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 With an appendix, containing historical documents of local interest 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 19
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Although I left Norwich when a child, still the manners and cus- toms, and the society of the town, were subjects of conversation very often with my parents, and thus I became acquainted with her local usages and her social peculiarities. Allow me to mention a single cir- cumstance in illustration. Forty years ago, when I was pretty young, (I am sorry I can not say I was young at a more recent period of time,) I resided a year in the then territory of Michigan, and on my return to Connecticut, I came down the lake from Detroit to Cleveland, on my way to Pittsburg. That part of Ohio lying be- tween Cleveland and Pittsburgh was then new and nearly destitute of everything which could minister to the comfort of the traveler.
After waiting in Cleveland two or three days, I succeeded in en- gaging a man to take me and my two traveling companions, a gen-
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tleman and his wife, in a heavy Canestoga wagon, with a pair of horses, through the wilderness to Pittsburg. As for roads, most of the way there were none; and we made our way sometimes in paths, and then again where there was not even the sign of a track, and when night came upon us, we were very glad to find shelter in a log cabin. I recollect the Saturday night on which we came to a little settlement of five or six log cabins, and that I was glad- dened at the sight among them of a veritable framed house, and not only a framed house, but painted, the body red, and the doors, window frames and stools white. Near it was a sign swinging, on which was the single word " Entertainment," and all around it appeared evidence of care and thrift. In a word, it looked like a New England home. I went in, and found a nice little keeping room; and making part of the furniture was an old fashioned round candlestand. On it was the family Bible, a candle in an anti- quated brass candlestick, and a pair of snuffers. I felt for a moment that by some magic power I had been lifted over the Alleghanies, and set down up here somewhere in Preston, or Lisbon, or Frank- lin ! On opening the kitchen door I found the family just sitting down to a " Saturday night supper;" and casting my eye upon the table, I saw in the center a large dish of baked beans, and by the side of it the indispensable accompaniment, brought by baking to the proper crisp, and to that peculiar mahogany color which the true coin always bears ! Drawing a bow at a venture, and looking at the lady of the house, my first salutation was : " When did you hear from Norwich, and how do they all do?" She manifested a little surprise, but replied at once, " My daughter Susan had a let- ter from there last week, and they are all well."
The question is sometimes asked rather tauntingly by our western friends, why our eastern towns and cities have been of so slow growth. The reason is that the great leading staple business at the west, for the last half century, has been the making or manufac- turing of cities, towns, and states. It is a regular trade out there, learned quick, no journeywork about it; they go at a single bound from apprentices to master workmen. Why, seventy-five or a hun- dred men will start from Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Minnesota, and travel toward the Rocky Mountains till they come to a prairie of some four or five hundred miles square, and they will make it into a state as quick as they will make a wooden wheeled clock in Bris-
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tol or Plymouth ; it will have its judiciary, legislative and executive departments all in running order, and they will wind it up, and, like one of those clocks, it will go, it will tick, tick, tick, and you can't stop it! Here, at the east, we are in the habit of speaking of the sisterhood of states, but out west a state is a mere masculine affair, and you will find this new born sovereignty walking into the capitol, without knocking, and with the free and easy saluta- tion, "Holloa, Uncle Sam, give us your hand ! Why, don't you know me ? I am one of your boys, here are the documents," (pull- ing a constitution from his pocket.) Uncle Sam reads, and then says quite carelessly, " All right. Go up and tell Cass to put anoth- er star and another stripe on to the bunting." But notwithstand- ing the passion for investment in " town lots" at the west, and the prevailing passion for emigration, we are still permitted to rejoice in the mercantile and manufacturing prosperity of this our native town ; and not to rejoice merely, but to exult when we contemplate her provision for moral and intellectual improvement; and espe- cially when we turn our eyes to that stately edifice, your free academy, the dumb, yet speaking monument of your wisdom and your munificence.
