USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 19
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the king for a bill of exemption from the government of Con- necticut, and voted to raise three hundred pounds by a tax to carry out this object. They took another step of a very decided character, that could hardly fail to hasten the crisis. They ordered that in all the towns belonging to their juris- diction, the proper authorities should issue warrants to at- tach the personal estate of those who had refused or should thereafter refuse to pay the taxes by law imposed upon them. In these gloomy circumstances they also sought the divine aid, and appointed a day of fasting and prayer throughout the colony.
I have said that the doom of this little republic was im- pending. How could it well be otherwise? A powerful colony in the field against her, clad in the impenetrable pan- oply of the royal charter, reflecting far and wide a baleful light that struck blind for a time even the proud eye of the colony upon the Bay, and frightened little Plymouth "from her propriety ;" an empty treasury, and rebellion springing up in the midst of her own plantations-how could it be oth- erwise ? A more wretched state of confusion and enmity can hardly be imagined. The moment that the tax-gath- erers of New Haven attempted to put in force the decree of her General Court, and attach the property of those who re- fused to do their part towards defraying the expenses of the government, the recusants fled to Connecticut for protection, and were received by her with open arms. The govern- ment was so poor that it could not even pay the ordinary salaries to its officers.
When the officers began to collect the taxes by force, civil war was the immediate result.
John Rossiter and his son, of Guilford, who had refused to submit to the authorities at New Haven and who had been punished with some severity for their offenses, now fled to Hartford for redress. They readily procured two magis- trates, a constable, and some private volunteers from Con- necticut, who, armed with muskets, repaired to Guilford and arrived there on the evening of the 30th of December. In
223
" NEW HAVEN CASE STATED."
[1664.]
the night they fired off their guns in the town and alarmed the inhabitants to such a degree that governor Leete was obliged to send messengers to Branford and New Haven for assistance. Both these towns, startled from their sleep in the dead of the night by this executive summons, immediate- ly sent forward an armed force for the relief of Guilford. Governor Leete and the magistrates conducted the affair with such prudence that no injury resulted from this violence. The Connecticut officers, who had come out upon this noc- turnal errand, contented themselves with remonstrating against the conduct of the authorities of New Haven, in lay- ing taxes upon those who had placed themselves under the protection of Connecticut. They desired that the matter might be postponed for further consideration .*
On the 7th of January 1664, governor Leete called a special court at New Haven. He opened the session by stating to the Court what troubles had grown out of the order for the distraining of taxes, and with what earnestness the magistrates from Connecticut had called upon New Ha- ven to refrain from the exercise of this authority, which, they claimed, was in violation of the rights of the citizens of Connecticut. The governor asked the Court carefully to consider this demand. They made answer that it had proved idle to attempt to make treaties with Connecticut, and that they were resolved to carry on no further negotiations with her, until she should have restored to New Haven the citi- zens that she had unlawfully seduced from their allegiance, and still continued to protect.
Mr. Davenport and Mr. Street were appointed a commit- tee to make a new statement of the grievances of New Ha- ven and transmit it in writing to Connecticut. These gen- tlemen entered with alacrity upon the discharge of this duty. The result was, a paper in the nature of a remonstrance of singular ability. It was called "The New Haven Case Stated," and is written in Davenport's best manner. In all our New England colonial papers, I have not found a more
* Trumbull, i. 263.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
touching and eloquent narrative, nor have I ever seen a more convincing argument. Unlike it predecessors from the same vigorous pen, it is free from sarcastic allusions and has a mournful strain of accusation, such as we might suppose a martyr at the stake would address to his persecutors. It has a vitality and force that is indeed refreshing to one whose eye has been long exposed to the dull pages of records and state documents of the seventeenth century, whose blinding words, like clouds of sand, seem to sweep along over an inter- minable desert .* This paper, however, produced no change in the policy of Connecticut.
On the 12th of May 1664, the General Assembly con- vened, and again asserted their claims to Long Island and appointed officers at Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, Oyster Bay, Flushing, and all the towns upon the western extremity of the Island. t
In the same month the freemen met at New Haven and held a general election. They reappointed Leete governor ; William Jones was made deputy governor. These gentle- men were also chosen commissioners to the Congress next to convene at Hartford. The usual number of magistrates was elected, but two of them, Mr. Treat and Mr. Nash, de- clined to accept the place, for they foresaw that the down- fall of New Haven was at hand. So depressed were the hearts of the freemen, that no business appears to have been done at this Court, as it left no records of its proceedings.
