USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 22
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send his militia officers to assist the Government in heading off every ship pointed toward the open sea and search it to learn whether it was trying to carry goods to any foreign port, the old war governor replied that, as he and the mass of the citizens of the state considered the Enforcement Act unconstitutional, he could not comply. And Senator John Quincy Adams of Massa- chusetts, who had swung from federalism and had voted for the ruinous embargo, wrote Jefferson that New England was plan- ning to nullify the embargo, perhaps secede and perhaps ally with England. It was then that Jefferson, who had conceived the embargo as an experimental alternative to war, put through the act which allowed commerce with all nations except England and France, and once more the shippers could take their chances on the high seas. Madison's subsequent course aroused even New York.
Following are sentences from Woodrow Wilson's history :
"France was doing much more to injure neutral trade than England was," (in 1812).
"It was a natural but tragical accident that the war should be against England, not against France."
"New England had contributed men and money to the war as the law required and her means permitted. Because she was wealthy and populous, she had, indeed, contributed more than the South and West, whose representatives in Congress had brought the war on despite her passionate pro- tests."
"The Hartford Convention was the end of the federalist party. But it had none the less been a very sinister sign of the times."
As "Hartford Convention" it always must be known, but it was not Hartford's convention or Connecticut's, and it was not for secession; it was for that defence of New England which Madison deliberately had withdrawn, or for a proper portion of federal revenue if she must continue to provide her own defense.
The war did much to bring the nation together and win the respect of Europe. Among the heroes of the navy which it cre- ated was Commodore Macdonough of Middletown whose appear- ance here in 1817 was greeted with a great popular demonstra- tion and the presentation by the citizens of a sword, now in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society.
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As for the federal and anti-federal or republican-democrat parties, their lines were being obliterated early in the century; the old order changeth. With it all, the attitude toward the char- ter's form of civil government was changing, by degrees. Con- necticut, it will be recalled, unlike the other colonies, had not had to frame a constitution after separating from England; the prin- ciples of the original Constitution, embodied in the charter of 1662, had served well and had been used as a model elsewhere. Executive, legislative and judicial branches had not been recog- nized as distinct since the need for such recognition was to be demonstrated only in an absolutely independent nation. The early attempts to make party shibboleth out of the necessity to change old forms simply aroused animosities. When in 1804 Abraham Bishop of New Haven came to Hartford and declared from the platform that there was no constitution and there was need of one to destroy federalism, he was reminded that not long before he had said Connecticut's form of government was the best in the world; and when he worked up a convention in New Haven, assembling delegates from ninety-seven towns, with Maj. William Judd of Farmington presiding, Mr. Judd and four other justices of the peace were removed from office by the Legislature for taking part in a seditious proceeding. Many of Bishop's own following were outspoken against them.
In 1817, as has been seen in the bank case, sectarian com- plaint had added to the opposition against the existing order ; also there had been painful illustration of the overriding of the judi- ciary by the Legislature, and the chief judge who had been over- ridden published a vindication that had a pronounced effect. The sects were getting more "toleration." Oliver Wolcott, an orig- inal federalist, back from his national duties, long a victim of "most flagitious devices of party malice," was an example of many former federalists who were working for obliteration of old party lines, who had disapproved of the Hartford (or Boston) Convention and who had supported the republican-democratic government in its home measures. Judge Jonathan Ingersoll of New Haven, senior trustee of the Bishop's Fund, was a federal- ist. On agreement that his church would give political support, he was named for lieutenant-governor on a ticket headed by Wol- cott, called the "American and Toleration." Ingersoll was elected
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in 1816 but Wolcott fell short that year, only, however, to win the next year over the incumbent, John Cotton Smith, strict federal- ist, Ingersoll receiving votes from both parties. In 1818, the vic- tory for the coalition and "toleration" party, back of Wolcott and Ingersoll, was complete, Legislature included.
