USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Granby > History of Newgate of Connecticut, at Simsbury, now East Granby: its insurrections and massacres, the imprisonment of the Tories in the Revolution, and the working of its mines. Also, some account of the state prison, at Wethersfield > Part 4
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Protestants to do justice on Congress, as Samson did on the Philistines. Among us are two sects of Christians who daily pray to be delivered from the tyranny of those uncircumcised Philistines, but conscientiously differ about the mode; the one expects the Lord to remove them; the other expects that deliverance will be given by a Samson, armed with the jawbone of an ass. The Tories believe patience to be the only lawful cure, when under the power of usurpers and tyrants ; the Whigs believe the safety of the people to be the first law, and laws to be above all rulers; and that kings and governors are accountable for their conduct at the bar of the community.
Here is the creed of those two sects touching lawful rulers; but I must remind them, without condemning either, that no people of sober sense ever gave up justice and liberty in duty and con- science, to usurpers and tyrants, who are Ishmaels, and wholly excluded all human protection, because they are enemies to societies, subverters of laws, and murderers of individuals; it is for this reason justice dispenses with her forms, and leaves tyrants and usurpers in the number of those savage beasts who herd not together, but defend themselves by their own strength, and prey upon all weaker
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animals. Would our Whigs and Tories reflect a few moments upon the nature of civil society, and upon what Tully says of laws, magistrates and people, they would discover laws to be above magistrates, as they are above individuals. It follows, that, when the depravity of men's wills renders them unfit to live in human society, it is murder in the community to let them live. If, then, in the land of peace, legal rulers degenerate into tyrants, weary people, and merit death, what deserve usurpers and tyrants, who, like the swell- ings of Jordan, sweep the world of safety by their iron rods ?
Since we know that usurpers hold themselves above all justice but the stroke of some generous hand, we are to consider laws of civil society in regard to them as cobwebs, and no longer act like the Athenians, who punished only little thieves. If we were beasts, we should have a right to pro- tect ourselves against our enemies; and as men and Christians, we can not have less by entering into civil society. Let us, then, awake from slum- ber, and convince those men who shun justice in the court, that they shall meet it in their beds ; for they are armed against all, and all may lawfully arm against them. Nothing is more absurd than
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to kill thieves, vipers and bears, to prevent their cruel designs, and at the same time preserve Con- gress from acting much worse than the others intended. No one can any longer doubt of the lawfulness of destroying public robbers, whenever prudence points out the way, since the laws of God and men make it lawful to extirpate private rob- bers. Let us live in constant faith that Heaven will soon sanctify some patriotic hand, armed with some sacred weapon, to bring down that bloody and deceitful house, which holds its existence not only to the misery, but to the everlasting infamy of Protestant America. The action is not only lawful, but glorious in idea, and immortal in its reward ! Were not these sentiments supported by the wise and grave among the ancients, and the Jesuits and Protestants of the last century, I should not have preached them in this dreary abode. But to wipe all doubts from your minds, I will produce some authorities to support what has been said.
Tertullian says : " Against common enemies and traitors to the rights and majesty of the people everything is lawful."
Xenophon says: "The Grecians erected in their temples among their gods, statues for those that killed tyrants."
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It was enacted by the Valerian law, that " who- ever made themselves rulers without command from the people, were tyrants, and might be killed."
Plutarch says: "It is lawful to kill usurpers without tryal."
Polybius says : " Men of the greatest virtues con- spired against and killed tyrants."
Cicero applauds Brutus for conspiring against Julius Cæsar: "What action, O! Jubiter, more glorious, more worthy of eternal memory ?"
At Athens, according to Solon's law, " death was decreed for tyrants and their abettors."
Plato says : " When tyrants can not be expelled by law, the citizens may use secret practices." The reason is, community must be preserved from the rage of tyrants, who can receive no injustice, either by force or fraud. Thus you have the opin- ions of the ancients ; while the history of Rome, Christian and Germanic states and England teaches us the same doctrines and practices.