In ancient times not only those who laid the foundations were said condere urbem, but those who enlarged, or repaired, or beauti- fied, were also said to found a city ; and though true it is, that these foundations, on which the noble and beautiful structure of your town and city have risen, were laid two hundred years ago, yet those foundations were relaid still deeper, and broader, and stronger, when you embarked so wisely and so nobly in the cause of education.
What, with this noble river, whose current, in an hour or two, will waft you to the ocean, joined with your almost matchless facil- ities for manufacturing purposes, is to prevent Norwich from be- coming a great city ? Nothing, nothing but a failure on your part to resolve that it shall be such. Byzantium, though long founded, remained a small city until Constantine resolved that it should rival Rome ; and it grew into the great city of Constantinople, and became the capital of the eastern Roman empire; and the incon- siderable citadel of Byrsa finally became the renowned city of Carthage.
While the rage at the west has been to invest in " town lots,"
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here at the east it has been all stocks! stocks! stocks ! in fact, there has been an epidemical stock mania; and it differs from the cholera in this, that the one is said to attack the poorer class first, while the millionaires are usually the first victims of the other. What would be the effect if one-sixth or one-eighth of the Norwich capital, now invested in stock, was to be withdrawn and employed in town improvement? Why, A's dollar would rub against B's, and B's against C's, and so on until there would be one perfect jingle among the whole alphabet of dollars, and the noise and the confusion of the mason and the carpenter would very little resem- ble that stillness which prevailed at the building of Solomon's tem- ple, where the sound of a hammer was not heard !
This, too, will check emigration, and enable you to keep your sons and daughters at home. Abraham is, you know, the great archetype of emigrants, for he left Ur of the Chaldees and went prospecting, not into California or Kansas, but down into Egypt, where he collected much gold and silver; and might, perhaps, have remained there longer had it not been for the too particular atten- tions of a certain gentleman to Mrs. Abraham. He, however, went over into Canaan, where he lived in patriarchal simplicity and peace ; and when he was old he caused his eldest servant, who ruled over all that he had, to swear, magnum jurare juramentum, that he would go back to his own country, and there procure a wife for Isaac, his son ; nor was he faithless to his vow, but so " kept and performed " it, that Isaac, in due time, became the hus- band of the virtuous and lovely Rebecca. Now the difference be- tween Abraham and our Norwich emigrants is this ; the former re- quired an oath to be sure that Isaac should get a wife from home, while the latter can't swear their boys strong enough to prevent their coming back after wives!
And not only so, but they take out such specimens that the Canaanites themselves are continually coming on here for a like purpose. Now if I were a young man, and engaged in politics, I should advocate the American system, one of its cardinal doctrines being that we are entitled to the home market; and though in favor of a tariff, I should not be satisfied with any ad valorem duty, with a foreign valuation ; but I should go for a tariff of protection, and for specific duties upon all such fancy articles.
When western speculation shall have ceased ; when a portion of
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your own capital shall be regularly and systematically expended in the promotion of business facilities here ; when the channel of your river shall have been improved; and when, above all, you shall lay an embargo, or proclaim matrimonial non-intercourse, and keep your daughters at home, then will the tide of emigration set east- ward, and Norwich will rise to the measure of her just stature. Piers and wharves will stud the river to Gale's Ferry, and to Allyn's Point, while her limits shall stretch northward to the Baltic !
Throwing the reins of fancy free, and looking forward a few years, stately dwellings shall crown these hill tops; and, by one standing upon the sloping terrace, or sitting within the lofty cor- ridor, shall be heard the hum of industry as it comes up from the east and from the west, and unites with the merry " ho, heave, ho," of the mariner, as he unlades at your wharf the products of the nearer islands, the rich fabrics of India, and the spices of Borneo and Sumatra.
" Universal Brotherhood-To all tribes and nations, felicity ; Heaven hasten the time when wars and oppression shall cease; may the happy be made happier ; the sorrowful be cheered; all wrongs be redressed; bigotry and intolerance cease ; charity prevail; and Truth and Justice rule."
