USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 24
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"On the 11th inst., [12th,] by the unavoidable event of the operation of His Majesty's troops under the command of General Tryon, my church, and great part of my parish, were laid in ashes, by which I have lost everything I had there,-my furniture, books, and all my papers, even my apparel, except what was on my back. My loss on that fatal day was not less than ££1200 or £1300 sterling. Although in great danger, my life has been preserved, and I hope I shall never forget the kind providence of God in that try- ing hour. In this situation I was. brought by His Majesty's troops to this city, at which I shall, with the greatest pleasure, obey the Society's commands."
Nearly two years before, the same commanding General, with a detachment of 2000 men, penetrated to Danbury, a place which the commissioners of the American army had selected for depositing military stores; and while both the church and the meeting- house there were used as repositories, his troops are said to have taken the stores out of the church and burned them in the streets, saving the sacred edifice, but they devoted the meeting-house to the flames.
If we step back into the interior of the colony, we shall find, at this period, that excitement ran high, and in some places a most wicked spirit prevailed.
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The building unused generally goes to decay, and is often a mark for the stones of the vicious. In West- bury, (now Watertown,) the windows of the Episcopal church were demolished, as they were in other local- ities, and the principal members were confined to their farms, and not allowed to attend public worship. At Litchfield, American soldiers broke into the sanctuary, took the parish papers that were deposited in a chest, and tore them to pieces. Washington, to his praise be it spoken, frowned on all such wantonness; and when he passed through that town during the war, and some of his soldiers threw a shower of stones at the church, he rebuked them, saying: "I am a churchman, and wish not to see the church dishonored and deso- lated in this manner." Mr. Marshall of Woodbury was one of the Missionaries of the Society who was com- pelled to encounter all the obloquy and persecution that spring from the malice and rage of an unrestrained populace. Missiles were hurled at him as he walked forth into the public highway. "He was frequently forbidden to preach; sometimes forcibly taken in the inidst of his sermon, and led out of the house in which he was officiating. Once he was waylaid on his return from Roxbury, and so severely beaten that he was con- fined to his room for several weeks from the injuries that he received."1 It is painful to call up these facts, but they are a portion of the history of the times, and ought not to be withheld. The Missionaries, for the most part, bore their wrongs in silence, for they were afraid to say much, even when they had the oppor- tunity of communicating with their friends abroad. "It is a long time," wrote Mr. Beach to the Secretary,
1 Hitchcock's History of the Church in Woodbury.
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October 31st, 1781, "since I have done my duty in writing to the Venerable Society, not owing to my carelessness, but to the impossibility of conveyance from here. And now I do it sparingly. A narrative of my troubles I dare not now give. My two congre- gations are growing; that at Redding being commonly about three hundred, and at Newtown about six hun- dred. I baptized about one hundred and thirty chil- dren in one year, and lately two adults. Newtown and the Church of England-part of Redding are, I believe, the only parts of New England that have re- fused to comply with the doings of the Congress, and for that reason have been the butt of general hatred. But God has preserved us from entire destruction.
"I am now in the eighty-second year of my age, yet do constantly, alternately, perform and preach at Newtown and Redding. I have been sixty years a public preacher, and, after conviction, in the Church of England fifty years; but had I been sensible of my inefficiency, I should not have undertaken it. But now I rejoice in that I think I have done more good towards men's eternal happiness than I could have done in any other calling.
"I do most heartily thank the Venerable Society for their liberal support, and beg that they will ac- cept this, which is, I believe, my last bill, viz. £325, which, according to former custom, is due.
"At this age I cannot well hope for it, but I pray God I may have an opportunity to explain myself with safety; but must conclude now with Job's ex- pression, 'Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends.'"
