USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The history of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 > Part 9
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no absurd ambition tempt you to imitate the manners of the great world of fashion and rob you thus of the respect and dignity that pertain to manners properly your own. Maintain, above all, your religious exactness. Think what is true, and then respect your- selves in living exactly what you think. Fear God and keep His commandments, as your godly fathers and mothers did before you, and found, as we have seen, to be the beginning of wisdom. As their graves are with you, so be that faith in God, which ennobled their lives and glorified their death, an inheritance in you, and a legacy transmitted by you to your children.
CHAPTER VII.
LITCHFIELD IN THE REVOLUTION.
BY DOROTHY BULL.
The hardy life of the Age of Homespun and the severe discipline of the Colonial Wars, prepared the people morally and physically for the severer test to come, in which the new nation "conceived in liberty" was to be born. Out of that background of vigorous and earnest life came the great figures of the founders of our nation and the sturdy army of citizen soldiers, who were to preserve and renew the fine tradition of their race.
Let us picture our village at the close of the French War, with its streets still unkempt, its houses more widely scattered than now, its people vigorously engaged in the occupations of the pioneer farmer, and cherishing, no doubt, new hopes of peace and prosperity. Already the little town had taken its place in the life of the Colony as the County Seat of a new County. The first Court House and Jail were built, and Oliver Wolcott, then a young man in the middle thirties, had taken up his duties as High Sheriff and built his house
on South Street. Elisha Sheldon had come from Lyme, and after a service of seven years as Associate Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas for the county, had been elected to the Connecticut Legis- lature as a member of the Upper House. Jedediah Strong had graduated from Yale, and was shortly to begin his career, as "petti- fogger and politician". Bezaleel Beebe had returned, at the age of twenty-one, from four years' service in the Colonial wars, and set- tled on the Beebe homestead, north of Bantam Lake, with his young wife Elizabeth Marsh, the daughter of Captain John Marsh. Young Judah Champion had begun ten years before, his energetic pastorate of the First Society of the Congregational Church, and the! new Meeting House on the Green had just been finished. Into this atmos- phere of industry and peace came in 1765 the first rumble of the approaching storm.
Between Great Britain and her colonies stretched three thous- and miles of "unplumbed, salt, estranging sea". Between the minds of the British Government and of the settlers of the New World lay unmeasured spaces of "unplumbed, salt, estranging thought". The Home Government was concerned chiefly with its own credit. with the low state of the exchequer after the recent wars, and with dreams of empire. The Stamp Act seemed a simple solution of the first two questions, and a reasonable assistance in the third. The Colonies were prospering. They were protected by the Crown. Why should they not share the expenses of the Crown? The Colo-
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nies thought otherwise. They had borne their full share of the successive Colonial Wars and the burden had not been a light one, to men still engaged in the task of subduing the wilderness. But, aside from the hardship of the tax itself, they felt that it was potent with danger to the liberties so hardly acquired and cherished through the changing fortunes of Colonial history. These liberties they felt to be their rightful heritage as Englishmen. They would not relinquish them. Kilbourne tells us p. 82, of the instant indigna- tion aroused by the Stamp Act in this State and town. "The Legis- lature of Connecticut", he says, "protested against it, and finally agreed upon an address to parliament, which was sent to the colo- nial agent in London, with instructions 'firmly to insist on the exclusive right of the colonies to tax themselves'. The people everywhere were excited and the measure was freely discussed and boldly denounced at the corners of the streets, in popular assemblies, and in town meetings. The more resolute and reckless of the populace formed themselves into secret organizations called 'The Sons of Liberty', with the design of preventing the use of the stamped paper by a summary process if necessary. In this town there was probably no difference of opinion on the main question at issue. On matters of minor importance the people did not always agree. The Connecticut Courant of February 10th, 1766, contains a communication dated at Litchfield on the 1st of February of that year, which is as follows:
'At the desire of several of the Towns of this County, by their Agents chosen and sent here for that Purpose, a Meeting was called of the Free- born Sons of Liberty, to meet at the Court-House in this Town; and being assembled to the Number of about forty or fifty Persons-proceeded upon the Business for which they met. And notwithstanding the great Opposi- tion they met with, from Colonel E --- r M -- h and one S -- n S -- e, (whereby the Meeting was much hindered,) yet they came to the Choice of five Gentlemen, who were to act as Agents, and are to join the Gentlemen from the other Towns in the County, who are to meet here, at a general County Meeting, to be held on the second Tuesday of February, 1766, at ten o'clock in the forenoon; when it is expected they will come to such Resolves as they shall think most Conducive to prevent the Thing we fear from ever taking Place among us. The Meeting would have been conducted with the utmost good Agreement and Dispatch, had it not been for the Gentlemen mentioned above, who employed all their Power to render it abortive, not only by consuming the Time in long and needless Speeches, (wherein Mr. M-h especially discovered to all present, an inexhaustible Fund of Knowledge, by several new-coined Words, unknown in the English Language before,) but they also opposed by their Votes almost every Motion that was made to forward it.'"
