USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 12
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Affairs began now to assume a very threatening attitude. The Sons of Liberty from Norwich, New London, Windham, Lebanon, and other towns, had already taken the field, and with eight days' provisions, were riding up and down the country on horseback to search him out and force him to resign. He could no longer stay in New Haven with safety.
* Gordon, i. 118. t See Connecticut Gazette, vol. i.
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He therefore set off for Hartford, where the Assembly was about to meet. He intended to take the advice of the representatives of the people, hoping it might be more to his mind than the will of the constituency. Governor Fitch accompanied him to protect him from insult. On their way they were met by two men on horseback, with peeled clubs in their hands, who did not conceal the fact that they were couriers of a much larger company. His excellency bade them go back and tell their associates to disperse. To his astonishment they refused to obey him. "We look upon this," said they, "as the cause of the people ; we will not take directions about it from any one !" Mr. Ingersoll sent a message by them to the effect, that he would meet the multi- tude at Hartford. They then withdrew.
On Thursday evening, the very day on which the session was to begin, Ingersoll resumed his journey for Hartford alone. He rode through the woods many miles, and passed up the valley of the Connecticut for a good long way, with- out molestation. What thoughts served to while away the time of this solitary traveler, history does not tell us, and we are left at liberty to conjecture each for himself. He had arrived within two or three miles of Wethersfield, when he saw four or five men advancing to meet him. He probably needed little explanation as to the object of their errand. About half a mile further up the river, he met a second escort of thirty men. Still no violence was offered to him. The stamp-master and his guard rode on with the solemnity and decorum of a funeral procession. But still more con- spicuous honors awaited him. He soon saw a cavalcade of about five hundred freeholders and farmers, all well mounted and armed, not with carbines and steel blades, but with long and ponderous clubs. They were ghastly white too, for the bark had been stripped from every one, in rude imitation of the ominous baton carried at that day by officers of the peace. This formidable company, under the command of Durkee, rode slowly forward behind two militia officers dressed in full uniform, and inspired by the presence of three
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INGERSOLL REMONSTRATES.
[1765.]
trumpeters who made the woods echo with martial music. They rode two abreast, and opened their line to receive Mr. Ingersoll with the profoundest courtesy. They then rode forward along the western bank of the Connecticut, over those fair acres that were then cultivated farms, and have since been converted into gardens, until they came to Weth- ersfield. In the wide main street of this oldest of all the towns in the colony, the grandsons and great-grandsons of the pioneer planters, who had left the straightened settlements of Massachusetts to enjoy pure liberty and "brave meadow- lands"-halted between the two rows of houses whose fronts kept their gentlemanly distance of twenty full rods from each other ; and looking up at the blue vault, as if the open heavens were best fitted to witness the triumph of principles that had descended as legacies to them, they exclaimed signi- ficantly, "we cannot all see and hear so well in a house ; we had as good have the business done here."
Then they commanded him to resign. " Is it fair," inter- posed Ingersoll, "that the counties of New London and Windham should dictate to all the rest of the colony ?" "It don't signify to parley," was the answer, "here are a great many people waiting, and you must resign." Then ensued in substance the following dialogue between the people and the stamp-master.
Ingersoll. "I wait to know the sense of the government. Besides, were I to resign, the governor has power to put in another."
People. " Here is the sense of the government; and no man shall exercise your office."
Ingersoll. " What will follow if I won't resign ?"
People. "Your fate."
Ingersoll (calmly.) "I can die, and perhaps as well now as at any time. I can die but once."
Durkee (impatiently.) "Don't irritate the people !"
Ingersoll. "I ask for leave to proceed to Hartford."
Durkee. "You shall not go two rods till you have resigned."