Six months after Mr. Beach wrote this affecting
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epistle, death took the pen from his hand, and he de- scended to the grave, where "the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest." As he had never ceased to pray for the King, so he did not live to witness the issue of the struggle, and to hear the acclamations of joy that resounded throughout the land, on the acknowledgment of American Inde- pendence. The memory of his name can never fail to be held in grateful regard by Connecticut church- men. The hills that he ascended, and the valleys that he traversed in the execution of his sacred office, are doubly attractive for their natural scenery, and as being the great battle-ground of a true soldier of the Cross, who, with primitive faith, and in troublous times, "fought the good fight," full half a century, for Christ and his Church.
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CHAPTER XXV.
DISCOURAGING FEATURES IN THE CAUSE OF THE COLONIES CONNECTICUT THE THEATRE OF FRESH HORRORS; CHANGE IN THE BRITISH MINISTRY, AND TREATY OF PEACE.
A. D. 1781-1783.
THE tenacity with which the Missionaries in Con- necticut adhered to the cause of the Crown was strengthened by the conviction that, in the end, the colonies would be unsuccessful. At one period during the struggle, so much were the fortunes of war against them, and so thick was the gloom which overhung all the prospect, that even leading patriots of the land were not without despondency. As in these days, so then, the record of events was tarnished by the thirst for power and the grasp after wealth. A mercenary spirit, extortion, illicit traffic with the enemy, gam- bling and speculation, idleness, dissipation and extrava- gance, party disputes and personal quarrels, -these were among the causes which prolonged the war, and made it doubtful whether the yoke of colonial vassal- age would finally be broken. Washington mourned, as early as 1775, the lack of public virtue, and declared that he "trembled at the prospect." Good and esti- mable men fell into indigence and obscurity, while those utterly devoid of moral principle rose to wealth and power. It was a miserable pittance, at best, al- lowed to the soldiers; but they were too often de-
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prived of this, that contractors for the army might be enriched by their gains. Merchants and traders monopolized articles of prime necessity, and would not dispose of them to their destitute and suffering countrymen, and to the wives and children of troops in the field, except at enormous profits.
The depreciation of the currency was one of the . evils which threatened the most alarming conse- quences. "Destitute of pecuniary resources, and with- out the power of imposing direct taxes, Congress had, early in the war, resorted to the expedient of paper money. For a time, while the quantity was com- paratively small, its credit was good; but in March, 1780, the enormous amount of two hundred millions of dollars had been issued, no part of which had been redeemed. At this time forty paper dollars were worth only one in specie. Prices rose as the money sank in value, and every branch of trade was unsettled and deranged. The effect was peculiarly oppressive on the troops, and was a principal reason for the ex- orbitant bounties allowed to them in the latter years of the war. The separate States issued paper money, which increased the evil, without affording any ade- quate relief. The only remedy was taxation; but this was seldom pursued with vigor, owing, in part, to the distracted state of the times and the exhausted condition of the country, and in part, also, to State jealousy."1
In some colonies the Whigs were a minority, and in others they were balanced by their opponents; and though unsuccessful in securing sufficient enlistments, many of them became impatient, and demanded that
1 Sparks's Life of Washington, Vol. I. p. 322.
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the Commander-in-Chief should meet and fight the foe, without troops, without supplies, and, at times, without their confidence and sympathy. Strong men not unfrequently enlisted for the large bounties, and then deserted and reënlisted under new recruiting officers, or else escaped to their homes and were shel- tered and secreted by their unpatriotic friends and neighbors. A want of pure and disinterested love of independence showed itself also among the military commanders; and Knox, in writing to Elbridge Gerry, mentioned that there were those in commission "who wished to have their power perpetuated at the expense of the liberties of the people, and who had been re- warded with rank without having the least preten- sions to it except cabal and intrigue." "Many of the surgeons," (regimental,) said Washington, using harsher words than he was wont, "are very great rascals, countenancing the men to sham complaints to exempt them from duty, and often receiving bribes to certify indispositions, with a view to procure discharges or furloughs."1 Nearly a score of generals withdrew from the army for different reasons during the prog- ress of the struggle; some being jealous on account of their rank, and stung with resentment at what they conceived to be the wrongs done them by Congress or their associates in the service. John Adams threw from his pen a graphic and comprehensive descrip- tion, when he said, in 1777, "I am wearied to death with the wrangles between military officers, high and low. They quarrel like cats and dogs. They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts."