The Jesuits, in Spain and France, have ever held the knife of justice as a law for tyrants. Our fathers in the last century erected a high court of justice for a tyrant, his reverend and right reverend abettors. Congress and the governors of our respective states, have sufficiently proved by their
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practices, that the killing of tyrants and their adhe op rents is not murderous, but truly Christian, upon w which principle, America armed against her right: S ful king ; and, for the same reason, we that love A our country may destroy the self-created Congress, ju which sits in Cæsar's chair, above citation, or a court of justice. What Whig or Tory will be con-t tent with formal remedies which are far off ?- what justice can we expect from malefactors who have the power to hang and assassinate their rightful judges ? Consonant to what has been said about tyrants and usurpers, stands the law of God, viz : " He that acts presumptuously shall surely die." In such a case, every man is judge and executioner. By this law, Moses slew the Egyptians; Ehud slew Eglon; Samson, the Philistines ; Samuel, Agag; and Jehoida, Athaliah. By parity of reason, every Cicero and Brutus may smite hip and thigh, the Congress, its Mattans and Janizaries, for they have presumptuously smote our children and countrymen with whips of brass, fed them with passive obedience, and cloathed them in prisons with famine, nakedness and death. It can not be infamous to destroy them by whom all America is oppressed; because Moses is immortalized in the records of God, for killing an individual who
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oppressed another. This we may depend on, that whatever was lawful and right in Moses, Ehud and Samson, is lawful and right for Whigs and Tories in America; for the laws of nature, retaliation and justice, are the same here as they were in Jewry.
Some people object, and say that these examples taken from Holy Scripture, were of men sent by God to kill those several tyrants, and we have not the like commission. Milton, of immortal fame, has answered this objection. Says he: "If God icommanded tyrants to be killed, it is a sign that tyrants ought to die." Besides, we read that all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city had rest after Athaliah was slain with the sword; that the people obeyed Jehoiada as king for the good he had done, and buried him among their princes ; which was but half the reward given to this patriot, for the divine historian has recorded his generous deed in the book of God, where the last man that lives shall read his eulogies, and the just com- mand which he gave, to kill the followers of Atha- liah ; a proper warning to our Protestant Levites, our generals and committees of safety, to repent, lest they likewise perish with their masters, by the workman's hammer. But the objection supposes what in fact is not true ; for Samson and those
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other worthies who killed tyrants, never alledger the command of God for what they did, but defended themselves upon the plea of retaliation- "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them." God had not appeared to Moses in the bush prion to his smiting the Egyptian; and Jehoiada had only the call which is common to all men-to do natural justice when legal can not be had. Some people pretend to believe Congress are not usurpers and tyrants, because traffic and appeals are carried on under their dominion, which argues a tacit consent of the public.
To prove these men mistaken, I need only say, that commerce and pleading were carried on in Rome under Caligula and Nero, yet those who conspired against them were not deemed rebels, but were eternized for their virtue.
Having pointed out the marks and practices of tyrants and usurpers, and shown the lawfulness and glory of killing them, I shall now, in the third and last place, hint the benefits and necessity of doing it.
What is our present condition ? Are we not slaves and living instruments of Congress, Wash- ington and the Protestant Ministers, and their Romish allies ? Poor wretches, indeed, are we !
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Cozened out of peace, religion, liberty and property ; obbed of the blessings of Judah; and cursed with he spirit and burden of Issachar, by a set of men without virtue, or the generous vices attending reatness! Is it no wonder that slaves should lose heir courage with their virtue, for who can fight or Cæsar * that despises them, or for Nero, when very victory gained for him confirms their bondage, nd adds a new rivet to their chains. Thus are ve compelled to live, or not to live at all; deliver- nce is not to be hoped for from our patience, because usurpers are never modest but in the hour f weakness; nor was any government ever man- ged with justice, that was gained by villainy. Liberty and bondage are now before us; those who choose bondage are to murder Brutus; and hose who choose liberty, are to kill the uncircum- ised Congress. Yet I find some men scruple to till their oppressors with a dagger in the dark,
* The American Loyalists ave little reason to confide in he mercy of the British army ind navy, who have uniformly or seven years treated them auch worse than they have the Rebels ; and should they judge he English nation by the
severity of its military forces, which have killed and plunder- ed more Loyalists than Rebels, no nation could censure them if they, like Congress, should. buy their good will, at the expense of their allegiance.
