USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume I > Part 35
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In case of divorce, it was customary to grant support for the wife and children, also, it was customary for a man adjudged the father to be responsible for contributing toward the support of a bastard child.68 A man was also in this period allowed to marry his wife's sister even though the General Association of the Congregational Church opposed the innovation.69
To discourage gambling, a loser could within 3 months sue for the recovery of his losses. Indeed, if he failed to do so, any other person could sue and recover treble the value of the losses with the cost of the suit to be borne by the winner. One-third of the recovered goods be- longed then to the person bringing suit, two-thirds to the state.70 Such unseemly acts as tumbling, rope-dancing, puppet shows, and feats of uncommon dexterity or agility of body were forbidden.71
The separation of Church and State was still two decades away, but, by 1800, significant gains had been made. Ezra Stiles, in his election sermons of 1783 predicted the changing "fashion in religion" and declared that cries of orthodoxy would not suffice but that scrip- tures must be explained on logical, rational grounds to appeal to criti-
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cal minds. Ethan Allen, in his Oracles of Reason declared that he was not a Calvinist and attacked Puritanism and its preachers. Infidelity and universalism had come in with the Revolution; free thinking and free drinking, alike, were in vogue.72 The attitudes forced a degree of tol- eration.
A general toleration act was passed in 1784. The failure to men- tion the Saybrook platform was a victory for the Separatists and freed them to organize under the same conditions as the Congregationalists. Those presenting a certificate of membership declaring the individual a member of some regular religious society recognized by law was ex- empt from the payment of the Congregational tithe. Newcomers were permitted a wider latitude in the selection of their religious preferences. Non-Congregational churches were permitted to control their own fi- nances. It is the view of Purcell that the legislation kept some within the church who had been inclined to give it up altogether. It, no doubt, tended to increase membership in the dissenting churches, but the re- ligious life of the state was still thoroughly regulated. The union of Church and State continued, with taxes levied for the support of the clergy and fines imposed for the neglect of religious observances.73 The dissenters were not completely satisfied.
Support for additional liberty came from two churches which had been nationalized following the American Revolution. The Methodist and Anglican churches were organized as American institutions in 1784. The Church of England continued in Connecticut as the Prot- estant Episcopal Church of America. Methodism began in Connecticut when Jesse Lee established a society in Stratford. During the 1790's, Bishop Francis Asbury made several tours through Connecticut. The frigid receptions and the petty persecutions which he endured appar- ently served to increase the determination of the Methodists, because by 1800 they seemed to have achieved a firm basis.74
The dissenters identified themselves in favor of division of Church and State. The Episcopalians raised a cry of persecution when, in 1791, the legislature passed an "Act to enforce the observance of days of pub- lic fasting and Thanksgiving." In 1795, the Church in New London refused to celebrate in accordance with Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation because it fell in the Lenten season. This particular point
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was resolved when Good Friday was permanently established as an annual fast day.75
The Certificate Law became the focal point of attack. When the Toleration Act had been passed in 1784, it had been believed necessary to insure that dissenters would discharge their responsibility to some church even though relieved from paying the Congregational tithe by requiring a certificate to indicate participation therein. There is no doubt that some turned this into license to relieve themselves from financial responsibility to any church. As these continued to demon- strate their "radical" views and as the new sects continued to spread, the Certificate Law was enforced more stringently.76 The admin- istration of the law remained in the hands of justices who were staunch members of the Standing Order. That there were persecutions there is no doubt. Then, too, from the beginning, to be identified as "a certifi- cate man" was to incur social opprobrium and a political liability.77