On the 12th of March 1664, the duke of York ob- tained a patent of a vast tract of country lying to the north of New England as it was then defined ; and what was more alarming still to New Haven, including "all that island or islands commonly called by the general name or names of Meitowax, or Long Island, situate and being towards the west of Cape Cod and the narrow Nighgansets, abutting up-
* This state paper may be found entire in the Appendix to this volume, marked (D.) A portion of it has been published before by the author of " Historical Dis- courses."
t Colonial Records, i. 428. 429.
[1664.]
ARRIVAL OF COL. NICHOLS. 225
on the main-land, between the two rivers there called or known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's river, and all the lands from the west side of Connecti- cut river to the east side of Delaware Bay." Massachu- setts and Plymouth, too, had much occasion to be alarmed, for Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and all the islands con- tiguous to them, that studded the main ocean, were embraced in the patent.
Thus was the whole territory of New Haven with a large part of Connecticut granted out to this royal subject.
The duke lost no time in taking possession of his new es- tate. Doubtless a main object of this patent was the reduc- tion of New Netherlands, and an armed fleet soon sailed for the American coast, under the command of Colonel Richard Nichols, who was instructed to bring all the Dutch settle- ments on the continent to subjection. He was further au- thorized, in conjunction with Sir Robert Carr, George Cart- wright and Samuel Maverick, Esquires, to visit the New England colonies and to hear and determine all controversies that existed between them .*
On the 23d of July, Nichols arrived in Boston harbor. He made known to the colonies his errand and in the name of the king, called upon New England to raise troops to assist in reducing New Netherlands. He also dispatched letters to Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, inviting him to meet him at the western extremity of Long Island for consultation. Accompanying the commission of Nichols and others, came a very gracious letter from the king, bearing date, Whitehall, April 23, 1664, and addressed to the governor and company of Connecticut. Whether it can be fairly inferred from the tenor of this letter, that opposition to the union on the part of New Haven had been anticipated, as an event likely to happen, at the time when the Connecticut patent was granted, I leave it for the reader to decide. At any rate, the first
* See Brodhead, i. 726, 735, 736; Hutchinson, i. 211; Trumbull, i. 266. This commission may be found at length in Hutchinson, i. App. XV. and in Hazard, ii. 638, 639.
15
226
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
sentence of the royal letter seems calculated to inspire con- fidence rather than terror in the hearts of those to whom it was written. It begins as follows :
"CHARLES, R.
" Trusty and well beloved we greet you well, having, according to the resolution we declared to Mr. John Winthrop at the time when we renewed your charter, now sent these persons of known abilities and affections to us- that is to say, Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, Knight, George Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Maverick, Esq., our commissioners, to visit those our several colonies and plantations in New England, to the end that we may be the better informed of the state and welfare of our good subjects, whose prosperity is very dear to us. We can make no ques- tion but that they shall find that reception from you which may testify your respect to us from whom they are met for your good."*
Whatever construction governor Winthrop may have given to this document, he readily complied with the request of Colonel Nichols, and, in company with several of the magis- trates and principal gentlemen of Connecticut, soon joined him at the place designated.
The time had now arrived when the dominion of the Dutch in America was about to be extinguished forever. On the 20th of August, with a formidable English fleet and armament to give weight to the summons, Colonel Nichols demanded the surrender of the town and forts upon the island of Manhadoes. Governor Stuyvesant was by no means prepared to obey this summons, and unable as he was in the disordered state of his province, to make a successful stand against the invaders, he was still resolved not to yield without giving the British commander a taste of his well known skill in diplomacy. Instead, therefore, of lowering the Dutch colors, his excellency drew up a formidable state- ment, and I believe a truthful one, of the title of the States General to the country then in their possession in America.
* See Appendix, where this entire letter may be found marked (C.)
.
227
WINTHROP AND STUYVESANT.
[1664.]
