Connecticut Colony

“ In accordance with the command of His Majesty we are met here to surrender the government of the Connecticut Colony to the Royal Governor, Sir Edmund Andros. On behalf of this Assembly, I have the honor, sir, to welcome you and assure you of our submission to His Majesty's command. We have ever been a loyal and a law-abiding [Pg 22] people. We surrender the prerogatives of government under our charter with regret ”

“ The controversy with Connecticut lasted throughout the colonial period and was not definitely settled till the close of the Revolution. The charter of Connecticut granted by the British Crown extended the colony westward to the Pacific Ocean and cut off the northern half of the tract afterwards granted to William Penn. In pursuance of what they believed to be their rights, the Connecticut people settled in the beautiful valley of Wyoming. They were thereupon ejected by force by the proprietors of Pennsylvania ”

“ Owing to King William's War, Connecticut was within an ace of losing its government, and for purposes of defence being united, in 1690, with its stronger neighbour New York; the proposals fell through, and the fears of the citizens were set at rest by a legal confirmation of their constitution. The colony from this time undoubtedly advanced. Its system of government was active and vigorous; each township controlled its own affairs, and in the early years of the eighteenth century local government lay entirely in the hands of the Select-men, to the exclusion of English officials. ”

“ In Plymouth and in Massachusetts, the colonies organized their body, politic and social, upon principles of perfect equality. And, as the Puritans spread themselves over New England, they gave to the distinct communities which they established, constitutions still more democratic. In January, 1639, three years from the commencement of the Connecticut colony, the planters on Connecticut river convened at Hartford, and formed a system of government which continued, with scarcely any alterations, to the year 1818. ”

“ Consequently there developed in Connecticut an independent, self-reliant colonial government, which looked to its chartered privileges as the supreme source of authority.
Although the governmental and religious influences which moulded Connecticut were similar to those which moulded New England at large, the colony developed certain distinctive characteristics. Its policy “was to avoid notoriety and public attitudes; to secure privileges without attracting needless notice; to act as intensely and vigorously as possible when action seemed necessary and promising ”

“ Under her liberal constitutional government, based upon the voice of the people, Connecticut was from the first a practically independent republic. The public officers were plain, honest men, who acceptably administered the affairs of the colony with small cost. The colonists were shrewd in political management, frugal in their expenditures, hard-working, and ingenious. Education flourished, a severe morality obtained, and religious persecution was unknown. Connecticut was noted among the colonies for its prosperity, independence, and enlightenment. ”

“ In the Rhode Island charter, therefore, that colony’s western boundary was made as agreed upon, the “clause in a late grant” to Connecticut notwithstanding. [24] Connecticut, however, which had now become even more reckless in its career of land-grabbing than Massachusetts, repudiated its agent’s act, and undertook to enforce its claims to Rhode Island’s richest territory. [25] Not only was Connecticut’s attitude selfish and unjust, but the dispute could not fail to add another legitimate reason for the exercise of imperial control by England. ”

“ The State of Connecticut, we take it, has not the slightest scruples about putting her dirty hands into the pockets of these colored citizens,—or rather inhabitants who are not citizens,—and making them pay their proportion of the expenses of the government, in which they have no voice. Some seventy-five years ago there was none of the Colonies louder in denunciations of the British Parliament for taxing them without representation than this same colony of Connecticut. ”

“ Connecticut was colonized in 1635-'6 by emigrants from Massachusetts, who settled at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, though a trading post had been established at Windsor somewhat earlier, and the Dutch, who claimed the territory, had built a fort and trading house at Hartford in 1633. Rhode Island was first settled at Providence in 1636 by Roger Williams, who had been exiled from Massachusetts for maintaining religious and political opinions at variance with those of the rulers of that colony. ”

“ From 1643 to 1684 Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven
formed a confederation under the style of the United Colonies of New
England. Maine, Providence, and Rhode Island sought membership, but were
refused as being civilly and religiously out of harmony with the
colonies named. Connecticut, offensive to the Dutch, and exposed to
hostilities from them, was the most earnest for the union, while at the
same time the most conservative as to its form. It was a loose league,
leaving each colony independent save as to war and peace, Indian
affairs, alliances and boundaries. ”

“ Further, the Connecticut authorities felt that if the conditions which had given rise to the law were fully realized in England, the apparent insubordination of the colony would disappear in the light of the real equity of the colonial statute. In Governor Talcott's letter, dated November 3, 1729, under "The Case of Connecticut Stated," there is a summary of the reasons why the colony hesitated to appeal directly to Parliament for a confirmation of the Intestate Act. ”

“ In 1633 Captain William Holmes, of the Plymouth Colony, established near the mouth of the Farmington river a trading post, the first settlement by Englishmen in Connecticut; a more important and a permanent settlement (until 1637 called New Dorchester) was made in 1635 by immigrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts, led by the Rev. John Wareham, Roger Ludlow and others. In 1639 representatives from Windsor, with those from Wethersfield and Hartford, organized the Connecticut Colony. ”

“ The troubles between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, between Massachusetts and Connecticut, and between Connecticut and Rhode Island, were thus rapidly approaching the point at which a general intercolonial war might easily have resulted in the annihilation of the smallest colony, and a possible quarrel over the spoils by the two victors, already bitterly quarreling over the spoils of a war of twenty years earlier. ”

