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CONNECTICUT ASSOCIATION.

REVERE HOUSE, BOSTON,

JANITAKY 14, 1857.

WITH THR CONSTITUTION, OFEICERS, ANIi MEMBERS OE THE ASSOCIATION.

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FESTIVAL

CONNECTICUT ASSOCIATION

REVERE HOUSE, BOSTON,

JASrUAKY 14, 1857.

WITH THE CONSTITUTION, OFFICERS, AND MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

BOSTON:
PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET.
1857,

FESTIYAL

SONS OF CONNECTICUT

In the Spring of 1856, an informal meeting of Sons of
Connecticut, residing in Boston and its vicinity, was called
with, a view to the formation of a Society for the purpose
of mutual acquaintance, and the cultivation of friendly and
social relations among each other ; and also for the pur
pose of recalling the memory of the great and good deeds
and beneficent institutions of the father-land. Some fifty or
sixty gentlemen responded to the call, and a Committee of
their number was raised, who subsequently reported a plan
of organization, and a constitution and by-laws for the Soci
ety, under the name of the Connecticut Association, it
being designed to include ladies, as well as gentlemen, of
Connecticut birth or descent, residing in Massachusetts.
The Association has flourished uninterruptedly; several
stated meetings have been held, in furtherance of its objects ;
and its first Annual Festival was celebrated with great bril
liancy and success, at the Revere House, on the 14th of
January, 1857. The occasion was one of much interest.
The tables were laid for two hundred and fifty persons, and
they were filled. They were ornamented with great elegance
and beauty. A most interesting feature of the occasion was
the presence of ladies.

George M. Browne, Esq., the President of the Associa
tion, presided. On his right sat His Excellency Henry J.
Gardner, Governor of Massachusetts, Mrs, Browne, wife of
the President, Oliver Eldredge', Esq,, and others ; on the
left of the President, were Mrs, Gardner, wife of the Gover
nor, Hon, Robert C, Winthrop, Rev, Dr, and Mrs, Alexan
der H, Vinton, Judge Charles H, Warren, and others. The
President welcomed the company in a few appropriate re
marks, and invited Rev. E. M. P, Wells, D, D,, to implore
the divine blessing, which that gentleman proceeded to do in
an impressive manner.
After the luxuries of the feast had been suiEciently par
taken of, the President arose and spoke as follows :
On the 14th of January, 1639, the freemen of Connecticut,
who had gone out from Massachusetts, assembled at Hartford, and
adopted a Constitution, remarkable for its liberal and enlightened
provisions for self-government.
On the 14th of January, 1857, we, sons and daughters of Con
necticut, who have come hack to Massachusetts, together with our
welcome and honored guests, have met to commemorate that and
other great deeds and the patriotic men of that nohle State.
The period to which I refer, 1639, it will he remembered, was
just before the Eehellion and the civil wars in England, when
Charles I. was striving to rule without a Parliament, and to estab
lish and enforce the divine right of kings — and when all the rest
of Europe was wrapped in the lethargy of despotism. It was at
this period that the free planters of Connecticut framed a constitu
tion which embodies all the great principles of civil liberty and
republican government. Under it they elected their own rulers
and magistrates, and enacted their own laws, without the supervis
ion of any power whatsoever.
The experience of two centuries and upwards, in that and other
communities, and the studies and reflections of statesmen, have
hardly suggested a change in the fundamental principles of the
frame of government adopted by the Connecticut colonists in
1639. Under that constitution they lived and prospered until the
restoration of the Stuarts.

When Charles II. returned to the throne of his ancestors, and
the people of England, from seeking too much, seemed to have lost
all hopes of liberty, it was thought best by the Connecticut col
onists to endeavor to obtain a charter. The wise men of the colony
themselves drew up the charter, such as they wished it to be, em
bodying and re-enacting the principles of the constitution of 1639 ;
and they appointed an agent to go to England and procure its adop
tion. That agent was John Winthrop. By the ability, the influ
ence and the address of Winthrop, the royal assent was obtained
April 20, 1662, to the charter, as drawn up by the colonists them
selves. Under the charter, as under the constitution which it succeeded,
the freemen of the colony elected their own governors and made
their own laws. With the exception of the brief usurpation of
Andros, under James II., no royal governor ever held the chief
magistracy in Connecticut, no royal assent was ever necessary to
the validity of their laws. So completely did the charter embody
the great principles of self-government, so entirely were the people
their own rulers under it, that at the time of our Revolution no
change whatever was necessary in their fundaniental law. They
lived on under the charter ; and the greatest change made was to
strike out two words from the commissions of justices of the peace
and other officers, so that instead of appearing to he "His Maj
esty's justices of the peace," they became simply "justices of the
peace; " and to abolishing the oath of allegiance. The State was
governed under the charter until 1818, when anew constitution
was adopted — varying, however, from the charter and from the con
stitution of 1639, rather in details than in principles.
Connecticut, left so free and self-governed, was always quick to
foresee and to resist any attempt at usurpation. When the British
Parliament, by unconstitutional laws, sought to raise a revenue by
taxing America, that colony, with Massachusetts and the rest,
resisted and repelled the invasion of her colonial and chartered
rights ; and when the Boston Port Bdl, the crowning act of oppres
sion, which precipitated the Revolution, went into effect in June,
1774, the whole population of Connecticut was aroused ; meetings
were held in all the towns, and they every where resolved that
" the cause of Boston was the cause of all the North American
Colonies,"

6
Of all the colonial Governors at the opening of the Revolution,
the Governor of Connecticut alone adhered to the patriot cause.
Jonathan Trumbull, a name ever to be held in honor by sons of
Connecticut, then sat in the chair of State in that colony, and there
he sat to the triumphant end of the war, giving the aid of his clear
judgment and eminent abilities, and exerting himself to raise men
and means for the common cause. Washington relied on him as
upon a brother.
The contributions of Connecticut, in men and material and sub
sistence for the war, throughout the Revolution, were not exceeded,
in proportion to her revenue, by those of any colony in the confed
eracy. In the Congress ofthe Confederation, and in the Convention that
framed our National Constitution, Connecticut acted a conspicuous
part. From that time afterwards, her Shermans, Ellsworths, Gris-
wolds, TrumbuUs, Daggetts, and other great names, have illus
trated the history of the State and Nation.
The social, civil, literary and religious institutions of Connecticut
are a source of just pride to her sons, wherever they may be.
Indeed, in every aspect we may say, the lines have fallen to us in
pleasant places. We look with respect and gratitude and filial regard
upon all her institutions, upon all her history; we cherish the
memory of her great deeds and her great men ; nor shall any change
of scene repress the homage of our hearts for the good old State.
"No mortal hand
Shall e'er untie the filial band
That knits me to my native strand."
But while we regard with filial aflfection our native State, we are
no less loyal to the State of our adoption. A large part of us trace
our lineage to Massachusetts — to the Old Colony or to the Bay —
and coming here is only coming back to the homes of our ancestors.
Eastern Connecticut was largely settled by colonists from Plymouth ;
and the earliest permanent colony on the river above Saybrook,
went out, as is well known, nnder the energetic Hooker, from this
immediate neighborhood. There was, indeed, a debate here in the
General Court whether to let the colonists go. They wished to o-o,
because they said they were "straightened for room." On the
other hand, it was urged that they were bound in conscience to
remain in Massachusetts, and uphold her institutions.

Well, Sir, [to the Governor,] we have come back to aid, as far
as we may be able, in upholding the institutions of Massachusetts.
We trust, we hope at least, she may not find the stock to have
degenerated in the rugged soil, and under the free air and free
institutions of Connecticut ; and wo pledge ourselves to as earnest
a devotion to the honor, the welfare and the prosperity of Massachu
setts, as if our eyes had first seen the hght on her consecrated soil.
The President then said, that the Sons and Daughters of
Connecticut, wherever they may be, are always loyal to the
constitution of their country, and hold in honor her legally
chosen magistrates ; and be called on Perkins Cleveland,
Esq., from Hampton, now of Boston, to respond to the first
regular toast :
T%e President of the United States.
SPEECH OF ME. CLEVELAND.
Mr. President, -Ladies and Gentlemen : — I appreciate not less
the honor than the delicacy of the part you have been pleased to
assign me in these graceful and elegant festivities. I have not
brought with me well-chosen words, or any mental preparation, com
mensurate with the dignity of the occasion and the high character
of the Association under whose auspices we are so happily con
vened. Until within a few hours, it had been confidently hoped
that a distinguished citizen of our good old State,* whose reputation
for genius and eloquence is not restricted even by the boundaries
of our broad republic, would have been with us to-night, to respond
to the patriotic sentiment which has just fallen from your lips.
When I consider his intellectual resources, his ripe scholarship, his
graceful and impassioned oratory, and his earnest devotion to what
ever is designed to promote the honor and enhance the prosperity
of the glorious old State of which he is an ornament, I regret for
your sake and my own, more than I can express, that he is not here
to perform the honorable part allotted him. As his unworthy rep
resentative for the time, I must bespeak your kind indulgence,
while I give myself up, for a very few moments, to such sugges
tions as this occasion and these surroundings may bring to my lips.
* Hon, AVilliam James Hammersley.

8
Prom my humble place at this board — if indeed there can be a
humble place in such an assemblage as this — I look out upon a scene
which could hardly fail to inspire the heart and fire the tongue of
any true " son of Connecticut." To such emotion as it stirs, must
I feel obliged for whatever of earnestness and propriety may char
acterize my brief response. Whether " in order " or not, I must
be permitted here to congratulate you upon the proofs around me,
that the Connecticut Association has become " an Institution ; " I
may say a "glorious institution." It is no longer a myth or an
experiment. From the humblest beginnings, a few months since,
it has grown to what we are all so proud to see it to-night. May
we not felicitate ourselves upon the success of this, our first public
demonstration ? Does it not in reality outstrip the hopes or expect
ations of the most sanguine among us ?
As I look around this palace hall in which we are met, upon
these tables so sumptuously laden and so magnificently decorated
with the fruits and flowers of almost every clime ; as the sweetest
tones of sweetest music fall pleasantly upon my ear; above all, as
I look- upon these full ranks of the brave " sons " and fair " daugh
ters " of our good old mother, as well as the distinguished guests
who have done us the honor of participating in these festivities, T
am brought to the proud and happy conclusion, in which you will
readily acquiesce, that this, our first family gathering, is wanting
in none of the essential elements of a complete success.
Festive occasions of this character are among the happiest features
of our Society — occasions which bring together, upon a high social
platform, men of all professions and pursuits, and of all shades of
political and religious antagonism, inspired by no narrower senti
ment than a common pride in a common origin. To such a " fusion' '
the veriest "hunker" may lend himself without periling his reUg
ious or political " orthodoxy." We have enough of contention and
strife, enough of bitterness and discord in the church and the state,
in the exchange and in the market-place. There should be social
retreats, like our own cherished Association, never to be invaded
by the demon of political or sectarian hate ; where, in a social
sense, "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
Such associations tend to make men of conflicting views and honest
differences, tolerant and charitable and conciliatory. They impress
us anew with the beauty and sublimity of the great idea of the

brotherhood of man. God is our Father, all men are brethren ;
and this our common country, with her glorious institutions, her
memories of the past, and her hopes of the future, are among his
choicest earthly gifts, his richest political and social blessings to
mankind. Sentiments like these should be considered the main
planks in all social organizations. These constitute a platform infi
nitely higher than any of a mere partisan, sectional, or sectarian
character. The undeviating loyalty of our good old Connecticut, especially
in the earlier days of the Republic, to the great doctrines which
constitute the basis and the corner-stone of our Union and Consti
tution, make the sentiment to which I respond a most pertinent and
appropriate one to the occasion which calls us together. Connecticut
has a political record which eclipses that of almost any other State.
In the early wars, she contributed more of her blood and her treasure,
in proportion to her population and her resources, than any other
member of the early confederation. Throughout the Revolutionary
era, she was most bravely and ably represented upon the fields of
our early struggles with the most formidable power on earth, as well
as in the councils of the " rebels," which gave life and courage to
our small but valiant army. The names of her sons, enrolled upon
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United
States, are among the purest, brightest and best that have given
immortality to both those heaven-inspired instruments. She was
the first State, if I mistake not, to pubhsh to the world a written
constitution, which, for the political wisdom evinced in its general
tone, and the majority of its provisions, may be reckoned a model
for all time.
In the shaping of that system which gave us a President of the
United States, instead of a King, or an Emperor, no colony con
tributed more, than that from which we are proud to claim our
origin. And I believe that, should the American people ever be
called upon to meet, face to face, the startling question of Union or
Anarchy, our good old Mother State will he among the last to cut
away her fastenings from our glorious ship of state ; and that, if she
must, in the inevitable decree of fate, go down to political death, that
Connecticut wUl be among the very last to " give her up."
I may be allowed to thank you for the cordiality and courtesy
with which you have received and responded to the national and
2

