USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Granby > Newgate of Connecticut : its origin and early history : being a full description of the famous and wonderful Simsbury mines and caverns, and the prison build over them > Part 4
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Kings of civil societies, in a just war, have recourse to the state of nature, and use their last arguments, when justice cannot be had for injuries received. Cicero, one of the luminaries of the heathen world, asserts that "war is supported by us against those of whom we can obtain no law." Grotius, the great oracle of Christians, saith that " the law forbids me to pursue my right but by a course of law." This is a good law in civil society,
* He probably refers to our treaty of alliance made with France.
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where justice is administered according to the laws of right, where the innocent are protected against oppressors ; but in a state of nature, where no law but that of power doth exist, the maxim of Grotius is not applicable, unless the nature of law is to support the tyrants, and oppress the affiicted.
Moses, the legislator of the Jews, knowing that men were partial to themselves, unjust to others, and unfit to be their own judges, ordered their controversies to be decided according to the law : but whilst Israel was in Egypt, law and justice had no place; whereupon Moses, to point out the law of nature, set an example to be followed by all men on proper occasions ; he saw his brethren oppressed, an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, and knowing he could obtain no legal satisfaction, erected an high court of justice, and smote the Egyptian, which proves we may revert to the law of nature, and repel force by force, and do justice for ourselves when no legal justice can be had. If this be not the case, law is a scourge to the oppressed, and a protection to tyrants, which is contrary to the spirit of all laws, which always provide remedies for slaves against their cruel masters. Since the law of God and man takes care for slaves, and protects them from the injuries of their masters, how unreasonable is it, that the free people of America, who have only God for their master, should find no redress against the oppressions of a barbarous set of usurpers and tyrants, who have laid waste our once happy country, and murdered our friends and relations before our eyes; who, to calm our complaints of misery, either hang us upon trees, or cast us into some darksome prison, where their midnight assassins launch us out of time. Merciful God! if our wives and children have the privilege of starving in the streets, we are taught to reverence the favor as an act of lenity in Congress and its associates !
Since we live in an evil time, when all laws of civil society are repealed, "the whole head sick and heart faint," the people crouching beneath their burdens and crying, "let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians," while the Levites from their pulpits, like the men of Judah from the top of Etam, are proclaiming " know you not that the Congress are rulers over us? and is it not better to serve them than to die by the hand of Saul or the bitter water of Marah ?" Since this is not the voice of wisdom, but of Athalia, of Mattan and his priests who were slain at the horse-gate and the altar, according to the law of retaliation, let us return to our natural right, and act the magistrate upon those usurpers who have shut up the course of justice. For our encouragement we have for our example the prophet Samuel, who performed justice upon Agag with his own hand, saying, "as thy sword has made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women," a very proper punishment for tyrants, who advance themselves above the reach of all justice, except the prayers of the people, and the dagger of an Ehud. Providence and Nature have ever united devotion and a javelin in the hands of a Judith, and a Jael, to bring down an Holofernes, and a Sisera ; because tyrants are such devils as cannot be cast out by prayer and fasting, unless aided by the workman's hammer. Those weapons unite Heaven and Earth to govern such men as will not be governed by civil laws,
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that every man might, agreeable to the Gospel, reap what hie sows, and receive the same measure which he has meted out to others. We may complain with Jeremiah and say, " Why do the wicked prosper and the treacherous wax fat? How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the field wither?" We may add, that America resembles the state of the Jews upon the rivers of Babylon; for she has long hung her harps upon the wil- lows, and forgot the mirth of Zion : " her children are gone forth, and are not ; each one is crying, Woe is me, for I am hurt; my wound is grievous, and I must bear it; her pastors are brutish, their work is the work of errors, the land is in mourning ; her spoilers are seated upon high places to keep peace from all flesh ; " and no Moses, no Ehud, no Samuel, no Samson, no Jehoida, no Jael, nor Judith, hath appeared with a patriotic dagger, to do justice upon our tyrants, and save a sinking country ! Surely this is not for want of patriots, but for the want of truly understanding the laws of God, nature, and civil society, which permit all men to kill thieves, breaking up houses in the night, lest they should escape justice by the help of darkness. Tyrants are worse robbers than the midnight thieves, for they hold themselves above justice, and the laws of civil society, which renders it necessary to repel force by force, and restore perfect liberty, the genuine fruit of law. If this is not the case, if laws of society bind us to submit to the usurpers acting opposite to law, a solitary life in the state of nature is preferable to civil society ; but experience has taught the world, that there is no protection out of civil society, and in a state of nature we are all Ishmaels, whose hands are against one another. Men enter into civil societies, but not barely to exist, which they might do dispersed as other animals, but to live happy and agreeable to the dignity of human nature. To effect this noble view, men agree to submit their passions and appetites to the laws of reason and justice ; and whenever lust, avarice, and ambition, are not, and cannot be regulated by the laws of the state, social liberty ceases, and natural liberty revives, wherein every man is a soldier, a Moses, a Samson, and may with- out incurring the guilt of murder, kill those uncircumcised Philistines with a javelin or any other weapon. By thus doing, men act upon the first law which is self-preservation, against thieves, tigers, and beasts of prey, a law which is above all political precepts and rules, and superior to every opinion of the mind. Since it is lawful to use any means in destroying tyrants, let us act gloriously in so doing, and free our country of the noxious Congress, under whose usurpations thousands have been murdered, and tens of thousands have been plundered. Having thus briefly touched upon the laws of God, of nature, and of nations, respecting the freedom and the rights of men, I shall,
1st. Enquire whether Congress are usurpers and tyrants, or a legal body of men.
