USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement to the present time > Part 28
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414
THE FIRST COTTON MACHINERY. [1794.
A machine for making bricks was invented and put into operation at Hartford by Mr. Kingsley, by which the clay, after being received into a cyl- inder, was ground, moulded, and delivered in per- fect form. In the same town was established a type-foundry by Mr. White, in which important im- provements were introduced by him.
The Hatter's Circular Dye-kettle and Wheel, which have been extensively adopted by hatters in Europe as well as in America, were invented in Danbury in 1823, by Joel Taylor.
These inventions, and the numerous models of useful machines deposited in the patent office in Washington by Connecticut, show the ingenuity of the people of this state:
The first cotton-mill ever used in Connecticut was put into operation in Manchester in 1794. Arkwright's ingenious and useful invention, which had been adopted in England, had excited the at- tention of intelligent and enterprising men in Amer- ica, and several unsuccessful experiments were made. The opinion too extensively prevailed, that our countrymen were not capable of managing it with success ; and it required experience to estab- lish the opposite belief. The cotton-mill or factory at Manchester was fitted up under the direction of an Englishman, by Messrs. Pitkin & Co. ; and velvets, corduroys, and fustians were fabricated. This was the second put into operation in the Uni- ted States, being preceded only by that established by Samuel Slater in Providence, and before the one first set up in New-Jersey. Little, however, was done in the manufacture of cotton in Connecticut until 1804.
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415
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
1806.]
1
CHAPTER XLVI. 1806-1812.
The Attachment of Connecticut to the Policy of Washington. -Her Adherence to the Federal Party .- The Non-intercourse Laws .-- The Embargo .- War declared against Great Britain in 1812 .- Act of Congress to raise 100,000 Militia .- Governor Griswold required to detach 3000 Men .- General Dearborn applies for Militia to do garrison Duty under United States Officers .- He is refused by the Governor .- The Legislature approves of his Refusal .- The Ground of it.
As Connecticut was one of the earliest and most decided, active, and persevering members of the United Colonies in resisting British oppression, she was also one of the most devoted friends of the Constitution, as well as of Washington, and his prin- ciples and policy. A modern French writer has remarked, that " it is the glory of America that she was wise enough to appreciate and acknowledge Washington in spite of the little exertion he made to present himself to public view."
Connecticut, then, deserves a large share of the honour. In no part of the country was there an earlier, more unanimous, or decided sentiment in favour of the principles he adopted and the meas- ures he pursued during the Revolution, and the policy, both internal and external, which was es- tablished under his administration after the return of peace. The people were among the warmest ad- mirers of his virtues, and faithfully transmitted to their children an exalted reverence for him whom they loved to call " The Father of his Country.".
416
CITIZEN GENET.
[1806.
During his administration, which extended from 1789 till 1797, and that of John Adams, of Massa- chusetts, which was from 1797 to 1801, several dis- tinguished Connecticut men held high national offi- ces. Oliver Wolcott was appointed secretary of the treasury in 1795, and continued till 1800; Oliver Ellsworth chief-justice in 1796, and minis- ter to France in 1799 ; Jonathan Trumbull speak- er of the House of Representatives in 1792; Col- onel Humphreys minister to Spain in 1796, and afterward to Portugal ; Roger Griswold secretary of war in 1801.
When Mr. Jefferson opposed the Constitution, and the Anti-federal party began to be formed, Connecticut was ranged among its adherents, and uniformly opposed his views and administration. In the course of it, Citizen Genet, as he was called in the republican language of France (or, rather, the dialect of atheism), came to the United States as envoy from that country, and began a tour through the states, to form " Democratic Socie- ties." The plan of these was to organize a cor- respondence with Jacobin associations in France, whose objects were understood to be political, and aimed directly against the independence of Great Britain. The people of Connecticut accused Mr. Jefferson of a strong partiality for the infidel and revolutionary principles of the French government of those times ; and, regarding Great Britain as the bulwark of the Christian religion and human liberty in Europe, had no desire to see the United States joining with her enemies and co-operating for her destruction. Washington was decidedly opposed to "entangling alliances" with other na-
417
1806.]
