USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > The Norwich jubilee. A report of the celebration at Norwich, Connecticut, on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town, September 7th and 8th, 1859. With an appendix, containing historical documents of local interest > Part 10
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It is somewhat the same with national and social life. The early history of our fatherland, and of the town of our nativity or adoption, is invested with a fascination not unlike that which per- tains to the memories of childhood and youth. The smallest circumstances are gladly snatched from oblivion. Incidents, that would pass unnoticed under our own eyes, rivet our attention when disentombed from the sepulchre of ages. Like the Sybil's books, the records of olden times grew more precious as they grow fewer, and we grudge not to pay for diminished relics the price that would once have seemed exorbitant for the unbroken whole. And that which is connected with the bygone history of memorable
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place or distinguished person, however insignificant, borrows great- ness from its relation. The uniform and camp equipage of Washington, preserved in the patent office, are gazed upon with a reverential curiosity that could not be secured by the royal attire of any of the present crowned heads of Europe ; and no specimen of modern naval architecture, however imposing, not the Great East- ern herself, would be an object of more interest and attention than the May Flower, that bore the Plymouth pilgrims, or the Half Moon, in which Hendrick Hudson explored the river that per- petuates his name.
The occasion that now assembles us appeals strongly to these deep seated partialities. We revert with eager interest to the original settlement of this time honored town; dear to many of you as your natal place ; chosen by others as your home ; endeared to others among us by the retrospect of halcyon days of youth, busy pursuits of manhood, family affinities, sacred friendships, images of the loved and gone, mingled life experience of weal or woe, touching at many points of contact these familiar scenes. Many of you trace back your ancestral descent to the hardy pioneers who first pitched their tabernacle on this ground; can point to ancient dwellings which your forefathers reared, and to the moss covered stones that mark the resting place of progenitors long since sunken in the grave slumber. Others among us delight to look back upon youth's sunny hours spent upon these hill sides. The vagrant sons of this venerated parent, who have wandered far and wide to other states and other climes, retaining wherever they have gone affectionate memories of the old homestead, obey with willing steps the summons to this celebration. We gather, as was the wont of the buried race before us, around the council fires of the old wigwam. We meet to rear a monumental pillar on soil hallowed by departed virtue, patriotism and faith. We would live again the days of old. We transport ourselves back to the time when the white man's keel first glided through these waters, and the feller's axe first rung in the forest. We call up the images of the good and the brave who laid the foundation stones of this fair superstructure. We sympathize with the hopes and fears, the trials and solicitudes of those who plunged into the wilderness, braving with dauntless courage its unknown perils. We would cut ourselves loose from the engrossing present; from the din and
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the turmoil, the hurry and agitation of the matter of fact, every day world; we travel far from steam engines and cotton mills back to the source and origin of town life, and mark the planting of the acorn which has shot up into this spreading and leafy oak. We mingle with the adventurous settlers, and look upon this region as they saw it, and then descend step by step to the living present.
Neither is it for the gratification of feeling simply, and curiosity, that we endeavor to revive the past. Higher and holier motives invite us to this research and commemoration. It is no less a duty than a pleasure to trace the dealings of the great Disposer of events with the community, as well as with the individual. It was the express injunction of Jehovah to his ancient people, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what is in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his command- ments or no." Such a retrospect, pursued with reverence and faith, can not fail to impress us with the reality of providential guidance and interposition. The longer the space over which we glance, the more striking the tokens of that wisdom which plans the end from the beginning; which goes on steadily to its great results, while generation after generation, like the leaves of successive summers, flourish, and fade, and pass away. It is the "Most High who hath determined for men the times before appoint- ed, and the bounds of their habitation." And the more closely and reverently we examine, the more plainly shall we perceive His mighty working, and be led to recognize His marvelous and benignant control. .
