USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government > Part 19
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12 Grandfather of Schuyler Colfax, vice-president of the United States, 1869-1873.
25
that capacity until the guards were disbanded in 1783. The custody of prisoners of war, both Tories and sol- diers captured in action, was another wartime obliga- tion shouldered by Connecticut. Some of these were con- fined in the famous Newgate prison, in East Granby, but others were detained in the local jails or assigned out under parole.
To defray the cost of such extensive participation in the struggle for independence, Connecticut found itself compelled to raise large sums of money. Probably more than any other state Connecticut secured these funds from taxes levied and collected during the war years. It has been estimated that Connecticut as a state ex- pended over $20,000,000 for war purposes between 1775 and 1783. When in 1790 Hamilton, as secretary of the treasury, undertook the assumption of the state debts which were hanging over from the War for Independence, it was found that Connecticut had still outstanding ob- ligations of only $1,600,000 which were eligible for as- sumption by the national government. Even these facts fail to reveal fully the financial burden which the citi- zens of Connecticut bore during the war, since consider- able sums were also expended through the towns and by individual action.
Connecticut is also notable among the states for the small proportion of the population which was not actively loyal to the patriot cause. Consequently, the history of the state is surprisingly free from the tales of conflicts between the loyalists and patriots. The number of Tories was small and chiefly confined to the southwestern part of the state. Incidentally, it is curious to observe that of Connecticut's generals, Putnam, Spencer, Arnold, Par- sons, and Huntington came from the section east of the Connecticut River, while the other two, Wooster and
26
Paterson, came from no farther west than Stratford and New Britain.
The record of Connecticut's cooperation with Wash- ington in winning the struggle for independence would be incomplete without further recognition of the dis- tinguished services, military and civic, of a considerable number of the state's most eminent citizens. A few days after Washington's appointment as commander in chief, the Continental Congress commissioned four major generals and eight brigadier generals. Of these four major generals, as already noted, Israel Putnam, a native of Massachusetts but a long-time resident of Brooklyn, Connecticut, proved to be Washington's most active and reliable colleague. Of the eight brigadier generals, David Wooster was a native of Stratford, and Joseph Spencer, of East Haddam. After participating in the Canadian campaign Wooster resigned his commission but in 1777, while serving as a militia officer, he died of wounds re- ceived in the battle of Ridgefield. Spencer did not resign his commission until 1778, when congress proposed to investigate the pardonable failure of his campaign in Rhode Island. It is worthy of note that Putnam, Wooster, and Spencer were all veteran officers of the French and Indian War, and that Wooster had served at Louisbourg in King George's War.
In addition to the original four major generals, twenty-five officers were later advanced to that rank, of whom six were foreigners, and nineteen were promoted from the grade of brigadier general. Of this number three were natives of Connecticut, Spencer already men- tioned, Benedict Arnold who was born in Norwich, and Samuel Holden Parsons whose birthplace was in Lyme. Arnold had fully earned the recognition by his share in the Ticonderoga and Canadian campaigns and in later
27
events, including the battle of Ridgefield, and was to win yet brighter laurels at Saratoga, only to lose them by his amazing treachery at West Point. Arnold was a dif- ficult person to handle. He seems to have had a faculty not only for feats of brilliant daring but also for rash blunders. With these characteristics he coupled a sensi- tive, jealous nature. The record of Washington's relations with him reveals the tact and forbearance of the com- mander in chief which Arnold so badly requited.
Parsons, a nephew of Matthew Griswold, Trumbull's successor as governor, was already an astute politician and an active patriot leader. In 1775, he formed a little group which planned the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga, and then, as colonel of one of the early Connecticut regi- ments, he shared in the leaguer of Boston. He won his commission as brigadier general in connection with the battle of Long Island. Throughout the remainder of the war he was constantly in service in the vicinity of New York, and when Putnam was invalided in 1779 he was advanced to the rank of major general and to larger re- sponsibilities of command immediately under Washing- ton. Many years later charges of treasonable correspond- ence with the enemy in the summer of 1781 were brought against Parsons, on the basis of a letter found in the papers of Sir Henry Clinton. Every known fact in Par- sons's career renders the accusation of treason prepos- terous. Plausible explanations for the letter have been adduced; for instance, it may have been a measure of counter-espionage. After living in Middletown for several years following the close of the war, General Parsons was associated with the establishment of the first settlements in Ohio, where he was drowned in 1789.