With the stately politeness that marks all his official corres- pondence, he said that he had no doubt that had the king of England been aware of the claims of the Dutch, he never would have taken such measures to extinguish them. In conclusion, he assured the British commissioners "that he should not submit to his demands, nor fear any evils but such as God in his Providence should inflict upon him."
Colonel Nichols had offered to the inhabitants the most perfect protection of life, liberty, and property, provided the town and fort were surrendered as he demanded. The bur- gomasters explained to the people the terms proposed by Nichols. This did not satisfy them. They insisted on see- ing the document itself. Stuyvesant went in person and ex- plained to the assembled burghers the impropriety of exhibit- ing it to the public. It would be disapproved of, he said, in the Fatherland; it would discourage the people. But the citizens prevailed, and finally procured a sight of the paper.
Colonel Nichols now wrote a second letter to Winthrop, begging him to wait upon Stuyvesant and assure him that if he would surrender, the most liberal provisions should be made for the Dutch. The terms of his proposal were fully detailed in this second letter. Provided with so favorable a chart to guide his negotiations, Winthrop, under a flag of truce, repaired to the city, and, presenting his letter to Stuy- vesant outside of the fort, begged him to surrender. Stuyves- ant refused, but, retiring within the fort, he opened the letter and then read it in presence of the burgomasters, who asked that its contents might be made public. Stuyvesant de- clined to comply with the request. The burgomasters grew loud and clamorous, and at last, Stuyvesant, in a fit of passion, tore the letter in pieces. The enraged citizens now left their work at the palisades, and flew to the Stadt Huys. A committee was chosen from their number to wait upon Stuy- vesant and demand the letter. " The letter!" shouted the burgomasters. "The letter, the letter !" reiterated the mob. Nothing else would pacify them. Stuyvesant was obliged at last to gather up the fragments of the mutilated paper,
ยท
228
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
and give a copy of it to the burgomasters for their in- spection.
When it was found on what favorable terms the capitula- tion was proposed, solicitations poured in upon Stuyvesant from all quarters, begging him to surrender. Still he kept his ground. At last Nichols ordered Capt. Hyde, who com- manded the squadron, to reduce the fort. Two of the ships now landed their forces. The others sailed in front of the fort, and anchored close at hand. The undaunted Stuyves- ant, while they were passing the fortification, stood upon one of its angles and watched them. A guard with a lighted match in hand, stood near by, waiting the orders of the gov- ernor, who with difficulty could be dissuaded from commenc- ing an attack that must have resulted in the total discom- fiture of the garrison and in much bloodshed. He finally left the fort and went into the city to oppose the landing of the English troops. He now, as a last resort, sent a deputa- tion to Nichols, with a letter, in which he said, that although he felt it to be his duty to "stand the storm," yet he was willing to try what arrangement could be made. " To-mor- row," said Nicholas, "I will speak with you at Manhattan." " Friends will be welcome, if they come in a friendly man- ner," replied the ambassadors. "I shall come with ships and soldiers," was the stern answer-"raise the white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be considered."
Thus beset by his friends and pressed by his enemies, the brave Peter Stuyvesant was compelled to capitulate; and yet, said he, in answer to the suplications of the women and children who thronged about him, "I would much rather be carried out dead."*
Thus was the Dutch power in America annihilated. I suppose no good man, who knows the facts, will be likely to attempt a justification of this aggressive war, condemned by Camden, and acknowledged by Clarendon to have been commenced " without a shadow of justice."
* Trumbull, i. 266, 268; Holmes, i. 334; Brodhead, i. 738, 741; Smith's Hist. of N. York, p. 10, 12, 14, 22, &c.
229
THE CONTROVERSY CONTINUED.
[1664.]
Scarcely had the royal commissioners sailed out of Boston harbor for New Amsterdam, when Mr. Whiting of Connec- ticut, who was at Boston during their stay at that port, hastened to New Haven to inform the authorities there how loftily the king's functionaries carried themselves, in what danger the colonies all were, and urging the people of New Haven to throw themselves into the arms of Connecticut without delay, to assist her in defending the liberties and boundaries named in the charter.
