Various

“ It is true that in the South wealth never rolled up into the millions, and, judged by present standards, bank accounts were by no means imposing in round numbers; but all the real advantages and immunities that wealth can give were enjoyed by the Southern people who, as a class, were in possession of an assured income sufficient not only for the supply of their necessities, but for the gratification of their tastes as well. ”

“ Clapp’s own case is a fine exhibition of the process of selection and unification by which a party was made up of such as were fitted to undertake together the peculiar task of making a new community in the wilderness. One would readily guess that the relations of the individuals of such a company must be somewhat other than those secured by formal agreements and contracts on paper. They must be bound together by the finest of affinities, by mutual esteem, by the strength of commanding leadership. ”

“ The militia and minute-men, as reorganized and prepared in accordance with the directions of the Provincial Congress, responded with marvelous promptitude when the call to arms came. Within ten days after the battle of Lexington between fifteen and twenty thousand men had assembled at Cambridge and Roxbury. But it was an armed assemblage rather than an army. There was practically no cohesion beyond the company organization. They were not accustomed to act with other units as battalions or regiments. ”

“ Therefore, when the governor in his recurring messages constantly besought the Assembly to raise money—to supply funds for repairing Fort William and Mary, for building a new prison or repairing the old one, for the expenses of carrying on the boundary line controversy with Massachusetts—he did not always meet with a cordial reception or a courteous reply. Money for current expenses and paying old obligations as fast as possible the Assembly was willing to provide, but little was to be had for other purposes which did not appear to its members absolutely and urgently necessary. ”

“ At a council of war, July 9, 1775, it was estimated that the force of the enemy amounted to 11,500, and that the army investing Boston ought to consist of at least 22,000 men; and it was recommended, in order to supply the deficiency, that an officer from each company raised in Massachusetts Bay should be sent out to recruit all the regiments up to their standard efficiency as fixed by the Provincial Congress, Rhode Island and Connecticut being at the time engaged in recruiting for the purpose of filling up their quotas of troops to the full establishment. ”

“ The minute-men, while of the militia, were, for a short time at the beginning of the war, a distinct body under a separate organization. A minute-man was a member of the militia who had engaged himself, with others, to march at a moment’s warning; while a militiaman was one who had not so engaged, and yet was equally liable to be called upon for service, when the Committee of Safety should deem it necessary to order out the militia. ”

“ While we may be more interested in that route than any other nation, we cannot assert for ourselves what we are unwilling to allow to other nations,—the domination of the route, which, from its position on the earth, of right belongs to all mankind.
So long as we assert the doctrine of President Monroe we stand upon the defensive. ”

“ Born to control, from his cradle the Southern land owner was trained to regard himself as the natural protector, provider, and friend of the weak and the helpless. Thus, while the environment of the Northern farmer was calculated to make him think first of his own personal needs and his duty to himself, that of the Southern planter as naturally impressed upon him the duty he owed to those by whom he was surrounded. ”

“ The people of America will be in sympathy with you, upon the basis that no control shall ever be permitted to any government, and that its freedom shall be guaranteed by the civilized nations, both in peace and in war. ”

“ The intimate relation necessarily existing between economic and social conditions would lead us to infer that conservatism was the great law of Southern society. And in truth, permanence and continuity were its most marked characteristics. The fluctuations and vicissitudes which formed so striking a feature of Northern social life were practically unknown at the South. From generation to generation, men occupied the same habitations, pursued the same callings and held the same place in the community ”

“ There was no term or limit of service prescribed or that could be required of these men that came forward in response to the alarm. Their own patriotic fervor or the persuasiveness of their officers made the measure of their stay in the service. It was, in consequence, a fluctuating force from day to day, with arrivals and departures in constant progress. The problems involved in making it a united or cohesive force for either aggression or defence would drive the modern military man frantic. ”

“ After the events of the Stamp Act and when it became a certainty that the colonists could hope for nothing from the tyrannical ministry of Great Britain, and all thinking men faced the possibility of armed resistance to the mother country, it became necessary for those foreseeing the event and in the forefront of the Revolutionary party to provide a more elastic instrument and one more responsive to their urgent needs than could be looked for under the old militia act. ”

“ And the law of nations should provide that if any nation shall attempt to close or blockade them in peace or in war, that nation should be treated as having made war upon the commerce of all other nations. ”

“ I.—The History of the Second Company, Governor’s Foot-Guard of the State of Connecticut; by Jason Thomson, Esq., of the New Haven Bar (a member of the Company) . This was originally issued as a pamphlet, but has long been out of print. The Company is the third oldest military organization in the United States, beginning its history with service in the Revolution when Benedict Arnold, its first captain, took the Colony powder by force from the hesitant Selectmen of New Haven, and marched to Cambridge, accompanied by Israel Putnam, to join the patriot forces there. ”