Besides Spencer, Arnold, and Parsons who became major generals, and Wooster, one other Connecticut
28
citizen was commissioned a Continental brigadier gen- eral. He was Jedidiah Huntington, a native of Norwich and a son-in-law of Governor Trumbull. Huntington was, moreover, the only one of the Connecticut Continental generals whose career was not touched with ill-fortune. As the youngest of the group, Huntington was only a captain in the forces which hurried to Cambridge after the alarm of Lexington, and he did not rise to important service and his brigadier's commission until 1777, when he shared in the campaign around Philadelphia. After the battle of Monmouth his services were mainly under Washington in the vicinity of New York. When Wash- ington became president he appointed Huntington col- lector of customs at New London, in which post he re- mained for twenty-six years. Huntington was one of the officers principally active in organizing the Society of the Cincinnati. Though Brigadier General John Paterson was commissioned as a citizen of Massachusetts, he was a native of New Britain, Connecticut. After serving in the Canadian and Saratoga campaigns, Paterson was on duty in the vicinity of New York until the end of the war, and in 1786 participated in suppressing Shays's rebellion.
The list of general officers of the state militia included a number of notable names, and several of these officers rendered services of high importance during the war. Governor Jonathan Trumbull was captain general and commander in chief of the militia. Five individuals held the rank of major general: David Wooster and Joseph Spencer, already mentioned, and Jabez Huntington of Norwich, James Wadsworth of Durham, and Oliver Wolcott13 of Litchfield. The militia was divided into six brigades. The brigadier generals in charge of each were
13 The signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of the ·state, 1796-1797.
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as follows: first, Erastus Wolcott of Windsor, succeeded by Roger Newberry, also of Windsor; second, James Wadsworth, succeeded by Andrew Ward of Guilford; third, Gurdon Saltonstall of New London, succeeded by John Tyler of Preston; fourth, Gold Selleck Silliman of Fairfield, followed by John Mead of Norwalk; fifth, Eliphalet Dyer of Windham, followed by John Douglass of Plainfield; sixth, Oliver Wolcott followed by Selah Heart of Farmington.
In the course of the war, Washington called to his staff, as aides de camp and secretaries, thirty-two men of whom four were from Connecticut. Of these two were sons of Governor Trumbull. John, the artist to whose brush we are indebted for some of the best portraits of Washington, served on the staff during the first two years of the war, while Jonathan, Jr. was similarly employed during the last three years of the struggle. Both were also destined to be associated with Washington's presidential admin- istration. John was secretary to Jay on his famous mission to England in 1794, while Jonathan was a member of congress and the speaker of the house of representatives in the second congress. Samuel Blatchley Webb of Wethersfield was a stepson of Silas Deane. His services as Washington's aide were terminated by his being taken prisoner by the British. He was later exchanged and re- turned to military service in 1781, when he arranged the Wethersfield conference between Washington and Ro- chambeau and extended therefor the hospitalities of his family home. In 1789 General Webb held the Bible on which Washington took the inaugural oath as president.
The fourth son of Connecticut to become an aide to Washington was David Humphreys of Derby. After spending the last three years of the war as a member of Washington's staff Humphreys was invited by the re-
30
tiring commander to accompany him to Mt. Vernon where he continued for about a year in a secretarial capacity. After a period of diplomatic service in Europe he was again associated with Washington at Mt. Vernon and New York as secretary until he was appointed, in 1790, the first United States minister to Portugal and afterwards minister to Spain. In later life Humphreys was a resident of New Haven. Though by no means so brilliant as Alexander Hamilton, Humphreys lived in closer intimacy with the general than did Hamilton or any of his other aides, and Washington continued to turn to him with entire confidence for counsel and advice.
With the governors of the several states during the struggle for independence, Washington's contacts were usually both scanty and formal. Perhaps more than to all the others combined did he turn to Connecticut's gover- nor, Jonathan Trumbull, for conference and cooperation, and he never called in vain. The little group of state officers that Trumbull gathered about him in his "War Office" at Lebanon, throughout the eight years of the struggle, not only held their meetings with amazing regularity, but rendered unceasing and generous aid to the winning of the war. Washington has left on record his deep appreciation of the services of Governor Trumbull whom he familiarly called "Brother Jonathan." Through- out his term the office of lieutenant governor was ably filled by Matthew Griswold of Lyme who succeeded Trumbull in the governorship.