2nd. Prove it the duty of all Protestants to do justice on them as Samson did on the Philistines.
3rd. Point out the benefit and necessity of so doing. As to the first head, we shall find that Congress may claim with great justice and little
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honor, the dignity of being both usurpers and tyrants. The civil law describes him to be an usurper who governs without any right; and the tyrant is he who governs contrary to the laws. My business is to show who have a right to govern, and what makes the power just. Fathers have a natural right to govern their wives and children, because they defend and support them; and in return the wives and children owe and pay subjection and obedience. Civil society is made up of several independent families by general consent, or by the command of God. Nature and revelation point out the necessity of having some to rule, and others to obey the rules and laws appointed by God, or the people, who alone have the power to alter natural liberty, and establish civil societies. The rulers are to be obeyed so far as they command according to the laws, and no farther; and the great body of the people are the judges to determine when the rulers govern by the laws, and when they do not; for the people are the legislators, and subjects of their laws, and not subjects of their magis- trates. Notwithstanding this, a servant by the laws of God may say, I will not be free, and can bind myself to serve forever. Ex. xxi, 5. And the same power is vested in every society, as appears from the history of Saul and David.
It is very true, that God appointed Saul to be king over the people, to punish them for their ingratitude, which rendered Saul's power absolute, and passive obedience and non-resistance of divine authority; but Samuel anointed David king, who after Saul's death was confirmed by the elders of Israel at Hebron. 2 Samuel xi. 3. Those elders were the deputies of the people, authorized to limit David's kingly power; for before his inaugura- tion, they obliged him by compact to govern justly, i. e. to protect the good, and to execute wrath upon the evil. Thus David became a minister of God to rule for the good of his people. Hence it is plain that all just power of government originates from God or the people ; therefore, all who arrogate to themselves the power of governing, and cannot produce a commission from God or the people, are usurpers and tyrants, who may oppress but cannot govern. To such a power, people may be subject for wrath, but not for conscience sake.
After what has been suggested, have we not reason and a natural right to ask Congress, " who made you rulers over us? If God, why have not you published your commission? If the people, where was the place that we assembled? when did we give our consent? who were our elders to confirm your mighty power? "*
* True it is that near one hundred persons convened at Wethersfield, according to an advertisement signed by one Thomas Seymour, a lawyer, and chose a member to repre- sent in Congress the County of Hartford, containing above sixty thousand souls. But it is presumed that previous to the choice of members of Congress, the question whether there should be a Congress, ought to have been put to the vote. That, however, was artfully evaded; a vast majority of the people were thereby divested of their weight in the Colony, as it would have been in the highest degree absurd and nugatory to have voted for members of a Congress which did not exist, and which they would not have suffered to exist, had a fair opportunity been given for their votes on that point. This
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Whenever Congress shall answer these important and natural questions, and prove their authority to be from heaven or of men, I will gladly quit my chains, and submit to their dominion. Until these questions are duly answered, I will view my dungeon as my palace, and continue to say, if changing the government established by our ancestors, without our consent, or that of the king, or the nation of which we are a part; if dissolving char- ters, oaths, laws, and establishing iniquity by the bayonet; if taking away men's lives, liberty, and property, by Committees of Safety, the Inquisition, and Star Chamber Court in America ; if maintaining rebellion by force and fraud to the benefit of a junto, and to the destruction of the people, of prop- erty ; if these things denote what is tyranny, Congress cannot, with all its impudence, but own itself composed of the greatest tyrants that ever dis- graced human nature. Congress having done all this, and commanded themselves to be prayed for as the supreme authority of America; they have left us in the state either of David to pray for deliverance from cruel and unreasonable men, or to pray like the woman of Syracuse for Dionysius.