Ex-governor Washburne, of Massachusetts, was introduced, and spoke as follows :-
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : I hardly know why I have been selected to answer to the toast just read. It seems to me it ought to have been assigned to my friend, the venerable and much respected chancellor Walworth; and you might have thrown in not only " brotherhood," but sisterhood too. If, sir, it means as a friend and as a ruler, that I am to point out some way in which " universal brotherhood " and kindly feeling should be promoted or perpetuated in the community, you will permit me to say that I can think of no other so good as getting up another Norwich cele- bration. (Loud cheers.)
Why, sir, let a man come here, and it is utterly impossible that he should not want to be a brother and a sister. (Laughter.) It is utterly impossible to go away from here without entertaining sentiments of tenderness and affection ; and although, perhaps, you will never be able to get up another celebration equal in grandeur to the present one, yet I can imagine how you can approximate to this, viz. by sending out delegates. I would send the president
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and the committee of arrangements, and the orators who have been presented here, and get up celebrations in different localities away from this spot, and I would be willing to stake my reputation that in ten years from this time we should have no need of an army, or the peace arrangement, but an universal brotherhood and peace, according to the sentiment of the toast you have rendered, would be accomplished.
I purpose to ask a question. I said I did not understand why I should be called upon to respond to this toast. I have a right to go a little behind that. I do not know why I should be called upon at all. I had a most polite invitation from my friend, the then chairman of the reception committee, to attend your celebra- tion. I had many friends, and if I was not born here, it was not my fault, but rather that of my parents. But I availed myself of your polite invitation, and came here to enjoy, as I knew I should, a few delightful days. When I received your letter of invitation, my mind recurred to the history of Connecticut and its early habits. I had been told that it was customary for chil- dren of your state to repeat every Saturday night the cate- chism. I did not know but what you might examine all the chil- dren as you used to, and inasmuch as I thought that many who resided here would regard me in the light of an infant, I thought it would be as well to come prepared. So I went to my desk, just as I was coming away, took down my book, supposing it to be my old primer, but by a singular coincidence, I found it was the "Blue Laws" of Connecticut, (producing an old book.) I brought them with me, and read them during my journey here; and allow me to say, with the utmost truth, that in their perusal I felt a deep interest. The study of any people's laws is interesting and instructive. They are the true exponents of the people at any time. A people's laws always tell the character of the people. I find a code here which was published in 1650, and I read there the character of the people of Connecticut in laws that were promul- gated then ; and permit me to say, if I may be allowed in any man- ner to speak for Massachusetts here, that I congratulate Connecticut that her laws were so near our laws, and that the institutions of the two states are nearly identical. "To laws similar to the " Blue Laws" do we owe our republican freedom. (Loud cheers.) I read in that book that there shall be a free election of your rulers and
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the officers that constitute your government. I find in that book
that not only do the people elect their own officers, but, in order that they might be intelligent, there was a school open for every child in Connecticut at the very first; and more than that, I find, in order that they may be independent, they provided that every parent and guardian should bring their children to some
made labor honorable. They laid the foundation of that char- honorable and useful occupation. The "Blue Laws" have
acter that has worked out for Connecticut her independ-
ence and her worth; that has dotted her land all over with handsome houses, with beautiful villages, and with factories and workshops, teeming with industrious and intelligent mechanics. I admit that there are some of these laws which hardly come up to
the standard of our day. (Cheers.) I find that one among them
is a provision that the child shall be obedient to his parents ; that youth shall be respectful to age. But, sir, we have got in advance of that, I admit. (Laughter and applause.) Young America was not born then. Why, it is only a year ago that I listened to an ora- tion of one of the first scholars of Cambridge, the whole drift of which was to show the respect that age owes to youth. (Laughter.)
