USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 45
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519
HON. JOHN COTTON SMITH.
discharged the duties of this important position with great energy and impartiality. He was often called to the chair, and presided over the deliberations of the committee of the whole with more facility and dignity in those stormy times, than any other member of the House. To the lofty bearing and firmness of a Roman senator in the last days of the Repub- lic, he added a gentleness so conciliating and persuasive, that the spirit of discord fled abashed from his presence. Whenever any question came up for discussion that threat- ened to excite party jealousies, he was sure to be called to the chair. In pleasant allusion to this circumstance, a mem- ber of Congress of very high character, representing a sister state, thus interrogated Governor Smith, in a letter in 1806, after he had retired from public life, that he might the better administer to the comfort of an aged father. "But first and chiefest, instruct me concerning him who used so often, when presiding in the committee of the whole, to beckon us to be solemn, while Randolph, executing on his party a holy jus- tice with his whip of scorpions, made
" Strange horror seize them, and pangs unfelt before."
Thus, without mingling much in debate, he presided over it, and ruled it, at a time when John Randolph, Otis, Gris- wold, Lee, and Pinckney, were participators in it, and were willing to submit to the justice of his decisions and free to acknowledge his superiority over all his compeers in the sagacity and address, that enabled him to avoid the gathering storm, and the lightness and elegant ease, with which he rose upon its crested waves.
In 1809, he was chosen a judge of the superior court. He discharged the duties of the new place thus assigned him with great ability. As a member of the supreme court of errors, his written opinions are among the best to be found in our reports, and are distinguished for their clearness of thought and finish of diction.
But Judge Smith was not long suffered to remain a mem- ber of the court. He was soon elected lieutenant-governor of the state. The sickness of Governor Griswold, as has
520
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
been stated in the preceding chapter, threw upon him for a time the onerous burdens of the executive, at a time the most critical of any that had transpired since the Revolution. In October, 1812, Governor Griswold died, and for the four fol- lowing years, Mr. Smith was elected governor of the state. It is impossible, in the limited space allotted to this sketch, to trace the details of Governor Smith's administration, and recount the difficulties that beset him on every side. His prudence and wisdom doubtless protracted for several years the dominion of the party with which his political life was identified. In the firm belief that he was right in the construction that he put upon the constitution of the United States, anxious to defend our exposed coast-towns that had once suffered from the fires of British vengeance, and at the same time to hold fast to the old charter privilege of the state government, to officer its own militia ; anxious, too, in his own words to fulfill his " obligations to the letter and spirit of the constitution," he turned himself in every way that seemed honorable to him, to meet the exigencies of the times.
His administration closed with the election of the late Governor Wolcott, in 1817. With the fall of his party Governor Smith retired from the political arena. Whether the principles that had governed his public life were right or wrong, he felt that he could not change them or mix in the deliberations of those who were so earnest in breaking down the old order of the government. From birth, from association, from early culture, from the teachings of scripture, and the examples of history, as he understood them, his character had taken its guage, and could be neither shortened nor length- ened to adapt itself to the new order of things. Indeed, there seemed no very pressing need that he should any lon- ger keep the field. He was now fifty-two years old. He was the proprietor of a princely domain of nearly one thou- sand acres of land, most of it lying in the bosom of his native valley, every rod of which might be converted into a garden. Upon this estate, surrounded by the ancient forest-trees, ash, oak, and elm, that had shaded his boyhood, had been erected
521
THE GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL.
during the latter half of the preceding century, a large ele- gant mansion-house of stone, that could defy the extremes of the New England year, and was within a few yards of the one where his venerable father had lived and died, and not a mile from the spot where he helped to lay the good old man in the earth, and where his grandfather and grandmother also reposed. The endearments of domestic life, in all their varied relations of husband and father, beckoned him to this delightful retreat, and a large circle of friends and neighbors were ready, without distinction of party, to welcome him home. And well they might be expected to welcome him. His father had administered the sacraments to their fathers for half a century, had preached to them, had baptized them in the name of the three persons of the blessed Trinity, had prayed for them, been present at their bridals and burials ; and in hours of public calamity, during the revolutionary period had stirred their courage with his deep manly voice, and the better to infuse into them the spirit of the Christian soldier, had consented to become their spiritual guide and accompany them as chaplain to the field of blood. Well might they welcome the son of such a father, who, so far from squandering the reputation of his ancestors, or suffering it to lie hid in a napkin, had put it out to use until the one talent had gained five others.