It was mainly on the point of independence of the judiciary that the resolution for a constitutional convention prevailed. Time and circumstances were auspicious. Election of delegates was held on the Fourth of July, and for the most part was non- partisan, in political, sectarian or any other sense. Hartford County's delegates were: Hartford, Dr. Sylvester Wells, Maj. Nathaniel Terry; Berlin, Samuel Hart, Samuel Norton; Bristol, Bryan Hooker; Burlington, Bliss Hart; Canton, Solomon Ever- est; East Hartford, Richard Pitkin, Samuel Pitkin; East Wind- sor, Charles Jenks; Enfield, Henry Terry, William Dixon; Farm- ington, Timothy Pitkin, John Treadwell; Glastenbury (as then spelled), Samuel Wells, David E. Hubbard; Granby, Sadoc Wil- cox, Reuben Barker; Hartland, Aaron Church, John Treat; Marl- borough, Elisha Buell; Simsbury, Elisha Phelps, Jonathan Petti- bone, Jr .; Southington, Roger Whittlesey, Chester Grannis; Suf- field, Christopher Jones, Ashael Morse; Wethersfield, Stephen Mix Mitchell, Levi Lusk; Windsor, Eliakim Marshall, Josiah Phelps.
The veteran Jesse Root called the convention to order. Gov- ernor Wolcott was chairman. Members of Hartford County on the draft committee were Doctor Wells, Timothy Pitkin and Elisha Phelps. Major Terry of Hartford and Governor Tread- well of Farmington divided the leadership of the federalists. Gen. Levi Lusk of Wethersfield, Rev. Aaron Church of Hartland and Henry Terry of Enfield were federalist supporters of the old regime. Of the special exhorters on the other side was Rev. Ashael Morse (Baptist) of Suffield. Several standard bearers for constitution and reform through the three weeks were from the federal ranks; in the vote for ratification they were more earnest, like Major Terry, than their somewhat disappointed fel- low members. The ratification vote was 13,918 to 12,364; Hart- ford County, 2,234 yeas, 2,843 nays. This Constitution, with few changes, is the Constitution today.
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Not alone in politics and literature and in banking and insur- ance was Hartford drawing attention; an institution was about to be formed, through individual sacrifice and generosity, that was to make its name blessed throughout the country. Dr. Mason F. Coggswell, one of the Hartford writers, had a young daugh- ter who became a deaf mute following a sickness. After his study here and abroad, others became interested. In 1815, at a meeting of men like Ward Woodbridge, Daniel Wadsworth, Daniel Buck, Joseph Battell (of Norfolk), Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong of the First Church, Henry Hudson, Major Terry, Major Caldwell and Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, Yale 1805 and recently graduated at An- dover Theological Seminary, Doctor Coggswell and Mr. Wood- bridge were appointed a committee. Funds soon were raised with which Mr. Gallaudet went to Europe to learn all he could. In 1816 he returned from the Institution for Deaf Mutes in Paris, bringing with him Laurent Clerc, a teacher and one who could illustrate scientific methods. He found a school already incor- porated, the sum of $12,000 was raised and the state gave $5,000. An institution was opened in 1817 in a building on Main Street near Gold and within a year there were sixty pupils, many from remote places, for the fame of it had gone far. Congress in 1819, after investigation, made a grant of 23,000 acres of land where- upon, to give widest scope, the name was made the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, eventually the American School for the Deaf. William Ely was very helpful in arranging details. Spacious buildings were erected in 1821 on Asylum Avenue and pupils were received formally from other states, they making special appropriations. Liberality rendered it possible for thousands of pupils to gain their education while the school was on the avenue. After the Hartford Fire Insurance Company had bought the property for the buildings it opened in 1921, the school obtained still wider grounds in West Hartford and there erected probably the most complete institution of the kind in the land.
Mr. Gallaudet's health failing under the heavy strain, he was obliged to retire in 1830. With it all he had trained many good teachers, some of whom had gone out to other institutions and some remained here. A statue, representing him teaching Doc- tor Coggswell's daughter, was erected in his memory at Wash- ington in 1888, by vote at a convention of grateful mutes. He
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THOMAS H. GALLAUDET (1787-1851)
Founder of School for the Deaf
AMERICAN SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, WEST HARTFORD
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married one of his own pupils, and two of his sons carried on the work here before being called to other fields. Rev. Thomas Gal- laudet, the elder, after graduation at Trinity, became a teacher in the New York Institute for the Deaf and in 1845 married one of his pupils. In 1852 he established in New York St. Ann's Church for deaf mutes, of which he was made rector. He also founded the Church Mission for Deaf Mutes; the home for the aged and infirm which the mission established was named after him. The younger son, Edward M. Gallaudet, after leaving here, built up Gallaudet College which Congress established in Wash- ington in 1864 with Mr. Gallaudet as president. The statue of the elder Gallaudet, after whom the college was named, stands on the lawn there. The British government consulted with Mr. Gallaudet and the French government gave him the cross of chev- alier of the Legion of Honor. Trinity and Yale conferred upon him the degree of LL. D .. He helped form the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf and was its president till his death in 1917. He also won recognition along lines of literature and science. In 1910 he returned to Hartford to spend his last days. Frank R. Wheeler is now the principal of the school, with an exceptional corps of instructors.