There are other changes that I might speak of ; but I will say that these much abused " Blue Laws" contain the element and the germ of a free people and a free government. I may be asked " where are the evidences of what have been the fruits of this free government that was planted here before 1650?" Go, I reply, on any hill side, and look around on the glorious prospect before you. Go to any farm house or village, and you will hear the busy hum of industry and trade. Look at the large cities of Birmingham and Manchester! Why, sir, they can not be compared to our New England towns, for there it is an unequal struggle of capital against labor. But here we are all equal, all intelligent, and all sharing in the benefits of a free and enlightened government, selected by the people themselves. But, sir, that is not all. Go where you will, you will find our Connecticut men and our Connecticut prin- ciples diffused throughout this community ; throughout this wide spread union. Allow me to relate a little anecdote that occurred to me some twenty years ago, as I was passing from Cincinnati across to Sandusky. In the coach in which I rode was a southern gentleman, a very intelligent man, and as we journeyed through the
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country, our conversation turned upon its condition, and I occa- sionally remarked, " there lives a New England man ; I know it from the appearance of the place. There is another, and another." He replied it appeared to him strange that every handsome, good looking house, with well cultivated grounds attached, should al- ways be claimed by me as belonging to a man from the eastern states, and that he could not believe it was so. I proposed that we should try the experiment, and at the next stopping place I saw one of those houses which I could not mistake. I saw a man at work in the garden, with his coat off. Everything around him had an air of neatness and cleanliness. There were no hogs in his yard, which is contrary to the general rule in Ohio. (Laughter.) I ap- proached him with my companion, and addressing him, said : " Sir, will you tell me from what part of Connecticut you came?" " From Suffield," says he. (Loud cheers.) " Well," remarked the southerner to me, as we walked to our vehicle, " I will give up;" and he noted it down, and as long as we traveled through Ohio, he concluded that every good looking house or farm in the whole state was owned by a Connecticut man. Yes, wherever you journey in these broad lands, you find the Connecticut man thrifty, industrious, and intelligent; and if you study their characters, at home or abroad, you will say they are people of whom every state might be proud. And this is attributable to the fruits of that code of 1650, which laid the foundation of your noble state, freemen of Connecticut. (Loud cheers.)
" The clergy .- We reverence the memory of those gone before; we respect those who are with us. May they be 'diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' May they teach charity to all, strip away the tinsel of hy- pocrisy from every thing false, and whether with bishops or without bishops, maintain the freedom of 'a state without a king.'"
Rev. Dr. Chester, of Buffalo, in responding, said :-
MR. PRESIDENT :- If any other sentiment had been assigned me at so late an hour, I should have declined the honor of re- sponding to it, feeling niether able nor willing to arrange my thoughts upon any particular subject, choosing rather to give my- self up to the enjoyment of the festivities of this jubilant occasion, to allow old memories to sweep over me with their never ceasing and gentle tide, to revive ancient associations connected with every rock that stands yet in its place, every tree that was young in my
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youth and now rises before me in the glory of its maturity, every house and barn that has not changed but still meets my eye as a monument of the past, and above all to greet old friends and be greeted in a manner unknown to all but those who come back af- ter many years of absence, to their dear old native town, after a separation from it, as a resident, for a generation. Thirty years ago I left for college, and though I did not think so then, I now see this was my removal from the scenes of my birth, my child- hood and my youth. The house where I was born, the building in which I first attended a woman's school, are standing yet. No wonder, for I am not a very old man, despite some outward indica- tions of advancing years. Many, many that I knew and loved, are living yet, though many more are dead. The grave of my father and mother is here, to which love and duty and piety cause me to make a frequent pilgrimage from my now distant home. All this binds me to Norwich. I love to think of these rocks and rivers and narrow streets, when I am far away. I have hanging in my study a beautiful picture of the town-it is one of my shrines. I delight to come here as often as I can, and to bring back the visions of my childish days, to walk up to the little plain and the rope walk, where the soldiers paraded on the first Mon- day of May, and on to the great plain where, in September, the regiment was gathered in fierce array. I can scarcely refrain now from jumping on to the flat wall near by and running upon the top, as we boys used to do. I go over the hill and find it again all covered with savin bushes, among which we built our wig- wams and played Indian. I slide down Boswell's hill, not half as good a sliding place now as it was then, down by the confer- ence room and Dr. Ripley's barn, and either turn round by the hay scales or go perhaps plump into Josy Warren's subterranean garden.