Governor Leete, on the 11th of August, called a General Court, and laid open to the freemen the intelligence thus re- ceived. A long and serious debate ensued. It was quite obvious that the magistrates and leading gentlemen were most of them disposed to yield, if not to the solicitations of Connecticut, at least to the urgent necessities that pressed upon them. But the people generally were still averse to the union. It was finally resolved " that if Connecticut should come and assert her claim, they would submit until the meet- ing of the commissioners of the united colonies."
On the 1st of September, the New England Congress con- vened at Hartford. The commissioners from New Haven took their seats in that body for the last time. After a care- ful hearing, the Congress decided that "although the Court did not approve of the manner in which Connecticut had proceeded, yet they earnestly pressed a speedy and amicable union of the two colonies."
In conformity with the advice of the Congress, governor Leete, on the 14th of the same month, called another Gen- eral Court. He placed before them the reasons urged by Connecticut, and the advice of the united colonies. The struggle was protracted and bitter. The principal opposition came from New Haven and Branford,* where Davenport and Pierson held an almost absolute sway over the inhabi- tants, and especially over the members of the churches, who
* The Rev. Mr. Pierson of Branford, and almost his entire congregation, were so dissatisfied with the union, that they soon removed to Newark, New Jersey. Hubbard, c. 41; Holmes, i. 338; Hazard, ii. 520.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
were determined to keep the hem of their garments pure from the anticipated stains of the democracy in Connecticut, that allowed men to enjoy the rights of voters and hold any offices of trust without the qualification of church member- ship. Nor could the uncompromising Davenport reflect without tears that the city laid out by himself and Eaton, his bosom friend, and adorned as the capital of a prosperous republic, should thus be shorn of its metropolitan honors and degraded into a provincial town.
Davenport had been the father of the state, and it was like the blotting out of his own existence were he to consent that the insignia of republican authority should be carried from the sacred spot where he had first deposited them. Be- sides he had committed himself against this measure, and Davenport was one of those men who will die rather than be driven from a position when once they have taken it. He held the church in his hand, and the members of the church constituted the state. Desperately he disputed the ground, inch by inch, against those who contended for the union, and again succeeded in preventing a vote in favor of the measure.
Connecticut now appears to have begun to be thoroughly alarmed for herself. The duke of York's claim threatened, notwithstanding the loyality of Connecticut, to dismember her territory, and the duke and dutchess of Hamilton were in the act of prosecuting their claims to an old grant, that ap- peared likely to interfere with the colony. This matter was also referred to the royal commissioners. Besides, the dis- cussions in the New Haven plantations were like an epidemic, that they might not always be able to confine within such narrow boundaries. The wise men of the colony, had there- fore as much as they could well do to keep the little vessel afloat with the most skillful pilotage. But they were equal to the emergency.
In October, the General Assembly, with a liberality as bland as if it had welled up from the heart of the colony, voted to make the king's commissioners a present of five hundred bushels of corn. At the same time, they appointed
231
SERVICES OF WINTHROP.
[1664.]
a committee of men of great ability to settle the boundaries between the colony and the duke of York, and another to agree upon the lines that were to divide them from Massa- chusetts and Rhode Island. They also charged these com- mittees to give up no part of the lands included in the char- ter limits .* A third committee of three gentlemen, at the head of whom was the Hon. Samuel Sherman, was appointed, with instructions to repair to New Haven, and, " in his maj- esty's name to require the inhabitants of New Haven, Mil- ford, Branford, Guilford and Stamford, to submit to the gov- ernment established by his majesty's previous grant to this colony, and to receive their answer." This committee was further ordered by the General Assembly to declare all the freemen in these towns free of the corporation of Connecticut, and to admit such others as they should find qualified, and administer the freeman's oath to them. They were directed also to proclaim in the hearing of the people there, that the General Assembly had clothed Leete, Jones, Gilbert, Treat, Law, Fenn, and Crane, with the authority of magistrates.t
The committee faithfully executed the trust. Whatever alarm may have pervaded the public mind in Connecticut as to the boundary question, I do not think that Winthrop could have labored under any very oppressive apprehensions in re- gard to it. He had rendered important services to the king and the duke of York by his presence and councils at Man- hattan, and had been instrumental in bringing about without bloodshed, an achievment that was even then understood to contribute much to the power of the British sceptre ; al- though no human foresight could at that time have had any thing more than an imperfect glimpse of that peerless city that was, within the next century and three quarters, to rise up like a glorious vision upon the brink of the little river whose waters, in the simple language of the General Assem- bly of Connecticut, "make Manhadoes an island." Besides, Winthrop knew the nature of the king, and perhaps was by this time not without some knowedge-for he read character
Colonial Records, i. 435.