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although they allow it lawful to destroy a thief that comes unarmed to rob; those men seem to forget the law of self-preservation, the danger of open force, and that tyrants are such devils as rend the body in the act of exorcism.
How can it be lawful to kill oppressors in an open field, prepared to rob the men they mean to murder, and unlawful to kill such villains in the dark, without hazard to the patriot or to the com- monwealth ? If it is expedient to lance an impost- hume to save a life, it is lawful to lance the Con- gress to save the liberties of our country ; for those boars of the wilderness have broken down the walls of the vineyard, and destroyed the vintage with unlimited power, which always subverts civil society, and turns a Cicero into a Caligula. Our religion, and all we call valuable, are in danger Despotism is now predominant; and America once the asylum of Protestants, persecuted beyond the seas, is sold to the mother of harlots, and will soon be cursed with the Inquisition to establish Congress and its generals, as the hereditary lord of the land. Tyranny and oppressions have increased with the age of Congress, and our deliv erance depends upon the virtuous spears of al. injured people, or upon the generosity of our tyrants
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by hanging themselves. But since we know they lack this virtue, nothing remains for the patriots but to do justice upon them, and to immortalize their heads upon well erected gibbets. Whatever Congress may think of this proposed exaltation, they may depend upon it, that eight-tenths of the people would rejoice at the sight, and the children yet unborn would be happy under their rightful king.
Some serious Whigs who have lost their courage with their fortunes, groan under their present burdens and say, " we fear the consequence of de- stroying "Congress." I answer, could we be in a worse condition by a change, the bare desire of a change would be a sign of madness. Common sense forbids me to undergo certain misery, for fear of con- tingent evils ; or to let a fever rage because there is danger of taking physic. I am now in prison, where I must infallibly perish if I am not relieved ; and shall I refuse deliverance from this darksome dungeon for fear of being confined in some other place ? Heaven forbid such madness! Let us re- member the rock from whence we were hewn. Had we not ancestors in the last century who pre- ferred liberty and religion in this howling wilder- ness, to despotism and persecution in Brittannia's 10
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fertile fields? Are we so far degenerated as to bow down to tyrants and usurpers ? Our fathers resisted lions, and killed tyrants without committing mur- der and shall we submit to wolves and beasts of prey to let usurpers live ? No ! let the examples of Ehud, Samson, Moses, and Cromwell, lead us back to glory, virtue, and religion. If America can pro- duce no such heroes, we must exclaim with the children of Israel, " Would to God we had died in " the land of Egypt, where we sat by the flesh pots, "and eat bread to the full;" for then, as Cicero says, " the quality of our master would have graced " our condition as slaves." We have rights of civil society to restore ; we have honour, virtue, and religion to maintain ; let us therefore take the first prudent opportunity to revenge our wrongs, and kill those tyrants who are lurking in every corner to spy out our motions, and murder the innocent. Their motto is to destroy or be destroyed. There- fore, let safety rouse us into action, let Fame reward the sacred hand of him that gives the fatal blow; let his name live forever with Cato, and with Brutus. O how I long to save my country by one heroic immortal action ! but alas! my chains and dreary mansion, where the light of conscience reigns without the light of the sun, of the moon,
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or the stars ! * To you, my virtuous countrymen, who are free of the chains with which I am loaded, [ conclude my address. It is now in your power to circumcise, to put down those uncircumcised tyrants, and to restore yourselves to your social rights. You know the action that will do the business, and which shall register your names among the Gods and bravest men. Patriotism warms your souls, and thousands are burning with ambition to join and save your country from Romish bondage. Make haste ! for the spirit of understanding causeth me to speak in the language of Zophar, "Let death and destruction fall upon" Congress "because they have oppressed and for- ' gotten the poor ; let a fire not blown, consume ' them; if they escape the iron weapons, strike ' them through with a bow of steel, for knowest ' thou not this of old, since man was placed upon 'earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, ' and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment." And although the devils are come down in great wrath, with power in their mouths, and in their
* Vide the History of Con- ecticut, page 175, published y J. Bew, Pater Noster Row ; where is a just description of
the infernal prison at Syms- bury, 40 yards below the sur- face of the earth.