But I open my eyes, and all is changed; how changed- changed for the better. I do not believe that the old days were the best, though I take delight, now and then, in recalling them. I rejoice in the progress and prosperity of my birthplace. As I pass round this plain, viewing the costly and magnificent dwell- ings, on either street; as I see this free academy and your public school buildings; as I stand under the shadow of your beautiful churches ; as I witness, on every side, the striking evidences of
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thrift and prosperity ; I am glad, and my heart exults more and more.
I have always heard it said that New England was a good land to come away from; I have always said with pride that I came from Norwich. I am now convinced that there is one thing better to say than this, and that is-" I am a resident of Norwich."
But whither am I wandering. I began by saying that no other sentiment than the one assigned me would have called me out. And now I return to my text :- " The clergy-we reverence the memory of those gone before." This, Mr. President, is what has moved me. I should be recreant to every feeling of love and gratitude, if I hesitated to say something on such a theme. Stand- ing here, almost at the very house door of the beloved, venerated pastor of my early years, the first minister I can remember, whose teachings gave me the rudiments of my religious faith, whose spotless life and noble character made me esteem the ministry as the most exalted of all earthly employments, and choose it as my profession. "We reverence the memory." Do I not reverence his? Do not you, Mr. President ? Are there not many hearts still throbbing in this city in which his name is written as God's chosen instrument to bring them unto the Saviour? I remember his catechetical instructions on Saturday afternoons, when he met the children at the meeting house. I remember the long walks I have taken to recite passages of scripture to him in his own house. I remember when first convinced of sin, and seeking the way of deliverance, I went to him with a dear friend who is now in Heaven, for guidance and comfort, how fatherly, how affection- ate, and yet how faithful he was. If that were the turning point of my history for time and for eternity, can I forget him ? May I not thus speak of him solemnly, even amid the joy and cheer of this hour? I remember, in later years, how clear and forcible and scriptural were his sermons; with what eloquence, and yet with what power, he presented the word of God to the people; I recall his great solemnity and earnestness as the spirit of God was poured out, and he saw that sinners were turning unto Christ. He was, in all respects, what a minister of Jesus Christ ought to be; he was well balanced, symmetrical, a pattern for the clergy of the succeeding generation. I have said before what I now say again-all I can ask is that the people of my charge may love me
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as I loved him. It is as near worship as is consistent with the keeping of the second commandment.
But I hasten to say simply, in regard to the other part of the sentiment, viz. "We respect those that are with us," that we re- joice to believe that they are worthy successors of those that have gone before them, imitating them in all their excellencies, and adding to their teaching and their practice whatever may be de- manded in the opening providences of God. Let there be pro- gress in, but no wandering from the right path. "May their efforts be honest, without fear or favor." May they be as they teach others to be, "diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." "May they strip away the tinsel of hypocrisy, and teach charity to all." The last clause of this sentiment I pass with a brief remark. "And whether with bishops or without bishops, maintain the freedom of 'a state without a king.'" It would not do to open the question here whether it is wise for the clergy to preach politics, nor to enter upon the great denomina- tional difference here alluded to. In the proper place all this can be set right ; but here, and now, I take pleasure in saying that if the exhibition we have had of the character and spirit of a bishop be a fair specimen, then a church with bishops, we are ready to admit, may be just as good as one that has none. I recognize the claim as successor of the apostles, of one who shows so much of the christian love of John, combined with the learning of Paul and the eloquence of Peter. I thank him now, as my heart thanked him last night, for his beautiful and well deserved eulogy upon one whom I knew so well and so much loved; one of another denomination on earth, but of the same church above; and I pray that he and I, and all of us, dear friends, may be ready to join that lovely missionary, those holy men of God who have gone before us, those early settlers whose dust is mingled with our native soil, those parents and children and loved ones who have died in the Lord. May this whole assembly be there to join in the everlasting chorus of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, for whose glory man was made, and the earth inhabited, and nations advanced in honor and prosperity ; "for of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things."
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