+ Colonial Records, i. 437.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
with an intuitive keenness-of the views and intentions of Nichols and the other commissioners upon the boundary question. He had also, too, a thorough knowledge of the coast, and too practical a turn of mind, not to be aware that it was better for Connecticut to give up her claim to Long Island and Delaware, and have an unbroken domain upon the sea-shore, with fixed limits, and of sufficient size to be active without being unwieldy, than to divide her energies to maintain a feeble authority over a small and scattered popu- lation. Hence, I am not sure that he was much averse to the decision of the commissioners, when, on the 30th of No- vember, they declared it to be as follows :
" That the southern bounds of his majesty's colony of Con- necticut, is the sea, and that Long Island is to be under the government of his royal highness, the duke of York, as is ex- pressed by plain words in the said patents respectively. We also order and declare, that the creek or river called Mama- roneck, which is reputed to be about twelve miles to the east of Westchester, and a line drawn from the east point or side, where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high-water mark, north northwest, to the line of Massachusetts, be the western bounds of the said colony ; and the plantations ly- ing westward of that creek, and line so drawn, to be under his royal highness' government; and all plantations lying eastward of that creek and line, to be under the government of Connecticut."*
This decision put an end to the long struggle between Connecticut and New Haven.
On the 13th of December, the freemen of New Haven, held their last General Court. It was very thinly attended, but it adopted with one consent the following resolutions :
"1. That, by this act or vote, we be not understood to justify Connecticut's former actings, nor any thing disorderly done by their people, on such accounts.
"2. That, by it, we be not apprehended to have any hand in breaking or dissolving the confederation.
* Trumbull, i. 273.
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THE UNION EFFECTED.
[1664.]
"3. Yet, in loyality to the king's majesty, when an au- thentic copy of the determination of his majesty's commis- sioners is published, to be recorded with us, if thereby it shall appear to our committee, that we are, by his majesty's au- thority, now put under Connecticut patent, we shall submit, by a necessity brought upon us, by the means of Connecti- cut aforesaid : but with a salve jure of our former rights and claims, as a people, who have not yet been heard in point of plea."*
Thus the colony of New Haven, having drawn the folds of her mantle about her, as if to prepare herself to die with the dignity that became her, found, with a pleased surprise, that union was not annihilation, and in the arms of her elder sister, whom she learned at last both to forgive and to love, " lay down to pleasant dreams."
* Trumbull, i. 274.
CHAPTER XI.
THE REGICIDES.
THE restoration of Charles II. was the result of a com- promise between all the factions that had participated in the struggles that preceded it. Indeed, some of the most dis- tinguished opposers of the tyranny of Charles I., and some of the most faithful adherents of Cromwell, were indispensa- ble agents in hastening a result that filled England with jubi- lee and awakened as lively anticipations as had ever swelled the bosom of a nation.
Desirous of gaining the favor of all parties, Charles had promised to be forgiving to all who were disposed to return to their allegiance, and at Breda had proffered an indemnity to all criminals save those whom the parliament should ex- cept .* As far as his fickle nature was capable of gratitude, he certainly entertained it towards those who had aided in his return. The presbyterians as well as the royalists were admitted into his counsels and had their share of the gifts that were at his disposal. He created Annesly, earl of An- glesey ; Ashley Cooper, lord Ashley ; and Dengil Hollis, lord Hollis. He also made the good earl of Manchester his lord chamberlain ; lord Say, his privy seal ; and stretched his lib- erality so far as to appoint two presbyterian clergymen, Calamy and Baxter, to the place of chaplains to the king. He created Montague, earl of Sandwich; his friend Monk, duke of Albemarle; Sir William Maurice, secretary of state; Sir Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, lord chancellor and prime minister. He raised Ormond from the rank of a mar-
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