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
tions ; and his advice they held in high respect. When Citizen Genet, therefore, approached Con- necticut, although he was preceded by accounts of the favour and success he had met in other places, he found the feelings of the people so different from what he wished, and his enterprise was treated with so much irony and ridicule by some of the litera- ry men of Hartford, that he turned back without crossing the boundary, gave up all attempts in New-England, and soon abandoned his whole en- terprise in America.
Mr. Jefferson left the presidency in 1809, after being in it eight years. His opponents (including most of the people of Connecticut) still charged him with want of the practical good sense, and the knowledge of government necessary to perform well the duties of a leading statesman; and as- serted that he had neither introduced nor proposed a single change in the internal policy of the coun- try. They also charged him with want of sincer- ity in declaring that the leading Federalists were friends of royalty, and entertained the design of converting the American republic into a monarchy. The people of Connecticut, whose institutions had been of the most democratic character from the early history of their colony, whose habits and manners had ever been simple and republican, and who, after sustaining the Revolution with distin- guished spirit, had exercised their characteristic good faith in steadily adhering to the constitution and laws of the United States, regarded the charge of monarchical predilections against men of their choice as unprovoked and injurious.
As the succeeding administration of Mr. Madi-
418
THE WAR OF 1812.
[1812.
son pursued the policy of Mr. Jefferson, and Con- necticut maintained her former views, her repre- sentatives formed an active portion of the minority in Congress who opposed the non-intercourse laws of 1809, and the declaration of war against Eng- - land in 1812. Some of her merchants had suf- fered the loss of vessels taken by the French un- der the Berlin and Milan decrees, as well as by the English under the orders in Council ; and they accused the administration of a dangerous partiality for the former, while they were unwilling to en- gage in a contest with either. Their commerce had suffered severely from the embargo and non- intercourse acts (the exports having fallen from above a million and a half to less than half a mill- ion), and now it seemed to be in danger of total destruction.
War with Great Britain was declared by Con- gress on the 18th of June, 1812, to the great re- gret of the majority of the people of Connecticut, ยท and of several of the other states. Two reasons were alleged for the war: the British orders in Council, and the claim of that government to the right of search, or taking her seamen from Ameri- can ships. The opposers of the declaration of war urged that negotiation should be longer tried be- fore an appeal to arms, and charged the adminis- tration with a partiality for France, and a wish to favour her by weakening Great Britain, her prin- cipal opponent. The minority in the United States House of Representatives published an address to the people, with their reasons for voting against the declaration of war.
Two months afterward, Congress passed an act
419
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
1812.]
authorizing President Madison to require of the governors of the states and territories to hold in readiness their proportions of " one hundred thou- sand militia, to march at a moment's warning." These were to be " officered out of the present militia officers or others, at the option and discre- tion of the constitutional authority in the respective states and territories ; the President of the United States appointing the general officers among the respective states and territories as he may deem proper." The president was also "authorized to call into actual service any part or the whole of said detachment, in the exigences provided by the Constitution."
1 On the 15th of April the secretary of war wrote to the governor of Connecticut, requiring him to detach 3000 men as the quota of that state; to equip and organize them in companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, and divisions as soon as pos- sible, in the proportions of one twentieth artillery, one twentieth cavalry, and the residue infantry. One tenth part or less might be riflemen, if desired. These troops were to be exercised, but not im- bodied nor considered as in actual service until ordered into the field. It had been generally be- lieved, especially at Washington, that the presi- dent and his friends seriously intended to invade Canada ; and the anxiety of the people of New- England was great when they perceived how much their seacoast lay exposed to the enemy, knowing that it was almost entirely unprovided with forts as well as troops.
