USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 26
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In this state of uncertainty the affair rested, until, on the 28th of December, another writ of quo warranto was served upon the governor and company of the colony. This writ bore date the 23d of October, and required the defendants to appear before the king " within eight days of the purification of the Blessed Virgin." The crown lawyer who drew it, must have laughed heartily at the most catholic and mystical return day mentioned in a citation wherein puritans were the parties summoned. It is not at all likely that they had informed themselves as to the time of that event, so interest- ing to King James, nor could they dream, even were the day of purification fairly known to them, on what one of those eight days the king would graciously attend upon them .*
The scribe might as well have said, within eight days of the time when the king's soul shall have been released from purgatory. Of course, the day named was not known to the English law, and was, therefore, no day at all in legal contemplation.
I have hitherto in this work, attempted to speak of all dignitaries with respect ; but this piece of royal jugglery, so unworthy of a man, not to say of a king, deserves all repro- bation, and has not even the convenient cloak of bigotry and superstition to hide its meanness .; It is a political trick that any one of the courtly Plantaganets or blunt Tudors would have been incapable of practicing, and one that the grandfather, father, and brother of King James, would have scorned to be thought guilty of. Long before his ignomin- ious reign, still marked in British history for its imbecility, its cruelty, its wanton violation of every principle of the constitution, and its disregard both of the forms and spirit of the law, a royal charter had been settled to be an irrevocable thing so long as its terms were kept sacredly by the grantees ;
* The parties summoned might also have asked with propriety whether "within eight days" before or after the event designated, was intended by his majesty.
t See Wade, 251, 252.
309
OTHER CHARTERS REVOKED.
and from immemorial time it had been the right of the sub- ject to be duly cited to appear, before any right could be taken from him. Before this unoffending colony was perfid- iously stabbed in the dark by the government, nearly fifty corporations in England had been robbed of their charters, through various pretexts, and so shallow and untenable that an honorable barrister might feel ashamed to stand up and show cause why they should not prevail. Even the city of London, herself a mighty empire, after going through the form of a trial, had lost her corporate privileges. The char- ter of Massachusetts had fallen a prey to the same rapacity, and that of Rhode Island, enjoyed for such a brief space of time, had been surrendered .* A general government had been appointed over all New England with the exception of Connecticut, and even from her, the Narragansett country, already declared to be hers by the commissioners named by King Charles II., had been recklessly taken away. This general government of New England was instituted under a commission granted during the first year of the new mon- arch's reign, and in it Joseph Dudley was named president of the commissioners. President Dudley, in pursuance of his official duty, thereupon on the 28th of May 1686, had sent abroad a proclamation "discharging all the inhabitants of Rhode Island and Narragansetts from obedience either to Connecticut or Rhode Island, and prohibiting all government of either in the king's province."t
The authorities of Connecticut could not fail to be alarmed at the threatening attitude of affairs. They had good cause to believe that judgment would be entered up against them, through default of appearance to defend, when no day had been named in the writ of quo warranto, yet they attempted to withstand the approaching shock, and still dared to hope that in the midst of the fallen columns of other temples, theirs might keep its place. Governor Treat, who has been much commended as a warrior by all our historical writers
* Callender, 47; Adams ; Hutchinson.
+ Trumbull, i. 369.
310
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
who have treated of the period in which he lived, and who was no less preeminent as a civilian, summoned up all his resolution to meet the emergencies of that critical time. On the 26th of January 1687, and after the reception of the third writ of quo warranto, he called a special assembly to decide on the steps to be taken by the colony. But the sad representatives of the people with trembling lips begged his excellency, with the advice of his council, to do for them at discretion what they could not do for themselves, and then returned to their homes.