“ It is at least true that Lieutenant Gardiner was ordered to construct “within the fort” houses suitable for “men of quality” and to erect “some convenient buildings for the receipt of gentlemen.” The place was named Saybrook for Lord Saye and Sele and for Lord Brooke. It was not a colony of merchants like the New Haven Colony, nor of farmers like the Connecticut Colony; it was a military post, and it was planned as a refuge in the New World for influential men in public life in England who might be forced to leave their own country. ”

“ Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution, January 9, 1788, being the fifth colony to do so. She took an active part in the war of 1812, though it cost the ruin of her West India and coasting trade. The present constitution was adopted in 1818, doing away with slavery, and being otherwise remarkable for its liberality and wisdom. It has been considerably amended to meet the needs of increased and differently distributed population, and of industrial progress. Under Governor Buckingham the State took a very prominent part in the civil war of 1861-65. ”

“ Connecticut presented greater difficulties, and, owing to delays, a second writ of Quo Warranto, served by Randolph, also became legally void before service. Governor Dongan, of New York, who had hopes that his province, and not Massachusetts, might be made the nucleus around which the larger administrative unit would be built, was also making efforts to annex Connecticut, either in whole or in part. Although twice saved by delay, that colony realized that the tendency of the time toward consolidation would probably prove too strong for her to remain permanently isolated. ”

“ No part of all the Western world received more of the Society's fostering aid than the New England colonies; and to none of them was more help extended than to the colony of Connecticut. From the day when the foundations of the Church were laid in that colony on to the outbreak of the Revolution, the benefactions that came from England were abundant and unceasing. With possibly a single exception, all the clergy in the colony were missionaries of the Society. ”

“ This charter had been secured without the knowledge or consent of the New Haven colonists and they naturally protested against the union with Connecticut. But on account of the threatened absorption of a part of the Connecticut territory by the Colony of New York granted to the duke of York in 1664, and the news that a commission had been appointed in England to settle intercolonial disputes, they finally assented to the union in 1665. Hartford then became the capital of the united colonies, but shared that honour with New Haven from 1701 until 1873. ”

“ Further than this, the Connecticut agent obtained a stay in the proceedings of the Mohegan case, [n] though it was soon reopened and seriously menaced the colony until the settlement in her favor in 1743. In the famous Liveen or Hallam case, Connecticut opposed an appeal to the Crown, because such an appeal would give the Privy Council the right to interpret the charter and pass upon the colony laws. ”

“ Difficulty with Rhode Island was caused by the conflict between that colony’s charter and the Connecticut charter regarding the western boundary of Rhode Island; and the encroachment of outlying Connecticut settlements on Dutch territory, and the attempt to extend the boundaries of New York to the Connecticut river, gave rise to other disputes. ”

“ American history. The agricultural life, which was more productive in the valley of the Connecticut than elsewhere, determined largely the social life of the colony, made Connecticut the most serenely democratic of the New England States, emphasized the individual worth, and allowed free play in self-government. ”

“ The lower colony had to be reconciled to its loss of independence, in so much as the governing party, with its influential following of conservatives, objected to the consolidation. The liberals, a much larger party numerically, preferred to come under the authority of Connecticut and to enjoy her less restrictive church policy and her broader political life. Matters were finally adjusted, and delegates from the old New Haven colony first took their seats as members of the General Court of Connecticut at the spring session of 1665. ”

“ The inhabitants are estimated at 200,000, so that there remains but twelve and a half acres for each individual. Let it now be considered that the people buy no provisions from other provinces, but, on the contrary, export [Pg 180] full as much as they consume, and it will appear that each person has in fact only six and a quarter acres for his own support, two of which must be set apart for the growth of wood, the only fuel of the colony. Should I, then, not be justified in saying that Connecticut is as good and flourishing land as any part of Great Britain? ”

“ The General Assembly computed that the Church of England professors amounted [Pg 169] to one-third of the whole colony in 1770. Hence has arisen a question, how it came to pass that the Church of England increased rapidly in Connecticut, and but slowly in Massachusets-Bay and Rhode-Island? The reason appears obvious to me. It is easier to turn fanatical farmers from their bigotry than to convert fanatical merchants, smugglers, and fishermen. Pride and gain prevent the two first, and ignorance the last, from “worshipping the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” ”

“ There are comparisons that should never be made, on account of circumstances that overrule all common efforts. New York is a great colony—a very great colony, Miss; but it was once Dutch, as everybody knows, begging Mr. Follock's pardon; and it must be confessed Connecticut has, from the first, enjoyed almost unheard-of advantages, in the moral and religious character of her people, the excellence of her lands, and the purity”—Jason called this word “poority;” ”

“ Dancing, fishing, hunting, skating, and riding in sleighs on the ice, are all the amusements allowed in this colony.
Smuggling is rivetted in the constitution and practice of the inhabitants of Connecticut, as much as superstition and religion, and their province is a storehouse for the smugglers of the neighbouring colonies. They conscientiously study to cheat the King of those duties which, they say, God and Nature never intended should be paid. From the Governor down to the tithing-man, who are sworn to support the laws, they will aid smugglers, resist collectors, and mob informers. ”

“ The recent colony of Connecticut, which was composed of bands of settlers from Plymouth and Massachusetts, and also a few Dutch planters, first came into hostile collision with the natives. The settlers of New Plymouth had entered upon an almost deserted land; those of Massachusetts had ensured to themselves safety by their superior strength; and those among the Narragansetts were protected from injury by the friendly feelings of the neighboring Indians. ”