Mr. Eustis, secretary of war, on the 12th of June, wrote to Governor Griswold a request from
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420
[1812.
THE MILITIA NOT GIVEN UP.
the president that he would order into service the quota of the state on the requisition of Major-gen- eral Dearborn; and the governor replied, on the 17th, that he should do so without delay. On the 22d, General Dearborn requested of him two com- panies of artillery and two of infantry, " to be placed under the command of the commanding officer at Fort Trumbull, near New-London ; and one com- pany of artillery, to be stationed at the battery at the entrance of the harbour of New-Haven." Gov. ernor Griswold did not comply with this request, and gave his reasons to the Council, which he convoked to consider the subject in October. He stated that the act of Congress of April 10th au- thorized the president to call for militia only " in exigences provided by the Constitution ;" and that the Constitution provides for no exigences except three : viz., "to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ;" and, as none of these exigences existed, the president was not authorized to make the demand ; and he (the governor) would violate his duty if he should comply with it. The council approved of his con- duct, while they declared that the state would "ever support the national government in all con- stitutional measures." They alluded to the inten- tion of General Dearborn to place the troops under United States officers, and to detach a part of the organized militia. The former, especially, they viewed as unconstitutional, as the Constitution pro- vides that officers shall be appointed by the states. The exigences above mentioned not existing, they viewed the governor as " of right the commander- in-chief of the militia, and that they cannot thus be
421
1812.] HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
withdrawn from his authority." Massachusetts adopted a similar course.
On the 15th of July, General Dearborn wrote to the governors of Connecticut and Massachusetts that he had been ordered to Albany to place the northern frontier in a state of defence, and would soon be obliged to draw off so many of the regular troops, that it would be necessary to call a portion of the militia to guard the coast, as it would other. wise be left with less protection "than prudence would have justified." The advice of his council was asked by Governor Strong, and the opinion of the supreme court of that state, which then con- sisted of Theophilus Parsons, Samuel Sewall, and Isaac Parker ; and their replies coincided with his views and conduct.
Governor Griswold's health was now declining, so that the duties of his office had devolved on the lieutenant-governor for a time, John Cotton Smith. He wrote to the secretary of war on the 2d of July, that the militia demanded by General Dear- born would not be called out; and the secretary re- plied on the 14th that he was instructed by the president to state, that the danger of invasion ac- tually existed, although the news of war could hardly have reached England. General Dearborn, on the 17th of July, repeated his request for the five companies, adding that those to be sent to Fort Trumbull should be under a major appointed by the state: but this, of course, was also declined.
The governor met the council on the 4th of August, when they agreed that the only ground for demanding the militia which was then taken (viz., the fact that war had been declared) must N N
[1812.
422 ANOTHER REQUISITION DISOBEYED.
exist as long as war should continue. It was also demanded that the militia should do ordinary gar- rison duty ; and, on the same principle, they might " be called to march to any place within the United States to perform the same duty, and this from time to time, and at all times, during the continuance of the war." They farther objected, that the militia were not demanded from places most convenient to the place of danger or scene of action, although that is expressly provided for by the act of Con- gress of February 28th, 1795. The Council re- marked, " It is believed that the militia of this state would be among the first to perform their consti- tutional duties, and not among the last to under. stand and justly to appreciate their constitutional rights." * * * "But if the Congress of the United States have seen fit to declare war before they have carried into effect another provision of the" Consti- tution to raise and support armies, it does not fol- low that the militia are bound to enter their forts and garrisons to perform ordinary garrison duty, and wait for an invasion which may never happen." " It is surely important," they added, "that the Constitution and sovereignty of this state should not be impaired or encroached upon; that the pow- ers ' delegated to the United States' may be exer- cised, and the powers 'reserved to the states re- spectively' may be retained." The Council there- fore advised the governor " to retain the militia of this state under his command, and decline a com- pliance with the requisition of the secretary of war and Major-general Dearborn.