In another institution which has made national history and which was organized in this period, the Hartford Retreat, men of the highest position, businesswise, professionally and socially, have given freely of their time as officers and directors. To the Connecticut Medical Society is due the credit for this humani- tarian work. One today can hardly believe the findings of the society in its investigation of conditions around the state in 1812 when paupers and criminals were crowded into such miserable quarters as could be provided in individual towns. There were only two institutions for the insane in the whole country and the problem of how to care for them as people suffering with a dis- ease never had been taken up. The name of Dr. Eli Todd of Farmington and Hartford will always be associated with the be- ginning of the work of relief. Born in New Haven in 1769 and graduated at Yale in 1787, he rose to highest place among physi- cians of the state. In 1821 he presented facts concerning the insane so forcefully before the state medical convention that a committee was appointed consisting of himself, Thomas Miner and Samuel B. Woodward, funds were raised-the State Medi-
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cal Society being the largest subscriber-a charter was obtained together with an appropriation of $5,000, Bishop Brownell was chairman of the building committee, the Ira Todd farm in Hart- ford was bought, the central building of the present group was built, and the institution was opened in April, 1824. And Doc- tor Todd, the one practical expert in the United States, accepted the position of superintendent on a salary of $1,000. His suc- cessor was Dr. Silas Fuller, who had studied the principles with pupils in his own home. The standards then established have been maintained by such distinguished scientists as Dr. Amariah Brigham, Dr. John S. Butler, Dr. E. K. Hunt, Dr. W. H. Rock- well, Dr. G. B. Hawley, Dr. William Porter, Dr. James Denny and Dr. C. W. Page, and now Dr. Whitefield N. Thompson. The main building has been enlarged from time to time, other build- ings added, including the lodge given by Dr. Gurdon W. Russell, and the extensive grounds beautified.
Orphans first received attention in 1809 when the Hartford Female Beneficent Society was formed. Boys were neglected till 1831 when a fund was raised, Mrs. Joseph Trumbull was chosen president with nineteen other women and a charter was secured in 1833. A building on Washington Street was given for the boys with school facilities for the girls. The organizations combining under a new charter as the Hartford Orphan Asylum, a lot was bought on Putnam Street where a very complete and attractive building was erected and was occupied in 1878. This was the beginning of the present Children's Village, and along with it the Watkinson Juvenile Asylum and Farm School, founded and endowed by David Watkinson and chartered in 1858.
With the founding of so many of today's important financial, commercial and charitable institutions early in the century, the picture of the period cannot be complete without another word about Rev. Dr. Strong of the First Church. On the passing of the days of infidelity, when his church had a membership of only fifteen and there was the scandal of intemperance, he was a leader in the work of reformation begun in 1794, preaching, lec- turing and writing articles. A fresh temperance revival was under way at his death in 1816, and in 1818 came Dr. Joel Hawes, of Medway birth, a graduate of Brown and recently of Andover, who was to inspire a series of revivals and to become one of the most noted of New England divines. On his arrival he wrote
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THE HARTFORD RETREAT
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that the church was superior in respect to number, character and elegance; that he felt disconcerted before "these judges, lawyers, doctors, merchants and people in the highest grades of society;" and again: "They are intelligent, dignified, devout and thought- ful-fine lawyers and fastidious folks." Back in 1810, the com- ment of S. G. Goodrich ("Peter Parley") was: "The town dealt in lumber and smelt of molasses and old Jamaica, for it still has some trade with the West Indies. It had a high tone of general respectability and intelligence. There were a few merchants and many shopkeepers. A few dainty patricians still held themselves aloof."
A relic of the war which was to do service for almost a hun- dred years was the state arsenal, of a kind of Swiss-Gothic archi- tecture, built in 1812, on the east side of Windsor Avenue near the North Cemetery.