Although the difference of opinion here recorded was probably over minor matters,-very possibly a question of policy rather than principle,-it was undoubtedly a fore-runner of those more serious differences which were to continue thoughout the war, with all the intensity and bitterness consequent to civil strife. "There were ... in this town", says Kilbourne, p. 114, "as elsewhere throughout the
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land-honorable, influential and conscientious men-who, while they openly disapproved of many acts of the parliament were yet warmly attached to the royal cause. They looked upon revolution as not only treason to their sovereign, but predestined to be ruinous to all who might engage in it; and they chose to suffer what they regarded as only temporary evils, rather than rush into the vortex of war for redress". Among these people the Episcopalians were peculiarly bound by every tie of affection and necessity to the mother country. Litchfield was still a "missionary station". The Rector of St. Michael's received a portion of his salary directly from the "Venerable Society in England for Propagating the Gospel in For- eign Parts". For the members of the Church of England, "inde- pendence not only involved a political separation from Great Britain, but a severance of an ecclesiastical bond of union which they had long regarded as indispensable to their prosperity if not to their very existence as a church". (Kilbourne, p. 115). Many of them therefore were opposed to the Revolution and feeling ran high. The incident of the stoning of St. Michael's by revolutionary troops is described elsewhere. In the bitter alchemy of war the elements of national character were to be divided and fused anew. No tie could escape the fire. "Friends, neighbors, and even households became divided and estranged". (Kilbourne, p. 116).
In 1766, however, only the most far-seeing could have dreamed of revolution. Only three years before, Benjamin Franklin, in a pamphlet on the wisdom of retaining Canada rather then Guada- loupe as a prize of war, had assured the people of Great Britain that the colonies would never "unite against their own nation ... which 'tis well known they all love much more than they love one
another". (Eve of the Revolution. Becker, p. 5). In the Con- necticut Courant of February 24th, 1766, appears the record of that Litchfield County Meeting heralded in the issue of the 10th. "In their declaration", says Kilbourne, p. 83, "the purest sentiments of patriotism and loyalty, are blended with a love of good order and a regard for the supremacy of the law, which are remarkable for those times. The people of Litchfield were no friends of mob-law, even when mobs were fashionable elsewhere. Separation from the mother-country, was a subject which had not then been breathed audibly, even if it had been thought of by the most zealous patriot". The "declarations" are given in full by Kilbourne, pp. 83-86. They begin with the following preamble, in which it is interesting to note that the people rest their case upon their heritage as English- men, "the unalterable basis of the British Constitution", in which they had so just a pride. Preamble:
"At a Meeting of the Inhabitants of almost all the Towns in Litch- field County, convened by their Agents in Litchfield on the second Tuesday in February 1766, for the Purpose of giving the clearest Manifestation of their fixed and most ardent Desire to preserve, as far as in them lies, those inherent Rights and Privileges which essentially belong to them as a Free People, and which are founded upon the unalterable Basis of the British
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Constitution, and have been confirmed by the most solemn Sanctions-and of their readiness to promote (according to their Ability) the public Peace and Happiness, which have been greatly disturbed by the most alarming Infringements upon their Rights the following Sentiments were unanimously agreed in".