· Sparks's Life of Washington, Vol. IV. p. 116.
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This is the dark side of the picture, unpleasant in- deed to contemplate, and seldom looked at by the writers and eloquent speakers, who have been accus- tomed to deify the heroes and patriots of the Revo- lution, and to anathematize the Loyalists, or those who manifested any sympathy with the cherished Government of the King and the triumph of his armies. All honor is due to the sagacious statesmen who published to the world the grievances of the col- onies, and the grounds on which they had a right to become a free and independent nation. All honor is due to the valiant and persevering men, who, in the darkest hour, and amid the severest trials, still hoped for success, and struggled on, undaunted by defeats and undismayed by disasters. But the truth of his- tory demands that it should be stated how the Tories were not the only wicked and unpatriotic people dur- ing the war of the Revolution. Without presuming to justify their course at that period, it is no wonder that they adopted it when they saw so much around them to impede the effort of the colonists, when the scale was so evenly balanced, and the prospect of final independence so distant and gloomy. They were undoubtedly honest in their loyalty to the British Crown, not less honest and sincere, perhaps, than the people of the North in the recent civil contest to maintain the federal Union and the integrity of our constitutional form of government. The God of providence, to whom "the nations are as a drop of a bucket," who "giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth knowledge," controlled the destiny of the American people; but as far as human foresight can discern, the issue of
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the struggle was due as much to the blunders and perversities of the British ministry as to the skill and strategy of our generals, or the bravery and fortitude of our soldiery. Had not England become involved in war with other nations on the continent of Europe, and thus needed all her troops nearer home; had not France interposed the aid of her great power to succor a weak and weary people, George the Third might have conquered the colonies, and held them subjected to his sway, at least for another generation.
It may be said, then, by way of apology for the course of the clergy of the Church of England in Con- necticut, that, in spite of all their perils and sufferings, they were not disposed to forfeit their stipends from the Society, to violate their consciences and com- pletely surrender their hopes, while the struggle was still undecided, and the prospect for the colonists so doubtful. Those who survived or remained undis- turbed among their people had, by this time, yielded to the necessities of their condition, and ceased to pray in their reopened churches for the King and Royal family. Whatever their private opinions may have been, they continued patiently in the path of duty, and "spake often one to another," because they "feared the Lord." They proclaimed to their dimin- ished flocks the unchangeable truths of the Gospel, and avoided allusion in public to subjects that might create prejudice or excite popular resentment.
As the war drew towards the close, Connecticut be- came the theatre of greater horrors; and one of the saddest and bloodiest chapters in its whole history, if not in the history of the world, was that which oc- curred shortly before the preliminaries of peace were
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announced. The heats of summer had not yet passed away, when an expedition, fitted out at New York, the headquarters of Sir Henry Clinton and the Brit- ish army, was sent to New London, under the com- mand of that traitor to his country's cause, Benedict Arnold. He had been familiar, in his boyhood, with the locality where he was to operate; for Norwich, some miles above on the Thames River, was the place where he had served an apprenticeship to the business of a druggist, occasioning his friends in that employ- ment more trouble than satisfaction. Late in the evening of September 5th, 1781, he landed his troops in two divisions, one on each side of the harbor, below Forts Trumbull and Griswold, and immediately put them in motion. The astonished inhabitants, aroused from their slumbers by the signals of distress, were thrown into the utmost terror and confusion, and hastened to convey to safe places their families and their portable and most valuable property. The half- armed groups that offered resistance on the morrow to the advance of a disciplined foe were soon dis- persed, and the torch of destruction was applied, under the orders of the commanding General, first in one street and then in another, until a large part of New London was in flames. Among the buildings consumed were sixty-five dwellings, thirty-one stores and warehouses, eighteen shops, twenty barns, the Episcopal church, court-house, jail, market and custom- house. Whigs and Tories alike suffered in this con- flagration, which appears to have been more exten- sive than was at first designed, -a conflagration, how- ever, that was nothing in horror compared with the tragic scenes enacted on the opposite side of the river. VOL. I. 22
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Groton was burnt also, and the little garrison in Fort Griswold, which stood heroically to its guns and kept the enemy for a time at bay, was finally forced to sur- render; but, whether from mistake or misunderstand- ing, the surrender had no influence in checking the rage of the assailants; for an indiscriminate massacre followed, which the pen of history shudders to record. According to the inscription upon the monument, erected under the patronage of the State in 1830 to the memory of the patriotic garrison, this massacre, with the other barbarities of the expedition, "spread desolation and woe throughout that region."