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tails; although their heads reach the clouds, and though they do hurt with their tails; yet their murders, their fornication, and their thefts shall be revealed, and the earth shall rise against them, " to feed them with the poison of asps. The viper's " tongue shall pierce them through, and their great- " ness shall be chased away as a vision of the night. "This is the portion of the wicked."
Finis.
N. B. The notes on pp. 61, 71 and 75, are by the author of the sermon.
In 1781 Congress applied to Gov. Trumbull of Connecticut (known by the appellation of Brother Jonathan), for the use of the mines as a prison " for " the reception of British prisoners of war, and for " the purpose of retaliation." The Governor laid the matter before the Assembly, who agreed to the proposition, and requested him to furnish Congress with the estimates, but as a termination of the war was anticipated soon, the negotiation ended.
This place won a reputation for strength and security throughout the country, though there was more strength in its name than in reality. Six years previously, Genl. Washington sent several prisoners to be confined in the dungeon, whom he
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regarded as "atrocious villains." The following etter from him will be read with interest. It is lirected to the Committee of Safety at Simsbury :
Cambridge, Dec. 7th, 1775.
Gentlemen: The prisoners which will be deli- ered you with this, having been tried by a Court nartial and deemed to be such flagrant and atro- ious villains, that they can not by any means be set at large, or confined in any place near this camp, were sentenced to Simsbury, in Connecticut. You will therefore be pleased to have them secured n your jail, or in such other manner as to you hall seem necessary, so that they can not possibly nake their escape. The charges of their imprison- nent will be at the Continental expense.
I am, &c.,
George Washington.
The vindictive cruelty of the Tories is shown by he following extract from Barber's Historical Col- ections of Connecticut :
On the night following the 14th of March, 780, the house of Capt. Ebenezer Dayton, then esiding in the town of Bethany, was broken into nd robbed by seven men, who were Tories, and teaded by a British officer, from Long Island. Mr.
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Dayton's house was situated nearly opposite wher i the first meeting house in Bethany was erectedl about half a mile south of the present Congregation al church, and about ten miles northwest of New Haven. The particulars of this robbery were obtained from the Rev. Mr. Dayton, son of Capti Dayton mentioned above. Mr. Dayton, who belong; ed to Long Island, was, on account of his attach. ment to the American cause, obliged to leave tha; island, and bring his effects with him to Bethany A number of men, some of his neighbors, were obliged to leave the island for the same cause, and brought a considerable quantity of money with them, and for a while resided in Mr. Dayton's house With these facts the robbers appear to have become acquainted. At the time of the robbery, Mr. Day ton was absent on business at Boston, and the mer who had been staying in the house, had left the day before, so that there was no one in the house but his wife, Mrs. Phebe Dayton, three small child- ren and two servant colored children. About mid night, while they were all asleep, the window ir the bedroom where Mrs. Dayton was sleeping, was burst in at once ; seven armed men rushed in,, passed through the room, and immediately rushed into the chambers, expecting (it is supposed) to
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Mind the men who had left the day before. While hey were up stairs, Mrs. Dayton went to the front mart of the house, raised the window, and endea- Wored to alarm the neighbors. Mr. Hawley, the meninister of the parish, and Dr. Hooker, the physi- t ian of the place, both lived within twenty rods dis- ance, both had lights in their houses at the time, And both heard the alarm, but did not know from a“ vhence it proceeded. The robbers, hearing Mrs. y Dayton, came down, and tearing a sheet into strips, ied her hands behind her, made her sit in a chair, nd placed her infant (about six months old) in ter lap, while one of the robbers, placing the muz- e ile of his gun near her head, kept her in this posi- ion for about two hours, while the house was horoughly ransacked from top to bottom. They r ound about 450 pounds in gold and silver, which belonged to Mr. Dayton, besides other valuable irticles ; what they could not conveniently carry off hey wantonly destroyed, breaking in pieces all the crockery, furniture, &c. The whole amount of pro- berty carried off and destroyed, including bonds, as n, ed lotes, &c., amounted to £5000. The robbers eft the house about 2 o'clock, and went to a place n Middlebury, called Gunn-Town, where they o were secreted in a cellar by a family who were d y d. d.