I shall now add some outward marks given of ancient tyrants, to show the violence and deceit of Congress. "Tyrants" says Tacitus, "subvert laws and government under color of defending the rights and liberties of the people; and when they have got sufficient power, they rob the people of all their rights." Plato says, " Tyrants practice contrary to physicians, who purge us of our evil humors, but they, of our purest blood." Machiavel says, "Tyrants provide for ministers, when they flatter and torture Scripture, to prove usurpers lawful governors." Aristotle says, " The most successful art of tyrants, is to pretend great love for God and Religion." In these things we know Congress have excelled St. Oliver, and taught us that in godliness is great gain; and that preaching and praying lead to other king- doms besides that of heaven; we are also taught that its arms are not carnal, but protestant ; for they have overcome the church in defiance of all her prayers and tears. Had not modern Christians preferred the honor of being governed by a Protestant Congress, they might have had preaching for their tenths, instead of paying life, liberty, and property. To their comfort be it spoken, Congress manages the spiritual and temporal sword with as much dexterity as the Pope of Rome. Further evidence need not be produced of the tyranny of Congress, unless to such men as have great faith and little understanding; therefore since we both see and feel the merciless power of those beasts of prey, I shall proceed, secondly, to prove it the duty of all 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 conscien- tiously differ about the mode; the one expects the Lord to remove them;
was the case throughout most of the Colonies. The Congress once formed in that unfair manner, decreed that members in future should be elected only by the truefriends of America ; that is, such as should abjure their king and sign the league and covenant ; so that three-fourths of the Colony of Connecticut have never given a vote even for a Member.
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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 conscience, 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 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 individ- uals. 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 swellings 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 protect ourselves against our enemies ; and as men and Christians, we can- not have less by entering into civil society. Let us, then, awake from slumber, 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 to kill thieves, vipers, and bears, to prevent their cruel designs, and at the same time preserve Congress 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 robbers. 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.
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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."
It was enacted by the Valerian law, that "whoever made themselves rulers without command from the people, were tyrants, and might be killed."
Plutarch says, " It is lawful to kill usurpers without trial."
Polybius says, " Men of the greatest virtues conspired against and killed tyrants."
Cicero applauds Brutus for conspiring against Julius Cæsar, " What action, O ! Jupiter, 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 cannot 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 opinions 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 practices, that the killing of tyrants and their adherents is not murderous, but truly Christian, upon which priciple, America armed against her rightful king; and, for the same reason, we that love our country may destroy the self-created Congress, which sits in Cæsar's chair, above citation, or a court of justice. What Whig or Tory will be content 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 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 presumptu- ously smote our children and countrymen with whips of brass, fed them with passive obedience, and clothed them in prisons with famine, nakedness and death. It cannot 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 oppressed another. This we may depend on, that what- ever was lawful and right in Moses, Ehud, and Samson, is lawful and right for Whigs and Tories in America; for the laws of retaliation and justice, are the same here as they were in Jewry.
Some people object, and say that these examples taken from Holy Scrip- ture, were of men sent by God to kill those several tyrants, and have we
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not the like commission. Milton, of immortal fame, has answered this objection. Says he, " If God commanded 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 command which he gave, to kill the followers of Athaliah; 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 other worthies who killed tyrants, never alleged the command of God for what they did, but defended themselves on the plea of retaliation-" As they did unto me, so have I done unto them." God had not appeared to Moses in the bush prior 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, Washington, and the Protestant Ministers, and their Romish allies? Poor wretches, indeed, are we! Cozened out of peace, religion, liberty, and property; robbed of the blessings of Judah; and cursed with the spirit and burden of Issachar, by a set of men without virtue, or the generous vices attending greatness? It is no wonder that slaves should lose their courage with their virtue, for who can fight for Cæsar* that despises them, or for Nero, when every victory gained for him confirms their bondage, and adds a new rivet to their chains. Thus we are compelled to live, or not to live at all; deliverance is not to be hoped for from our patience, because usurpers are never modest but in the hour of weak- ness : nor was any government ever managed with justice, that was gained by villainy. Liberty and bondage are now before us; those who
* The American Loyalists have little reason to confide in the mercy of the British army and navy, who have uniformly for seven years treated them much worse than they have the Rebels; and should they judge the English nation by the severity of its military forces, which have killed and plundered 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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choose liberty, are to kill the uncircumcised Congress. Yet I find some men scruple to kill their oppressors with a dagger in the dark, 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 commonwealth? If it is expedient to lance an imposthume to save a life, it is lawful to lance the Congress 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 lords of the land. Tyranny and oppressions have increased with the age of Congress, and our deliverance depends upon the virtuous spears of an injured people, or upon the generosity of our tyrants by hanging themselves. But since we know they lack this virtue, nothing remains for the patriots but to do justice 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.
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