In March the court again met and declared by their vote that " they did not see sufficient reason to vary from the answer they gave Sir Edmund Andross to a motion of sur- render in January last." A letter was ordered to be sent to Andross in the name of the court .*
In May they met regularly under the charter and made their annual choice of officers. Treat was again chosen governor. The General Assembly still refused to direct what measures should be adopted. Fear paralyzed all their energies, and despair began to cast a dark shadow over their deliberations. If they yielded up their corporate immunities, what would they get in place of them but a reckless provin- cial government, heavy taxes, unsettled tenures, broken obli- gations, religious persecutions ? For, what faith could they expect him to keep with them, who only two years before had written a letter to Governor Treatt filled with fatherly promises and tender recognition of their corporate existence ?
* Colony Records.
+ This letter, addressed by James II. to Governor Treat, bearing date the 26th of June 1685, is one of the most bland and comforting documents to be found on file in our Department of State. It contains also a most absolute admission of the validity of the charter, and of our uniform observance of its terms. In it the king is pleased to compliment his subjects in Connecticut in very gracious language, and he promises to extend to them " his royal care and protection in the preserva- tion of their rights, and in the defense and security of their persons and estates." The letter still remains, and taken with the other documentary evidences to be found in the same depository, it is a monument scarcely equalled in the annals of the world, of the perfidy and corruption of the false and grasping monarch who is to be held responsible for its contents.
311
ANDROSS GOVERNOR OF NEW ENGLAND.
[1686.]
On the other hand, if they resisted, how easy would it be for the tyrant to declare them traitors? With the deepest solicitude, the deputies again committed their distracted affairs to the governor and council, and adjourned.
Meanwhile, Mr. Whiting, the agent, did what he could in England to prevent a consolidation of the New England colonies, and especially to keep the colony that he repre- sented from such a fate. But his efforts proved of no avail. Accordingly, on the 15th of January 1687, he wrote a letter to Governor Treat, informing him of the prospects that awaited Connecticut, and begging that the governor and council would send one or more of their own number, to defend the charter.
On the 15th of June, a special assembly was called to take advice as to the propriety of adopting this course, and after due consultation it was thought best not to send any more agents in a matter where so skillful a diplomatist as Whi- ting had failed. He was desired to continue his services " both in appearing for us and in our behalf to make answer to what shall be objected against us, and generally to do whatever shall be needful to be done for us." The governor, deputy governor, and assistants, were directed to present the thanks of the Assembly to Mr. Whiting for his services .*
President Dudley had already addressed a letter to the governor and council, advising them to resign the charter into the king's hands. Should they do so, he undertook to use his influence in behalf of the colony. They did not deem it advisable to comply with the request. Indeed, they had hardly time to do so before the old commission was broken up, and a new one granted, superseding Dud- ley and naming Sir Edmund Andross governor of New England.
Sir Edmund arrived in Boston on the 19th of December 1686,t and the next day he published his commission and took the government into his hands. Scarcely had he estab- lished himself, when he sent a letter to the governor and
* Colony Records.
t Washburn's Judicial Hist. Mass., 94, 126.
312
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
company of Connecticut, acquainting them with his appoint- ment, and informing them that he was commissioned by the king to receive their charter if they would give it up to him. He begged them, as they would give him a favorable oppor- tunity to serve them, and as they loved and honored his majesty, not to keep it back any longer.
As this communication did not bring forward the much desired paper, Sir Edmund soon after addressed another to Governor Treat, in which he said that he had just received tidings from England that judgment had been entered upon default in the writ of quo warranto brought against the col- ony, and that he should soon receive the king's commands respecting them. He earnestly urged the company to antici- pate any compulsory steps that might otherwise be taken, and to receive the gratitude and favor of their sovereign, by voluntarily yielding up what would else be plucked from them by force.
When this last epistle was received, the Assembly was in session, and it was forthwith submitted to them, in connec- tion with another from Colonel Dungan of a like import. If caution is one trait of the people of Connecticut, the reader has by this time learned that the most cool and persistent courage is another that they possess in a high degree. With one voice, the Assembly decided to stand for their rights, and hold fast to the charter. Still, that caution might be duly mingled with courage, and that patience might have her perfect work upon them, they addressed a petition to the king, earnestly supplicating him to preserve those privileges that had been granted to them by his royal brother, and re- newed by the kind assurances in his own gracious letter to their governor. If this, the burden of their prayers, should be denied them, they beg that they may not be separated from their old friends in Massachusetts, and that they may be placed under the government of Sir Edmund Andross .*
This alternative request, wrung as it was from the heart- agony of a suffering people, was artfully construed into a
* Colony Records.
