USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > More chronicles of a pioneer school, from 1792 to 1833, being added history on the Litchfield Female Academy kept by Miss Sarah Pierce and her nephew, John Pierce Brace > Part 22
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The Atlantic Telegraph.
The telegraph, yesterday afternoon, furnished us with the informa- tion that the greatest event of modern times, in science, in art, in practical benefit, in the progress of civilization, has been consummated. THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY LAID. The Niagara has arrived in Trinity Bay with her end of the cable. The details of the event have not yet reached us, but the fact, the great, important crowning FACT that EUROPE and America are connected by a telegraph cable, is undeniable.
We call it "the greatest event of modern time". It is a period of great events in science and in art but none equals this in the splendor of its conception, and in the persevering energy of its conception, and in the persevering energy of its accomplishment. None will equal it in the long train of its consequences to the cause of civilization, of peace and of true progress. We that can remember the caption to our foreign news articles, "Thirty Days Later From Europe", can hardly realize that the days are now to be reduced perhaps to minutes.
1859
Litchfield County seems determined to have her share of special legislation, this spring. The first topic is that of the division of the County. The springing up of numerous manufacturing villages and the construction of the two railways that run through her eastern and western boundaries, have drawn the bulk of business away from Litchfield, the shire town, which was very nearly the centre of the old farming population of the county. People that travel scores of miles on railways dislike to take stages for even four miles, the distance of Litchfield from the Naugatuck road, and therefore demand a change.
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, one of the leading Republicans of the West and one of the ablest men of the country, made a speech lately in Dayton, Ohio, in which he laid down what he considered not only
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the policy but the duty of the Republican party. He thought it should assume in the abstract that slavery was wrong everywhere, and should speak of it as a wrong, and not merely oppose it as inexpedient. But he added that the Republican party must not interfere with the insti- tution of slavery in the States, where it now exists. The Constitution had authorized its existence in such States, and they are accountable for its wrong. The general welfare of the Union would forbid, as well as the U. S. Constitution, any attack on slavery in the States. He thought that the Republicans ought not to oppose an efficient Fugi- tive Slave law, because the Constitution, as he understands it, required the enactment of such a law. But, on the other hand, the U. S. Consti- tution does not demand the extension of slavery, and therefore it was the duty of the Republican party to prevent the outspreading of the institution; for neither the Constitution nor the general welfare, required such an extension. He said further, "We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade and the enactment by Congress of a Territorial Slave Code."
To accomplish these important objects, requires a complete union of all the elements of the Opposition. The conscience of the whole North will go with Mr. Lincoln; but some hesitation may be expected at the South.
Dec. 2, 1859
To Day, an event is to take place unparalleled in the history of our country. This day finishes the earthly existence of Capt. John Brown, 1 convicted of the crimes of murder, exciting slaves to insurrection, and treason against the State of Virginia. For the first of this catalogue of crimes, many men have been hung, without exciting the least sympathy, or rippling for a moment the regular current of human society. For the second crime, many a petty villain has been strung up on the nearest tree, without a tear shed over his fate. For the crime of treason, this execution will be the first, if we mistake not, in the annals of our republic, and this fact may be one of the causes that has made this case so notorious.
One of the reasons why John Brown's fame will go down to posterity, when the numerous John Smiths that have been hung for murder or for tampering with slaves, are forgotten, is that the whole foray was the result of a mistaken notion as to what was right. Brown hated Slavery with a perfect hatred. He thought it an abominable thing in the sight of God and man. From a mistaken, foolish, mad idea that private individuals may rightfully put down great public wrongs, arose the stupendous crimes of Brown; while he receives the just retribution for his crimes by the expiation of his life, let us all remember
1 John Brown was born in Litchfield County.
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MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, DRAWN AND PAINTED BY CAROLINE CHESTER IN 1816, WHEN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WAS THE WESTERN BOUNDARY OF THE COUNTRY
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that he was honest in his fancying that he was acting on the side of right and duty. This conviction cannot shield him from retribution for his crimes. His punishment, in a legal aspect is just and proper. But it should take him out of the common category of petty selfish villains, that he did wrong, not from mercenary motives, but from a mistaken and deranged idea of what was right.