10
patriotic sentiment, The President of the United States. It is an
index of that loyalty, as well as that sense of propriety, whieh^have
always been deemed elements of Connecticut character. There are
no occasions of this nature to which that sentiment is not fitting
and appropriate, and God forbid that the time should ever come,
when it shall cease to be thus recognized and honored. The Chief
Magistrate of our nation, which, from a handful of poor, persecuted
enthusiasts, has expanded into a Republic of nearly thirty mil
lions, bounded by the great waters alone, is in some sense the sym
bol and representative of that unity, which constitutes our glory
and our strength as a people. The noble men who, throughout our
history, have been called to encounter the great responsibilities of
that highest and most fearful of all earthly elevations, have given it
a sanctity and majesty which no man calling himself American
should dare to insult or outrage.
I am sufficiently sensible of the proprieties of the place and the
occasion, as not knowingly to trench upon any reasonable political
prejudices, or to attempt to force my own political predilections upon
this courteous and enlightened assembly. I hope I may, however,
advert with propriety to the remarkable prosperity of our country
at the present time ; to the rewards which are held out to industry
and enterprise, in every department of American life ; to the fact
that, while our treasury is overflowing and our ships are building,
our commerce increasing and our resources of every description
multiplying with unexampled rapidity, we are at peace with all the
world, and stand out, as a nation, the fairest, richest and happiest
the sun ever shone upon. No man can contemplate, without a thrill
of exultation, the tokens of unparalleled national thrift which greet
us as Americans on every side — the natural result of the purest and
best administered government on earth. The people will see to it,
sooner or later, that ample justice shall be done to all those, who,
summoned by their edict to the loftiest trusts in their gift, have met
their high responsibilities, and discharged their sublime duties, in
the spirit of fidelity to the Constitution, at whatever cost of personal
sacrifice or temporary popularity.
I feel, ladies and gentlemen, how imperfectly I have met the
demands of this occasion, while I am the more grateful for the
patient indulgence which you have so magnanimously extended to
me. I should have preferred to talk altogether of our noble old

11
State, whose career, in the language of Mr. Bancroft, has been so
fair and "unsullied." Our thoughts are necessarily of, and with
her to-night. The homes of our childhood and the graves of our
loved ones are there ; and their contemplation, at any time, rolls
upon the heart a flood-tide of memories, which, though sweet and
bitter be mingled, we would not turn back if we could. A sped is
upon me to-night, which I cannot break ; and I doubt not you
have sympathized with me in the difficulty I have experienced in
attempting to divert my thoughts, even for a few moments, from
the theme of which we are all so full, on this ever-to-be-remembered
evening. I did not design to trespass so long upon your valuable time. I
see around me men eminent for worth and high position, of the
most exalted professional and literary rank, who have come in to
add grace and dignity and interest to these pleasant ceremonies. It
would not be pardonable in me to keep you longer from the splen
did intellectual banquet in reserve for you. Let us hope that these
dehghtful festivities may serve to deepen our devotion and strengthen
our attachment to " whatsoever things are lovely," and " of good
report " in social hfe, as well as to our native and our adopted
States, mother and daughter, and those institutions, the priceless
legacy of our fathers, which have thus far guided and sustained our
young mother of nations, in a career so glorious and unexampled.
The President then said, His Excellency the Governor of
the State of our adoption, who, by the firm and steady hand
with which be guides the helm of state, commands the
respect of conservative men everywhere, has given us the
honor of his presence on this festal occasion, I give you
the second regular toast :
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massaehusetls.

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR GARDNER.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I thank you heartily
for the manner in which you have received the toast complimentary
to Old Massachusetts — the native home of some of us, and the
adopted residence of nearly all the remainder. I confess to a little

12
surprise at finding so many of the daughters and sons of Connecti
cut residing in our midst and present here to-night. Yet, as you,
Mr. President, truly remarked, it is only the return of children
long absent to their mother State, and as such, in the name of Mas
sachusetts, I welcome you home.
It is true that Connecticut is the daughter of Massachusetts, and
this alone entitles me, as her representative, to be among you. But
there are other ties of connection I take pleasure in recalling at this
hour. The first settlement within the limits of your present beauti
ful State, then an unbroken forest, disturbed only by the footstep of
the Indian, and whose only curling smoke was from the chimney of
the wigwam, was made nearly two centuries and a quarter ago from
my native town of Dorchester. Thence emigrated a large portion
of its inhabitants, at the head of whom was he whom his contem
poraries describe as the "learned and pious Warham," whose
home, if tradition speaks truly, was the same as my own present
Dorchester home. Not the same house, it is true, but the same
spot of ground, beside the same beautiful hill, and having upon it a
huge elm tree, which, if not quite so large or so symmetrical as the
giant of yonder Common, is probably as venerable in age, whose
branches once doubtless covered the head and listened to the words
of the pious pastor, Warham. This circumstance invests my com
munion with you to-night with peculiar pleasure.
It is worthy of remembrance, too, that the chroniclers assert this
hand of settlers were occupied during fourteen days in compassing
the distance that some of you to-day have traversed in four hours.
If those forefathers could revisit us, they might with justice deem us
in this, if not in other respects, to be &fast people.
This body of Massachusetts men carried with them, too, not only
their stout hearts and strong arms and sturdy wills, but those three
pillars of the social fabric that constitute the ground-work of every
State — the clergyman, the schoolmaster, and the soldier. Though
I would not give undue rank to the latter in comparison with the
former, yet, notwithstanding the sickly sentimentaUty so prevalent,
too prevalent, in the present day, I hold that he who will not
defend, if need be, his rights and privileges, even by the strong arm
of the sword, endangers their perpetuity and is unworthy their
continuance. Thus descended from Massachusetts stock, I am ready to aeknowl-

13
edge that Connecticut holds us in emulous rivalry in all that is
praiseworthy in New England character.
If, too, in any of the walks of science or learning, in any of the
branches of mental culture, or in any fields of Industry and honor
New England can point to a galaxy of brlUlant names, rest assured
that Connecticut may claim her full share of them, trained in her
schools, nurtured under her free institutions, and matured to full
fruition by her moral, intellectual, and social influences.
But I must not longer detain you. Up to the last moment I
have been in doubt whether I could join you to-night, and I can
only offer these tmpremeditated expressions of my sincere senti
ments, closing with this prophecy :
The Charter Oak has at length been prostrated by the storms of centuries
of Connecticut winters, yet the sentiments it typifies and symbolizes will
always live in the hearts of Connecticut men.
The President then announced the third regular toast :
The State of Connecticut —
And said, as Governor Minor has not been able to be with us
this evening, I call on John Phelps Putnam, Esq., from
Hartford, now of Boston, to say what His Excellency ought
to have said, if he had been present.

SPEECH OF MR. PUTNAM.
You have informed me, Mr. President, that in the absence of His
Excellency Governor Minor, of Connecticut, who, it was hoped,
would be present with us this evening, I am expected to respond to
this sentiment. Most sincerely do I regret. Sir, the absence of His
Excellency on this occasion ; and most sincerely, too, do I regret,
that as your eagle eye glanced along these tables and singled
out its victim, it should have fallen on one so unable to respond,
adequately, to a sentiment so deeply suggestive to all of us, so
closely touching the heart of every son and daughter of Connecticut
now present. The State of Connecticut ! How does the mention
of it call up a thousand memories of home — of kindred — of " days
long vanished" — ^memories of loved ones dead and gone — mem
ories of loved ones still living — the " old folks at home," who this

14
night, perhaps at this very moment, as they sit around the dear old
hearth-stones, follow us, even here, with their thoughts and their
prayers ! How does he, then, who is called upon to respond to a
sentiment so suggestive, need to have his heart and his lips touched
with more than ordinary eloquence, adequately to meet the emer
gency, and rightly to touch the electric sympathies with which, at
the mere mention of the name of our native State, all our hearts
are now vibrating.
And what. Sir, shall I say of our good old State ? or rather,
what shall I not say of her ; for the difficulty seems to me to lie
rather there ? I know not what have been the feelings of others,
but for myself. Sir, as I have sat here to-night around this festive
board, gazing upon this fair scene, the first public assembly of the
sons and daughters of our native State, in this city, as I have con
templated the luxuries which surround us, the almost regal splendor
which encircles us, my mind has gone back to the time when our
fathers, in 1636, commenced their difficult journey from Massachu
setts to the Connecticut River. For although some few of them
had gone into Connecticut, a year or two before, for the purpose'of
exploring the country and making their preparations for a settle
ment there, yet it was not until the year 1636, I believe, that they
removed thither their families and property. With no guide but
their compass, and no canopy but the heavens above them, I see
them pursuing their trackless way, through swamps and streams,
over hills and mountains, until at last, after a fortnight's tedious
journey, they reached their destination on the banks of the beau
tiful Connecticut, at Hartford, and commenced the settlement of that
State, which we assemble this night to honor.
Little, Sir, did they then imagine, that within the space of a little
more than two centuries after, their descendants would return to the
spot from whence they went forth, performing that fortnight's tedi
ous journey, with perfect ease, in the space of only four hours, (as
has been done this day by some persons present,) here to recall
their toils and self-sacrifices, and to commemorate their many vir
tues. Little did Hooker imagine, as he bore his feeble wife in that
litter through the howling wilderness, that from that Uttle uncon
scious republic which he founded on the banks of the Connecticut,
there would come back to the spot which he left, so many ministers
of the holy religion which he professed, as I see around me now, to

