memorial, and per- suaded Rev. Timothy Pitkin, Col. Noadiah Hooker, and twelve others of the most prominent men of the village to petition the Assembly to assist him in his old age and distress. No action was taken. The treasury was power- less to help. No doubt the Tories were treated roughly. Some lost their lands by confiscation. Some were hung. It is very easy to sit by the quiet firesides which the valor of patriotic fathers secured us and coolly moralize on their severity. War is not a lovely thing, least of all, civil war. The sight of neighbors with whom we were wont to hold pleasant converse arrayed against us, side by side with hired mercenaries and scalping savages, rouses passions slumbering deep down in human nature, which war always has and always will arouse, moralize as we will, so long as warm blood flows in human veins. A single letter writ- ten by Dr. Timothy Hosmer of this village to Ensign Amos Wadsworth July 30, 1775, illustrates the spirit of the times, and is, perhaps, quite enough to say about Whig and Tory hatred. He says :
"The first act I shall give you is concerning the grand Continental Fast as conducted by that great friend to administration, the Rev. John Smalley. The Sunday before the Fast, after service, he read the proclama- tion, and then told his people that fasting and prayer were no doubt a Christian duty, and that they ought in times of trouble to set apart a suitable time to celebrate a fast, but they were not obliged to keep the day by that proclamation, as they (the Congress) had no power to command, but only to recommend, and desired they would speak their minds by a vote, whether
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they would keep the day. The vote was accordingly called for, and it appeared to be a scant vote, though they met on the Fast day and he preached to them. We look upon it as implicitly denying all authority of Congress. It hath awakened his best friends against him. Even Lieut. Porter, Mr. Bull, and John Treadwell say they cannot see any excuse for him, and I believe the committee will take up the matter and call him to answer for his conduct. There hath happened a terrible rumpus at Water- bury with the Tories there. Capt. Nicholl's son, Josiah, enlisted under Capt. Porter in Gen. Wooster's regiment, went down to New York with the regiment, tarried a short time, and deserted came home and kept a little under covert, but goes down to Saybrook and there enlisted _with Capt. Shipman . got his bounty and rushed off again. Capt. Shipman came up after him
and went with some people they had got to assist them to Lemuel Nicholl's, where they supposed he was. Lemuel forbade their coming in, and presented a sword and told them it was death to the first that offered to enter, but one young man seized the sword by the blade and wrenched it out of his hands. They bound him and made a search through the house, but could find nothing of Josiah. The Tories all mustered to defend him, and finally got Lemuel from them and he and Josiah pushed off where they cannot be found. This ran through Thurs- day. The Whigs sent over to Southington for help, and the people almost all went from Southington on Friday. They took Capt. Nicholls, whom they found on his belly over in his lot, in a bunch of alders, carried him before Esq. Hopkins, and had him bound over to the Colony Court at New Haven. They had near 100 Tories collected upon the occasion, and were together till ten o'clock Friday night. They dispersed and there was nothing done to humble them, but I apprehend the next opportunity I have to write I shall be able to inform you that Smalley and they, too, will be handled."
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