The personal character, too, of John Brown throws a halo of glory round his death that will be quite likely so to dazzle the eyes of some of the virtuous part of the community, as to blind them to the extent of his crimes against the peace of society. No one can help respect- ing the sincerity, the straight-forwardness, the pluck of John Brown's character. He is the most splendid modern example on record of the old Puritan, with all his faults and all his virtues. He was much better fitted to found a nation amid the pressure of want and savage enemies, than to live amidst the compromises and the fixed policy of these piping times of peace. With all his errors, he is a brave old soul, with a capacious heart, and an intense love of freedom.
Another cause of the excitement the whole community feels at the execution of John Brown is the tremendous fuss that has been made over his crime, his arrest, his trial and his execution by Gov. Wise and his Virginians. Their folly has been extreme. They have made the whole affair of ten times its just consequences by their cowardly bluster. Will not all this folly recoil on their own heads? Can they keep the knowledge that all these military preparations are for the execution of six men, from their colored population? Are they not laying the foundation for a future uneasiness and restlessness on the part of their slaves?
" Honest Old Abe" - One of the strongest arguments in favor of the election of Lincoln to the Presidency is his Honesty. He has too much old fashioned integrity and firmness, ever to give in to Fort Snelling swindles, or Navy Yard frauds on elections. We all want the Government administered with integrity and economy. We have tried two dishonest Administrations of the Democratic party. Let us try them no longer, but place the government in the hands of un- corrupted and uncorruptible men. "Honest Old Abe" is the man!
1860
The Prince of Wales:
It has been very wisely decided by that sensible woman, Queen Victoria, that her son shall travel through the United States as a private gentleman, under the name of Lord Renfrew, one of his titles. It is to be hoped that American flunkeyism will not attempt to annoy
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the young lad, but allow him to view the land in peace. But, above all, it is to be hoped that he will be kept out of the hands of the New York Common Council, who will unquestionably aim at turning an honest penny from his residence, as they did that of the Japanese.
Meanwhile, in Canada, and especially in Quebec, most active prepa- rations are going on for a splendid reception of their future king. Painters paperhangers and all that class are busy in turning into palaces the residences of the loyal Canadians. There is no end of the expense that both public functionaries and private individuals are going into, in the way of decorations, illuminations, fire-works, balls, wines, dinners etc. All kinds of excursions and entertainments are being planned, and the young Prince will be compelled to see every- thing, and will be most extensively bored. Our neighbors of Canada have never been so stirred up before. We pity the young fellow, for he must encounter, every hour almost, that most hideous and tedious of all bores, long reception speeches.
1861
We have seen lately several private letters from the South to friends at the North, descriptive of the inflamed state of mind, existing there against the North, among the less intelligent and unreasoning class. Some of these letters came from this very class of the uninformed, and they are filled with terrors of the expected government of the Black Republicans. Every right of the South is to be trampled under foot. The negroes are to be excited to insurrection. An army of John Browns is immediately to be sent against the defenseless plantations. Mr. Lincoln is painted as a stern uncompromising, bloody tyrant, who will free their slaves and utterly destroy their prosperity. These persons believe all this most sincerely. Is it any wonder that they have acted rashly and madly? They have gathered this idea, not only from their own false prints, but from Northern papers, who have thus sowed, broadcast, the seeds of disunion. Among these mischief-making papers, the Hartford Times stands conspicuous. It has every where, wherever it circulates in the Southern States, aimed at disseminating the most false and pernicious statements of the character and policy of the Republican party. It has had its success. It has been long sowing to the wind, and is now reaping to the whirlwind. The bitter fruits of its efforts are not all gathered yet.