15
commemorate, with thoughtful reverence, his own unconscious faith,
his stern fidelity to duty. Little did Governor Winthrop, that illus
trious man, to whom, more than to any othel- person, perhaps, it la
owing, that that far-famed constitution which our fathers adopted on
the 14th of January, 1639, received the royal sanction at the time
of the Restoration — little did he imagine, that the sons and daugh
ters of the State which he loved so well, and for which he so nobly
labored, would, so long after, assemble on this spot, and under cir
cumstances like those, to commemorate the anniversary of the adop
tion of that constitution, and that so illustrious a descendant of his
would grace the banquet with his presence and by his speech.
The mention, then, of our State, should first of all remind us of
our fathers. AU honor to them, say I. It was this very uncon
sciousness of the future which constitutes their crowning glory ; for
they came to these shores, and planted here the seeds of empire,
with no ambitious hopes or thoughts of themselves or of the future,
but with a simple, unswerving trust in God and duty.
You have aUuded, Sir, to the fact that this day is the anniversary
of the adoption of the constitution of Connecticut, on the 14th of
January, 1639. Sir, I cannot forbear to add one word more to
those so fitly uttered by you. It is the habit of some to speak
sUghtingly of Connecticut, She has been termed the "wooden-
nutmeg State," the "blue-law State," &c. But, Sir, I will defy
any one to look at the circumstances under which that constitution
was adopted, and the constitution itself, without admitting that any
State might be proud of the honor of claiming it as its own. It
was. Sir, the first example in history, I beUeve, of a written consti
tution, constituting a purely repubUcan government, and defining
and limiting its powers ; and the formation of it, at so early a period
in the history of the country, does, it seems to me, the greatest
credit to the wisdom, abUity and integrity of our fathers. It has
remained to the present time, with but few substantial changes, and
its beneficent efiects have been incalculable. There is one peouU-
arify of it, which seems to me remarkable, considering the influences
which surrounded the framers of it, and which should forever rescue
the names of the fathers of our State, at least from aU charge of
intolerance. I refer to the almost universal right of sufirage which
it granted. The other colonies, founded previously to that time,
only permitted church members to exercise poUtioal power, or even

16
to vote. But the only mention in the constitution of Connecticut
of the matter of religion, as connected I mean with the exercise of
political power, was, so far as I now remember, that provision of it
which required that the Governor should be "a member of some
approved congregation within the jurisdiction." And, Sir, I think
that even now, no one could be elected a Governor, unless he had,
at least, as much of grace as that.
I might allude to other remarkable features of that constitution,
but time wUl not permit. I wUl mention but one other. The Mas
sachusetts and Plymouth colonies seem to have had, at the first, no
thought of any separation from the mother country. Every senti
ment and expression of theirs seemed to be only loyal. In the
compact which was drawn up on board the Mayflower, for their
guidance after they should land, the pilgrims of Plymouth acknowl
edged themselves as the subjects of the King. But you wiU ob
serve that, in this constitution of Connecticut, there is no mention
made of any thing of this kind. The General Court was the
supreme power of the Commonwealth, and when Gov. Winthrop
went to obtain from Charles II., at the time of the Restoration, the
royal sanction to the charter, the petition to the King was made in
the name of the " General Court at Hartford, upon the Connecticut,
at New England."
It would seem as though, even then, in the minds of the founders
of our State, there entered the idea of an ultimate withdrawal from
the mother country, and of an independent government of their
own. The people were, to be sure, all loyal in their way ; but,
under the genius of their admirable constitution, they seemed to
grow up unconsciously into an independent Commonwealth ; and
when the war of the Revolution commenced, Connecticut, as you.
Sir, have remarked, without any violent shook or change of her gov
ernment, took her place in the front ranks of her sister States, and
did her duty manfully and bravely. Surely then, if the author
ity of Lord Bacon is to be foUowed, who placed in the highest scale
of human greatness the Gonditores, the founders of States, the
founders of the State of Connecticut deserve a high rank among the
honored of the earth.
But, Sir, I must forbear. I would not occupy too much of your
time and thoughts with the past, for the beaming eyes around me
remind me that it is with the Uvmg present, as well as with the dead

17
past, that we have to do this night, and I must give way to those
who wUl tell us of Connecticut's present glory and renown, as well
as of her past ; for. Sir, on an occasion like this, I believe it will
be perfectly allowable for those of us who claim to be sons and
daughters of Connecticut, to resolve ourselves into a sort of " mu
tual admiration society," and to magnify ourselves and our State, to
our hearts' content.
For one. Sir, I rejoice at the formation of this Association. I
believe that it is destined to be beneficial to all of us, and that we
shaU carry away with us from this, our first annual Festival, refresh
ing recollections — recollections which shall be to us, as it were, the
stars of our memory, shedding their benignant light along our future
paths. As Anteus, of old, was said to derive new strength from
every fresh contact with his mother earth, so may we, from each
annual reunion Uke this, derive renewed strength, fresh inspirations,
new incitements to duty. I will give you. Sir, in closing :
The Memory of the Framers of the Constitution of Connecticut.
The next regular toast was :
John Winthrop, and the Early Governors of Connecticut.
The President, in. announcing this toast, said, we had two
or three generations of the Wintbrops as Governors in Con
necticut. How well they served the State, and how much
they had to do with the formation of her excellent institu
tions, history attests. We have present with us, to-night, a
lineal descendant of that race of Governors, the son of a
Connecticut father, a son who has himself added new lustre
to an illustrious name, a gentleman who is known and hon
ored wherever eloquence is studied, wherever statesmanship
is appreciated, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop.
SPEECH OF MR. WINTHROP.
I thank you, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, for this kind
and friendly reception. I thank you. Sons and Daughters of Con
necticut, for the privUege of being present on this occasion as one
of your guests. And yet you must pardon me for saying frankly
3

18
at the outset, that I am not quite wUlmg to consider myself, or to
be considered by you, as a wiere guest here to-night. Indeed, before
receiving your most obliging and complimentary invitation, I had
resolved in my own mind, that, if no unforeseen obstacle should
present itself, in the state of my engagements or of my health, I
would venture to come here of my own accord, and to assert my
own individual and indefeasible right and title to be among you,
and to be of you, at this Connecticut Festival.
I do not forget, indeed, my filial relations and obUgations to Mas
sachusetts and to Boston. I have no wish, and no wiUingness, to
ignore the State or the City of my birth, even for the purposes of
this festive scene. Massachusetts is not a State, Boston is not a
City, to be disowned even for an hour, by any one who is privileged
to hail from them. But it would be unnatural for me to forget the
ties which bind me to this Association. It would be ungrateful
in me, were I not to remember that if not a Son of Connecticut,
I am at least an own Grandson. There, in the good old town of
New London — once ruthlessly laid in ashes by an invading foe,
but long ago bmlt up in more than all its original pride and beauty,
and one of whose gallant whalers, I believe, has recently rescued
from the Arctic icebergs that abandoned British Exploring Ship,
whose restoration is at this moment exciting so much enthusiasm in
Old London — ^there, my own father was born, and his father before
him ; and with the rise and progress of the ancient and honored
Commonwealth of Connecticut, the family stock of which I am a
humble branch has been closely associated, for good report or for
evil report, during a considerable part of more than two centuries.
You have done me the distinguished honor, Mr. President, of
calling upon me to respond to the toast which has been proposed in
memory of the early Governors of Connecticut, and you have thus
distinctly designated a subject for my remarks which I could not
pass over with propriety, even if I desired to do so. And I am not
ignorant. Sir, that there were many among those early Governors
who were eminently worthy of being remembered on such an occa
sion as this.
There was John Haynes, who had been the Governor of our
own Massachusetts Bay in 1635, and who, having been chosen the
first Governor of one of the Connecticut Colonies, under the Con
stitution adopted at Hartford on the 14th of January, 1689, contin-

19
ued to exercise that office with the highest ability and acceptable-
ness every alternate year — which was as often as the Constitution
would permit — until his death in 1654.
There was Theophilus Eaton, the first Governor of the other of
the Connecticut Colonies, under the Constitution adopted in that
"large barn of Mr. Newman's," at Quinnipiac, afterwards New
Haven, on the 4th day of June, 1639 ; and upon whose monument,
erected at the pubhc expense, on his dying after seventeen or eight
een years of continuous service in the Chief Magistracy, this quaint
but pithy inscription may, I believe, stUl be read :
" Eaton, so meek, so wise, so famed, so just.
The Phcenix of our world here hides his dust ;
This name forget, New England never must."
Then, too, there was Edward Hopkins, whose name is fragrant
with the memory of numerous and noble benefactions in the cause
of charity, education and reUgion, both in Connecticut and in Mas
sachusetts, and who wiU not soon be forgotten, I ween, by any one
who has ever received a Detur for good conduct — Ex testamento
Edvardi Hopkins — at Harvard CoUege,
And there were George Wyllys, and John Webster, and Thomas
WeUes, and Gurdon Saltonstall — all of them men of distinguished
integrity and abUity, of eminent purity and piety — men of renown,
famous in their generations, and whose public conduct and private
characters reflect lustre on the community with which they were so
early and so prominently associated. There may have been others,
perhaps, equally worthy of commemoration, among what may fairly
be entitled the early Governors of Connecticut.
But you have seen fit to designate the name of John Winthrop,
as one pecuUarly worthy to be singled out on this occasion as the
subject of remark, and it is not for me to draw the fitness of that
selection into doubt. And if, in speaking of hun, I should seem to
be dealing too much with famUy names, the responsibUity must be
upon those who have assigned me the topic. I trust, however, Sir,
that I am capable of looking back through the vista of two hundred
years, and of passing judgment upon the course and character of
those who played conspicuous parts in that early period of New Eng
land history, whether upon a Connecticut or a Massachusetts stage,
without any unbecoming display of partiality or of prejudice, even
though some of them were of my own kith and kin. And if there

20
be a purer, a nobler, or a lovelier character in the history of Con
necticut, whether in its earlier or its later periods, whether among
Governors or among governed, than that of the younger Winthrop, —
or if there be any one who rendered to the infant Colony whose
children are here assembled, more distinguished and valuable ser
vices during a longer term of years, — I should rejoice to know his
name, and to unite with you all in giving him the deserved priority
and pre-eminence on this and on every other appropriate occasion.
The younger Winthrop came over to America at first with no
other view than that of being a humble fellow-laborer with his hon
ored father in establishing the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. " For
the business of New England," said he to his father in a beautiful
letter written in 1629, when he was hardly twenty-four years old,
and which furnishes an index to his whole career — " For the busi
ness of New England, I can say no other thing, but that I believe
confidently that the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord, who
disposeth all alterations, by his blessed will, to his own glory and
the good of his ; and therefore do assure myself that all things
shall work together for the best therein. And for myself, I have
seen so much of the vanity of the world, that I esteem no more of
the diversities of countries, than as so many inns, whereof the trav
eller that hath lodged in the best, or in the worst, findeth no differ
ence when he cometh to his journey's end. And I shaU call that
my country, where I may most glorify God and enjoy the presence
of my dearest friends. Therefore herein I submit myself to God's
will and yours, and with your leave, do dedicate myself (laying by
all desire for other employment whatsoever) to the service of God
and the company herein, with the whole endeavors both of body
and mind."
We find him, accordingly, following his father to New England
at an early day, and proceeding at once to take an active part in
the affairs of the Massachusetts Company. But being of an ardent
and enterprising spirit, he was soon engaged in leading out Uttle
companies of colonists to other places, more or less remote from
Boston and the neighboring settlements. He commenced by plant
ing Agawam, now Ipswich, in 1633, which was doubtless consid
ered a good deal of an expedition at that early period. But as
early as 1635, four years before the date which you have adopted
for this anniversary celebration, the great river of the Connecticut