Another son of Connecticut, Silas Deane, a native of Groton, and long a resident of Wethersfield, rendered conspicuous service to the cause of independence. After representing Connecticut in the Continental Congress, Deane was sent, in 1776, to France as a secret diplomatic agent to secure the friendship and aid of that country.
3I
Three important achievements testify to the success of his efforts. He effected an arrangement in which the famous dramatist, Beaumarchais, acted as secret inter- mediary on behalf of France in sending important ship- ments of arms, munitions, and other supplies to aid Washington in the conduct of the war. He stirred up a lively interest in the American cause and enlisted for its support Lafayette, DeKalb, and others. Later on, having been joined by Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, he had the supreme success of signing, jointly with them, the treaty of alliance between France and the United States in 1778, which contributed so effectively to the victorious conclusion of the struggle for independence. Unfortunately Deane's enthusiasm sometimes outran his discretion, and furthermore, friction developed with his ill-tempered colleague, Lee. As a result he became in- volved in a controversy with the Continental Congress over his financial accounts. Smarting under the injustice of the situation in which he found himself, he grew em- bittered and retired to England where he died a decade later. More than a half century after his death congress finally vindicated his memory and made a financial settlement with his heirs.
Connecticut was ably represented in the Continental Congress. Four of the delegates, Samuel Huntington of Windham, Roger Sherman of New Haven, William Wil- liams of Lebanon, and Oliver Wolcott of Litchfield, were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Samuel Huntington was also president of the Continental Con- gress from 1779 to 1781. While he was serving in this capacity the Articles of Confederation were finally ratified and went into effect so that the Continental Congress had become the Congress of the Confederation, with him as its first president. Seven of these representa-
32
tives were later to serve in the senate or the house, or both, under the Constitution of 1787. They were Oliver Ellsworth, William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, Stephen Mix Mitchell, Benjamin Huntington, Jonathan Sturges, and Jeremiah Wadsworth, who had also been commissary general of the Revolutionary army. In all, twenty-four different persons represented Connecticut in the Continental Congress or the Congress of Confeder- ation. In addition to those already mentioned, there were Silas Deane; Eliphalet Dyer of Windham; Titus Hosmer of Middletown; Richard Law, who later served as New London's first mayor from 1784 to 1806, and who was appointed by President Washington as the first United States district judge for Connecticut, in which capacity he served for seventeen years; General Joseph Spencer; and General James Wadsworth of Durham.
As president, Washington turned to Connecticut for one of his cabinet officers. Oliver Wolcott, Jr., who had served as auditor, and later as comptroller of the treasury under Alexander Hamilton, was chosen in 1795 to succeed Hamilton as secretary of the treasury, in which post he continued until 1800. In later life he was for a decade the first governor of Connecticut under the constitution of 1818. In 1796 Washington turned to Connecticut for the third chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, Oliver Ellsworth, who served in that capacity until 1800. Mention has already been made of three other appointments by Washington to federal offices: General Jedidiah Huntington, David Humphreys, and Richard Law.