Two centuries! If we were gazing upon the ruined temples of Baalbek or Karnak, admiring the sculptures of the Parthenon, or measuring with astonished eyes the height of the Pyramids, two centuries would dwindle into a span. But in these United States, whose independent national life does not yet exceed the limit of human longevity, two centuries dilate strangely. And measure the interval by the changes that have come over the civilized world, unfold the roll of their eventful history, note especially their effects upon this continent, and we do seem to be carried into the remote past. Pennsylvania claims the respect due to antiquity as well as to greatness ; yet babes born in the good town of Nor- wich were men and women when Wm. Penn landed on the banks
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of the Delaware. This is the new world; and yet your town is older than the kingdom of Prussia, or the city of St. Petersburg. The honest burgh which welcomes us to her genial bosom, while adorned with the charms of youth, demands the veneration due to years. We gather upon ground trodden by the feet of vanished generations. We look back upon the simplicity and genuine naturalness of a state almost patriarchal. The snows of many winters have whitened the graves of your fathers, and the flowers of many spring times have bloomed above their heads.
Before adverting to municipal annals, let us glance at these hills and valleys, ere they were trodden by the white man's foot. Around us spreads the primitive wilderness. All is wild, and rough, and woody, where now art has scattered so profusely her fair creations. The wolf prowled in the forests, and the beaver dammed these streams, as they swept with fuller volume beneath banks overhung with trees, interlaced with creeping vines. The savage roams over these hunting grounds, undisputed sovereign. No alien bands have yet appeared to dispossess and supplant the original lord of the soil. His light canoe skims over these silvery streams, and his shout awakens the echoes of these granite hills. Yet even his untutored mind, mainly occupied with the cares of subsistence and with the excitements of war, confesses the power of this romantic scenery. Here are the graves of the royal dead. From time to time, the canoes of the native warriors pursue their course through the waters of yon secluded cove, bearing the corpse of sagamore or brave. In this beautiful retreat return to dust the stalwart forms of the chieftains who aforetime chased over it the flying herd or the defeated foe. The tide of battle may sweep over their graves, and the war whoop ring loud and shrill above them, but they sleep unheeding and undisturbed. Chosen though the spot was for regal sepulture, its quiet was oft interrupted by discordant sounds. This is a border region where hostile tribes are wont to encounter. Mohegan, Pequot and Narragansett, have maintained their feuds, and sires have transmitted to sons stern legacies of vengeance. It is a sort of " dark and bloody ground." How many of these scenes of beauty have witnessed the maddened conflict ! How many of these sheltered glens have concealed the ambush! From beneath the covert of rock or brake the Indian hath bounded, with a tiger's leap, upon his foe. Here the turf
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hath been reddened with a sachem's life blood, and from yon precipice have been driven to a fearful death defeated and despair- ing fugitives. Faint and dim are the legends that time has spared. But enough remains to stamp its peculiar character upon the scenery around us. Aboriginal life throbbed with strong pulsation beneath these frowning cliffs. Now mournful wailings, and anon infuriate clamors, resounded through these valleys. A former race lived, and warred, and struggled with fierce impetuosity, where now the garden blooms and the spire points heavenward. We breathe a sigh of pity over the buried sons of the forest, whose memorials have so largely perished with them, and descend from this, to which the Indian might afterward have looked back as the period of his grandeur, to another and far different era.