From his retirement in 1817, until his death, a period of nearly thirty years, Governor Smith remained at home. Di- viding his time between the scholastic studies that had occu- pied so large a portion of his youth, and the pursuits of agriculture, he lived the life, then almost obsolete, of the Con- necticut planter of the seventeenth century. His hospitable mansion was always thronged with the most refined and cul- tivated guests, who, on whatever points they might differ, all agreed that their entertainer was an unrivalled gentleman in the highest and best sense of the word.
The following extract from a letter addressed to Governor Smith, from General George P. Morris, bears delightful testi- mony to this fact.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
" I shall never forget my visit to your hospitable mansion. I have one association about it, that has ever been present to my mind. Will you forgive me if I record it here? It taught me a lesson that has been of service to me always. You may remember, I was quite a boy then. I was very poor, but very proud. I knew nothing of the world, and had never seen a governor in the whole course of my life. When I delivered you my letter of introduction, I trembled from head to foot, although you did not perceive it. You read it in the gravel-walk, in the shade of a fine tree, just by the wicket-gate. I watched your features as you folded up the note, and forgot my uneasiness when you took me by the arm and introduced me to your family. I slept that night well, and was awakened by the birds at early dawn. Sleep and the perfume of the flowers which stole in at my window had completely refreshed me. I felt like one who rests his foot upon the air, and longs for wings to mount to paradise. I had literally a light heart, and a light bundle; for I had brought with me but the apology of a wardrobe, and I was wondering how I should make my toilet, when a knock at the door called my attention another way, 'come in,' said I. The door did not open. I went to it, astonished that any one should be 'stirring with the lark.' I opened it, and there stood Governor Smith, with my boots hanging to one of his little fingers, a napkin thrown over his arm, and shaving uten- sils in the palm of his hand. I wish you could see that noble- hearted gentleman now, as I saw him then, with his affable smile, his cheerful ' good morning,' and the true spirit of hos- pitality sparkling in his eyes and irradiating his whole coun- tenance; you would not think me extravagant if I recom- mended him as a study for an artist. I shall not attempt to describe my astonishment, nor the impression you made upon my unfettered and inexperienced mind ; but allow me to say, you taught me a lesson of humility which I have not forgotten, and never can forget. I thanked you for it then, and though a lifetime has since been numbered with the past, I thank you for it now."
523
DEATH OF GOVERNOR SMITH.
This beautiful picture is rivaled by another drawn by the hand of Governor Smith's biographer, a scholar and a man of rare genius :
"I see him in that ripe old age which the hand of time had lightly touched, with his elastic step, his upright form, his manly and beaming countenance ; I hear the words of warm and courteous welcome, with which he received all that en- tered his hospitable mansion, and the rich and various dis- course with which he charmed them, as the conversation ran through the wide fields of history, philology, politics, and christian doctrine ; and admire that he should have carried into the evening of life, not only the fruits of large experi- ence, but so much of the freshness and sparkle of the dew of youth."