The irritations were increased in 1791 when the state required a signature of civil officials on the certificates allowing exemption from direct contributions to the Congregational church. Formerly, the cer- tificate had to be signed by an officer of the dissenting church. Now the "Standing Order" was more strongly entrenched than ever since most of the Justices of the Peace were Congregationalists.78 As Greene points out, in his discussion of the development of religious liberty in Connect- icut, "A veritable doubt, spite, malice, prejudice, or mistaken zeal might determine the granting of a certificate to a dissenter."79 Dissenters determined to return to the Assembly representatives who would stand for religious liberty. Within six months the law was repealed. After heated debate and legislative jockeying, permission was given each dis- senter the privilege of writing his own certificate, or "sign off" as it was called. Still no relief was granted to those who were far removed from churches of their own faith, and judicial authorities still retained ex- cessive powers in disputed cases.80
The Baptists were particularly embittered by an act to force all religious groups to contribute to the support of Congregational mis- sionaries. Missionaries had been established as early as 1774 and were reestablished in 1787-88 after the war's interruption. By 1792, however, there was need for better organization and financial support. Accord-
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ingly it was provided that for three years a collection for their support would be made on the first Sabbath in the month of May in all of the churches in the state. The Baptist protest was of no avail, and in 1798 similar support was de- manded for the effort to christianize the Indians.81 John Leland of Cheshire, Massachusetts, who had recently removed from Virginia where he had supported the separation of church and state, be- came the spokesman for Connecticut Baptists. He urged them to join to bring about reform, free- dom of conscience, and complete disestablishment of the church. 82 MONTOWESE BAPTIST CHURCH, NORTH HAVEN
The religious conflict was reflected in the consideration of matters which were not ex- clusively religious as in the management of Yale University. The orthodox were alarmed at evidences of unconformity at Yale, which not only trained the Congregational ministers but exerted influ- ence in every field of endeavor through its other graduates and until the establishment of the Litchfield Law School in 1784, Yale was the only institution of higher learning in the state.82a The dissenters, on the other hand, objected to enforced conformity. Ezra Stiles had de- manded as a condition of his acceptance of the Presidency at Yale in 1778 that the religious tests in force since 1753 be discontinued. These had required conformity to the catechism and confession of faith of the established church. When Stiles assumed the Presidency the students who had fled New Haven in 1777 returned: the Freshmen from Farm- ington, the Sophomores and Juniors from Glastonbury, and the Seniors from Wethersfield. Complaints of dissenters continued, however, par- ticularly because the government of the college was solely in the hands
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of ministers. This was a factor in the legislators' refusal to extend finan- cial aid to the college in the 1780's.
The financial affairs of the college made state aid a matter of ur- gency, and the college was granted an appropriation of $40,000, but only at the expense of adding eight civilians to the governing board. Stiles had feared that the state would demand the addition of a majority of laymen and was relieved that the demand was for only eight, to in- clude the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and the six senior state members of the council. These laymen were still a minority and the basic religious character of the college was retained. The funds received were used to establish three new professorships, construct Union Hall, and increase the salaries of the tutors. The grant was evidently unpopu- lar for only half of the money was remitted. When, in 1795, President Dwight requested that the other half be made available, the lower house did not accede until the following Spring after it heard a report of a joint committee which recommended that the sum be granted. The skepticism and infidelity characteristic of the time were so greatly in evidence at Yale at the end of Stiles' Presidency that when Timothy Dwight assumed the position in 1795 it was said that there was but one Christian at Yale. Under Dwight's leadership, however, the institution once again assumed the responsibility of defender of the standing or- der.82b
The violent opposition of the dissenters, especially of the Baptists, was aroused in 1793 by an attempt to appropriate the interest on the money received from the sale of western lands to the various denomina- tions in a manner to be decided by the Assembly. It was believed that this would result in a further entrenchment of the established church. Town meetings, sermons, and pamphlets discussed the issue. Then, in 1795, the Western Land Act was altered to provide that the interest on receipts from the sale of land should constitute a common school fund for the state83 and should be paid to school societies to consist of inter- ested residents qualified to vote in town meeting. An exception in this law provided that if two-thirds of the legal voters in a school society voted to use the money for the support of the ministry the society could appeal to the Assembly. Accordingly the School Society of Farmington was granted permission in 1799 to use a portion of its share of the fund