With such feelings engendered among the uninformed, it is no wonder that they rushed hotly and madly into secession as a remedy. There were leaders enough ready to seize upon this opportunity to gratify personal ambition at the expense of the country. These leaders of the Democracy have lived and fattened on the spoils of the Federal Govern-
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ment so long that they have overturned the country, because they were about to be deprived of them. It is from this very class of hungry office holders of the Democratic party that this whole trouble and loss by secession arises. Such is especially the case at the present moment in Virginia. A large majority of the citizens of the State love the Union, feel its benefits, and desire to remain in it. But the most of the secession leaders are the noisy and needy Democratic office holders, who cannot bear to give up the support which they so cheaply earn. It is even now doubtful who will succeed in that State, the bawlers and brawlers of the Democracy, or the wise, conservative and Union loving citizens.
We have strong hopes that the violent prejudices against Mr. Lincoln which have been spread through the South will be softened soon by the popular manners and sterling character of the new Presi- dent, and that his own well known conservative good sense, and the policy of Mr. Seward and his other advisers, will stop the progress of secession and rebellion and restore peace to the country.
1861 The Evening Press Hartford
Thursday, March 7
The Courant announces that John P. Brace, Esq. who for many years has been connected with its editorial department has retired from that position. Mr. Brace is a clear and polished writer, and largely possessed those indispensable requisites for a successful editor - a mind well stored with the political and social history of the past, and a retentive memory, enabling him at all times to make his varied knowledge of value to his readers. We trust that many years of happi- ness are in his future, relieved of the vexatious cares connected with a daily paper.
Hartford Daily Times.
Thursday Eve'g, March 7, 1861.
Editorial Change - The venerable John P. Brace for about twelve years one of the editors of the Courant, has resigned his position in consequence of increasing infirmities which made night work very arduous to him. The readers of that paper will miss his genial articles, which always breathed a spirit of kindly feeling and generous humanity. - We understand that he is to be succeeded by Abner L. Train, of Milford, former Clerk of the House at the legislative session of 1858.
Hartford Post
Mr. John P. Brace who for several years has been one of the editors of the Courant, and who is well known as one of our most valuable
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citizens has ceased his connection with that paper, on account of his advanced age and infirmities, and his place will be supplied by Abner L. Train, of Milford. His well known popularity as a writer and gentleman always secured him a host of friends and he retires with the best wishes of all.
New London Star.
Mr. John P. Brace, who for twelve years has been a writer for the Hartford Courant, has retired from his connection with that paper. He has always wielded a genial and felicitous pen, and carries with him the best wishes of a host of friends. We understand he will be succeeded by Abner L. Train of Milford who was Clerk of the lower House of our State Legislature in 1858.
Springfield Rep.
The venerable John P. Brace, for twelve years chief editor of the Hartford Courant, has resigned his position in consequence of old age, and increased infirmities. His vacancy is supplied by Abner L. Train of Milford, clerk of the House at the legislative session of 1858.
Newspaperial
John P. Brace who has been connected editorially with the Hartford Courant for about twelve years, has resigned his place in the establish- ment. - N. H. Palladium.
Mr. John P. Brace, for twelve years past the chief editor of The Hartford Courant has resigned that position. Mr. Abner L. Train of Milford is to be added to the editorial staff of The Courant.
N. L. Chronicle.
Bridgeport Farmer
The venerable John P. Brace for twelve years chief editor of the Hartford Courant has resigned his position in consequence of old age and increased infirmities. His vacancy is supplied by Abner L. Train of Milford, clerk of the House at the Legislative session of 1858.
Waterbury American
We regret to learn that the venerable John P. Brace, for twelve years chief of the Hartford Courant has been compelled to resign his position in consequence of increasing infirmities. We shall miss the genial productions of his well trained mind, always on the bright side of life, and often expressed with great beauty of conception - nor shall we soon forget his kind social qualities, that have endeared him to us during our acquaintance. May the hand of Time lay gently upon him.
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Hartford Thursday Morning, March 7, 1861.
John P. Brace has resigned his place as writer for the Courant, a station which he has held nearly twelve years. He earnestly requests those who may have borrowed books of him without exception, to return them immediately. He has lost several books that he would be glad to recover.