The declaration here continues through seven articles to emphasize the unconstitutionality of the Stamp Act, and while expressing most faithful allegiance to the Crown, declares (Article II) :
"That they conceive to keep up in their brightest View the first Prin- ciples and Origins of the English Government and strictly to adhere to the primary Institutions of it, is the only sure Way to preserve the same, and consequently the Prerogative of the Crown, and the Civil Liberties of the Subject, inviolate".
They add also (Article VI) :
"That God made Mankind free, (as being essential to their Happiness) and as, by His Blessing the Advantages of English Liberty have been handed down to them from their most virtuous and loyal Ancestors, so they will endeavor, by all reasonable Ways and Means within their Power, uprightly to preserve and faithfully to transmit the same to their Posterity".
From this premise they continue to Article IX:
"That if any Stamped Papers shall be imported into any Part of this Colony (which they most cordially wish might never be,) they hope the speediest public Notice thereof may be given, that the same may be pre- served UNTOUCHED for His Majesty".
They further warn the authorities that if anyone has repre- sented the people of the Colony as acquiescing in the Act in ques- tion, such representation has been made either through extreme ignorance or deliberate malice. The strength and gravity of pur- pose of the best spirit of the time is manifest in this document, together with a moderation and sobriety, which as Kilbourne has noted, is truly remarkable. Thus in Article XI, we find:
"That they will never suffer any Jealousies to arise in their Minds, that any Person in this Colony is unfriendly to its Civil Liberties, except upon the fullest, clearest, and most undeniable Evidence".
and in Article XIII:
"That whereas some very ignorant or dissolute Persons may, in this time of Perplexity, be disposed to commit Outrages against the Persons or Property of others, or to treat with Disrespect and Insult the civil Authority of this Colony; They do therefore, hereby solemnly declare, that Nothing (except a Privation of their Liberties,) could or ought to fill their Minds with a deeper and more fixed Resentment than such Conduct-and that they will always be ready and willing to assist and support, to the utmost of their Ability, the public Magistrates, in preserving, in the greatest Purity, the Peace and good Order of the Public".
GOVERNOR OLIVER WOLCOTT
whomit from prana. i Buy mfi'd
MR OLIVER WOLCOTT
known in the genealogy as Poraine Colline. 1 ..
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The Stamp Act was repealed in this year, but matters were in no wise mended. Continued imposts were made on articles imported from England; indignation in the Colonies increased; and finally a merchant's agreement was made, known as "the non-importation agreement". This, however, proved to be something of a boomerang, and was "shamefully violated", says Kilbourne, p. 86, by the mer- chants of New York. Thereupon Connecticut summoned a "General Convention of Delegates from all the towns in the Colony", to be held in New Haven on September 13th, 1770, "to take into consideration the perilous condition of the country, to provide for the growth and spread of home manufactures, and to devise more thorough means of carrying out the non-importation agreement". To this Convention Captain John Osborn and Jedediah Strong were sent as Delegates from Litchfield by vote of a town meeting.
About this time also, the Connecticut Legislature took steps to improve the condition of the militia of the Colony; "why", says Kil- bourne, p. 87, "they were scarcely themselves aware". Officers who had served with ability in the French War, now received advance commissions. Among these were Oliver Wolcott of Litchfield, "who had commanded a company in the north in 1748, and was now com- missioned as Colonel; and Ebenezer Gay, a resident of Sharon but a native of this town, who was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel". (Kilbourne, p. 87.) Kilbourne further remarks in this connection: "These officers, by long service with the commanders in the Standing Army of England, had learned whatever was worth knowing in their system of military tactics, while they had failed to learn their inefficiency, procrastination, and punctilious regard for etiquette". How just an estimate this is of the British officer of the period, it is difficult to judge. There is no doubt that during the French Wars the troops frequently suffered from the stupidity of their officers; while Lord Howe and others in the Revolution often failed to follow up their successes. The pernicious practice of selling commissions must have worked havoc in any army. Nevertheless, some able men were undoubtedly attracted to military life, and it is no derogation of our own army to assume that the forces to which it was opposed for seven years, were in many cases officered by men of intelligence, energy and devotion.