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Ingersoll now bethought him of a new expedient to gain time. Under the pretense of reflecting upon the propriety of complying with the demand of the people, he retired into an upper-room of a house that was standing near by the spot where this parley had taken place. A committee of the people attended him. Here he contrived to put off the multi- tude with promises and excuses for three tedious hours, dur- ing which he sent a messenger to Hartford to inform the governor and the legislature of his situation. At last the crowd began to lose all patience. "Get the matter over before the Assembly has time to do anything about it," said some ; while others, probing his motives to their depths, exclaimed in their blunt strong English, "this delay is his artifice, to wheedle the matter along till the Assembly shall get ensnared in it." The passions of the multitude were now at fever heat. Striding to the door of the house where Ingersoll had retreated, and stalking up the stairs, Durkee again confronted the stamp-master. "I can keep the people off no longer," said he, in a tone of warning. These words were like a death-knell to Ingersoll. He saw the stalwart farmers filling the hall with their dark forms, their white staves gleaming as they pressed upon each other, and their great bright eyes flashing with indignation. The heavy tramp of others was heard ascending the stairs. He saw that he must surrender at discretion or be torn in pieces.
"The cause is not worth dying for," said he, with the cool irony that marked his character, as he set his hand to the formal resignation that had been prepared for him, and of which the following is a copy.
" WETHERSFIELD, September 19th, 1765.
" I do hereby promise, that I never will receive any stamped papers which may arrive from Europe, in consequence of an act lately passed in the Parliament of Great Britain ; nor officiate as Stamp-Master or Distributor of Stamps, within the colony of Connecticut, either directly or indirectly. And I do hereby notify to all the inhabitants of his Majesty's colony of Connecticut (notwithstanding the said office or
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INGERSOLL'S RESIGNATION.
[1765.]
trust has been committed to me,) not to apply to me, ever after, for any stamped paper ; hereby declaring that I do resign the said office, and execute these PRESENTS of my own FREE WILL AND ACCORD, without any equivocation or mental reser- vation.
" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, "J. INGERSOLL."
"Swear to it," cried the people when he had written his name. He begged that they would excuse him from taking an oath. "Then shout Liberty and Property three times," said the sovereign crowd. Against this spontaneous form of abjuration he could raise no valid objection. He swung his hat about his head and uttered the charmed words three several times, with such well-feigned earnestness that the people set the seal to his repentance by giving three huzzas, that must have echoed to the eastern bank of the Con- necticut.
The party now dined in perfect good humor. By this time the company had doubled its numbers, and after dinner one thousand horsemen were ready to attend his triumphant entry into Hartford .* The highway was thronged with freeholders, standing in front of their houses, to get a fair view of the stamp-master and his retinue. The windows were crowded all the way, with the faces of grave matrons, and sparkled with the glances of ruddy-cheeked girls who could as ill conceal their curiosity as their mischievous merri- ment at such a spectacle.
At last they reached the capitol. Here Durkee drew up his dragoons four abreast, and, while the trumpeters redoubled their exertions to enliven the scene, led the main body over
* As an indication of the good humor that prevailed on the part of Ingersoll and the populace, General Humphreys mentions a jest that passed between them while the cavalcade was escorting the ex-stamp-master to Hartford-which was given and received with entire good nature. Mr. Ingersoll, who chanced to ride a white horse, being asked what he thought to find himself attended by such a retinue, replied, " that he had now a clearer idea than ever he had before conceived of that passage in the Revelations which describes death on a pale horse, and hell following him." Life of Putnam, p. 32.
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the familiar haunts where the train-bands had defied the tyranny of Fletcher, and where the charter had eluded the grasp of Andross. He then ordered them to form around the court-house in a semi-circle. The stamp-master was set in a conspicuous place, and commanded to read his recanta- tion aloud in the hearing of the Assembly and in the presence of the people. He went through the ceremony to the univer- sal satisfaction of his audience, and after the shout of Liberty and Property had been again followed by a round of hearty cheers, these lords of the soil whose ancestors had helped to frame the constitution of 1639, returned to their farms to pray for the king and supplicate Heaven that the eyes of the ministry might be opened to repeal the unhallowed and execrable stamp act .*
* Hutchinson's Letter to Governor Pownall ; Ingersoll's account ; Connecticut Courant, No. 44, under date Sept. 23, 1765 ; Bancroft's account of the transaction in his fifth vol. p. 318, 319, 320.