The General Assembly was now called to meet on the fourth Tuesday of August ; and, after com-
423
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
1812.]
municating the foregoing particulars, and asking their attention to them, he says that " the Constitu- tion provides for each state's organizing and sup- porting a military force of its own, which cannot, under any circumstances, be controlled by the gen- eral government, and which may undoubtedly be applied in all cases to the defence of the state." He recommended that such a force should be or- ganized, but so as not to " interfere with any lib- eral measures which the general government may take for the same object." The Assembly passed the following resolution :
Resolved, That the conduct of his excellency the governor, in refusing to order the militia of this state into the service of the United States, on the requisition of the secretary of war and Major- general Dearborn, meets with the entire approba- tion of this Assembly." They also declared, that " they believe it to be the deliberate and solemn sense of the people of the state that war was unne- cessary." An election took place very soon after this meeting, and 163 members were chosen of the party called the Federal, and 36 of that called the Democratic, giving the former a majority of 127.
When Congress met in November, the president informed them, in his message, that the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut had refused to furnish their detachments of militia ; proceeding on " a novel and unfortunate exposition of the Con- stitution, by which the authority of the United States to call out and command the militia might be frustrated, even in war, and under apprehensions of invasions preceding war, and the unity of the nation destroyed. The only resource might be,"
424
[1813.
BLOCKADE OF THE SOUND.
he added, " in those large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the princi- ples of our free government." This part of the address was referred to a committee of the Senate, the chairman of which was Mr. Giles, of Virginia : but they made no report on the subject.
Governor Griswold was regarded by most of the people of the state as having taken a stand of great importance : because the claim which he maintained, if it had been yielded up, would prob- ably have been lost for ever, and every militia man, in time of war, would have been constantly exposed to be made a common soldier, to march to the ex. tremities of the country, and even to invade foreign lands, at the will of an officer of the United States' army. The governor died during the October session ; and Lieutenant-governor Smith was af- terward elected in his place.
The first invasion of Canada was made that sea- son by General Hull, who commanded the army in Michigan : but he soon retreated to Detroit, where he surrendered the town, with all his troops and that territory. Captain Hull, a native of Connec. ticut, in sailing without orders from New-York in August, in the frigate Constitution, captured the British frigate Guerriere after a severe action ; and several naval victories over single ships were gained at different periods of the war.
In 1813 the coast was blockaded for some time by several British ships of war, cruising near New-London, where General Burbeck was in command, under the United States' authority. Even the enemy's small naval force was sufficient to cause continual alarm, as the American navy
425
1813.] HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
had been neglected by the government, as an inef- ficient and too expensive arm of national defence, and was too feeble to oppose them. A body of mi- litia was stationed at New-London under General Burbeck, who was commander of that military dis- trict, as there was then an actual invasion. On the first week in July, Governor Smith detached an- other body of militia for New-London from other parts of the state ; immediately after which he was informed by General Burbeck, that he had received orders from Washington to discharge the militia at that place. They were accordingly discharged : but, in a few days, an express came to Governor Smith, with a letter from General Burbeck, de- manding another detachment for the defence of New-London. The British squadron had received a re-enforcement, and now amounted to two ships of the line, two frigates, a brig, and several trans- ports : and the citizens of that town and Groton also sent an urgent petition for protection. The governor immediately complied ; and, at the re- quest of the Council, which he convoked on the 20th, sent another detachment. Many of the troops who had been first called out were from the vicinity of New-London, and now were ordered out again, after one term of service, instead of those who had been called out to relieve them, and disbanded by orders from Washington. This was unnecessarily harassing.
The Assembly inet in October, when a joint committee, in a report on the subject of the war, spoke of " the general plan of warfare adopted by the administration of the national government as not conformable to the spirit of the Constitution of Nx 2
426 UNITED STATES SHIPS BLOCKADED. [1813.
the United States." The inhabitants of the coasts, they said, " had an undoubted and imperative right to such protection as the government could pro- vide : instead of which, the regular forces have been, almost without exception, ordered away from the Atlantic frontier to the interior of the country, for the purpose of carrying hostilities into the ter. ritory of unoffending provinces, and in pursuit of conquests which, if achieved, would probably pro- duce no solid benefit to the nation ; while the sea- coast is left exposed to the multiplied horrors usu- ally produced by an invading and exasperated en- emy."