21
had attracted the attention not only of the colonists here, but of
their friends m England ; and m the course of that year the younger
Wmthrop is found beginning that little pioneer plantation at its
mouth, under a commission from the Lords Say and Brook, in
whose honor it was named Saybrook, and there we find him bear
ing, by their warrant, the title of Governor of Connecticut, for the
first time that such a title was ever borne within the boundaries of
the Commonwealth now known by that name.
It was not, however, untU 1657, just two centuries ago this very
year, that he was elected Governor of one of the two Connecticut
Colonies by the votes of the people. And it was whUe stiU hold
ing this office, to which he had been duly re-elected, a few years
afterwards, that he discharged the peculiar service which has ren
dered his name so memorable in Connecticut history; a service
which has been celebrated in poetry as well as in prose — ^in song as
weU as in story ; one of the later Governors of Connecticut, no
other than brave old Roger Wolcott, the second in command to Sir
WUliam Pepperell in that marvelous siege of Louisburg, having
taken it as the theme of an elaborate poem of fifteen or sixteen hun
dred Imes in length, and Miss Frances Manwarmg Caulkins, the
accomplished historian of New London, having also, within a few
years past, made it the subject of another little poem, which I think
I may safely say is as much better than Roger Wolcott's as it is
shorter, and that is saying a great deal.
I refer, of course, to Winthrop's mission to England in 1661,
and to his having procured from the then recently restored monarch,
Charles II., the old Charter under which Connecticut Uved and
prospered for more than a hundred and fifty years, down even to
the year 1818 ; the same Charter which, in the days of Sir Edmund
Andros, was the subject of that bold withdrawal and conceal
ment by " one Joseph Wadsworth," and which gave celebrity and
sanctity to the venerable Oak which has fallen at last, so sadly,
within a few months past. Would that the winds of heaven could
have spared it stUl longer for the reverent gaze of stiU other gener
ations !
It is an interesting fact, that among the old famUy almanacs
which have found their appropriate resting-place in the archives of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, there is one which belonged to
Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, whUe he was in London for the

22
purpose of procuring this very Charter. I have taken the liberty
to bring it with me this evening. And here, in his own hand
writing — more legible than his father's, though that is not saying
much — is the notable entry, made at the moment, and fixing a mem
orable date in New England history : " This day, May 10, in the
afternoon, the patent for Connecticut was sealed,"
He seems to have appreciated the importance of the event. Only
two other entries are found in all the other blank leaves of this
ancient Almanac : — one on the 9th of January, where he mentions
a dangerous fall which he had met with, and a providential escape
from serious injury ; and the other on the 18th of February, when
there was a very great and fearful storm of wind and rain. But
when he had once entered the sealing of the Charter and the final
accomplishment of his great work for Connecticut, personal casual
ties and elemental convulsions seemed to have lost their significance ;
he felt that this little Almanac had fulfiUed its purpose, and that if
it contained no other entry, there was enough already recorded to
make it precious forever.
Under that Charter the two colonies at Hartford and New Haven
were happily united, as you know, in 1665, and John Winthrop
became the first Governor of the whole of Connecticut as it now
stands on the map, and continued in that ofiice until his death.
Meantime, however, and indeed more than twenty years before
the union of these two Colonies into one State, another and even
more interesting and more important union had been formed, I
mean the great confederation of the New England Colonies in 1643 —
the original model and example not only of that larger confederation
which carried us through our War of Independence, and under
which American Uberty was vindicated and estabUshed, but of that
stUl nobler and more precious Union under which we now Uve,
That Confederation was the exclusive work of Massachusetts and
Connecticut, embracing as it did only the four Colonies of Plymouth
and Massachusetts Bay, of New Haven and Connecticut, which
were afterwards incorporated into two Commonwealths,
As one of the Commissioners to the little Congress of this Con
federation, your Connecticut Governor Winthrop came to Boston
in 1676, and here was taken iU, and here died, after a Ufe as dis-
tmguished for moral beauty as it was for poUtical services. He left a
son, however, in Connecticut, who soon succeeded to the fevor which

23
his father had enjoyed, and who, after serving for several years as
commander of the Connecticut forces, and after representing the
Colony for four years at the Court of WiUiam and Mary, where he
was engaged in successfuUy vindicating the Charter which his father
had procured, became Governor of the State in his turn in the year
1698, and continued such for nine years, until his death in 1707.
And he, too, happened to be in Boston when the day of his visita
tion arrived ; and thus both your Connecticut Governors were laid
down to rest in the same tomb in which the old Governor of Massa
chusetts, the father of the one and the grandfather of the other,
had been previously laid in the year 1649. And their tomb re-
maineth with us unto this day, in the old King's Chapel Burying
Ground, and there, by the leave of the City Fathers — whose favor
in this respect I beg to bespeak in advance — ^I hope to find a rest
ing place for myself, and to mingle my dust with that of those good
old Massachusetts and Connecticut Governors, whenever my far
htmabler and less important career shall have been brought to a
close. I have said enough, Mr. President, — and perhaps more than
enough, — about the early Governors of Connecticut, and about
John Winthrop in particular, — both to fulfill the requisitions of the
caU which you have made upon me, and also to substantiate my
own claim to be present here this evening, by some better title than
that of a mere guest.
And now let me only say, in drawing to a close, that none of us,
I think, need feel ashamed in tracing back our descent to these old
Connecticut Colonies ; that none of us, on the contrary, can feel
anything but a just pride m looking back over the history of the
old Commonwealth into which those Colonies were afterwards
incorporated. That history, from the days of its early Governors
to this hour, has been a distinguished and a memorable one.
Nowhere have reUgion and piety been more sincere and more
fervent than in that land of Davenport and Hooker ; nowhere have
morality and virtue been more pure and undefiled ; nowhere has
patriotism been more disinterested and self-sacrificing ; nowhere has
freedom been more boldly and earnestly defended ; nowhere has
education been more dUigently cultivated and wisely cared for. It
is a significant fact, that our City Fathers are at this moment en
gaged in summoning the Superintendent of the Connecticut Free

24
Schools to take charge of our own Boston Schools. Well may we
all feel proud of a State which has given a Jonathan Edwards to
the cause of Metaphysics and Theology ; an Oliver Ellsworth to
the Supreme Bench of the Nation ; a Noah Webster to PhUology
and Lexicography ; a succession of Wolcotts and Wadsworths and
IngersoUs to the line of CiviUans and Statesmen ; a stUl longer
succession of TrumbuUs to adorn almost every department of liter
ary or of public life — whether of civil or of mUitary service, of
History, Poetry, or the Fine Arts ; a State which has given a Led-
yard and a Nathan Hale to the catalogue of youthful heroes and
martyrs ; which has given a Barlow, a Humphreys, a Dwight, a
Peroival, a Pierpont, a Hillhouse, a Halleok, a Sigourney to the
Muses ; which has given and is still giving a SlUiman to Science.
Time would fall me in attempting to go through the whole catalogue
of Coimeotlout worthies. But I must not forget that though Mas
sachusetts may claim, I believe, to have given birth to Israel Putnam
and Roger Sherman, it was from Connecticut that they both came
forth in their full-armed maturity to serve their country so nobly in
the field and in the forum.
Sir, it has been common I know — as my eloquent friend who has
just taken his seat (J. P. Putnam, Esq.) has so well said — to
impute to the Connecticut character a little more than its rightful
share of the wooden-clock and wooden-nutmeg ingredients, and to
associate with it an excess of Yankee ingenuity, invention and thrift.
And, now and then, the rigor of certain Connecticut blue-laws is
made the subject of not unnatural jest and ridicule. But for my
own part, I have often thought that a more perfect pattern and type
of the true old Puritan character was to be found there, than almost
anywhere else in New England or on earth ; more of that unso
phisticated, straight-backed integrity, and more of that uncompro
mising reverence for the principles of morality and the ordinances
of reUgion, for the Bible and the Sabbath, which characterized the
old New England colonists. And this is a sort of character, let me
add, Mr. President, sadly wanting, I fear, in these days, and m
these great cities of ours ; and if Connecticut has any of it still to
spare, I hope and trust that she may communicate it freely and
liberally to other parts of the country. Let her sons and daughters
cherish that character and take it with them, wherever they migrate,
whether to the East or the West— and let them hold fast to it in

25
their new homes, whether in tho cities or on the plains. Let it be
seen, at any rate, like the stream of their own beautiful River, per
vading the very heart of New England, permeating its entire length
and breadth, and purifying and fertilizing the whole region through
which it passes. And then, although other States may surpass her
in the number of their population, and in the abundance of their
wealth, and in the magnitude and magnificence of their towns and
cities — and though Charter Oaks may fade and fall and be forgot
ten — Connecticut wUl stiU continue to enjoy the proud reputation
which already so justly belongs to her, of having been second to
no State in the Union, whether large or small, in her contribu
tions to the moral dignity, stability and grandeur of our great
American Republic.
AUow me. Sir, before taking my seat, to offer as a sentiment :
Connecticut and Massachusetts — The dust of some of their earliest Gover
nors reposes in a common tomb, and the blood of not a few of their later sons
has been mingled in a common cause. May their living children be always
united in the bond of fraternal love, and beneath the banner of a Union, of
which their fathers furnished the original model and the earliest successful
example. The President then said, in reference to the next toast, I
shall call upon a gentleman who has himself exercised the
powers of Chief Magistrate of Connecticut, Hon, Charles
H, Pond, I give you :
The Ex- Governors of Connecticut.
Ex-Lieut, Governor Charles H, Pond responded, in sub
stance, as follows :
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — It is pleasant to wit
ness such an assemblage of the Sons and Daughters of Connecticut ;
and, as I look around, my love of my native State is warmed and
strengthened within me. I feel as if silence would best become
me ; yet, in compliance with your request, I wUl make a brief re
sponse. I am. Sir, a native of the town of Milford, and may,
therefore, be allowed to speak of its first settlers, whose descendants
have, by their talents and virtues, shed honor on our State.
It is, I think, a reasonable pride and pleasure that I feel in
tracing to my native town the ancestry of three Signers of the
Declaration of Independence, which so accurately defines the rights
4

26
of man ; and also of two of the Framers of that Constitution which
is the basis of our glorious Union. The Signers of the Declaration
to whom I refer, were Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert
Treat Paine of Massachusetts, and Abraham Clark of New Jersey.
Mr. Sherman was a descendant of Rev. John Sherman, of Milford,
who was a good minister, a ripe scholar, a distinguished mathe
matician, and the father of twenty-six children. Mr. Paine was
the grandson of Robert Treat, of Milford, a brave soldier and a
distinguished statesman, who filled the offices of Governor and
Lieut. Governor of Connecticut thirty-two years, and had the honor
of presiding at that meeting which refused to surrender our Charter
to the despotic Andros. Mr. Clark was descended from George
Clark, an original settler of Milford.
The two Framers of the Federal Constitution whom I claim as the
posterity of Milford, were Jared IngersoU of Pennsylvania, and
Abraham Baldwin of Georgia. Mr, IngersoU was but one of the
many IngersoUs whose names adorn every branch of the public
service. State and National, and all of whom are descended from
Jonathan IngersoU, of Milford. The name of Baldwin has been
equally conspicuous in the honorable history of Connecticut and of
the Union.
Did time permit, I might specify many other Milford names and
families, Tomllnsons, Woosters, Aliens, Fitches, Bentons, Fowlers,
Laws, Yales, Barlows, Bumfords and Smiths, who as generals,
judges, senators, governors, ambassadors, poets, scholars, founders
of colleges and pubUc benefactors, have left a rich legacy of pride
and honor to their ancestral town and to our native State. Enough
for me, at this late hour, to pass them by with this brief allusion.
Many other towns in Connecticut might furnish similar catalogues
and roU-oalls of distinguished men. Sir, our native State has been
the fertile mother of such towns and of such men. We have reason
to love her and to be proud of her. State pride urges me to men
tion the names of Wolcott, Williams, Huntington and Clark, as
Signers of the immortal Declaration ; and also of William Samuel
Johnson, and Abraham Baldwin, as Framers of our excellent Con
stitution. Surely, at all times, and under all circumstances, it must
be gratifying to an association of sons and daughters of Connecticut
to reflect that eleven of their ancestors were framers of two docu-
fnents which more favorably affect the destinies of the human race