Notwithstanding the publicity of Ingersoll's resignation and recantation, it would seem that the Sons of Liberty were fearful that he might still exercise the duties of the hated office. This suspicion induced him to make a still further public announcement, as follows :-
" Whereas, I have lately received two anonymous letters, calling on me (among other things,) to give the public some further assurance with regard to my inten- tions about exercising the office of distributor of stamps for this colony, as some others have done since receiving our commissions or deputations of office for that purpose ; and that I confirm the same by oath. And although I don't think it best ordinarily to take notice of such letters, nor yet to take oaths upon such kind of occasions ; yet, (as I have good reason to think those letters came from a large number of people belonging to this colony, and do respect a subject of a very inte- resting nature, and the present times being peculiarly difficult and critical, and I myself at no loss or difficulty about making known my resolutions and intentions respecting the matters aforesaid,) I have concluded to make the following declara- tion and to confirm the same by an oath-that is to say-
" 1. I never was nor am now desirous, or even willing, to hold or exercise the aforesaid office, contrary to the mind and inclination of the general body of people in this colony.
"2. I have for some time been and still am persuaded, that it is the general opinion and sentiment of the people of this colony (after mature deliberation,) that the stamp act is an infringement of their rights and dangerous to their liberties, and therefore I am not willing, nor will I, for that and other good and sufficient reasons, as I suppose, (and which I hope and trust will excuse me to those who appointed me,) exercise the said office against such general opinion and sentiment
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PUTNAM AND FITCH.
[1765.]
Colonel Putnam, who had been one of the principal instiga- tors of this movement, was prevented by unavoidable circumstances from being present. Soon after this event he was deputed to wait on Governor Fitch, and express to him the sentiments of the people on this delicate matter. The interview exhibits, in the following dialogue, the spirit of the times and the moral courage of this deputy of the Sons of Liberty :
Governor. " What shall I do if the stamped paper should be sent to me by the king's authority ?"
Putnam. "Lock it up until we* shall visit you again."
Governor. " And what will you do then ?"
Putnam. "We shall expect you to give us the key of the room in which it is deposited : and if you think fit, in order to screen yourself from blame, you may forewarn us upon our peril not to enter the room."
Governor. "And what will you do afterwards ?"
Putnam. "Send it safely back again."
Governor. " But if I should refuse admission ?"
Putnam. " Your house will be leveled with the dust in five minutes!"t
Thus ended the colloquy. It was soon repeated in New York, and alarmed those agents who had charge of this con- traband property to such a degree that they did not dare to send their freight into Connecticut.}
of the people ; and, generally and in a word, will never at all, by myself or other- wise, officiate under my said deputation. And as I have, so I will, in the most effectual manner I am able, apply to the proper board in England, for a dismis- sion from my said office.
"New Haven, ss., Jan. 8, 1766."
" J. INGERSOLL.
"Then personally appeared Jared Ingersoll, Esq., and made oath to the truth of the foregoing declaration, by him subscribed, before me,
" DAVID LYMAN, Just. Peace."
* " We," probably means Sons of Liberty.
+ Humphreys' Life of Putnam, pp. 33, 34.
# It appears from an article in the " Connecticut Courant," of March 24, 1766, that during that month several vessels arrived at New London from Barbadoes and Antigua, which had lodged " certain stamped papers with the emblems of slavery," at the custom-house in that place. The collector was immediately waited
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Thus ended the exhibition of popular feeling in the colony against the stamp act. The law was repealed in March, 1766, but with such a bad grace on the part of the British ministry that it failed to conciliate the exasperated colonies. In vain did they insist on the inseparable existence of taxation and representation, in vain did Pitt sound the alarm, and in vain did Lord Camden reiterate the words " it is itself an eternal law of nature ;" the sullen ministry insisted still upon the right to continue the law, while from prudential motives they repealed it. Such blind instruments did they prove them- selves to be, in preparing the way for a separation.
upon by a committee of the Sons of Liberty, who demanded an instant surrender of any stamped paper lodged in his office. They were forthwith given up with the utmost politeness. A mock court was instituted, which, after due delibera- tion, brought in a verdict of guilty, against the offending papers, and passed sen- tence that they should "receive thirty stripes at the public whipping-post, and be committed to the flames." "Whereupon, (says the account,) the sentence was duly executed in the presence of the court, amidst the acclamations of a numerous assembly, whose hearts were filled with the most ardent wishes for the honor, health, and welfare of George the Third, the best of kings, and illustrious family- success of the mother country-freedom and unanimity in the British Parliament."