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Newgate of Connecticut.
friendly to the British cause. While they were o their way to Gunn-Town, they met a young mal by the name of Chauncey Judd, of Waterbury, o) a bridge, who had been to see the young lady h afterwards married. Fearing he might discove them they took him along with them. In the cel lar kitchen where they were all secreted, there wa a well. Into this well they talked of putting Mi Judd ; but the old lady of the house begged the would not think of it, as it would spoil the water They stayed in this house a number of days : after wards they went to Oxford, where they were secret ed for several days longer in a barn ; from thenc they went to Stratford, took a whale boat, and crossed over to Long Island. The people at Derby having received information of their passing through that place, two whale boats and crews commanded by Capt. William Clarke and Capt. James Harvey, pursued them to the Island, and were fortunate enough to catch them all but one, just within the British lines. They were brought back, tried, condemned, and sent to Newgate ;; they however broke prison, and fled to Nova Scotia ..
Newgate was at this time used by the state for the confinement of criminals, and they were kept chiefly at work in making wrought nails. It was
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Newgate of Connecticut.
Newgate Prison.
not until 1790, that it was established permanently as a state prison. It is said to have been the de- sign to employ the convicts in working the mines, which for a while was practiced, but it was soon found that they must necessarily have for that work, precisely the right kind of tools for digging out, and they several times used them for that purpose ; this reason, with the consequent neces- sity of keeping so strong a guard, both day and night, finally induced them to abandon the employment. In 1760 an act was passed constituting Newgate a permanent prison, and providing for the erection of the necessary buildings.
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Newgate of Connecticut.
A wooden palisade, mounted with iron spikes, was constructed, inclosing half an acre of ground, within which, workshops and other buildings were placed, and a deep trench was opened on the western side. The wooden enclosure remained until 1802, when a strong wall was laid in its place, which is now standing. A brick building was erected in the centre of the yard for the offi- cers and privates, in the rear and lower part of which a stone apartment was afterwards con- structed directly over the mouth of the cavern, and in this room the most quiet prisoners were occasionally kept.
The passage down the shaft into the caverns, is upon a ladder fastened upon one side, and resting on the bottom. At the foot of this passage com- mences a gradual descent for a considerable dis- tance, all around being solid massive rock or ore. The passages extend many rods in different direc- tions, some of them even leading under the cellars of the dwellings in the neighborhood. In two of the passages are wells of deep water, one of which measures eighty feet-they serve for a free circu- lation of air to the inmates of this gloomy place, and were sometimes used for shafts through which to lift the ore, when the business was carried on.
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Newgate of Connecticut.
In the sides and in the niches of the cavern, plat- orms were built of boards for the prisoners on which straw was placed for their beds. The hor- id gloom of this dungeon can be realized only by
hose who pass among its solitary windings.
The
mpenetrable vastness supporting the awful mass bove, impending as if ready to crush one to toms; the dripping water trickling like tears rom its sides; the unearthly echoes responding o the voice, all conspire to strike the beholder ghast with amazement and horror. These ca- erns and their precincts, from their antiquity, nd the dramas which have been performed within und around, will long be considered as a classic lace. The caverns have generally been extremely avorable to the health and longevity of the occu- bants, which is supposed to arise from some medi- cal quality in the mineral rock.
It is a curious fact, that many of the convicts having previously taken the itch, or other loath- ome diseases, while confined in the county jails, which were very filthy, on being for a few weeks kept in the caverns at night, entirely recovered ; and t is perhaps still more strange, that those who ame apparently in health, generally had for a
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Newgate of Connecticut.
short time cutaneous eruptions, which appeared to work out of their blood.
A writer upon the subject observes : " From there " various windings and other causes, it is not colde " there, even in the severest weather; and strange "as it may seem, it has been satisfactorily ascer. " tained, that the mercury ranged 8 degrees lowent " in the lodging apartments of the prisoners in the fi " warmest days of summer, than it does in thest
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