The Revolution, the embargoes and the latest war had given an impetus to industry and to invention. In 1811 Charles Rey- nolds of East Windsor had emulated Doctor Kingsley of 1797 and actually took out a patent on a steam-propelled vehicle. John L. Welles of Hartford in 1819 patented the first printing press with the long lever. E. Burt of Manchester invented the first American power loom for weaving checks and plaids.
XXI
PRESS, BOOKS AND SOCIETY
BEGINNING OF THE "TIMES"-NATIONAL PUBLISHING CENTER-WHITTIER AND "PETER PARLEY"-CITY HALL, HALLS OF RECORD-ELECTION- DAY FESTIVITIES-NEW CHRIST CHURCH-LAFAYETTE'S VISIT.
The Connecticut Courant held supreme sway as a newspaper till 1817. Thomas Green's "experiment" is still succeeding. He himself felt encouraged to continue it regularly with his issue of October 29, 1764. The cause for which it was conceived-oppo- sition to royal high-handedness-it did much to promote, suffer- ing painfully with the people, as has been described, but encour- aging them in their patriotism. Its regularity in sequence of ownership as well as its fidelity to its French name (which it so thoroughly Americanized in Hartford as to cause its readers to forget its true pronunciation and also that it meant a lively kind of dance as well as newspaper) make of its chronicle a simple matter. When Green went to New Haven in 1768 he passed on the publication to his partner, William Watson, who took George Goodwin into partnership in 1778 and on his death left the edi- torship in the hands of his widow, Hannah Bunce Watson, the first newspaper woman. During the first year of her experience in disseminating news she married Barzillai Hudson and in 1779 the firm name became Hudson & Goodwin, continuing as such till it was changed to George Goodwin & Sons in 1815. The next change was not till 1836 when John L. Boswell bought the prop- erty and the following year began a daily as well as a weekly edition, dropping the "Connecticut" from the title of the daily, without thereby limiting its field. William Faxon was in part- nership from 1850 to 1855 when Mr. Boswell died. Then Thomas M. Day became sole owner, Faxon going with the Evening Press where he was to be joined by Joseph R. Hawley in 1857. Two years later A. N. Clark acquired an interest, and the paper con- tinued under the management of A. N. Clark & Company through
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Cannedkul co
WTHE COURTIN
HARTFORD COURANT BUILDING From etching by Philip Kappel
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the rise of the republican party and the period of the Civil war to the great but natural change to be recounted later, in 1867.
The Courant had seen other weeklies come and go, such as the Freeman's Chronicle and the Hartford Gazette (1794). Like the American Mercury, employed by the Hartford Wits, they were of a special character. The Mercury continued till absorbed in the Independent Press in 1833. Early in the century it be- came sharply anti-federal. As an offset, Charles Hosmer began publishing the Connecticut Mirror in 1809, strongly federal. Theodore Dwight was its editor during the war and until 1815. John G. C. Brainard came from Middletown to be editor in 1822 and some of his best poems appeared in the paper. He died in 1828. The paper was a failure. George D. Prentice's New England Review, started in 1828, gained wide fame, Pren- tice's own ability as a writer being supplemented by that of dis- tinguished contributors. On his removal to Kentucky, where he established the Louisville Journal, he introduced as his successor John Greenleaf Whittier, some of whose poems he had been pub- lishing. Whittier was anti-Jackson and was chosen the "national republican" delegate to the convention that nominated Henry Clay, but could not go. During the two years he was here, he greatly enjoyed the social life of the city and his walks into the surrounding country.
In 1833 the publishers of the Review came out with the first daily paper Hartford had had. William G. Comstock bought out Samuel Hanmer, Jr., his partner, in 1834, and after that it con- tinued till 1844 as a political sheet. For a while later there was another publication under the same name. It was established by Wells & Willard as the Columbian in 1844, taking the name of the Review in 1846, the editor being Lucius F. Robinson, Yale '43, a brilliant young lawyer. He continued as editor when J. Gay- lord Wells made it a daily under the name of the Connecticut Whig, as which it continued till absorbed by the Courant in 1849. Mr. Robinson was made editor of the American Literary Maga- zine, published in New York but prepared here. The Courant also took over the Journal, published daily and weekly from 1843 to 1845 by Elihu Geer (founder of the City Directory in 1839) . as a Henry Clay and protection paper. A half dozen small lit- erary magazines were published from time to time during these years.