To the senate and house of representatives during Washington's administration Connecticut sent an illus- trious group of members who rendered loyal and valued service in launching the new government under the con-
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stitution. These included, in the first place, the three men who had represented Connecticut in the convention which had framed the Constitution of the United States at Philadelphia in 1787, Oliver Ellsworth, William Sam- uel Johnson, and Roger Sherman. In the constitutional convention Ellsworth, who was a native of Windsor, had played an important part in securing the famous com- promise between the interests of the smaller and larger states. In the senate his most conspicuous contribution was in framing the Judiciary Act of 1789, which has re- mained the basic law regulating the national judiciary system. Johnson, a native of Stratford, had served in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and retired from the senate in 1791 to become president of Columbia College of which his father had been the first president. Sherman, who was a native of Newton, Massachusetts, was a long time resident of New Haven, of which he served as first mayor from 1784 until his death in 1793, in addition to holding the federal offices already enumerated. Four other men served as senators from Connecticut during a portion of Washington's administration; Stephen Mix Mitchell of Wethersfield, who had a long and eminent service in the state's judiciary; James Hillhouse, a native of Mont- ville but a long-time resident of New Haven, who was for fifty years treasurer of Yale College; Uriah Tracy of Franklin; and Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., of Lebanon, who later served as governor of the state from 1798 until his death in 1809. Of these seven senators, Johnson, Mitch- ell, Hillhouse, and Tracy were graduates of Yale, while Ellsworth was graduated from Princeton, and Trumbull from Harvard. Of the seven Sherman, Hillhouse, Tracy, and Trumbull had all been members of the house of representatives before being elected to the senate, and Trumbull had been speaker of the house during the
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second congress from 1793 to 1795. In addition to these four, eleven other Connecticut men served in the house of representatives while Washington was president. They were Benjamin Huntington, who was the first mayor of Norwich from 1784 to 1796, Jonathan Sturges of Fairfield, General Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford, Amasa Learned of Killingly, Joshua Coit of New London, Zephaniah Swift of Windham, who was later chief jus- tice of the state's supreme court from 1806 to 1819, Samuel Whittlesey Dana, who was later mayor of Mid- dletown from 1822 to 1829, James Davenport of Stam- ford, Chauncey Goodrich, a native of Durham, who was mayor of Hartford for several years and later United States senator from the state, Roger Griswold of Lyme, later governor of the state from 1811 to 1812, and Na- thaniel Smith of Woodbury. Of these eleven representa- tives eight were Yale graduates, Huntington, Sturges, Learned, Swift, Dana, Davenport, Goodrich, and Gris- wold, while Coit had received his degree from Harvard.
At least four native sons of Connecticut sat in congress in the period of Washington's administration as repre- sentatives from other states. Abraham Baldwin of Guil- ford, after representing Georgia in the Congress of the Confederation and in the constitutional convention of 1787, served as a member of the house from 1789 to 1799, when he was elected to the senate. Stephen R. Bradley of Wallingford was senator from Vermont from 1791, when the state was admitted to the Union, until 1795 when he was succeeded by Elijah Paine of Brooklyn, Connecticut, while Israel Smith of Suffield was member of congress from Vermont from 1791 to 1797. Baldwin, Bradley, and Smith were Yale graduates but Paine had received his degree from Harvard.
It is a matter of genuine interest to citizens of Con-
35
necticut that Washington repeatedly journeyed through their state, and especially that he held within its borders two conferences of potent importance in the struggle for independence. With justifiable pride the people of Con- necticut may remember that their forefathers stood shoulder to shoulder with Washington throughout the whole War for Independence, always bearing their full share in the toils, sufferings, and triumphs of that great struggle in which the nation's freedom was won. In the Continental Congress, in the Congress of the Confedera- tion, and in the constitutional convention of 1787 Con- necticut's delegates contributed, with wise counsel and devoted loyalty, to laying the foundations of the nation's government. In this respect their contribution undoubt- edly had a unique value because the colonial govern- mental experience of Connecticut resembled more closely than that of any of the other states, the new national government which they helped to establish. When the new federal government under the Constitution of 1787 began to function with Washington as president, he found among his trusted advisers and faithful co-workers a full quota of Connecticut men whose faithful coopera- tion helped to establish firmly the bases of the new gov- ernment. Through more than seven score years which have since elapsed Connecticut has consistently main- tained the lofty standards set by its sons who labored so wisely and so loyally as the co-workers of the Father of our country.
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necticut that Washington repeatedly journeyed through their state, and especially that he held within its borders two conferences of potent importance in the struggle for independence. With justifiable pride the people of Con- necticut may remember that their forefathers stood shoulder to shoulder with Washington throughout the whole War for Independence, always bearing their full share in the toils, sufferings, and triumphs of that great struggle in which the nation's freedom was won. In the Continental Congress, in the Congress of the Confedera- tion, and in the constitutional convention of 1787 Con- necticut's delegates contributed, with wise counsel and devoted loyalty, to laying the foundations of the nation's government. In this respect their contribution undoubt- edly had a unique value because the colonial govern- mental experience of Connecticut resembled more closely than that of any of the other states, the new national government which they helped to establish. When the new federal government under the Constitution of 1787 began to function with Washington as president, he found among his trusted advisers and faithful co-workers a full quota of Connecticut men whose faithful coopera- tion helped to establish firmly the bases of the new gov- ernment. Through more than seven score years which have since elapsed Connecticut has consistently main- tained the lofty standards set by its sons who labored so wisely and so loyally as the co-workers of the Father of our country.