We have seen on several occasions that the inter- ests of Connecticut churchmen, during the Revolu- tion, were involved in the common destruction which war makes. Three of their largest and oldest houses of worship were burnt by the very invaders whose cause they were believed secretly to uphold, and others only echoed at distant intervals the sounds of prayer and praise. But while they thus suffered at the hands of their friends from the unavoidable con- sequences of war, they were none the less the victims of persecution by their too impetuous neighbors; and besides the odium which attached to them as Tories, they were subjected to all manner of threats and an- noyances, and to petty depredations upon their prop- erty, without having the power successfully to estab- lish their rights or redress their grievances. It is a foul blot upon the patriotism of the times that these things were anywhere encouraged. It revives the memory of the period when religious intolerance was ready to drive from New England the Church that had a Bishop, and to allow nothing here, in the "free-
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dom to worship God," which did not think and coalesce with Puritanism.
The Connecticut clergy, for integrity of character, earnest piety, and steady devotion to the duties of their vocation, were unsurpassed by any body of their order in all the colonies. With the exception of Graves and Sayre, who had now retired for protection within the lines of the British army, and who, it must be confessed, were sometimes guilty of indiscretions, they were natives of the soil, prudent in speech, fa- miliar with the habits of the people, and therefore knowing how to take advantage of their hereditary antipathies and resentments. If there were a few instances where the flocks were more patriotic than their pastors, the reason for this might be found in the difference of their relations to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; but it speaks well for the influence and Christian character of the clergy in those days, that their congregations so generally sympa- thized with them in their views both of religious and civil duties. The single object perpetually before their minds was, how to save the Church from utter ruin; and while they had abundant reasons to complain of the course pursued by the home Government, still they would neither leave the communion to which they were attached unguarded, nor seek any refuge for themselves which might involve its doctrines and Liturgy in greater peril. With all their faults, they deserve to be remembered with gratitude by Connec- ticut churchmen, for the impress of their teachings has outlasted the changes which time produces in human society and civil government. Anderson, after giving a detailed account of the revival of reverence
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and affection in many of the people of the colony towards the Church which their fathers had forsaken, pays this grateful tribute to the memory of these anti- Revolutionary clergy :-
"I will not venture to give expression to the feel- ings which I have experienced in relating the various incidents contained in this chapter, and which the at- tentive reader can hardly fail to share. That which prevails over every other at the present moment, and which alone I wish to leave on record, is the feeling of deepest gratitude to those men of Connecticut who, not from a mere hereditary attachment to the Church of England, or indolent acquiescence in her teaching, but from a deep, abiding conviction of the truth that she is a faithful 'witness and keeper of Holy Writ,' have shown to her ministers, in every age and country, the way in which they can best promote the glory of their heavenly Master's name, and en- large the borders of His Kingdom. And, as for the hinderances cast in their path by the policy of secular rulers at home, let us now only think of them in con- trast with the willing readiness, which we have seen exhibited by statesmen of all parties in our own day, to strengthen the hands and increase the efficiency, abroad and at home, of the Church of which they are members."1
It was a maxim with Dr. Franklin, that there never was a good war, or a bad peace, and much as he loved and promoted the cause of the American colonies, he watched every opportunity, as a favorite Commissioner at the French court, that betokened a willingness to enter into negotiations and terminate hostilities. The