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in this way.84 The first dividend of $60,403.78 was paid in 1799.85 By 1810 the amount paid to the school societies had totaled $456,757.44 or an average of $35,135.19.86 This replaced any state school taxes after 1820.86a
The school societies established in 1794 were formally separate and distinct from ecclesiastical societies. which had been responsible for schools since 1727 when they were created as separate from town society. In the opinion of one authority, the school societies were the old ec- clesiastical societies under a different name.87 In his study of state sup- port of teacher education in Connecticut, Carl Bomhoff contends that, except that the geographical boundaries of the school society were often identical with those of the ecclesiastical society at first, the new societies were separate and distinct from the Congregational parish organization. He considers the Congregational clergy to have withdrawn from educa- tional leadership, the new societies to be less interested, and the school system to have suffered therefor.87a After 1794, the school societies were empowered to establish schools and their members were allowed by vote to tax themselves for the support of the schools.88 In 1798, each of the school districts was further authorized to appoint school visitors to supervise the school masters and the instruction of youth.89 The law requiring that schools must meet for a specified number of months was omitted in the new arrangements for secularization and decentraliza- tion. Local supplementary taxes were not collected, but rather under rate bills parents were charged on the basis of their children's attend- ance. Under this arrangement, children were withdrawn from public schools and enrolled in private.90 There was a "desertion of the school meeting" as interest in public education decreased91 and the public schools came to be regarded as pauper schools.91a
The 1798 legislation which also authorized the School Societies to institute schools of a "higher Order," provided "a link in the evolu- tion toward the high school"92 and terminology to replace the earlier designation "grammar school." The phraseology of the law implied that the objective of this "higher" education was the improvement of so- ciety through the development of good citizens and was not essentially college preparatory. Training in Latin and Greek was offered only “on particular desire." "For the common benefit of all the Inhabitants,"
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however, instruction in reading, penmanship, the "Rudiments of Eng- lish Grammar in Composition," arithmetic, geography and the first principles of religion and morality, were to be offered in preparation "for usefulness and Happiness in the various Relations of Social Life."93 The form and content of education was, perhaps, determined by the new texts being introduced. These included Robert Rose's English and Latin Grammar, Meigs' Geography, and Noah Webster's speller, gram- mar, and reader. The grammar is described by Webster's biographer as a "learned, pugnacious book beyond the reach of the children . . . but also of the schoolmasters, who, Webster averred were illiterate .... "9
The public schools and particularly the higher schools were sup- plemented by academies which began to be established shortly before the Revolution and which rapidly increased in number after the war. It was hoped that they would encourage a broader curriculum. It was charged, however, that the knowledge which some of them taught was "undefined" and that they were imperfect and "did not so well as they easily might direct the education which they profess to communicate." The Lebanon Academy was established by Jonathan Trumbull in 1743 and was followed in 1774 by the Union School of New London. Other academies established during the period included the Staples Academy of North Fairfield, 1781; Greenfield, 1783; and the Plainfield Academy, 1784.96
The dissemination of information was furthered by the beginning of additional newspapers following the war. Eight papers were added to the New London Gazette (founded 1763), the Connecticut Courant (1764), the Connecticut Journal (1767), and the Norwich Packet (1773).97 The first newspaper begun in the state, the Connecticut Ga- zette, which had begun in 1755, had been discontinued in 1768 for financial reasons. Those papers begun during the French and Indian wars were primarily military journals, and all of them, with the ex- ception of the Norwich Packet, which sought to maintain a neutral po- sition on the eve of the Revolution, were stout defenders of the colonial cause. From the close of the Revolution until the end of the century almost thirty papers were founded, only four of which continued for a significant number of years. These were the American Mercury of Hartford, the Middlesex Gazette of Middletown, the Windham Herald