313
GOVERNOR ANDROSS VISITS HARTFORD.
[1687.]
voluntary resignation of their charter .* Thus was a sup- plication. that had been obtained by fraud and lies, sought to be made available by a false construction too gross to deceive even the weakest mind. As well might a martyr's prayer for life uttered in the cold ears of his inquisitors, closing with the last request that, if he must die, his features may not be mutilated by the devilish enginery of torture, or his limbs be broken upon the wheel, be considered as fully granted, because touched with some sense of womanly re- morse, they had dexterously snatched the immortal jewel without shattering the perishable casket in which it had been imprisoned.
Notwithstanding the earnest appeal made to the king, to do justice to her, the little colony still clung to the charter.
In October, at the time prescribed by it, the General As- sembly convened as usual, and held its regular session.
On Monday, the 31st of October 1687,t Sir Edmund An- dross, attended by several of the members of his council and other gentlemen, surrounded by a body guard of about sixty soldiers, entered Hartford with a view of taking possession of the instrument that all his efforts had failed to procure from the reluctant authorities. The General Assembly was in session when he arrived. He was received by the gover- nor and council, and by the other members of the Assembly, with all the outward marks of respect, but it was obvious that no cordial feeling of congratulation awaited him. An- dross entering the legislative hall in the presence of the
* The author of " Will and Doom," (referring to the letter containing this petition of the Connecticut Assembly) says: "The letter being received at Whitehall, the king readily granted their request of being annexed to the Bay, pursues his quo warranto no further, but sends a commission to Sir Edmund Andross, Kt., (then governor of Massachusetts,) to take on him the government of Connecticut." The same writer subsequently says : "The charter govern- ment of Connecticut was laid aside by their own act, and the king's government was erected by his excellency without fraud or force, but with the free consent of all parties concerned." He could hardly have been acquainted with the prin- ciples of the English law, or he would have remembered that " duress per minas voids all contracts."
+ Bulkley's " Will and Doom."
314
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Assembly, publicly demanded the charter, and declared the government that was then acting under it to be dissolved. The Assembly, confronted as they were by this royal emis- sary with an armed force at his heels, neither complied with his demand to bring forth the charter, nor did they evince, by resolve or any other expression of their legislative will, a determination to abandon any right or immunity that they had acquired and held under it. Tradition, never contro- verted by a single respectable authority, tells us that Gover- nor Treat remonstrated against this arbitrary proceeding, with the manliness and strong sense that characterized his whole life ; that he gave a brief narrative of the early settle- ment of the colony, the hardships and dangers that beset the people for so many years; the Indian wars with their long train of evils. He pictured, as none but a participant in that sad drama could have done, the savages, the fire, slaugh- ter, and captivity, that had made Philip's war " so memorable and so horrible;" and after representing in vivid colors the part that he had himself played in that and other kindred struggles, he said it was like giving up his life, now to give up the patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long enjoyed .*
Whether Sir Edmund condescended to reply to this touch- ing appeal, we are not informed, but in some way the delib- erations were protracted until evening, perhaps by the choice of Sir Edmund himself, certainly by his acquiescence, who may have seen in the lowering brows of the citizens as they thronged the hall and glanced silently upon him, a spirit that suggested to his mind the prudence of obtaining if he could a quiet submission. I have every cause to think from the previous and subsequent history of the colony, that Governor Treat, who could have had little hope of making any impres- sion upon the heart of Andross by this oration, prolonged the debate as much as possible in pursuance of a plan of opera- tions that had been before agreed upon, in which others less liable to the charge of treason were to be the principal
* Trumbull, i. 371.