Stupidity in high places, however, was to work its inevitable mischief in British-American relations. All the indignation of the Colonists, all reasonable remonstrance of the wiser heads on both sides of the Atlantic, failed to break down the stubborn com- placency of the King and his ill-chosen advisors. Oppressive measures continued. Resistance increased in proportion. Shortly after the "Boston Tea Party", and the subsequent blockade of Boston Harbor, we find the inhabitants of Litchfield issuing the following document, which Woodruff, p. 32, credits to Oliver Wolcott.
"The Inhabitants of Litchfield, in legal Town Meeting assembled, on the 17th day of August, A. D. 1774, taking into consideration the Distress to
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which the Poor of the Town of Boston may likely be reduced by the opera- tion of an Act of the British Parliament for Blocking up their Port, and deeply commiserating the unhappiness of a brave and loyal People, who are thus eminently suffering in a General Cause, for Vindicating what every sensible virtuous American considers an essential Right of this Country, think it is their indispensable Duty to afford their unhappy distressed brethren of said Town of Boston, all reasonable Aid and Support. And this they are the more readily induced to, not only as the Inhabitants of said Town are thus severely condemned for their reluctance to submit to an arbitrary, an unconsented to, and consequently unconstitutional Taxation, but the whole of the great and loyal Province of the Massachusetts Bay have been condemned unheard, in the loss of their Charter Privileges, by the heretofore unknown and unheard of Exertions of Parliamentary Power, which they conceive is a Power claimed and exercised in such a manner as cannot fail of striking every unprejudiced mind with Horror and Amaze- ment, as being subversive of all those inherent, essential and constitutional Rights, Liberties and Privileges which the good people of this Colony have ever held sacred, and even dearer than Life itself, nor ever can wish to survive; not only every idea of Property, but every Emolument of civil Life, being thereby rendered precarious and uncertain.
"In full confidence, therefore, that no Degree of Evil thus inflicted on said Town and Province, will ever induce them to give up, or betray their own and the American Constitutional Rights and Privileges, especially as they cannot but entertain the most pleasing Expectations that the Commit- tees of the several North American Provinces, who are soon to meet at Philadelphia, will in their wisdom be able to point out a Method of Conduct effectual for obtaining Redress of those grievances-a Method to which (when once agreed upon by said Committee) this Town will look upon it their duty strictly to attend. And in the Mean Time, earnestly recommend that Subscriptions be forthwith opened in this Town, under the care of Reuben Smith, Esq. Capt. Lynde Lord, and Mr. William Stanton, who are hereby appointed a Committee to receive and forward to the Selectmen of Boston, for the use of the Poor in that Place, all such Donations as shall be thereupon made for that Purpose; as also to correspond with the Committee of Correspondence there or elsewhere, as there may be Occa- sion.
"We also take this Opportunity publicly to return our Thanks to the members of the Honorable House of Representatives of this Colony, for their patriotic and loyal Resolutions, passed and published in the last Assembly on the Occasion, and order them to be entered at large on the public Records of this Town, that succeeding Ages may be faithfully furnished with authentic Credentials of our inflexible attachment to those inestimable Privileges which We and every honest American glory in esteeming our unalienable Birthright and Inheritance".
Four months later, we find the Town appointing a Committee "for the Purposes mentioned in the Eleventh Article of the Associa- tion Agreement of the Grand Continental Congress in Philadelphia, 5th of September last, and Approved, Adopted, and Recommended by the General Assembly of this Colony at their session in October last".
Kilbourne explains, p. 91, that the "Article" herein referred to, provides for "Committees of Inspection" in each city and town,
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"whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this Association; and when it shall be made to appear that any person has violated its articles, they are to cause their names to be published in the Gazette, to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known and universally contemned as the enemies of American Liberty, and thenceforth we break off all dealings with him or her". Committees of Inspection were also appointed at the Town Meetings in 1775 and 1776.