27
than any other two documents that ever emanated from human
minds. The Constitution is the foundation of the Union, and
imder the Union our country has enjoyed unparalleled prosperity,
and become the wonder and admiration of the world ; — and by her
sons, and her varied institutions, Connecticut has contributed her
full share towards securing this national renown. The lateness of
the hour will not permit more details ; and justice to our ancestors
does not allow a shorter notice.
I conclude with the following sentiment :
_ The Connecticut Association— VLny the equal rights and self-governing prin
ciples of our liberty-loving forefathers be ever cherished and practiced by its
members. The next regular toast was :
The Old Colony.
The President, after adverting to the intimate early associ
ations of Connecticut with the Old Colony, said the Plymouth
Rock has been called the Blarney-stone of New England ;
how aptly I do not know. But we have present a son of the
Old Colony, allied to Connecticut by marriage, whom I here
call on to tell us something of that rock, and of the institu
tions founded on it, and of the virtues of the noble race
which was cradled there.
Judge Warren being thus called upon to respond to the foregoing
sentiment, made an exceUent and telling speech. Referring to the
sentiment, he said that this designation was flrst put on Plymouth
Rock by an Irishman, at a festival in New York, at which time he
was answered that it was nevertheless a true rock, whereas the Irish
pUgrims came from a s^am-rock. Among other historical facts of
interest, connected with Plymouth and Connecticut, he said that the
first house ever built in the latter State was by a Plymouth man —
one WilUam Holmes. This the speaker facetiously thought the
origin of aU the homes of Connecticut. He eulogized the Pilgrim
character,- and defended it against the chairge of intolerance. He
also deprecated the apologetic course often taken by New England-
ers themselves when abroad. The speaker then went into a very
humorous and interesting history of the ancient relationship which

28
subsisted between the Old Colony and Connecticut, lauding that filial
feeling which had not been so much cultivated among the New Eng
land States as it ought, and commending its culture, and that of the
memories of the fathers of the country, and of their virtues and
patriotism. By the neglect of these proper studies, misapprehen
sions prejudicial to this section of the ptate had arisen ; and some
notions were current at a distance which were truly ludicrous.
Some of these were enumerated, and begot much mirth. Judge
Warren closed with the following sentiment :
The State of Connecticut — While she rejoices in the prosperity of her sons,
may she more than glory in the estimation of her fathers.
The President : — The Clergy were always among the
foremost in planting the Colonies of New England. Espe
cially in Connecticut, in all her institutions, civil and relig
ious, there is every where visible evidence of the forming
hand and guiding mind of the Clergy. I call on the Rev,
Dr, Rollin H, Neale to respond for
The Clergy. SPEECH OF REV. DR. NEALE.
Mr. President : — Preferring to listen to others, yet entering as I
do, with all my heart into the spirit of this occasion, I am wiUing
to take my part in calling up reminiscences of our native State.
People may laugh at the blue-laws, and jeer about schoolmasters,
and Yankee pedlars, and wooden-nutmegs, if they please ; but who
cares ? Good old Connecticut forever ! There is a charm in the
very name. None of her sons here to-night, I am sure, are ashamed
of their birth-place. It is a high compliment to any of us to have
it said — " He was born there."
The clergymen of Connecticut — what shall I say of them ? or
rather, what is there good that cannot be said of them 1 The spir
itual guides of our youthful days — the men whom our fathers
revered and loved. It is well for us to keep them ever in
remembrance. No State, probably, has produced men of more
prominent niark in the pulpit than Connecticut. The Davenports,
the Edwardses, the Dwights, men that are known the world over.
Dr. Bellamy and Dr. Emmons, those great theologians, were Con
necticut men. Dr. Porter and Prof. Stuart, of Andover, were from

29
the same State ; and there are men now living equaUy distinguished
as their fathers. Hawes of Hartford, Bacon, and the venerable
CrosweU of New Haven, and the Beechers, one and all. Is there
any of us ashamed of these men ? Do any of us blush at tho
mention of theb names ? No. They make us the prouder of our
native State.
There is not now so much respect for the clerical office as there
used to be. But the sons of Connecticut remember what a feeUng
of solenm awe came over us at sight of the parish minister. We
looked upon him as the greatest of men, the holy priest of God.
Young men rose and stood up at his approach. Old men refrained
from speaking in his presence. This I remember was especially
true of WUUam Robinson, the father of the present Dr. Edward
Robuison. He was the minister of my native town — a man of more
than ordinary talent, thoroughly trained in his profession, and set
tled in the same place for nearly half a century. He had deserv
edly an almost omnipotent sway over the people of his charge.
Mr. Robinson was a farmer as well as preacher. Some few per
sons, I am told, used to complain of him on this account. They
said his mind was liable to be diverted from his profession, and that
actuaUy, on one fine harvest day, he was unusually hurried in his
morning devotions, and closed his prayer with — " For Christ's sake,
Mr. Curtiss, that hay must be turned."
The Connecticut people, as elsewhere, in old times as now, liked
to tell anecdotes at the expense of the minister. Many queer sto
ries are told of Dr. Beecher to this day — some of them true, prob
ably, but most of them false.
Bayard Taylor tells us, that in a recent interview with Hum
boldt, the great naturalist showed him a chamelion which had been
sent him from the East, that had the power of looking in different
directions at one and the same time ; while one eye was toward
heaven, the other was toward the earth. "So," said he, "it is'
with ministers." If the great scholar meant to say that they
preach a reUgion which is human as well as divine, one that has
promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come,
his remark is true ; but if he meant to imply that ministers are
secular, that they have an eye, as business men would say, to the
main chance, whUe professedly preaching for God and eternity, I
have only to say, it is not true of the clergy of Connecticut. No

30
men were ever more thoroughly and exclusively devoted to their
profession, than they; and nomen were ever more honored by
their congregations.
All classes of the people, good men and bad men, the old and
the young, cherished the highest reverence for the pastor, and very
seldom did any one venture rudely into his presence. He met
occasionally, of course, as ministers do now, and men of eveiy
other profession, with some strange specimens of humanity.
In the times of the old half-way covenant which used to be in
vogue in Connecticut, a comical genius — a regular Brother Jona
than — who had recently been blessed with a son, came to his
pastor to have him baptized. "WeU," said the minister, "you
are not a professor of religion. It is necessary you should join
the church, or at least sign the half-way covenant ; which will you
do ? " " 0," said he, "I want none of your half-way business. I
can't have a second fuss about it. Put me clear through at once."
Mr. President, Dr. Emmons went for short sermons. " There
are no conversions," he said. " after the hour." My speech, there
fore, shall be brief, and yet I would gladly say more. It is good
to be here. These memories of early days, of the school-house,
the spelling-book, and the old folks at home, come over the soul
like a vernal sunrise, melting away the icy crust of care, and the
cold snows of a wintry world. We are a band of brothers to-night.
We lay aside our differences ; we forget our sorrows ; we renew
again the friendships of youth and are ready to say and sing, — •
" Shall auld acquaintance be forgot.
And never called to mind,
"We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne."
The President : — No State bas been formed with a more
learned and upright Court, a more able and honorable Bar
than Connecticut. I request the Hon, John A, Bolles,
known to you all as distinguished at the bar here, to respond
to the next regular toast :
The Judiciary — The Bar.
SPEECH OF JOHN A. BOLLES, Esq.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I am not insensible to
the friendly feeling and opinion implied by the call to answer that
toast, and expressed by your most kind reception. But it is past

31
midnight. It is too late for another speech. No fair interpretation
of my contract with you, Mr. President, obliges me to answer your
friendly caU. A due respect for the early hours and "steady
habits " of our native State forbids such answer. I promised you,
Sur, on Wednesday morning, that if our friend. Judge MoCurdy,
did not arrive, I would, " this evening," respond to that senti
ment. 8b, it is no longer "this evening." It is already to
morrow morning, and I respectfully pray to be discharged.
You refuse, Sir ? Then, Ladies and Gentlemen, I must appeal
to you. Consider the good customs of our ancestors, already vio
lated by our protracted dissipation. Will not their shades, like
that of Pompey, " complain that we are slow," if we longer delay
our adjournment? Reflect, moreover, that a "dry toast" like
this, may form a poor addition to our rich repast. Let me, rather,
write out an undeUvered speech for our pleasant friends the report
ers, which you may then read, or omit, at your pleasure.
You, too, insist that I shall proceed ? I thank you for the com-
pUment, and wiU try not to abuse your patience.
UntU yesterday we had hoped, as you know, Mr. President, that
a distinguished Connecticut judge would have been here, our hon
ored guest, to respond with his accustomed eloquence to a sentiment
which appeals so directly to the judicial mind and heart. But that
eminent gentleman is compelled to disappoint us, and in his absence,
which we aU have reason to regret, it becomes necessary that some
one of us, not dignified by judicial station, not qualified by judicial
experience, should stand in his place, and in some imperfect man
ner, answer in his stead.
I wiU not complain. Sir, that your choice of a substitute should
have fallen on me, because, although I must regret my inability, on
a notice so short, and indeed upon any notice, however long, to do
full justice to a theme so dignified and imposing, I feel that no law
yer of Connecticut birth or lineage should refuse, when called upon,
to express his respect for the judiciary and the bar of our native
State. Of the unspeakable value of a learned, honest and independent
Judiciary, and of a Bar worthy to sustain such a Bench, none of
us can cherish a doubt. Although the Law itself be perfect in
theory, it is, practically, worthless, if its ministers be corrupt, and
its tribunals impure.