Governor Smith was the first president of the Connecticut Bible Society. In 1826, he was made president of the Amer- ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and in 1831, president of the American Bible Society. In 1814, the degree of doctor of laws was conferred on him by Yale College, and in 1836, he was elected a member of the Royal College of Northern Antiquarians, in Copenhagen, Den- mark. He died on the 7th of December, 1845, at the ad- vanced age of eighty years. His name and fame are still and must ever be associated with the great public religious enterprises of the world, which, in imitation of his Divine Master, he sought to bring under the mild influences of the Christian faith. His character can be likened to nothing that better illustrates it, than the warm smiling Sharon valley on a summer's morning, when the grass sparkles with dew-drops and the bright lakes gleam in the sun-shine; stretching around the border of the vale, the large forms of the moun- tains seem to represent the immovable principles that de- fended his life, and bending above them are the heavens that suggest, while they seem to await, the flight of a pure soul to mansions of unclouded felicity .*
* The Rev. Henry Smith, (the emigrant ancestor of Governor Smith,) was graduated at Cambridge, and came to New England in 1636. His paternal es-
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
The successor of Governor Smith, was Oliver Wolcott, the second of that name, and the third of the Wolcott family, who have filled the executive chair. He was elected under the charter, but with the expectation that he would be instrument- al in substituting for it the proposed constitution, which was then a foregone conclusion. He was now the acknowledged leader of the new party, and from his social position and family influence proved a very important pillar of the edifice that was to be built upon the ruins of the old one. While holding the office of governor, he was elected a member of the constitutional convention from Litchfield, and was chosen president of the convention.
His mind was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of equality that was then beginning to swallow up the older institutions of the country, and which is fast extending over the surface of the globe. As Governor Smith's administration was the last which represented the commonwealth, in the days of Haynes, Wyllys, Winthrop, Treat, and Saltonstall, so on the other hand, Governor Wolcott's was the first that embodied the principles of republicanism or democracy, as all political parties now understand the term. It is not necessary to say that these two orders were very different. The former up- held a particular ecclesiastical system, in the belief that it was better than any other in the world, and sustained a high- toned aristocratical sentiment with distinctions in society marked sometimes by the hereditary influence of half a dozen generations ; the latter, made up of several religious
tate was situated in Wymondham, county of Norfolk, England, and in leaving his native country he sacrificed a handsome fortune and a high social position for the sake of " freedom to worship God." He was the first settled minister in Wethers- field, Connecticut, where he died in 1648.
Samuel Smith, a great grandson of the Rev. Henry Smith, was among the first settlers of Suffield. He married Jerusha Mather, daughter of the Rev. Cotton Mather, D.D.
The Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, was a son of Samuel and Jerusha Smith, and was born in Suffield, October 16, 1731 ; graduated in Yale College, in 1751; or- dained as pastor of the congregational church in Sharon, August, 1755, where he remained until his death, in 1806. He was the father of Governor Smith. See Rev. Dr. Chapin's History of Glastenbury ; Andrews' Eulogy.
525
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
sects, declared that the church and state should have no po- litical affinities, that all denominations were alike entitled to the fostering care of the government, and that no social dis- tinctions should be tolerated by the constitution, or counte- nanced by the people.
Which of these two orders was the more to be desired, the reader must determine for himself. Doubtless there were good elements in both, and doubtless those elements still exist in the great political parties of the state, counteracting each other and bringing good out of evil. The man who was born in Connecticut, and yet can see nothing to admire in both these systems of administration, is so well grounded in his convictions that it would be useless to debate with him .*
* The MS quoted in this narrative was prepared by the Hon. Samuel Church, late chief judge of the state, expressly for this work. It was intended to repre- sent the claims of the party which was instrumental in bringing about the adop- tion of the constitution. It cost the venerable author much labor, and is at the service of all who choose to consult it. Scarcely was the ink dry upon its sheets when the hand that penned it was cold in death.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
EARLY JURISPRUDENCE OF CONNECTICUT.