The white man comes. The bark of Columbus has traversed the Atlantic, and old ocean has yielded up the secret so long pre- served. Soon the European throws himself, a voluntary exile, on the shores of the new world. Impelled by various motives, men desert their ancient homes to seek new fortunes in the land of the setting sun. Some in quest of gold, and others of fame; some wearied with political oppression, and others vexed by religious persecution ; some stimulated by a love of excitement, and others actuated by a conscience that scorns all fetters; a living tide pours in upon the virgin continent, and as it spreads along the coast and penetrates inward, it permeates these valleys and beats against these hills. The pale faced emigrant appears upon the banks of the Thames and the Yantic; not as an unscrupulous invader and robber, not as a crafty spoiler to filch from the unsuspecting natives their territory ; but he comes an invited and welcome guest. The red man meets him, not with the uplifted tomahawk, but with the pipe of peace. The white settler is the friend and ally of the tribe to which this region belonged. The Mohegan gladly secures the aid of so powerful a neighbour against his formidable and implacable enemies. The ground is purchased from its savage proprietors, and though the price may appear inconsiderable, the bargain seems to have been as fair and equitable as that made by
· Penn. It is 1659, the same year in which stern old Oliver breathed his last, when the nine mile square is purchased; and soon after the thirty-five pioneers, the names of most of whom are now so widely diffused, transport themselves and their families
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from the mouth of the Connecticut, and mark out their respective house lots on the newly acquired soil. Novel and unwonted sounds startle the deer from his covert, and a new life is stirring in the forest and the swamp. The village grows, and the modest dwellings of the primitive settlers spread along the rippling stream. The infant town is not peopled by chance comers. It is an organ- ized religious community that hath chosen this as their abiding place, a congregational church with their beloved and faithful pastor. A strong and decided devotional element mingles with and sanctifies the secular enterprise. The corner stone of the future city was not laid without fervent prayer. Occupying what was then a frontier post, thrust out into the wilderness that spread beyond, trackless and unexplored, even to the St. Lawrence, exposed to the treacherous hostility of the savage, these pious and intrepid men committed themselves to the keeping of the God of Israel. They had arms, and they knew how to use them. But a little handful of whites, on this exposed outpost, how suddenly might they have been overwhelmed. They must have been well aware of their danger, conscious of their weakness, and their trust was not placed in the arm of flesh. The unslumbering Providence of Jehovah was their sure reliance. Their faith was simple and strong. The promises of God to guard and preserve his servants, inspired them with peaceful confidence. "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge," was an ever present and comforting thought. They braved the perils of the wilderness, the nocturnal onslaught, the scalping knife and the flame, knowing in whom they had believed.
I need not remark to my audience, that it was a wave of the great Puritan emigration, consequent upon the disturbed state of the mother country, that broke upon this nook. In 1659, the Puritan party had been for more than ten years uppermost in England, and if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have found opportunity to have returned. They were not without inducements to do so. Cromwell offered to the New England emigrants lands in Ireland, and subsequently Ja- maica was proposed to them as a home. But they declined these tempting offers, and set their face toward the northern wilderness. It would seem that strong feelings of attachment to the land on which they disembarked had already sprung up in their hearts.
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And fresh arrivals were constantly swelling their numbers. The new world allured the enterprising; the first colonists drew after them kindred and friends ; the prospect of founding a Christian commonwealth beyond the ocean was exceedingly attractive. And so it was that, instead of the great body of the emigrants returning to share the better fortunes of their brethren, the tide still continued to set toward the western world. You may have been struck, in listening to the address this morning, with features of resemblance of Norwich to Plymouth. If the one colony had its Brewster, the other had its Fitch ; and if the one had its Miles Standish, the other had its John Mason.
The deadly strifes that convulsed England under the Stuarts, when political disputes, unhappily complicated with religious dis- sensions, culminated in a fierce and sanguinary civil war, have left traces, broad and deep, upon both sides of the Atlantic. Men to this day conscientiously adhere to the different systems that there were then arrayed against each other in bloody antagonism. Accord- ing to their respective principles, or their hereditary partialities, they estimate variously the features of that great controversy. There are minds whose delight it is to perpetuate ancient animosi- ties, and to keep old wounds open and inflamed. Such is not, I am confident, the spirit of the inhabitants of this town, all of whom unite with fraternal good will to celebrate this festival. You desire, on this pleasant occasion, to bury prejudices, and to fix your attention on those points of character in the founders of your town which all can approve and revere. Two hundred years ago was not the era of admitted freedom of conscience. Intolerance was the sin, not of this party or of that, but of the age. The sincere religionist, of whatever hue, did not think his creed com- plete without an anathema appended; and the very sufferers and fugitives from oppression were not disinclined, in other circum- stances, to resort to similar methods for compelling agreement. If the Saviour's rule were carried out, " He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone," angry recriminations would speedily cease. We now admit the folly of attempts to coerce the conscience, that sacred inviolate domain on which man directly confronts his God. We concede to others the privilege claimed by ourselves, of worshiping God according to the convictions of our own bosoms. And when men are willing to allow this reasonable
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freedom, they soon look upon each other with kindlier eyes. They can grasp each other's hands with sincere affection, and appreciate more fairly each other's characters. Christians are not yet of one mind respecting all the doctrines of their common faith, (God grant them in His good time a fuller unity,) but they do agree as to what is the true spirit of the Gospel. "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men." Here is a plat- form on which all may stand together who call Jesus Master and Lord. If the present occasion have the effect of enlarging and confirming our mutual charity, it will not have been held in vain.