32
In Connecticut, from the foundation of the Colony until now,
the Law, the Courts, and the Bar, have all been distinguished by
the sound sense, free principles, and virtuous character, of the
people. The spirit of the Constitution of January 14, 1639, has
always animated the hearts of our people, finding utterance in their
Statutes, and action in their Courts.
The earliest tribunals, under that Constitution, were town-Courts,
whose Judges were the Selectmen, chosen at their annual town
meetings ; — and the Legislature, elected annually, and exercising
every branch of sovereign authority, judicial, executive, legislative.
This combination of what we now deem incompatible departments
of power, — this commmgllng of Executive, Legislative, and Judi
cial functions, failed to become an intolerable mischief, simply
because every year's election enabled the whole body of the people
to punish an offending officer by dismissing him to private life.
With the admmistration of law for half a century, or more, the
legal profession, as such, — the Bar of Connecticut, — had very little
concern ; because, during that period the legal profession, as such,
had scarcely a name or existence. Not, as some have supposed,
because there were no lawyers, but because, in those days of " wil
derness life " and Arcadian simplicity, disputes and litigations were
almost unknown. In the scarcity of population — in the super
abundance of land — in the toils of agriculture, which engrossed
the time and strength of the whole people — in the God-fearing char
acter of that people — there were few sources of dispute, or occa
sions of strife ; and controversies of right, betwixt man and man,
could scarcely be found. Even then, however, Connecticut was
not destitute of minds trained to the law, and familiar with its
principles. But those minds found other fields of effort than the
forum of courts ; as even now, on our Western frontiers, the em
igrant lawyer lays down his profession, and enters, as a man, not as
an attorney, on the great business of conquering the wUdemess,
and building the foundations of future States.
As population increased, and towns multiplied, and the business
relationships of business men extended, and became more and more
various and complex, additional courts, of various grades, were
created ; and a distinct legal profession — a Connecticut Bar — sprang
necessarily into existence. It has been humorously said that when
the colonists abandoned the Bible as their Statute Book, and not

33
till then, lawyers sprang up and flourished ! Our profession,
Mr. President, is not sensitive to such witticisms. We enjoy them
as much as their authors. Indeed, the hardest professional "hits"
of this description originate with lawyers themselves.
I believe. Sir, it was our learned brother Ames, the present
Chief Justice of Rhode Island, who first uttered the keenest of
these disparaging comicaUties. In arguing a grave law question
before the highest Court of Rhode Island, he cited, as authority in
point, a passage from "my Lord Coke." Chief Justice Durfee
smUingly remarked, " You might have given a higher authority for
that quotation; it is from the Bible itself." " Yes, your Honor,"
answered Mr. Ames, " but I wished to quote an authority which
the Court might be presumed to know something about 1 "
The Bar is sometimes criticised and ridiculed, Mr. President, as
though lawyers were a species of predacious animals, subsisting on
the crimes and misfortunes of the business community, and occu
pying a moral position about half-way between court-house and
gallows; and when Jekyl, an English wag, declared that " the only
difference between an attorney and a solicitor, was the difference
betwixt an aUigator and a crocodile," he uttered a sentiment which
is by no means uncommon, though exceedingly untrue. In behalf
of the Bar, I claim for it a higher, purer, nobler character, thaii
wags and witUngs are wilUng to allow. To the Bench of Massa
chusetts and Connecticut no one denies a lofty character and an
almost spotless reputation ; and I stand here, to-night, to affirm that
the study and observation of iny whole life — twenty years practice
at the Massachusetts Bar — and a famiUar acquaintance with multi
tudes of my own profession in other States, have convinced me that
nowhere does the average character of the Bench rise above the
average level of the Bar, and that the standard of personal morality
and honor, of business integrity and truth, is higher among the
members of the Bar, in any community, than the average level of
that community itself.
There is not time to dwell, as I should like, on the peculiar his
tory and character of the Judiciary of Connecticut. One fact in
regard to it, I must, nevertheless, state. It always has been, and
now is, closely related to, and dependent on, the people. Although
no Bench was ever more bold, or more independent in its judg
ments, yet there has never been a year in the history of our native
5

34
State, when the people could not, directly or indirectly, displace
every judge at pleasure. Under the constitution of 1818, although
the tenure of the judicial office purports to be " during good behav
ior," every judge is removable by legislative address, as well as by
impeachment, and the Governor is obliged to obey the mandate of
the legislature. It is a circumstance creditable alike to the people,
the legislature, and the Bench, that no attempt at either impeach
ment or address has ever been made.
In regard to both judges and lawyers, I can assert, with profes
sional and patriotic pride, that in no Colony, or State, has the pro
fession been distinguished by superior ability, learning, or eloquence,
by a more exalted standard of professional character, a purer love
of justice, or a more devoted love of liberty, than that which, at
each successive period of Connecticut history, has dignified and
adorned the Bench and Bar of our native State. If, from the long
array of names which rise this moment before my memory, I may,
without intending to draw invidious distinctions, select one as the type
and model of a genuine Connecticut lawyer, I will choose the name
of that Samuel Huntington, so long the leader of the New London
Bar. Beginning his professional career before the Revolution, his
first official distinction was that of King's Attorney, in 1765. Sur
viving the Revolution, and until our Federal Constitution had been
framed, adopted and tested by a trial of nearly ten years, he died
Governor of Connecticut in 1796. He belonged, therefore, to
both the old era and the new ; and in each he was a spotless exam
ple of Christian piety, of professional integrity, and of devoted
patriotism. Judge of the Superior Court in 1774, member of the
Continental Congress in '75, and its President in '79 and '80, he
became the Chief Justice of Connecticut in 1784, and was, for ten
years preceding his death, its Governor.
I might mention and describe many others of like sterling metal
and merit, such as Roger Wolcott, of whom one of our guests has
already spoken, and his Ulustrious sons, Erastus and Oliver Wol
cott, who worthily sustained the paternal character, and the honor
of our State, the one as Judge, as General, and as member of Con
gress ; the other on the Bench, and in the Cabinet of President
Washington. There, also, were Matthew and Roger Griswold,
father and son. There, too, were Oliver Elsworth, who adorned
the judicial character in the highest judicial stations known to the

35
Constitutions of the State and Nation ; and Uriah Tracy, the keen
est wit not only of the Bar, but of the Federal Congress. It was
Tracy who, standing with a Southern Senator, as a drove of mules
passed by, when the Virginian exclaimed, " Tracy, there go a flock
of your constituents," answered instantly, " Yes, Sir, on their way
to Virginia as school-masters ! " In this connection, let me remind
you that we have now, among the Ughts of our Massachusetts Su
preme Bench, a son-in-law of Uriah Tracy, worthy to inherit his
honors and sustain his reputation. There, too, was Roger Sher
man, — ^bom, indeed, in Massachusetts, — but who removed to Con
necticut in his boyhood, and was nurtured under her institutions ; —
a model Connecticut man, — an embodiment of genuine Yankee
traits, — with a head as cool, and a mind as clear, as a New Eng
land winter morning, — worthUy described by Jefferson as " Mr.
Sherman of Connecticut, who never did a foolish thing in his life."
His blood, too, circulates now in Massachusetts veins, and we had
hoped that Judge Hoar, his grandson, would have been present,
to represent the genius and character of his iUustrious ancestor at
our festive board to-night. I might name, also, Trumbull, and Bar
low, and IngersoU, and Chaunoey, and Swift, and Reeve, and Noah
Webster, and Goodrich, and many others, whose names yet live in
aU Connecticut hearts, of whom history has spoken and the world
has heard ; and others still, equaUy learned, able and deserving, of
whom the world has not heard, because they, like the majority of
our profession, Mr. President, devoted themselves, with undivided
dUigence, to professional duty alone, desiring no wider field of
renown than the circle of their clients and the precincts of home.
Among these Connecticut worthies Washington looked, nor did
he look in vain, for friends, advisers, associates, in every scene of
his national career, military or civil. Among these and their suc
cessors at the Bar and on the Bench, our native State and our na
tional Union have often looked, and never looked in vain, for trusty
friends and honorable service. It would be a pleasure, had I time,
to dwell upon the names and meritorious actions of the great leaders
of the Bar and luminaries of the Bench of Connecticut since the
Revolution. But I must not make the attempt.
Let me not, however, fail, late as it is, to claim for Connecticut
the honor of producing the first printed volume of American judicial
decisions, and the first origmal American law treatise, and the first

36
American law school — first in order of time — and for many years
the first in merit, of the law schools in these United States.
Connecticut was the first State whose Legislature required its
judges to pronounce written opinions ; and Kirby's Reports of
those decisions, published in 1789, were the earUest printed record
of American adjudications.
It was in 1795, that Zephanlah Swift, afterwards Chief Justice
of Connecticut, pubUshed that System of Law which I claim as the
earliest treatise on American Law. I am aware. Sir, that in 1794
a work on Practice was printed in New York ; but its author, Mr.
Wych, was a young Englishman. I am also aware that Nathaniel
Chipman, known as a Vermont jurist, pubUshed his "Principles
of Government" in 1793. But that volume belongs rather to
political, than legal, science ; — and, furthermore, Mr: Ghipman
was a Connecticut man.
The Law School of which I have spoken, was the Litchfield
School, — with whose success is associated the honorable name of the
late Judge James Gould, — who is, also, distinguished as an excel
lent judge, and as the author of the best Treatise on Pleading that
ever Ulustrated and enforced, within reasonable compass, the logic
of law.
In that school were trained multitudes of minds which have shed,
and are now shedding, the gladsome light of jurisprudence on many
a Bar and Bench. There studied Marcus Morton, late of our Mas
sachusetts Supreme Court ; — and Theron Metoalf, now one of that
honorable and learned tribunal ;^and Peleg Sprague, who sits,
dim-eyed in body, but with intellect all eye, as Judge of the United
States for the Massachusetts District. There graduated Charles
G. Loring, so long, and so deservedly, among the leaders of the
Boston Bar ; and Horace Mann, at the mention of whose name the
friends of education every where do hun reverence. There, too,
were disciplined, and armed for professional distinction, a host of
worthy men, whose honorable names time would fail me to repeat,
and whose modesty, lawyers though they be, wUl thank me for leav
ing them now unmentloned. Enough for my purpose that our
native State is entitled to her' share in every laurel with which they
are, or may be, crowned.
In like manner must I forbear to dwell upon the names of more
recent distinguished advocates and judges in our beloved native

37
State, — Pitkin, Seymour, Goddard, Smith, IngersoU, Sherman,
Daggett, WilUams, Huntington, Ellsworth, Storrs, Toucey, Cleve
land, Bissell, Judson, Foster, and a score of others, of whom you,
and I, and all of us, are justly proud, and the presence of some of
whom we had this night expected to grace our festival.
I must not, longer, presume upon your patience ; but, in conclu
sion, I beg leave to offer a sentiment that shall express at once our
love for our native Commonwealth, and our loyalty to the Common
wealth of our adoption. I give you. Sir :
Connecticut and MassacJiusetts — Connecticut our mother ; Massachusetts
the mother of Connecticut.
At the close of Mr, BoUes's address, then twenty minutes to
one o'clock, the President announced the Festival adjourned
to the 14th of January, 1858, The several speakers were
warmly received, and during the delivery of their speeches,
were frequently interrupted by enthusiastic applause. Alto
gether, it was one of the most brilliant and successful ban
quets that ever took place in this city.

Tbe foUowiug sentiments were in order as given below,
and would have been responded to as indicated, had not
the lateness of the hour prevented.
' Yale College and the other Colleges of Connecticut.' To have been
responded to by Rev. I, P, Langworthy,
' The School System and the Common Schools of Connecticut' Re
sponse from J. B. Philbrick, Esq,, Superintendent of Public Schools,
Boston, ' The Founders and early Settlers of Connecticut.' Response from
Hon, Joseph T, Buckingham,
' The Charter Oak — The tree has faUen, but the principles of the
charter it preserved shall live forever,' Response from Rev. Phineaa
Stowe. ' The Homes of our Childhood.' Response from Hon. Sebeus C.
Maine. 'Connecticut — ^The younger sister of Massachusetts, United by
sympathy, interest, and an honorable emulation — the two are but one,
and so may they forever remain,'
This sentiment was forwarded by Prof. Silliman, and was to have
been responded to by Rev. Edward A. Gilman,

38
' Rhode Island.' Response from Rev, Dr, Vinton, Rector of St,
Paul's Church,
'Maine.' Response from Hon. George S, Hlllard,
' JVew Hampshire.' Response from Hon, E. C, Baker,
' Vermont' Response from Hon, A, O, Brewster.
' JVeto York.' Response from Hon, WiUiam J, Hubbard.
' The Press.' Response from T. R, Marvin, Esq,
' The Institutions of Religion in Connecticut.' Response from Rev.
A, L, Stone,
' The Connecticut Mothers.' Response from J, F, Marsh, Esq.
' The Charitable and Benevolent Institutions of Connecticut.' Re
sponse from Rev, Charles Cleveland,
' The Spirit of '76 — That patriotism which will guard our country
from the dangers of success as well as from those of oppression,'
Response from W, W, Winthrop, Esq,
' Agriculture, Comraerce and Manufactures' Response from Jacob
A. Dresser, Esq,
' The Medical Profession.' Response from Dr. E. W. Blake.
' The Federal Union — The wisdom of the statesmen of Connecticut
contributed largely to its formation. May it ever be devoted to its
perpetuation,' "This sentiment was forwarded by Hon, William J, Hammersley,
Postmaster of Hartford,

The following Letters, with others, were received by the
President from persons invited, but who were unable to be
present, FROM PROF, BENJAMIN SILLIMAN,
J^ew Haven, January 3, 1857.
To George M. Browne, Esq, :
Dear Sir, — Although it will not be convenient for me to be present
at the approaching meeting of the Connecticut Association, agreeably
to the invitation which you have kindly transmitted, my sympathies
will be with you on that Interesting occasion ; and I beg leave to offer
a sentiment which I trust will be acceptable to all the members — with
the good wishes of the new year.
Yours very respectfully and truly, B. Silliman.
Connecticut — The younger sister of Massachusetts. United by sympathy,
interest and an honorable emulation, the two are but one, aud so may they
forever remain.