“ It may be interesting to note some of the provisions and requirements that governed the militia during the Province period under the old act referred to. The act provided that all male persons from sixteen years of age to sixty, with certain exceptions, should bear arms and duly attend all musters and military exercises of the respective troops and companies wherein they were listed, allowing three months’ time to every son, next after his coming to sixteen years of age, and to every servant for the same period after his time was out, to provide themselves with arms, ammunition, etc. ”

“ The effectiveness of this method of enlistment can best be judged by the fact, officially verified, that commissions had been issued to the officers of fifteen regiments, they having at that time the proper complement of men. It could not be expected, under the conditions that prevailed, that an army so hastily gotten together and formed from small local organizations, totally unused to acting in masses under any military system as regiments or brigades, should have presented, either in the matter of discipline or equipment, anything that would commend itself to the trained military man. ”

“ But in New Hampshire he had many serious problems. A small province both in population and resources, it had for many years stood between Massachusetts and the savages, who were continually hovering about the frontiers, and in this almost constant warfare, and by the costly vigilance which was necessary even in times of nominal peace, the province had incurred debts which were a heavy burden on the sparse population. ”

“ Inasmuch as many of the men served the full term of their enlistment without ever being gratified with the sight of the promised bounty coat, it is not to be wondered at that thousands of them accepted the money equivalent, and received it in some instances after the expiration of their term of service. With the appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief by the Continental Congress, the Massachusetts army, raised as I have described, together with the levies raised by the other Colonies, became a part of the Continental establishment. ”

“ The events of the historic 19th of April, 1775, brought matters to a crisis more rapidly than had been anticipated; and, following that incursion of the British troops (excursion it is sometimes called in the quaint language of the day, although one would hardly term it a pleasant one) , the Provincial Congress resolved that an army of 13,600 men should be raised immediately by the Province of Massachusetts Bay. ”

“ The General is confident a vigorous and spirited attack must be attended with success. The troops shall have the effects of the Governor, garrison, and of such as have been acting in misleading the inhabitants and distressing the friends of liberty, to be equally divided among them, each to have the one hundredth share out of the whole, which shall be at the disposal of the General and given to such soldiers as distinguished themselves by their activity and bravery, and sold at public auction. ”

“ The burden of the taxation necessary to pay the expenses of Indian warfare and maintain the government rested heavily on the people of New Hampshire, while they were engaged in conflict with the wilderness, planting the standard of civilization step by step further north and west. ”

“ The tradesman, the artisan, the mechanic stood quite apart from the professional classes and the landed-proprietors. In every age and in every clime talent will assert itself and rise to the top; and to this rule the South was no exception. ”

“ They carry us into the fastnesses of our mountains, the depth of our forests, the watery wilderness of our lakes and rivers, giving us pictures of savage life and savage tribes, Indian legends, fishing and hunting anecdotes, the adventures of trappers and backwoodsmen ”

“ A goodly number of the recruits and many of the officers had served in the expeditions against Canada; and these were sufficient to leaven the mass, and communicate by example and precept something of the military spirit to their younger comrades who had never rendered service in the field. At that time the army was a Massachusetts army, and in fact it is so termed in the official documents. The regiments were really what would be designated in these days as State regiments, being enlisted, officered, and maintained entirely by Massachusetts. ”

“ The hero of Manila Bay is a descendant of Thomas Dewey, of the old Windsor church. Henry Wolcott, a man of wealth and social importance in old England, was the ancestor of the famous Wolcott family, which included two Connecticut governors and men of note in every generation to the present day. Roger Ludlow, the lawyer of the settlement, gave legal shape to the democracy of Thomas Hooker in the Constitution of Connecticut, the first written instrument of the kind on record. ”

“ Although quaint and antiquated in its provisions, it seems to have sufficed for all practical purposes; and no other act was passed regulating the militia until the Provincial Congress, almost at the beginning of its sittings, took steps to place the militia of the Province upon a different basis in order to find themselves prepared for the impending contest with the mother country, which at that date, October, 1774, was patent to all men as an unavoidable conflict. ”

“ Each company was to consist of sixty-eight privates, exclusive of the alarm list, officered by a captain and two lieutenants, non-commissioned officers to be four sergeants, four corporals, with a drummer and fifer for each company. A brigadier-general was directed to be chosen for each county, and under him the field officers of the different regiments were authorized to divide up and district the regiments, each regiment having a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and two majors. Three major-generals were also to be chosen by the Council or House of Representatives. ”

“ However, that brave defence has not been forgotten by Quebec’s citizens, and some time ago at a meeting of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, it was resolved, “That the time has come for the erection of historic tablets at Pres-de-Ville and the Sault-au-Matelot, in the lower town of Quebec, relating to the events of 31st of December, 1775, so important to the destiny of Canada; and as it is within the province of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec to erect such memorials, a committee is hereby appointed on the subject.” ”