IT is not easy to tell why such sedulous attempts have been made to fasten upon Connecticut the odium of having grown up under an illiberal municipal code. Without reca- pitulating what has been said in former chapters of this work, on the subject of civil liberty, it may be proper to say here, that of all the early American colonies, Connecticut was the least exclusive, and that she is only to be blamed that she was not still more in advance of that bigoted age. It would not be a hard task to draw a contrast between her and the mother country, which would show in a most favorable light the mild and equitable policy of the emigrants. The number of capital offenses was far less than in England, in the reign of Elizabeth, or either Stuart. Indeed, except for the offenses of murder, treason, and rape, whatever may have been the letter of the law, the death-penalty was hardly ever inflicted. The offenses of blasphemy, witchcraft, and one or two others of a kindred sort, were borrowed from the Jewish code, and inserted in the statute-book, out of respect for the Hebrew ora- cles ; but remained for the most part inoperative, except as they might tend to keep the wayward from the paths of trans- gression. There have been, it is believed, within the last two hundred and twenty years, fewer executions in Connecticut for crime, than in any other state of equal size in the world. The records of our courts have scarcely the stain of blood upon them, except in those rare instances, happening less fre- quently formerly than now, when some hapless murderer has paid the forfeit of his guilt .* This one fact speaks volumes in
* There have been but three executions in the county of Litchfield, since its organization ; viz., 1. John Jacob, an Indian, for the murder of another Indian, in 1768; 2. Barnet Davenport, for murder and arson, in Washington, hung May 8, 1780 ; 3. A man named Goss, for murdering his wife, in the northern part of the County. See Woodruff's History of Litchfield pp. 30, 31.
527
BLUE LAWS.
favor of the mildness of the criminal code, as it was adminis- tered by the founders of the republic.
The proper way of determining the spirit of a code, is to see it through the medium of the records of the courts which govern themselves by it. What construction did they put upon it, who instituted it? What was its practical opera- tion ? Did it protect the people from tyranny, or did it press heavily upon them ? Did it heal the wounds of bleeding humanity, or did it tear them open afresh ? When these questions are answered, a child can tell whether the laws were good or bad. It is idle for a stranger to attempt, from the cursory examination of the laws of a generation long passed away, to determine what was their character. He may regard them in one way, and those who administered them may regard them in another. Let the searcher after truth ex- amine the records, and then, after taking into account the pe- culiarities of the age to which they belong, he may form some- thing like a correct estimate of the jurisprudence of a people.
It has been said that Connecticut is the " Blue Law State." It is difficult for a scholar to understand the precise signifi- cance of this cant phrase, which bears upon its features such marks of its low origin, that it is marvelous how it ever could have gained admittance into good society. The vul- garity of this nickname, takes away from it the poison which might otherwise have flowed through its hollow fangs, and leaves it nothing save its impotent hiss and a malevolence that is to be avoided only because it unsettles the equilibrium of a nervous system too refined to be indifferent to jarring sounds. It is thought to be the child of political prejudice, and to have had its birth out of the limits of the state. But there are other objections to be raised against it, aside from the fact that it is an alien. It has a shockingly bad moral charac- ter. It is a demagogue, making all its appeals to the worst passions of the people, and, (why should not the whole por- traiture be given,) it is either woefully ignorant or sadly given to lying. It represents this oldest of all republics, erected upon the representative basis ; the place where free republi-
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
canism was born, cradled in its infancy, and grew up to as- sume the port and stature of mature years ; the place where all extremes of religious opinion were more freely tolerated than in any other part of the Christian world ; the soil where the fugitive Anne Hutchinson could find a place of refuge, and Whalley and Goffe could find a cave, while their pursu- ers were courteously entertained ; where, by the very first code ever published by her people, all denominations were allowed to worship God in their own way, provided they did not commit a breach of the peace ; it represents such a re- public as intolerant, cruel, bigoted, and persecuting.