39
FROM HON, JARED SPARKS,
Cambridge, January 5, 1857,
George M. Browne, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — Please to accept my thanks for your kind invitation to
be present at the Festival of the Connecticut Association, on the 14th
instant. For the last three months I have been so unwell as to be
confined to the house a large part of the time ; and although I am
now abroad and much improved, yet I do not feel myself sufficiently
restored to take part on such an occasion. But, among the Sons of
Connecticut who will be present, I trust you will not want voices to
set forth the just praises of our worthy old State.
Respectfully and truly yours, Jared Sparks.

FROM HON. THOMAS SCOTT WILLIAMS, LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF
CONNECTICDT. Hartford, January 7, 1857.
George M. Browne, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 6th instant, Inviting mc to the Festi
val of the Sons of Connecticut, on the 14th, was duly received.
While I thank you for your kind remembrance of me, my infirmities,
and the season, furnish my excuse for not accepting your invitation.
Permit me, however, to say, that I rejoice to learn that the Sons of
Connecticut have not forgotten the land of their birth — the land of the
Wolcotts, the TrumbuUs, and the Ellsworths — and my earnest prayer
is, that wherever they go, they may always retain those civil and
religious principles which strengthened the faith, nerved the arm,
and gave ardor to the patriotism of our ancestors.
Respectfully yours, Th, S, Williams,

FROM CHIEF JUSTICE AMES,
Providence, January 7, 1857,
Geo. M. Browne, Esq., President of the Connecticut Association :
Dear Sir,— I exceedingly regret my engagements are such that I
cannot respond for Rhode Island, at the meeting of your Association,
on the 14th instant, I am delighted to know, however, that the Sons
of Connecticut, always Instinctively clinging to sacred places, will, at
that time, assemble themselves together at the Revere House,
Truly and respectfully yours, Samuel Ames,

FROM THE HON, CHARLES W, DPHAM,
Boston, January 9, 1857,
Geo, M, Browne, Esq., President of the Connnecticut Association :
Dear Sir, — I feel highly honored by the invitation to attend the
dinner of your Association, and regret that it will not be in my power

40
to accept it, Connecticut has been a model Commonwealth from the
beginning — realizing the highest idea of an independent government
during its whole existence, even while nominally a colony of the Brit
ish empire. Its sons may well cherish the historical memories that
cluster around its name. The venerable oak that preserved the sacred
deposit of its charter has fallen, but its liberties will be safe forever
in the hearts of its grateful and faithful people.
Yours, very respectfully,
Charles W, Upham,

FROM HON, MARSHALL P, WILDER,
Boston, January 9, 1857.
To Geo, M. Browne, Esq., President of the Connecticut Association :
My Dear Sir, — I have had the honor to receive your kind invitation
to attend the Festival of the Sons of Connecticut, on the 14th instant.
I regret exceedingly that official duties in connection with the United
States Agricultural Society, which I am called to discharge on that
very day at Washington, will render it impossible for me to be present
and to participate in the festivities of that interesting occasion.
I am deeply sensible of the honor you have conferred on me by
your request, and I beg to assure you that nothing would give me
greater pleasure than to meet the members of the Association over
which you so honorably preside, and to respond for the sentiment to
be given for the Sons of New Hampshire. The objects of your and
our Associations are the same ; and although we desire to perpetuate,
by these meetings, the name and renown of our native States and
their children, yet we will ever yield to Massachusetts, the State of
our adoption, as cordial obedience and support of her institutions and
laws, as that rendered by the most loyal of her citizens.
New England and our country, acknowledge the debt we owe to
Connecticut for the share her sons have contributed to advance and
uphold the Puritan character of our happy land. Her earliest settlers
were from Massachusetts ; and well has she repaid her foster parent
for these, by the return to the Old Homestead of a large number of
intelligent and honored descendants. The State of Connecticut was
among the most zealous in defence of the rights of the colonies, and
she has ever been a strong supporter of our free institutions. In the
tented field, the bar, the bench, the pulpit, the college, and in all the
useful walks of life, her sons have borne an honorable part, A long
line of her illustrious names is inscribed on the temple of fame, and
in her chaplet she now wears many a brilliant coronet. The virtue,
integrity, courage and enterprise of her sons are durable monuments
to her praise, and she need not fear to challenge competition and
comparison with those of her sister States,
With assurances of my sincere regret that I can not be with you,
on an occasion that promises so much, permit me to offer, in behalf of
my associates, the sentiment herewith annexed,
Marshall P, Wilder,
The Soils of New Hampshire to the Sons of Connecticut, greeting — " Peace
be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and
companions' sake, I will now say, peace be within thee."

41

FROM GOV, WILLIAM T. MINOR,
Stamford, January 10, 1857.
George M. Bmwne, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of
the 2d instant, extending to me an invitation to be present at the fes--:
tival and dinner of the Connecticut Association, at the Revere House
in Boston, on the evening of the 14th instant. It would give me great
pleasure to be with you on that occasion, but other engagements will
prevent, I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, William T. Minor,

FROM HON, L, F, S, FOSTER,
Washington, January 10, 1857,
George M. Browne, Esq. :
My Dear Sir, — I feel myself much honored by your kind invitation
to attend the festival and dinner of the Connecticut Association of
your city, on the J 4th instant. It would give me very great pleasure
to be present on so attractive an occasion, but my duties here forbid
my absence at this time. Thanking you for your invitation, and not
doubting but that your Association will always sustain and uphold the
honor of our much loved native State, good old Connecticut,
I am, my dear sir, with high regard,
Your much obliged friend, and very obed't serv't,
L. F, S, Foster,

FROM HON, JAMES SAVAGE, Boston, January 10, 1857,
George M. Browne, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — I acknowledge the kindness of the Connecticut Asso
ciation, conveyed by your invitation to their dinner on Wednesday
evening next, and regret that a previous engagement will prevent my
partaking with you " the feast of reason and the flow of soul," You
do well to remember, whence you sprang, and the honorable ancestry
whose virtues are vindicated by their oiispring. May I be permitted
to express my confidence in the sons of that land of steady habits, as
it is derived from the beautiful motto of your Commonwealth :
Qui transtvlit, sustinet.
How much my native State of Massachusetts is honored by the
earliest emigrants from her bosom, would require a long and eloquent
address to relate. But it must be wholly unnecessary. Hartford and
New Haven, germinos duo lumina reipublicce, speak for you in their
very names. In each of those beautiful cities I have enjoyed the
friendship of two or three distinguished men, and therefore assume
the Uberty of offering a toast :
Connecticut — The land of fair women and independent men, whose merits
are symbolized by the glorious river that gives name to the land which it
equally fertilizes and adorns.
With great regard, your obliged James Savage.
6

42

FROM HON, HENRY C, DEMING, MAYOR OF HARTFORD,
Hartford, January 12, 1857.
Geo. M. Browne, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — I am in the receipt of your letter, inviting me to dine at
*the Revere House, with the " Connecticut Association," on the even
ing of the 14th of January, While my engagements will not permit
me personally to participate in your festival, I cannot allow the occa
sion to pass, without tendering to you and your associates my heart
felt acknowledgments, for the filial tribute you are about to pay to
the character of our common mother, and without suggesting, in my
feeble way, a few thoughts which the contemplation of her virtues
have inspired,
I think I may presume, that to foster a becoming Connecticut pride,
to cherish the memory of her historic glories, and to defend her name
from even the approach of stigma and dishonor, are among the objects
of an Association christened after her. What State in the Union is
more deserving of these kindly offices and an annual thank-offering
from her scattered sons ? What State is there in whose heart, veins
and arteries, there circulates more of the old Puritan blood and mettle
and pluck ? The artist, or the annalist, who would paint such families
as Winslow's, such elders as Brewster, such magistrates as Carver,
can even to this day find the vera effigies, the real model and archetype
in some of the primitive towns of Connecticut, In what small patch,
upon the earth's surface, is there condensed more of genuine manhood,
or a happier combination of those spiritual and material elements,
which constitute a perfect Commonwealth .' What State, in Mr, Ban
croft's language, "has run a fairer, happier, or a more unsullied career ? "
It has been correctly said of Connecticut, that it is in the past alone
that she can be truthfully studied, for in the past alone she was an
undivided ivhole, and since that period her population has so far out
run her original territory, that her sons or their descendants are scat
tered all the way from the Wyoming to the mouth of the Oregon,
We were a democracy — a pure, fierce, rampant democracy from the
outset. We were far away in the back-woods, completely isolated
from those influences which checked the growth of Republicanism
elsewhere. In Massachusetts, you had royal governors with their
petty courts, doling out feeble patronage, distributing small offices
and smaller bribes, and liberty was in a measure overshadowed by a
sort of mock Whitehall, You had, too, your Castle William, garri
soned with British grenadiers ; the Romney in your harbor, with its
broadsides on your dwellings. But grape, canister and round shot,
neither from castle nor frigate, could reach us way off in the wilder
ness, British bayonets could not overawe, or court influence enervate
the most supple and pliant among us. We had no vice-regal function
aries to kneel to for offices and place,
" "We never knelt, unless to Heaven to pray ;
Not even then — except in our own way."
We had Saltonstalls, Winthrops, TrumbuUs — Governors that we made
and re-made by our own ballots ; but no Hutchinsons, Bernards, and
Gages. Succor we ^ave and shelter, freely, cheerfully gave, to Reg
icide Goff and Regicide Whaley, when you sent them to us from Mas
sachusetts ; but we offered no reverence and ho banquets to your royal