Our readers will see by a notice under the city items, that John P. Brace Esq., who has for nearly twelve years past been connected with the Courant, has retired from the labor and night-watching inevi- tably the portion of most of those responsible for the regular appear- ance of a morning paper. We part from our old friend with deep regret. Many a brief paragraph of news prepared by his pen, after long hours of weary watchfulness, have our readers skimmed lightly over, at their breakfast tables, quite unconscious of the midnight and past midnight watching which it cost the writer. Mr. Brace retires laden with the kindest wishes of those who have spent happy years in his genial society.
"TALE OF ROARING BROOK"
Besides his stories in verse Mr. Brace also wrote some in prose. The first one as far as we know was "Tales of the Devils", pub- lished in 1847, by S. Andrews and Son, Hartford, Conn. "The Fawn of the Pale Faces" was published by D. Appleton & Co., New York, in 1853.
"The Search for a Hero; a tale of the Wars of 1812" must have been founded on the personal experiences of his uncle Col. John Pierce, the brother of Miss Sarah Pierce who he says was in the country where the incidents of the story took place. The previous volume of chronicles included letters from this same uncle who was a paymaster in the U. S. Army at Ticonderoga when the Fort was taken by the British. This has not been published as far as we know. Among the recently acquired manuscripts is one that seems worth while to print entire as the incidents no doubt were handed down to him by his forebears and they give a graphic account of early life in the colonies when meeting wolves, bears and Indians was not an uncommon occurrence. This "Tale . of Roaring Brook" was finished in 1854 when Mr. Brace was sixty-one years old.
RE "RASLES" -JESUIT MISSIONARY MENTIONED IN "TALE OF ROARING BROOK"
From "Historians' History of the World." - Vol. 23.
Page 81 Chapter on Resettlement of Louisiana.
"The mission among the Penobscots was still kept up. The Nor- ridgewocks or Canabas, as the French called them, built a church at their principal village on the upper Kennebec, and received as a resi- dent missionary the Jesuit, Sebastian Rasles, an able and accomplished priest, who kept that tribe, for the next quarter of a century, warmly attached to the French. In the Treaty of Ryswick the English had made no provision for their allies, the Five Nations. In making arrangements with the governor of Canada for exchange of prisoners, Bellamont had endeavored to obtain an acknowledgment of English supremacy over those tribes, and the employment of English agency in negotiating a peace. But Callieres, who became governor-general after Frontenac's death, sent messengers of his own to the Iroquois
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villages, with the alternative of peace or an exterminating war, against which the English could now afford them no assistance."
Page 195
"In 1724 Fort Dummer marked the first English settlement in Vermont; it was near the present Brattleboro. Previously there had been collisions with the Abenakis, who claimed that Massachusetts had infringed their territory between the Kennebec and the St. Croix. Father Rasles, the Jesuit missionary, held the affections of the Indians, and the government of Massachusetts tried twice in vain to capture him. They took prisoner the young baron de St. Castin, and finally, in 1724 a party from New England surprised Rasles' village of Norridgewock. Bancroft thus describes his death in this contest which is known as "Captain Lovewell's" or "Governor Dummer's War:"
"Rasles went forward to save his flock by drawing down upon him- self the attention of the assailants, and his hope was not vain. The English pillaged the cabins and the church, and then, heedless of sacrilege, set them on fire. After the retreat of the invaders, the savages returned to nurse their wounded and bury their dead. They found Rasles mangled by many blows, scalped, his skull broken in several places, his mouth and eyes filled with dirt; and they buried him beneath the spot where he used to stand before the altar. Thus died Sebastian Rasles, the last of the Catholic mis- sionaries in New England. Thus perished the Jesuit missions and their fruits - the villages of the semi-civilized Abenakis and their priests."
ROARING BROOK A Tale of the Past By J. P. Brace
This Tale is dedicated to John L. Boswell Esq. by one with whom he first visited its scene. It may serve as a memorial of the favors received from his friendship by The Author.
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PREFACE
The object of this tale is to illustrate the manners of our Connecticut ancestors in the period subsequent to the settlement of the colony. There were not many striking incidents in the history of that time. Our forefathers were then laying the foundation of the structure of religion, knowledge and liberty which now shelters us. A narrative founded on their private trials and their domestic manners even at such a peaceful age, will not, we trust, be uninteresting.