21-VOL. 1
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Hartford was a publishing center. The Churchman's Maga- zine of 1821 was followed by the Episcopal Watchman in 1828 and the Calendar in 1845, till the Churchman was established in 1865, subsequently moving to New York. Elihu Geer published the Congregationalist in 1839, which later was removed to Bos- ton. The Congregational Religious Herald was established by D. B. Moseley in 1841, one of the earliest of its sect, preceded by the Connecticut Observer (1821-1841), edited by Horace Hooker, and the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, from 1800 for sev- eral years. The Christian Secretary of the Baptist denomination began in 1822. The Catholic Press of 1835 was removed to Phil- adelphia. The Connecticut Catholic, predecessor of the present Transcript, did not come in till 1875. Thomas H. Seymour, later governor and United States minister to Russia, edited the weekly Jeffersonian, published for two years by Henry Bolles. In 1838 the Connecticut School Manual, one of the first educational jour- nals in the country, was produced by Dr. Henry Barnard, state school commissioner, was published many years and then was re- vived by him on his return here in 1851 and continued till turned over by him to the State Teachers' Association while the doctor began the American Journal of Education, a national quarterly which incidentally developed treatises that constituted the largest issue of its kind in print.
When the cry of "Toleration" and "New Constitution" reached its height in 1817, a professional printer, Frank D. Bolles, thought there was room for another paper, and a young lawyer from Enfield was glad of opportunity to mould public opinion for the anti-federalists and the Connecticut liberals. They got together material to establish the weekly Times. This was the beginning of the career of John M. Niles. For a time in 1819 he was proprietor, Bolles the printer. The subse- quent proprietors through the early days were: 1819, John Fran- cis (Wethersfield) and Samuel Bowles who went together to found the Springfield Republican; 1824, Benjamin H. Norton, with John Russell in partnership in 1826 and Gideon Welles edi- tor-a contributor till 1854; 1828-1837, John Russell; 1838, Charles H. Jones, editor and proprietor; 1838, Judge Henry Mitchell, and Alfred E. Burr who became editor and in 1841 sole proprietor; joined by his brother as partner and editor in 1855; 1861, Burr Brothers, and then on with the history of modern times.
TY HOTEL.
FIRST OFFICE OF THE HARTFORD TIMES
At the Main Street head of what is now Gold Street. Established January 1, 1817
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HARTFORD TIMES BUILDING
Columns and terra cotta from the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst's Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New York
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Mr. Niles (1787-1856) was born in Windsor. He gave his editorial support to Jackson and was appointed postmaster. In 1835 he was sent to fill the unexpired term of Nathan Smith in the Senate. At the close of the term he was called to Van Buren's cabinet as postmaster-general. From 1843 to 1849 he was again senator. He found time for considerable outside writing, mostly of an historical nature, as will later appear. Always he was a generous supporter of charitable institutions. Mr. Burr, whose career is analyzed elsewhere, had been saving his money as fore- man of the Courant when George Goodwin the elder offered him an interest in the paper provided he would carry on its whig principles. Loth to abandon his political faith, he asked Judge Mitchell for an interest in the Times, in 1839. This being allowed, in 1841 he bought the whole plant, giving his notes, and on March 2 issued the first daily edition with a subscription list of 300. Not only did he reveal editorial vigor, but he made it the perpetual cardinal principle to secure good management and to keep pace with mechanical improvements. In 1848 he was the first in the state to use a cylinder press. The office in those days was on the second floor of the Museum Building at the corner of Main Street and Central Row. For many years it had been in a building at the head of present Gold Street, and prior to its re- moval to its present location on Prospect Street it was at the cor- ner of Main and Grove.
The book-publishing business, for so many years a feature of Hartford life, traces its first national importance to the house of Hudson & Goodwin. The millions of Webster's spelling books, the Gallaudet and Hooker spelling books, Peter Parley's writings, his histories under his own name of Samuel G. Goodrich, Olney's, Smith's and Woodbridge's geographies, Comstock's and Davies' treatises on science and mathematics and various other educa- tional works were published here. Silas Andros was the first in the subscription-book line which became extensive. David F. Robinson in 1824 founded the house of D. F. Robinson & Com- pany, later Robinson & Pratt, which put on the market many text books and the "Cottage Bible," edited by Dr. William Patton. After their publishing business had been transferred to New York, they continued a book store here and eventually sold to Daniel Burgess, from whose store sprang others to which Bel- knap & Warfield, G. F. Warfield & Company and Edward Val- entine Mitchell's can trace back their history.
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