CHAPTER XLVII. 1813-1814.
The War continues .- The British Squadron off New-London .- Three United States' Ships driven by it into New-London .- Troops demanded and furnished by Connecticut for their Pro- tection and the Defence of that place .- Capture of Poutapaug by the British .- Destruction of Property .- The Governor and Legislature complain that Connecticut is left unprotected by the General Government .- Requisition on Connecticut for 3000 men .- Attack on Stonington by a British Fleet .- The Coast of the United States kept in a state of Alarm .- The Capture of Washington and Alexandria .- Defeat and Death of General Ross near Baltimore.
IN June, 1813, the United States frigates United States and Macedonian, with the sloop-of-war Hor- net, passed down Long Island Sound to proceed to sea : but, finding the British squadron in the way, they took refuge in New-London harbour. It was thought that the enemy might follow and attempt to capture them; and this caused much alarm,
427
1814.] HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
because there was no considerable force for their protection. The ships were therefore taken about six miles up the river Thames, and laid up under the high banks, to which their guns were afterward raised to command the spot. Governor Smith was urgently requested to provide for the defence of New-London and the national vessels ; and im- mediately ordered a large body of militia to be stationed at that city and other places near it, un- der the command of Major-general Williams. Some of these troops were detached from those in service, and others were raised for the purpose.
On the evening of April 7th, 1814, two or three ships of the British squadron came to the mouth of Connecticut River, anchored outside the bar, and sent up two launches, armed with nine and twelve-pound carronades, and fifty or sixty men each, with four barges carrying about twenty-five men apiece, under the command of Lieutenant Coote. They went prepared with torches and combustibles, to burn a number of vessels at Pou- tapaug, which had been laid up near that enter- prising little village, now called Essex. Some of the boats stopped a short time at Saybrook Point, about midnight, where the inhabitants were unpro- tected and unable to make any resistance, though a few men in the old fort would have sufficed. The enemy did no injury there, but proceeded for Pou. tapaug. Though that was only five or six miles farther, the wind was strong from the north and the water high, so that they did not arrive there before four in the morning. The people had no notice of their approach more than half an hour before they arrived ; and, no measures having been taken for
428
CONNECTICUT UNPROTECTED.
[1814.
their defence, the enemy posted sentinels around the place, broke open stores and houses in search of arms and ammunition, and set fire to the ship- ping. They destroyed 22 vessels of different sizes, worth about $160,000, of which amount $60,000 was owned in the village. At 10 o'clock the boats departed ; and the militia, having assem- bled at several points on both banks, gave them some annoyance, but could not prevent their return.
It is remarkable, that most of the places within the bounds of Connecticut which have suffered from the invasion of enemies, are near or upon the spots in which the Indians were treated with cruelty in the early history of the colony. Pou- tapaug is the spot where Uncas landed when pro- ceeding against the Pequod country with Captain Mason in 1636; and near this place he and his Mohegans tortured to death one of the enemy, when they ought to have been prevented by the English. In Stonington is the Pequod fort which was burned, with many of its inhabitants. In Fair- field is the swamp in which some of the remnants of the warlike Pequod nation were killed or cap- tured, to be exported as slaves. New-London was the chief residence of that people; and, from the eastern shore of their favourite bay, near the foot of the hill on which Groton fort was erected, some of them were forcibly driven by Captain Church, after they had returned to cultivate their native soil. .
Meanwhile, the government of the United States furnished few or no troops for the defence of those parts of the country most exposed to invasion. Connecticut was left entirely unprotected. Gov-
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429
1814.]
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
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