In 1775 the storm broke. Early in this year, David Welch, whose house still stands near Milton on the Litchfield road, was in command of a company called into active service. In April he was commissioned as Major in Colonel Hinman's regiment. In this same month a lieutenant's commission was given to Bezaleel Beebe, whose four years service in the French War and rank of Ensign under Archibald McNeile, entitled him to consideration as a soldier of some experience. Fisher Gay of Farmington, a native of Litch- field, was among those commissioned in March by special session of the Legislature, receiving the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In May the country was stirred by the capture of Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys", that hardy band of pioneer adventurers, trained in the rough school of border warfare, in the boundary disputes of New York and New Hampshire. Allen
was born in Litchfield, and this, Litchfield was now glad to remember, though his family had taken him at the age of two to the neighboring town of Cornwall, and there and in Sharon he passed his boyhood. Lieutenant Crampton who was with him at Ticonderoga and entered the fort at his side, was also a native of Litchfield, and lived here, Kilbourne tells us, p. 93, for a large part of his life. Ticonderoga, because of its position as a key to the northern waterways, was a place of considerable strategic importance and its capture was a triumph for the American arms. On the day following, the gar- rison at Crown Point, with all its military stores, was also sur- rendered to the Americans under Colonel Warner, a native of Rox- bury in this county. In June came the news of Bunker Hill. At this time young Aaron Burr had been living in Litchfield for more than a year, at the house of his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve, read- ing history and absorbing all the passionate thought and feeling of the time. He now determined to enlist, and September found him serving as a private soldier in Arnold's remarkable expedition through the wilderness to Quebec. After enduring unimagined hardships of cold, privation and illness, and overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles in the unfriendly forests of the north, the expedition arrived near Quebec, diminished in numbers, depleted in strength, and bitterly in need of reinforcement. General Mont- gomery was at that time at a post beyond the British lines, waiting for the arrival of Arnold and his men. It was necessary to inform him of their dangerous situation. To do this a messenger must go through the enemy lines. Burr volunteered for this service, and
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The following list for appraisal, is also interesting as an example of the simplicity of military organization at that time.
Litchfield, 26th January, 1776
"We, being requested to apprise the Arms belonging to Capt. Bezaleel Beebe's Company, in Col. Andrew Ward's Regiment, going on an expedition to New York under the command of General Charles Lee-we accordingly apprized the same, being first duly sworn, viz.,
Elihu Harrison's Gun, Bayonet and Cartridge Box, in his own hands .. (Figures omitted).
Roger N. Whittlesey's Gun in the hands of Briant Stoddard.
Joseph Sanford's Gun, Bayonet and Belt in his own hands.
Nathaniel Allen's Gun, Bayonet and Belt in his own hands.
Obed Stoddard's Gun, bayonet, Cartridge box and belt.
Joshua Smith's Gun in his own hands.
Zebulon Bissell's Gun in his own hands.
James Woodruff's Gun carried by Stephen Brown.
Phineas Goodwin's Gun, bayonet and belt.
Whiting Stanley's Gun carried by James Crampton.
Oliver Woodruff's Gun carried by himself.
Hezekiah Agard's Gun carried by John Lyman.
Jedediah Strong's Gun, bayonet and belt carried by Wm. Patterson.
Lieut. Jonathan Mason's Cartridge box.
Samuel Canfield's Gun carried by himself. Noah Garnsey's Gun carried by T. Weed.
Sergt. Benjamin Bissell's Gun and Bayonet carried by himself.
Asa Osborn's Gun and Cartridge box carried by himself.
Jedediah Strong's Gun carried by Benjamin Taylor.
Jedediah Strong's Gun carried by Frederick Stanley.
Reuben Smith, Esq's Gun, Bayonet, Case and Belt, carried by Capt. Beebe.
Capt. John Osborn's Gun carried by Moses Taylor. ABRAHAM BRADLEY, THOMAS CATLIN, OBED STODDER, Appraisers on Oath.
Stodder is probably a misprint or variant for Stoddard, as Obed Stoddard is one of the signers of the enlistment agreement.
The short term of enlistment was characteristic of the period, and made the conduct of the war immeasurably more difficult. In an address before the Litchfield Historical Society, on the occasion of its semi-centennial, William Webster Ellsworth quotes in this connection, General Washington's remarks at the time of the siege of Boston: "It is not in the page of history, to furnish a case like ours; to maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy without powder, and at the same time to disband an army and recruit another within that distance of twenty odd British regiments". These
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