The period of the story gave the writer an opportunity, without any very great sacrifice of probability in the connection of the narra- tive, of introducing the life, death, and character of the celebrated French Missionary, Rasles, who exercised such an influence over the Northern Indians. It is hoped that no injustice has been done to his motives or memory.
His name was spelt by our early New England historians, Rawle, or Rahle, and probably so pronounced in one syllable. His own spelling we have given above.
We have to lament during the time in which these chapters have been written, the death of the friend to whom they were dedicated. We will not cancel that dedication. It will be a tribute to his memory.
1854.
CHAPTER I
In the town of Glastenbury, Hartford County, there is a large and rapid stream rejoicing in the euphonious name of Roaring Brook. It rises in the North East part of the township, in the granite mountains that hem in the basin of the Connecticut river, and, after a meander- ing course of several miles, it loses itself in the Connecticut by a narrow mouth. Its whole course is through the rocky defiles of the mountain range, at a high elevation above the bed of the great river, and there- fore, to reach its termination, is obliged in many places to descend rapidly. Having its source in a cold, rocky and sterile region, and being fed by many limpid streams from cool springs, its waters are pure and refreshing even in the heat of summer. There is nothing on the brook that can be called a fall or cataract, but its descent is rapid, its bed rocky, and when swollen by rains or increased by the melting of the snow, it well deserves the name it has received. Its structure is uniform. There is a regular alternation of a rocky channel and rapid course, and a valley of deep, black soil, almost amounting to muck, through which the brook passes swiftly, in consequence of the impetus which its waters have received, and in which it forms, at
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its bends, deep, dark holes in the blackness of whose recesses the large trout lie, even during the winter frosts.
From the very nature of the stream, coming from mountain source and fed by brooks running over a granite soil, it furnishes a home for the trout, which formerly abounded in its bright ripples, under its miniature cataracts, beneath its hollow banks, and in its deep black holes. Some of the most exhilarating hours in the noon of life to which an old man can now look back, were spent on this stream. In a fresh, bright, clear May morning, how often have we watched the sun danc- ing on its gilded ripples, as we drew the speckled captive from his sport in the shallows or coaxed him from his darker recesses. The mountain air was pure and invigorating, and seemed fairly to intoxi- cate the lungs, as its freshness was inhaled. The birds were on every tree, commencing the warblings of their annual attachments. The blue-bird twittered on the low, rotten twigs of the birch- the robin was singing his matin song on the elm - the brown thrush, on some low tree at the edge of the forest, was uttering his invitations in his loudest note. The cat bird and the peewink hopped among the bushes and the gentle wail of the phoebe-bird echoed from the stream in search of some hidden spot to build his nest, while aloft in the sky the noisy bob-o-link trilled out his crazy song in the utter abandon- ment of joy.
The tiny spring Houstonias were opening their bright eyes to the morning light as they covered the hard bank, and the gay, yellow Calthas were brightening the small mead on marshes with their early blossoms. Even the very rocks were beautiful as they basked in the morning radiance, and though they spake of firmness and stability - of ages past and ages to come - their speech was not gloomy nor their voice sad, as they stood up in majesty before the sun and reflected his beams.
There is no extended and varied prospect before you. You are shut in by mountains of moderate height, covered with rather stunted timber and rugged in their granite outlines. The soil is cold and un- productive around you and the valleys and marshes covered with alders and willows. Yet you feel animated for you are alone with nature, and you willingly escape from the noise and din and bustle of the city to enjoy this mountain solitude. The birds are your com- panions as they sing around you - the sky is a companion in its blue depths above you - they arise in their quiet majesty around you - the very brook is your most intimate companion as it glances by in its rapid race to the river. There is a language in its murmurings - a voice in the flashing of its ripples as it foams over its rocky bed - that speaks to your very soul of friendship, of love, of hope and joy. Would that those bright mornings were not like all earth's
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