CHAPTER VI.
THE BOSTON PORT BILL.
THE repeal of the Stamp Act was followed by other oppressive statutes of a kindred sort. The Rockingham administration was at an end, and the idol of the colonies, William Pitt, now created Earl of Chatham, was authorized to form a new ministry. The Duke of Grafton was placed at the head of the treasury ; Lord Shelburne was joined with General Conway, as one of the Secretaries of State ; the Earl of Camden, was made Lord Chancellor, Lord North and George Cooke, joint-paymasters ; and to crown all these incongruities, the passionate, eccentric, unprincipled Charles Townshend, the old friend of Grenville, and the plotter against the peace of America, was nominated Chancellor of the Ex- chequer. But the strange elements that the Earl of Chatham had gathered around him, could only have been kept together by the controling will of that great man. His health soon failed, and the government nominally under his direction, fell into hands that were hostile to the interests of the American colonies. Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and of course had mainly in his charge the financial relations of the government. Although he had originally aided in the passage of the Stamp Act, he had afterwards used all his influence to effect its repeal, and now possessed the confi- dence of the colonies to such a degree that they regarded him rather with favor than suspicion. Massachusetts had even gone so far as to give him a vote of thanks for his zeal in the service of the colonies .*
Never was confidence more sadly misplaced. It soon became obvious that if the friendship formerly subsisting
* Gordon's Hist. i. 143.
.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
between Lord Grenville and Townshend had grown cold, the ex-minister was not without his influence. Chagrined at his ill-fated attempts to oppress the Americans, Grenville took every occasion in the House of Commons to taunt the new ministry with weakness in allowing the colonies to remain unburdened with the weight of taxation.
"You are cowards," he exclaimed one evening, turning his eye towards the seats occupied by the ministers; "you are afraid of the Americans ; you dare not tax America."
Townshend was in a rage at this sudden attack. Should he, the gallant, the chivalrous man of genius, be branded with cowardice in the discharge of an official duty? His proud spirit spurned the imputation. Rising in his place he threw back the barbed arrow that had fastened itself in his flesh. "Fear-fear," repeated he scornfully : " cowards ;--.: dare not tax America ! I dare tax America."
Grenville saw his advantage ; he paused a moment, and then added with a sneering look, "Dare you tax America? I wish to God I could see it ?"
" I will-I will," responded the Chancellor of the Exchequer .*
Accordingly, at the very first session of parliament, he presented a plan for drawing money from the American provinces that was thought to be unexceptionable. He pro- posed to keep up a standing army in the colonies, and to give executive and judicial officers such salaries as would make them independent of the provincial legislatures.
The new revenue bill was to be so framed as to pass for an act regulating trade, and not for a direct tax levied upon the colonies. The act provided that tea, paints, paper, glass, and lead, (all of them articles of British production,) should pay a duty at the colonial custom-houses. As a condition of this bill, another was brought forward to encourage the exporta- tion of tea to the colonies allowing a drawback for five years of the whole duty, payable on the importation of that
* MS. of Wm. Samuel Johnson, LL D., then in England as Agent for Connecti- cut. Pitkin's United States, i. 217.
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RIOT AT BOSTON.
[1768.]
article. These insidious measures were so cunningly devised, and called by such innocent names, that they passed, in the absence of Lord Chatham, with little opposition. The new acts of parliament excited much alarm throughout the colonies, as soon as their provisions were made known in America. A deep-seated opposition was soon manifested in Massachusetts, who, from her commercial importance, felt the first blow, and thence spread throughout the colonies .* An act, passed about the same time, suspending the legisla- tive functions of the Assembly of New York, served to rouse the spirit of the continent.t The petition, letters, and other state documents, prepared by Massachusetts and forwarded to England, were of a high, manly tone, and breathed such bold sentiments as seemed easily convertible into the most terrible opposition.