315
THE CHARTER DISAPPEARS.
[1787.]
actors. Be this as it might, the shades of evening gathered around the legislative chamber, and still the charter had not made its appearance. Lighted candles were brought in, and the eager crowd pressed more and more densely into the room, to witness the last pang of the expiring colony. We may suppose that by this time Sir Edmund had lost all patience, and, as he saw no such manifestations of violence and brutality as evince the madness of an English mob, that he would be still more peremptory in his demands. At last the governor and assistants appear to yield. The charter is brought in and laid upon the table in the midst of the Assem- bly .* It was then that the first lesson was given to a crea- ture of the British crown, teaching him how wide is the dif- ference between an English populace and a body of Ameri- can freemen. In an instant, the lights were extinguished, and the room was wrapped in total darkness. Still, not a word was spoken, not a threat was breathed. The silence that pervaded the place was as profound as the darkness.
The candles were quietly re-lighted, but, strange to tell, the charter had disappeared. Sir Edmund, and we may well believe, the people's governor too, looked carefully in every nook and corner where it might be thought to be hid, but their search was in vain. All efforts to find the perpetrator of this rash and sudden act, proved equally fruitless.
" Had he melted in earth or vanished in air ?"
Thus robbed of the prize while it seemed already in his grasp, Sir Edmund Andross smothered his resentment as well as he could, and proceeded to assume the reins of au- thority. In the following pompous words, he announced that the government of the people was at an end :
* The following entry in the Colonial Records doubtless has reference to this scene : "Sundry of the court desiring that the patent or charter might be brought into the court, the secretary sent for it and informed the governor and court that he had the charter, and showed it to the court, and the governor bid him put it in the box again and lay it on the table, and leave the key in the box, which he did forthwith."
316
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
" At a General Court at Hartford, October 31st, 1687, his excellency, Sir Edmund Andross, knight, and captain-gen- eral and governor of his majesty's territories and dominions in New England, by order of his majesty James the Second, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the colony of Connecticut, it being by his majesty annexed to Massachusetts, and other colonies under his excellency's government.
FINIS."*
The new governor now proceeded to appoint officers throughout the colony. His council consisted of about fifty persons. Of these, Governor Treat, John Fitz Winthrop, Wait Winthrop, and John Allen, were from Connecticut. Sir Edmund, like his master, began his administration with
* Bulkley, in his " Will and Doom," gives a somewhat detailed account of the way in which Sir Edmund assumed the government, and of the humble manner in which Governor Treat made his resignation to his successor. It may be inter- esting to the reader, and I therefore subjoin it, in that quaint author's own language :
" Upon this notice, the governor summons the General Court to meet at Hart- ford about the same time, who accordingly attended (ready to receive his excel- lency when he came,) and held a court, and some say also voted a submission to him, though of this we are not yet well assured, and possibly they made no record of it.
" On Monday, October 31, 1687, Sir Edmund Andross, (with divers of the members of his council and other gentlemen attending him, and with his guards,) came to Hartford, where he was received with all respect and welcome congratula- tion that Connecticut was capable of. The troops of horse of that county conducted him honorably from the ferry through Waterfield, up to Hartford, where the trained bands of divers towns, (who had waited there some part of the week before, expecting his coming then, now again being commanded by their leaders,) united to pay him their respects at his coming.
" Being arrived at Hartford, he is greeted and caressed by the governor and assistants, (whose part it was, being the heads of the people, to be most active in what was now to be done,) and some say, though I will not confidently assert it, that the governor and one of the assistants did declare to him the vote of the General Court for their submission to him.
"However, after some treaty between his excellency and them, that evening, he was the next morning waited on and conducted by the governor, deputy governor, assistants and deputies. to the court chamber, and by the governor him-
317
TYRANNY OF ANDROSS.