There have been many things to draw together on American soil those who inherit or have embraced variant systems of theolo- gy and modes of worship. The descendants of cavalier and roundhead have stood shoulder to shoulder on many a hard fought field, whether in warfare of arms or in contests of principle. The sons of the pilgrims were led to victory by a Washington, and the first prayer in congress was offered by an Episcopalian. Theyare of one heart in clinging to their common country and maintaining the principles of civil and religious liberty. They have not only one country, but one Bible, and drink the stream of eternal life at the same pure fountain. And they can, in consequence, look more freely and cordially at the points in which they agree, less bitterly at those in which they differ. We can not all of us accord with certain peculiarities of the Puritan colonists. We look at historical events from different stand points. But we can all do justice to their firmness and heroism; to their unfeigned faith and reverence for the Holy Scriptures; to their unflinching adherence to what they believed to be right and true; to their willing sacrifices for conscience sake ; to their steadfast endurance and unconquerable energy. A genuine and earnest man, who fears God, and fears not the face of his fellow mortal, is alway deserving of respect and admiration. Such were the Puritan emigrants. True scions they were of the sturdy English oak, fit to be transplanted. Their faith clothed the word of God with reality and power, and a martyr-like spirit nerved them against threats and dangers. They did not live in vain. Deeply have their lines been graven on the rocks upon which they landed. They had a part allotted to them, a great and important part, in the foundation of a new empire, and in the shaping and coloring of its mighty destinies. It was their firm
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conviction that the hand of God brought them here, that they were following the pillar of cloud and fire as they voyaged across the stormy deep. Is it for us to gainsay that impression ? Surely that man's recognition of a Providence must be very faint, who does not see the arm of the Lord made bare in the peopling of this country. Immense regions are opened to civilization and Chris- tianity. A new era commences in the world's annals. The seven sealed roll of another history is to be unfolded. States are to arise upon a broader and firmer base. Men are to breathe a freer and more inspiring air. A vast future is looming in the horizon. We can not yet take in its shape and dimensions, but it steadily rises and expands, and gives token of colossal magnitude. And that great and glorious Being, "of whom are all things and for whom are all things," whose view embraces all creatures and all events, who is working out His own vast and wondrous plans by various instruments, arranged He not each successive step of the magnificent scheme? Did not His wisdom devise the beginnings that were to issue in such immense results? Shaped He not the course of the gushing rill that was to swell into so mighty a river? Was it chance that led to these shores the Briton and not the Spaniard ; the Protestant and not the papist; the man of integrity and god- liness rather than the greedy unprincipled adventurer ; that peopled these rugged hills with an upright and pious population, so that in every hamlet should rise the house of prayer, and in every cottage should be erected the domestic altar, and in every home should be enshrined the heaven-sent book, the candle of the Lord to give light to all that are therein ? We have but to cast our eyes over this continent, we have but to compare North with South America, to contrast the social condition of Mexico with that of New Eng- land, in order to estimate how much depended upon the character of the early colonists-how deeply the welfare of unborn millions was involved in the mould into which the infant state should be cast. And He, who planned the foundation, watched over the progress of the new community. He who planted, watered the tree. Under His protection and blessing the little one became a thousand. And each constituent part enjoyed that providential care which was extended over the whole. Our own venerated town, we devoutly own, was shielded by the same vigilance, up- held by the same arm of love and power. So thought the early
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settlers. With them there was no scepticism on this point. And the blessings which they invoked we acknowledge. The subject of their prayers is that of our thanksgivings.