Meanwhile the new board of commissioners of the customs entered upon the discharge of their duties at Boston. Their first act was to sieze the sloop Liberty, belonging to John Hancock, for a violation of the revenue laws.{ This vessel was removed from the wharves by armed boats and placed under the charge of the Romney, a British ship-of-war, then lying at anchor in the harbor. This unusual spectacle inflamed the popular indignation to a very high degree. The citizens of the town who had assembled to witness it, having tried in vain to prevent this outrage upon the pro- perty of one of their favorites, now began to retaliate by acts of violence offered to some of the custom-house officers. The people attacked the houses of the collector and comp- troller, broke their windows, and those of Mr. Williams, the inspector-general; they then siezed the collector's boat, drag- ged it through the town and burned it on the Common. This was on Friday the 10th of June. On Monday morning, at an early hour, the commissioners took refuge on board the Romney, and soon after fled to the castle for protection.§
* Gordon ; Bancroft. + Hildreth ; Graham ; &c.
# Hildreth, ii. 544; Pitkin's United States, ii. 228.
§ Pitkin, ii. 228; Hildreth, i. 544.
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It had before been determined to quarter standing troops in Boston.
Two days, therefore, before this disturbance, Lord Hills- borough directed General Gage forthwith to order one regi- ment or more, if he should deem it necessary, to Boston, to be quartered there.
The arrival of an armed force and the presence of British ships in the harbor only increased the excitement at Boston. The people resolved to prevent the landing of the troops, and made preparations on so large a scale that all the British ves- sels were put in requisition. Fourteen ships of war, with their broadsides toward the town, springs on their cables, and their guns ready to open upon it, could scarcely serve to keep the people at bay while a single regiment was landing. About noon of the first of October, under the cover of the fleet, seven hundred men were sent ashore, and with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets marched into the Common to the music of drum and fife. In the evening, the selectmen were required to quarter two regiments in town, but per- emptorily refused to do it. But as one of these regiments was destitute of camp equipage, and as the weather was cold, the soldiers were allowed as a matter of favor to pass the night in Faneuil Hall, and its chambers. The next day was Sunday, and Governor Bernard, ordered the State House to be opened for the reception of the troops. They took posses- sion of all the rooms except the one belonging to the council. Even the hall of the representatives of the people bristled with British bayonets. This rash step was felt to be a bitter insult both to the town and to the whole province. Acts of retaliation soon followed, and deeds of violence on either side, that hastened the crisis. But it is quite beyond the scope of this work to dwell upon these interesting details, that would of themselves fill a volume. It is needless to say that blood- shed and all the horrors of civil war followed in the train of such evils .*
About the beginning of April, some gentlemen of Boston
* Gordon, i. 166, 167.
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NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS.
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and New York, wrote letters to some of their friends in Philadelphia, asking if they would unite with them in stop- ping the importation of goods from Great Britain until the oppressive acts, so subversive of their rights as British sub- jects, should be repealed. A well-attended and dignified meeting of merchants followed this correspondence. An address was read on the occasion, that recited in fearless terms the unjust doings of the ministry, and closed with the significant words, "united we conquer, divided we die."
The Pennsylvania merchants, however, refused to sign at that time any agreement for the non-importation of British goods. The Boston merchants, many of them, on the 1st of August, signed articles of this sort .*
The merchants of Connecticut and New York, during the same month, entered into a like agreement, pledging them- selves in the most solemn manner not to import either on their own account, or on commission, or to purchase of anybody who should import, any tea, paper, glass, or painters' colors, until the act imposing duties on those articles should be repealed.
In September, a festival was held by the people of Nor- wich, in mockery of the list of holidays appointed by the commissioners of customs for persons under their employ. One of these gala days was the "8th of September," the day on which their commissions bore date. This very day was singled out by the people for festivities of a quite different sort. Toasts of a very patriotic character were drank on the occa- sion, every one closing with the words "and the 8th of Sep- tember." On the 4th of October a town meeting was called to consider the "critical and alarming conjuncture of affairs."
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