1 Anderson's Colonial Church, Vol. III. pp. 444, 445.
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alliance of France with America, in her struggle for independence and sovereignty, embarrassed the Brit- ish Government; and after Lord Cornwallis with his army had been captured at Yorktown, and the min- istry was unable to replace these troops for another campaign, the Parliament began to turn its attention seriously to the subject of peace. The public senti- ment of the English nation, clamorous for the end, had communicated itself to that body, and a motion, made early in 1782, that an address should be pre- sented to His Majesty, praying that the war in Amer- ica might cease, and that measures should be taken for restoring tranquillity and producing a reconcilia- tion, gave rise to an animated debate on both sides; but the motion was finally lost by a majority of only one in favor of the ministry and for the continuance of the war. This vote was the signal for a dissolu- tion of the Cabinet; and the resignation of Lord North was followed by a total change of ministry and meas- ures. Franklin had learned before this, from his friend, Mr. Hartley, a member of Parliament, long evincing a steady and kind regard for the welfare of America, the temper of the Crown; and the Congress of the Colonies had appointed three other Commis- sioners (Adams, Jay, and Laurens) to join him in negotiating a treaty of peace. The first gleam of joy at the prospect of this propitious event appeared in our land when Sir Guy Carleton arrived at New York early in May, to relieve General Clinton as com- mander of the British armies in America. The pacific tone of his first letter to Washington showed, at least, a change in the sentiments of Parliament respecting the principles on which the war had been conducted
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and the policy of its continuance; but when in the beginning of August he again addressed the Ameri- can chief, it was with the authority to notify him that negotiations for a general peace had commenced at Paris, and that the independence of the Thirteen Colonies would be conceded as a preliminary step; "however not without the highest confidence," on the part of his Government, "that the Loyalists should be restored to their possessions, or a full compensation made to them for whatever confiscations may have taken place." Preparations for war, therefore, ceased from that time, and no further acts of hostility were committed by either party. But since it was not cer- tain that the negotiations would actually result in peace, no part of the American army was disbanded, and the posture of defence was maintained with the same caution and vigilance as before.
The settlement of so many questions, involving, be- sides the two great belligerents, the rights and tran- quillity of France, Spain, and Holland, prolonged the negotiations, and the summer and the autumn had passed away before the fundamental articles of a definitive treaty were agreed upon and a time for signing fixed. One preliminary point sought to be established by the British envoys was to obtain com- pensation for the Loyalists, or Tories, whose property had been confiscated, and many of whom had been banished from the country. But Dr. Franklin dis- carded this idea most emphatically, and insisted that Congress, whose agents they were, had no power to act in the case, since the property of the Loyalists had been confiscated by the States, and the remedy, if any, must be sought from the States. He went
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farther, and maintained that neither justice nor hu- manity required that the Americans should compen- sate these people, for -"they had been the instruments of promoting and aggravating some of the worst hor- rors of the war: they had taken the lead in burning towns, and plundering and distressing the inhabitants; they had deserted their country's cause, and sacrificed everything to their friendship for their country's foe; and if they were to be indemnified by anybody, it must be by their friends."1
We have seen that, as far as the loyal churchmen of Connecticut were concerned, this allegation was untrue. Instead of "taking the lead in burning towns, and plundering and distressing the inhabitants," they lamented these cruelties, and when they were inflicted upon the colony through the operation of the King's troops, they suffered from them in common with the most ardent Whigs. An article, however, was finally inserted, by which it was made the duty of Congress to recommend to the States an indemnification of the Loyalists; but it was declared, at the same time, that there was not the least probability that the States would heed the recommendation. The treaty of peace was signed at Paris by both parties in due form, on the 30th day of November, 1782, approved and rati- fied by Congress, and hailed with demonstrations of gratitude and joy by the American nation. The one great prize for which the contest had been so long maintained was now won, and the future glory of the United States rose upon the vision of many a patriot in colors almost too bright to be realized. The election sermon of President Stiles, delivered before the Gen-
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