"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." So felt Fitch and his companions, as they were roused from their slumbers by the howl of the wolf or the hoot of the owl, and listened more intently to ascertain whether it were not the war cry of the savage that broke the stillness of the night. With this conviction were they sustained amid their hardships and perils. Faith in an ever present, protecting God, nerved their arms, dispelled their fears, animated their hopes, lightened their toils. "The eternal God was their refuge; and underneath them the everlasting arms." And although the destinies of the land to which they had come were hidden, and no imagination was bold enough to grasp the future of America, and no prophet could fore- tell the rapid and enormous growth of the resources of the young continent, yet dim foreshadowings of coming greatness were cast upon their pathway, and they worked patiently and hopefully.
The career of the infant town is now fairly commenced. In the selection of a name we may suppose the attachment of some of the settlers to their birthplace was gratified. Strangers in a strange land, often would their thoughts travel fondly back to scenes that they were to behold no more, and they loved to perpetuate in the new world names once familiar and endeared.
The city, which peradventure the affection of some of its chil- dren thus sought to reproduce, was at the time the third in England for population and wealth, and specially noted for its manufactures. It was also distinguished as the residence of men of learning and science. Macaulay tells us that "no place in the kingdom, except the capital and the universities, had more attractions for the curious. The library, the museum, the aviary, and the botanical garden of sir Thomas Browne, were thought by fellows of the Royal Society worthy of a long pilgrimage."
Does not the daughter bid fair to emulate, in manufacturing industry and in a taste for intellectual improvement, the mother city ? One point, however, of very marked contrast existed be- tween the wealthy original and the humble transatlantic copy. Norwich was a sort of provincial capital, where the dukes of Nor-
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folk had their old feudal palace, and kept a state resembling that of petty sovereigns. There the Howards emulated the magnifi- cence of the court. Their halls were adorned with the rarest pic- tures. Their guests were served with wine in vessels of pure gold. They kept during the holidays open house, and welcomed all comers to the festival. And when the duke of Norfolk returned to the city he was greeted like a king re-entering his capital. If some of the settlers upon the Yantic had in former times gazed upon these gorgeous pageants, and trod the pavement of those lofty baronial halls, great indeed must have been the contrast pre- sented by their humble village and the wild forest in which it was embosomed. The royal state of Uncas was of another character than that of the high born Howards.
In its internal regulations, the newly planted town was a minia- ture Puritan commonwealth. The political, religious and social elements were almost blended.
The dependence upon the distant mother country was little more than nominal, and the colony of Connecticut was soon en- joying the liberal charter obtained by Winthrop from Charles II. The miserable reign of that dissolute monarch had few claims upon the gratitude of mankind, but this charter was one of them.
The little community was very much self-governed. The ob- servance of each precept of the decalogue was vindicated by the magistrate as well as enforced from the pulpit; manners as well as morals were subject to careful supervision ; and some of those who are forward to eulogize the virtues of their ancestry, might have found it quite inconvenient to have lived under their watch and ward. The early planters of these New England towns were not disposed to allow liberty to degenerate into license. They came into the wilderness to frame and enjoy institutions after their own hearts. No fine theories of universal freedom and absolute equality trammeled their legislation. They sought, in- deed, an asylum for themselves in the new world, but they had no thought of opening this asylum to all comers. New citizens were not admitted without careful scrutiny, and only such additions were tolerated as would harmonize with the previous inhabitants. The settlement was a religious society as well as a body politic. It was something like a family on a large scale, bordering as nearly on the patriarchal condition as the Anglo-Saxon could ap-
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