36
...
....
Thompson
Somers
Union
Woodstock
Salisbury
Norfolk!
Canaan
Granby
East
Barkhampsted
Ellington
-- 1_Locks
East
Putnam
Winchester,
Windsor
Willington Ashford Eastford!
Pomfret
Sharon
Cornwall!
Goshen
Simsbury
Torrington New Hartford
Bloomfield
A
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Coventry
Mansfield
Avon
Hart-
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West
+1781->
+1781
'Hartford!
fold
East Hartfordi
Kent | Warren as
Litchfield
Windham
1780
Morris
Plain Britain
Hebron
Plymouth
Ville!
Rocky
New
Hill
Lebanon
Sprague
Watertown
Cromwell
~boro
Wolcott
Berlin
Portland
Lisbon Griswold
Southington!
/East
IMiddle
Norwich
Shermani
Colchester
1781
8
Cheshire
-field!
Preston
East Haddam!
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Salem
North Stonington:
field,
Durham' Haddam
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Journeys of Washington in Connecticut
- Known routes
Canaan
Westport 1775
Stamford
"Nor-walks
Darien
Greenwich
+1-1789
380
Scale of Miles 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910
....
:(1756-
North
Canaan
Colebrook!
Hartland
Suffield
Stafford
Enfield
1775
Granby, Windsor
Windsor
Canton /
Vernon i
Tolland
WINDHA
1789-
South Windsor
Killingly
LITCHFIELD
Brooklyn
Manchester .Bolton:
Hampton
Harwintor Burlington
Farmingx
Andover,
I Wethersfield
Columbia
New
Newind
Scotland
*/1776
Washington Bethlehemt
Marl
1781+
Franki - Lin!
Voluntown
Woodbury
Roxbury!
Waterbury
~town
Mexi
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Middle ~bury ;
Prospect,
South, bury
Naugatuck
Wally Lingford
1789
Hampton
Bridger ·Water,
Bozrah
New Fairfield
Montville NEW
qdýard
New town
.- Hamden
Waterford
Seymour Wood
North
Madison
-Worth Saybrook
Kroton
Essex
Guilford
Lyme
'Sav-
41776 Clinton
Orange
Trumbulli
Wilton
Easton
Strat
Milford
Weston
ford
Bridge
Fairfield-por 1776
Haven
5175
1789-
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Westbrookold
1b:
' Neww
~1789
West
New
--- Probable routes
-o- Places where Washington is definitely known to have stopped, though he did not lodge in them all.
....
ton
Glastonbury
+1781
Canterbury
Plainfield!
-1781
Bristol
Thomaston
~ton
1789
:Chaplin
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3 1276:
..
£1756
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Ausonia,
6
...
4-1789
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Printed at the Printing-Ofice of the Yale University Press
74.6 5054 10.9
Connecticut, MISLoro J
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
QUI
SUSTINET
TRANSTULIT
COMMITTEE ON
HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
The Discoverer of Anæsthesia: Dr. Horace Wells of Hartford
PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1933
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
The Discoverer of Anæsthesia: Dr. Horace Wells of Hartford
HENRY WOOD ERVING
T HERE is probably no intelligent or thought- ful person at the present time who does not consider anæsthesia-insensibility to pain produced at will-one of the greatest and most wonderful of modern blessings; but one who, him- self, has been under the surgeon's knife without suffering or dread-or more especially one who has seen his loved ones quieted, comforted, and their anguish subdued by its means, will ever regard anæsthesia as the very greatest gift of science, and its discoverer as perhaps the first of all the benefactors of humanity.
On March 26, 1660, Samuel Pepys records-"This day it is two years since it pleased God that I was cut for the stone at Mrs. Turner's in Salisbury Court." And he noted his resolve to celebrate the anniversary of this day as long as he lived, as a festival of thanksgiving.
A friend once described to me a similar operation with- out anæsthetics, which he witnessed about the middle of the last century-a shuddery picture; and one may pos-
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