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and the Norwich Courier. Not only was the lack of financial resources a factor in explaining the mortality rate, but also the willingness of the newspapers' founders to plunge into debate on the public issues of the time. Most of the papers were to a degree at least federalist in their political sympathies. Exceptions were the American Mercury and the New London Bee. It is estimated that by 1800 there were 20,000 copies of newspapers in circulation weekly. The very discussions which con- tributed to the demise of many journals, also contributed to the devel- opment of a "Connecticut Mind."98
Society contained another articulate group reinforcing arguments for the existent status. The tone of the society described by Vernon Parrington as "a little world sadly wanting sweetness and light" is, per- haps, most clearly discernible in that group of writers known col- lectively as the Hartford Wits. They created what is regarded as the first American school of poetry, and through their stilted verse they voiced their prejudices and asserted the dogma which they hoped the Connecticut of the 1790's would follow. The nineteenth century was pressing upon them, but they stood as a counterforce which they hoped would stem its impact. Parrington considers the Hartford Wits a "self- satisfied embodiment of the outworn," significant for their articula- tion of the conservatism of the day. They grasped, stated, and defended their conception of life and society, which had evolved through cen- turies of provincial experience, against the onrush of new liberalisms. The content of their literary works helps to clarify the issues angrily debated during the decade. The Hartford Wits defended New England Federalism, Yankee conservatism, Connecticut's standing order. They were imbued with the patriotism of the new nationalism and at first wished to create a new national literature which would be as independ- ent as the new government. They were frightened by the extremes of French liberalism into a defense of the existent status and a dependence upon the satirical forms developed in England. "They sharpened their quills to a needle point, dipped them into bitter ink" and employed them in defense of the Revolution and the cause of federal union and in opposition to populism and Jeffersonianism.99
The spawning ground for the group was Yale and the membership of the group varied. The more important members were John Trum-
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bull, Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, Lemuel Hopkins, David Hum- phreys, Richard Alsop, and Theodore Dwight. Parrington suggest that of these, Trumbull was the most gifted, Barlow the most original, and Timothy Dwight the most prolific. One of the group, Joel Barlow, outlived the narrow provincialism and became a devoted defender of freedom and a promoter of education. In this sense he was symbolic of the transition which was to come in Connecticut life.100
The standing order, dominant federalists, closed ranks as the dep- redations on American commerce continued and when knowledge of the XYZ Affair was received. Although the shipowners suffered heavily from seizures by both the British and the French, Connecticut news- papers usually reported only French seizures. The economic losses were regarded as great, but Governor Oliver Wolcott based his recommenda- tion for strengthening the defenses of the state on "evils of still greater magnitude" and emphasized the necessity of protecting the national honor. The federalist newspapers slanted their articles, aghast at the French who had "set at nought the Laws of God" and those in the Gen- eral Assembly who "were mad, weak, or wicked enough to applaud all the French measures toward this country."101 The Connecticut General Assembly, in a letter to President Adams, applauded the firmness of the national government in dealing with the XYZ Affair. Governor Jon- athan Trumbull, Jr., in his address to the Assembly in October, 1798, warned of the French arts of seduction and intrigue and declared that "an intimate connection with a nation of infidels and atheists ... is to be avoided as the worst of evils."102 In the September election, Connect- icut voters were asked to vote in support of the Adams administration. "A Freeman" writing in the Connecticut Courant particularly warned against returning Joshua Coit who alone of the Connecticut delegation had been "very capricious" in his attachment to Adams. Providentially, perhaps the alarmed author thought, Coit died and was replaced by Jonathan Brace.103
The continuance of federalist dominance for a few years was re- insured by the resolutions passed by the Virginia and Kentucky legis- latures. With these, the Republicans under the leadership of Jefferson and Madison had countered the Alien and Sedition laws passed by the Federalists in the national Congress in 1798. Although passed under the
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aegis of national security, the Alien and Sedition laws were in part in- tended to avoid a victory of the Republicans at the polls. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions charged that the Alien and Sedition Acts
(Courtesy Conn. Devel. Comm.)