Let us see if this representation is not false. Long before 1672, when the first municipal code of Connecticut was published, the General Court or Legislature of the republic adopted the following preamble, and enacted the following statute :
" This court, having seriously considered the great divis- ions that arise amongst us about matters of Church Govern- ment, for the Honour of God, welfare of the Churches and pre- servation of the publick peace so greatly hazarded :
" Do Declare, That whereas the Congregational Churches in these parts, for the general of their profession and practice have hitherto been approved, we can do no less than approve and countenance the same to be without disturbance until better light in an orderly way doth appear. But yet, foras- much as sundry persons of worth for prudence and piety amongst us, are otherwise persuaded, (whose welfare and peaceable satisfaction we desire to accommodate.) This Court doth Declare, That all such persons, being so approved according to law, as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of the Christian Religion, may have allowance in the persua- sion and Profession in Church ways or Assemblies without disturbance."
This statute was passed at a period, let it be remembered, when civil and religious toleration was almost unknown in the rest of the world, and was enacted on purpose to give a wider latitude to the forms that were supposed to embody the
529
QUAKERS, RANTERS, AND ADAMITES.
essentials of the Christian faith, than had been tolerated in the mother country. All that this statute required of those who dissented from the congregational or established religion of the republic, was, that they should conduct themselves peaceably, and should be Christians. But who was to be the judge of the doctrines maintained by dissenters from the es- tablished order ? The people themselves, through their con- stituted authorities. They might err in judgment, in making the application, and doubtless did in many instances. It is demanding too much of them that they should not only be more than a century in advance of any European nation in the spirit of their tenets, but that they should travel out of the conditions which prescribe imperfection to human nature, and infallibly apply those laws to individual cases. They abhorred infidelity. They were willing to tolerate peaceable Chris- tians, and passed an act intending to embrace them all. They did not agree to give them the patronage of the government ; that measure of liberty was reserved for a later day. But they agreed to tolerate them. And yet they are accused of intolerance, because they reserved to their authorities the construction of their laws. What other nation does not do 'the same ? Treason, murder, forgery, burglary, all the crimes known to the code of any nation on earth, are con- strued by the authorities of the nation which makes them penal. The only danger is, that the oracles of the law being uttered by the lips of men, may sometimes speak equivocally, sometimes falsely. That is an incident to our common nature. But it is said that the practical administration of the laws was faulty, and that some sects of Christians, especially the quakers, were roughly treated and excluded from the commonwealth. It is true, that in the early period of the colony there was a law passed against " hereticks, whether Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such like !" Was there any thing startling in the features of such a law at that day ? Had not a similar one existed in England, under various modifications, from a time ante-dating the conquest of Wil- liam, the Norman, and was it not harshness and cruelty itself
66
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
compared with this statute ? But let us see what sort of citi- zens those persons were, who were denominated "Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, and such like." The first dissenters in the colony against whom the arm of the civil law was raised were known as Ranters or Ranting Quakers. For their vio- lent and unlawful behavior, they were ordered to be forcibly transported out of the colony. Subsequently about the year 1674, John and James Rogers, of New London, having been engaged in trade with the Rhode Islanders, gradually imbibed the peculiar doctrines and sentiments of the seventh-day bap- tists of that colony. Their father, James Rogers, sen., was a man of wealth and high position, who had frequently repre- sented the town in the General Court of the colony .* The new sect never became numerous, but for a long series of years they gave the people and the authorities much trouble. In their tenets and discipline, they soon became obnoxious to the sect in Rhode Island from which they originally received their principles of dissent, and established a denomination or sect of their own, and were called Rogerine Quakers, and some- times Rogerine Baptists. They regarded all days alike, and took especial delight in treating the Sabbath and public wor- ship with contempt. They courted persecution, imprison- ment, and martyrdom, and bade defiance to the law, its offi- cers, and its penalties. They would enter the church on the Sabbath, in a tumultuous manner, and loudly declaim against the doctrines preached. The men and women would carry their work into the church during public worship ; and at other times would enter the assembly half naked during Sun- day service, and loudly boast of having desecrated the day. They regarded churches as an abomination, and all audible prayers either in the family or in public as hypocritical. The taking of an oath, even in a court of justice, they held to be taking the name of God in vain.t
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