[1687.]
many professions of tender regard for the people. He bade his magistrates dispense justice with an even hand, and as nearly as might be in consonance with the established laws and usages of the colony. But these instructions were merely the thin disguise of his ultimate designs to plunder and op- press the people, or else, like many a greater man, he soon became intoxicated by too copious draughts from the exhil- arating cup of power, and was led into excesses that were foreign from his original intentions. Doubtless the example of a bad king, whose favor he was too anxious to win, goaded him on to acts of blindness and lawlessness that had before that time known no precedent in Connecticut.
One of his first acts of tyranny, and the one of all others most likely to awaken the indignation of a people nurtured under the auspices of the constitution of 1639, was to put an end to the liberty of the press. He then proceeded to incur the displeasure of our youths and maidens by requiring all those parties who were about to form matrimonial alliances, first to give heavy bonds with sureties to the governor. In many cases, this was impossible, and amounted to an actual prohibition. He also took away from the clergy the power of joining persons in wedlock, and confined that privilege exclusively to magistrates. This was done to deprive the clergy of the perquisites resulting from the discharge of this delicate and sacred function .*
He soon made a still more radical innovation. The min- isters, as the reader is now well aware, had been the patri-
self directed to the governor's seat, and being there seated, (the late governor, assistants and deputies being present, and the chamber thronged as full of people as it was capable of,) his excellency declared that his majesty had, according to their desire, given him a commission to come and take on him the government of Connecticut-and caused his commission to be publicly read.
" That being done, his excellency showed that it was his majesty's pleasure to make the late governor and Capt. John Allyn members of his council, and called upon them to take their oaths, which they did forthwith-and all this in that pub- lic and great assembly, nemine contradicente, only one man said that they first desired that they might continue as they were."
* Trumbull, i. 372.
318
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
archs of the colony, and its pioneers. They had acted the part of Moses and Aaron, and had led the people through the wilderness, and into the promised land. They had smitten the rock for the gushing forth of the waters; they had de- stroyed the molten images and superintended the cutting down of the groves ; their prayers had aided in driving out the Canaanites, and in obedience to their voice the humble tabernacle had been set up in the midst of the tents of the people of God. Thus had the inhabitants of Connecticut been taught by their fathers to believe, and hence the reverence that followed the minister wherever he went was bred in the children that composed his flock. It was a reverence sometimes carried to an unwarrantable extent, amounting to a sacrifice of personal independence. But, unlike the rever- ence with which Sir Edmund bent the knee and bowed to the arbitrary will of the king, it was a sentiment that had in it little of the alloy of selfishness and none of the obsequi- ous cowardice of adulation. It was certainly honest and earnest, and pervaded the whole atmosphere of society. The people had brought with them from England the belief that it was necessary to the well-being of a state that the clergy-and they had one of their own-should be supported by law. They had, therefore, grown up under a mild and greatly modified tithing system. With a view of striking a blow most calculated to wound them, and with no regard, certainly, for the promotion of that religious liberty now so universal in this country, Sir Edmund repealed the laws requiring citizens to pay taxes for the support of the clergy. If they resisted his will, he declared that he would take their meeting-houses from them, and that he would punish any body who should give two-pence to a non-conformist minister.
That this movement was imprudent and unstatesmanlike, to say nothing of its moral effect upon a people living in the seventeenth century, and brought up with the strictness peculiar to a Puritan education, I need not say to any reader who knows any thing of the philosophy of human govern-
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319
[1688.]
LAND TITLES DECLARED VOID.
ment. It would of itself have destroyed all confidence between the governor and the governed, had any existed, and would, in the course of a few years, have resulted in resist- ance and bloodshed throughout New England.
Another measure adopted by him was, that all estates of deceased persons should be administered upon at Boston. The expenses of a journey to the capital city from the border towns of Connecticut were very burdensome, and in the case of widows and orphans, often amounted to an ab- solute denial of justice. The fees under his government were such as better befitted a mercantile city like Lon- don than the agricultural towns of Connecticut. It cost fifty shillings to prove a will, and other charges were in proportion.
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