HARTFORD-GOVERNOR'S FOOT GUARD AT TRINITY ARCH
were unconstitutional. The Virginia Resolution asserted that states might interpose their authority against such infractions of the constitu- tion; the Kentucky resolution called upon other states to declare the Acts "void and of no force." Connecticut, by unanimous vote of the As- sembly, refused to concur with the Virginia resolves. When the Ken- tucky resolution was presented, however, there were two dissenters
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from the Connecticut reply,-Andrew Hull of Cheshire and Ebenezer Bacon of Middletown. Feelings were intense enough that members who were not present for this vote were accused of having deliberately ab- sented themselves, a foreboding of the stronger challenge from Repub- licans with which the Federalists would have to reckon. For the mo- ment, however, the Federalists were still entrenched.104
Connecticut, in 1799, was essentially a one party state. By the end of the decade the Republicans had become an organized political force. Opposition to the standing order had been slowly emerging since the close of the Revolution. Until the end of the century such opposition was, at most, anti-Federalist, not Republican. The early post-war charge that the charter of 1662 did not in fact constitute a legal government for the state was kept alive. It was charged, too, that the executive branch of the government was dominated by a few towns; that the power of government was too much concentrated in the General Assem- bly; that the Assembly was too large for effective work; that the ancient election system, carried over from colonial days, thwarted public will; and that the council was secret and unpatriotic. Yet Republicanism was not yet quite acceptable and as late as 1796 Gideon Granger and Eph- raim Kirby considered it wiser to run as independent candidates. Al- though Governor Trumbull warned in 1799 of "unguarded passions," the standing order felt secure. The organization of the Republicans in 1800 prepared for the fall of federalists from dominance by 1817.105
NOTES-CHAPTER XV
1 State Rec., Vol. VI, pp. 498-99; Vol. VII, p. 476.
2 Ibid., p. 178.
3 Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. 96-97.
4 Ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 498-99; Vol. VII, pp. 96-97; Vol. IX, p. 84, note.
5 Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 246, note.
6 Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 104, note.
7 Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 255, note.
8 Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. ix-x, 94-95, 141.
9 Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 385. In voting each stockholder was allowed one vote for one share if he held no more than two shares, one vote for each two shares above two and not exceeding ten, one vote for each four shares above ten shares, except that no one (i.e., person, copartnership, or body politic) could have more than ten votes.
10 Richard J. Purcell, Connecticut in Transition, 1775-1818 (Washington: 1918), pp. 98-111; Francis Parsons, A History of Banking in Connecticut, Tercentenary Com- mission of the State of Connecticut (New Haven: 1918), pp. 1-9.
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11 State Rec., Vol. VIII, p. 289; Vol. IX, pp. xiii, 92-95. Marine insurance companies were incorporated at Hartford, Middletown, and Norwich in 1803, and in New London in 1805. See Archibald Ashley Welch, A History of Insurance in Connecti- cut, Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut (New Haven n.d.), pp. 4-5.
12 Purcell, Connecticut in Transition, p. 113.
13 Ibid .; Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, Vol. I, (London: 1823), pp. 157-58.
14 Weeden, Economic and Social History, Vol. II, pp. 833-34.
15 Clark, History of Connecticut, P. 313.
16 Dwight, Travels, Vol. I, p. 157.
17 State Rec., Vol. VII, pp. 211, 257; Vol. VIII, pp. 91, 436.
18 Purcell, Connecticut in Transition, pp. 113-15; State Rec., Vol. VIII, pp. x, 1, note, 142.
19 Olsen, Agricultural Economy, pp. 17-20; Jensen, New Nation, p. 284; Purcell, Con- necticut in Transition, pp. 119-21.
20 State Rec., Vol. V, pp. 57, 116, 400, 477; Vol. VI, pp. 83, 197, 321, 323-24, 328, 406-407, 501.
21 Clark, History of Manufacturing, Vol. I, p. 220.
22 Joseph Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of the American Corporations, Nos. I-III, Vol. II, (Cambridge: 1917), pp. 266-67, also cited in State Rec., Vol. VI, pp. 520-21.
23 Ibid., pp. 321-22, and note.
24 Davis, American Corporations, Vol. II, pp. 266-67, quoted in ibid., pp. 406-407.
25 Arthur H. Cole, The American Wool Manufacture (Cambridge, 1926) pp. 64-69; State Rec., Vol. VI, pp. 204-205, 520-21.
26 Platt, "Wadsworth," pp. 222-23.
27 State Rec., Vol. VI, p. 501; Vol. VII, pp. 139-40.
28 Ibid., p. 139; Platt, "Wadsworth," p. 233.
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