43
puppets when they happened to stray into our bailiwick. Our wooden
nutmegs were, at all events, too spicy to savor their puddings, and our
wooden hams too juicy for their digestion,
I believe that to Connecticut belongs the high honor and felicity of
having been governed by the first written Constitution, (unless the
dozen lines drawn up aboard the May Flower can be called a consti
tution,) founded on the great doctrines of popular sovereignty, and
recognizing no supreme authority but that of the people, which the
records of mankind have handed down. In looking into the earlier
annals of that parliamentary war, which Pym, Eliot and Hampden
waged with Charles the First, you will find that they were occasion
ally assisted in their counsels by a man named Roger Ludlow, He
was an able lawyer of the Lord Coke school, and a particular friend
of Oliver St, John, and held with him those doctrines of extreme Re
publicanism, and of the largest liberty, which, at the very culmination
of prerogative, it was the singular distinction and audacity of that
man to cherish and promulgate.
From some reason which does not appear, Ludlow (who was rather
fitful in his temper) abandoned his confederates. We next hear of
him in Massachusetts, where he remained for two or three years, and
was one of its magistrates. But he found that Colony already too
hardened in a civil polity and usages of its own, to permit him to
engraft upon them those theories of liberty and equality, and those
dreams of fraternity and peace, to realize which he had expatriated
himself to this wilderness.
About this time, far away in the valley of the Connecticut, three
embryo settlements just began to curl their smoke above the foliage
of the maples and the oaks, and to dot with patches of cultivation, and
open to the light of heaven, one of the most beautiful specimens of
earth that was ever given to man for his habitation. Taking his com
pass in hand, Ludlow tracked his way through the wilderness that
swept unbroken between Boston and Hartford, and established his
abode in one of the three towns that then constituted the Colony of
Connecticut, It was a soil Ludlow had long sought^-a soil virgin to
all charters, prescriptions, franchises and usages ; overshadowed by
no servile fiefs, and grants and tenures — by nothing which gave to
land and not to men the right of representation. The three settle
ments were already sufficiently advanced to require an organic law ;
and at the solicitation ofthe magistrates, Ludlow drew up this famous
Constitution, To say that it is a " model of political wisdom," an " admirable sys
tem," is to fall far short of the noble eulogy passed upon it by Mr.
Bancroft ; and of its liberaUty and wisdom, as a frame of government,
no higher proof could be adduced than the fact that, in spite of the
progress in political knowledge and science, the people of Connecti
cut, to this day, have not departed in any essential respect from that
Constitution drawn up more than two hundred years ago. It styles
the form of government it organizes a " State," a « Commonwealth,"
The words " His Majesty " disfigure not its pages, nor is there any
more intimation of allegiance to the throne of England than to the
throne of Siam ; and it talks in as sovereign and absolute a tone, as
if promulged by the last fiUibustering swarm which Young America
sent off from the parent hive.
Time would fail me to enumerate a tithe of those exploits of cour-

44
age and heroism which vindicate the historic glory of " our State,"
I must pass by John Mason, the first captain of the Colony — the sol
dier of Cromwell, wRo, by one act of stern but just retribution, ban
ished from the infant common-weal the terror of the Indian, and for
more than a quarter of a century gave security to the traveler in the
forest, the laborer In the fields, and tho child In the cradle ; the effi
cient aid we were constantly rendering the other Colonies in their war
with the savage ; the blameless life and unsullied career of that peer
less scholar and statesman, Winthrop the younger, for twice seven
years our Governor ; the abortive attempt of Sir Edmund Andros to
Command our militia and to sequestrate our Charter, (of which the old
oak though dead yet speaketh,)both defeated by the instantaneous and
steady resistance of a people already able to defend themselves, and
therefore free. Louisburg, too, the Sebastoppl of those days, I must
also pass, against which Connecticut confederated with the other
Northern Colonies, Leaving these, (for we can afford to skip half a
dozen wars and yet have glory enough to spare,) I must descend to
the French and Indian war — the war which, by sweeping the Gaul
from this continent, lifted us above the necessity of England's pro
tection, and broke the strongest link between the Colonies and
parent State. By the light of events, we can now distinctly see that
Wolfe at Quebec, and Amherst at Montreal, struck as efficient blows
for the independence of these States, as Gates at Saratoga, or Wash
ington at Yorktown. When the last French fort surrendered, and the
last French regiment embarked, the Lion and the Unicorn began to
fade from our national escutcheon, and to the prophetic eye, the Eagle
of Independence was seen, " grasping the spears and unfolding the
scroll." To this war, so decisive in its results to the freedom of the West
ern World, the old Colony of Connecticut sent a number of men, in
proportion to her population, without a parallel even in the martial
states of antiquity. She gave to it one-tenth of all her inhabitants —
more than one-fifth of her male adults.
Israel Putnam—" Old Putnam" — " Old Put," here first entered upon
his long and glorious career of service to the republic, and his history
in this war but epitomizes the history of his State. He was every
where where blows were given and received, unless, (if I may be
allowed a bull,) smarter blows were at the same time being given and
received elsewhere. You will remember that a large part of the fight
ing in this war, was on our Northeastern frontier, around Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, which guarded the main avenue to the Canadas.
Now if you take Ticonderoga as a centre, and sweep around it a cir
cle of some fourteen miles diameter, you will scarce find a square foot
of soil which " Old Putnam," as ranger, spy, private, captain or colo
nel, did not pass with his old feet. If there was a tough Indian
" scrimmage," or a bloody pitched battle, he was there. He fought under
Johnson at Lake George, under Abercrombie at Ticonderoga, under
Amherst on the St, Lawrence, under Bradstreet at Detroit, under
Albemarle at Havana, And his ubiquity is but a brief of the ubiquity
of the Connecticut troops. Under the name of Hercules, Grecian
mythology presents us with its ideal of human perfection, unequaled
physical powers, the brightest intellectual vigor, the finest qualities of
heart — all devoted to the welfare of mankind, Grecian genius never
conceived of a hardier frame, a sounder head, or a truer heart, than

45
are now mouldering in " Old Putnam's " grave. He was our Her
cules — the model of manhood which his era carved — the hunter,
laborer, soldier of the wilderness. Had he lived in an unlettered age,
when tradition was the only channel of communication between suc
cessive generations, posterity, staggered by his enormous labors and
incredible exploits, would have regarded him as a myth— a creation
of fable rather than of history.
When the first gun was fired in the Revolution, Connecticut took
the field, and again decimating her population — furnishing upwards of
32,000 troops from less than 300,000 people— fought all the way from
Bunker's Hill to Yorktown, But I do not propose to fight these battles
over again this evening. If you will pardon me for just one more
suggestion, I will come to " seventeenthly," " lastly," and " in conclu
sion," which we have so many times heard, with extravagant gratifi
cation, and with pedal extremities benumbed, in some rickety old
meeting-house " to hum," on a January Sunday, No State contrib
uted more to our Revolutionary literature, to those songs and strains
and martial airs, more potent to move and change and overturn than
even laws and arms, John Trumbull rushed into the war with a pen
sharp and effective as any sword. "McFingal" was written at the
urgent solicitation of John Adams, and other members of the Amer
ican Congress, to wean us from our hereditary reverence of England,
to disinthrall us from provincial awe. Need I mention, in addition,
the names of Dwight, Barlow, and David Humphrey — the Korner of
the fight, wearing intertwined the soldier's chaplet and the poet's
bays? While the glorious lustre of antecedents like these sparkle in your
eyes, and warm and encourage your hearts, I desire to give your
Association as a sentiment —
Connecticut — The greatest little State in all creation ;
and to subscribe myself in " Old Put's " epistolary style,
" Yours to Sarve," Henry C, Deming,

FROM EX-GOV, C, F, CLEVELAND.
Brooklyn, January 12, 1857.
George M, Browne, Esq., President, &c. :
My Dear Sir,— I felt honored by your kind invitation to be with you
on the evening of the 14th, and say a word in favor of our good old
State of Connecticut, And I have delayed writing you until this late
day, hoping to be able so to arrange my business in court, which is
now in session in this place, as to attend your meeting ; but I find it
impossible, which I regret more than you can.
Wishing you a pleasant time, I am, most sincerely, your friend and
servant,
C. F. Cleveland,

46

FROM JUDGE CHARLES J, M CURDY,
Lyme, January 12, 1857.
George M. Browne, Esq., President of the Connecticut Association:
My Dear Sir, — I should be very happy to accept your invitation,
and meet your society on Wednesday next, but other engagements
wUl prevent, Connecticut was under obligations for her first settlers
to Massachusetts, but she has since paid back the debt in kind, and
with interest. And it is a matter of pride that her colonists in the
New England capital are so strong in numbers, wealth and character,
as to justify and deserve a public demonstration. Long may their
talents and industry and energy, enable them to compete successfully
with " the solid men of Boston," and to add new vigor to the enter
prise and new glory to the renown of their noble Commonwealth,
With much respect, I am your friend, C. J, M'CURDY,

CONSTITUTION or THE
CONNECTICUT ASSOCIATION.
ADOPTED APBIL 7, 1856.

We, the subscribers, natives of Connecticut, residing in Boston or
its vicinity, having associated ourselves together for the purpose of
preserving, unimpaired, our affection for our native State, and our
memory of her noble deeds ; and also for the purpose of mutual
acquaintance, improvement, and advantage, and to promote among
the Sons of Connecticut, and their children, temperance, industry,
and good fellowship, do hereby adopt and subscribe the following
Constitution. Article I. — This Society shall be called The Connecticut
Association, Art, n. — All natives of Connecticut residing in Massachusetts,
and their descendants, so residing, may become members of this
Association by subscribing the Constitution thereof, and paying to
its Treasurer one dollar annually.
Art. III. — Any person of Connecticut relationship or association,
may be elected an associate member of the Association, with all the
privOeges and responsibilities, at any meeting thereof, by the votes of
two-thirds of the members present, having been nominated at a pre
vious meeting ; and any person may be elected an honorary member
on the like vote and nomination.
Art, IV. — The Officers of this Association shall consist of a
President, one Vice President for each County in Connecticut, five
Directors from the State at large, a Corresponding Secretary, a
Recording Secretary, and a Treasurer, all of whom shall compose
the Board of Managers ; and all of whom shall be chosen yearly by
ballot, at the annual meeting of the Association, and shall remain in
office tUl their successors be chosen. Vacancies in the Board, how
ever occasioned, may be filled by the remaining members of the
Board.

48
Art. V, — There shall be four regular meetings of this Association,
yearly, viz : the annual meeting in Boston, for the choice of officers,
and other purposes, on the twenty-third day of April, that being the
day of the date of the charter of Connecticut ; and three quarterly
meetings, on such days, and at such places, as may be designated by
the Board of Managers, Special meetings shall be called whenever
the Board of Managers think . proper, or whenever the same may be
requested of the Board, in writing, by any sixteen members of the
Association, All meetings shall be called by printed notices, in three
Boston daily newspapers, published three days in succession, includ
ing the day of such meeting. Fifteen members shall constitute a
quorum. All votes being decided by a majority, except otherwise
provided in this Constitution,
Art. VI. — The Board of Managers shall hold such meetings as
they may deem needful ; shall regulate the general business of the
Association, subject, however, to special instruction by the Associa
tion ; may, from time to time, frame and report By-Laws to the Asso
ciation, to take effect when adopted at any regular meeting thereof,
or at any special meeting called for that purpose.
Art, VII, — At any regular meeting of the Association, or at any
special meeting called for that purpose, the Constitution may be
amended by a vote of two-thirds of those members present, and
voting : provided, hotvever, iiiBl no such amendment shall be adopted,
unless by vote of at least twenty five members, nor unless the same
has been proposed at the preceding regular meeting.
Art. viii. — At all meetings of the Association, and of the Board,
the President, or, if he be absent or wish to leave the chair, the Vice
President, senior in age, who is present, shall preside.
Art, IX,^ — The Recording Secretary shall keep fair records of the
proceedings of the Association and of the Board, and shall also keep
perfect lists of all members, and associate and honorary members, of
the Association ; one list arranged alphabetically, giving the town
and county of each member's nativity, and another list arranged by
counties, and alphabetically, under these divisions. The Correspond
ing Secretary shall conduct the correspondence of the Association
and of the Board, and keep a complete record thereof. The Treasurer
shall collect, keep, and disburse all the money of the Association, in
conformity with the By-Laws, and the votes of the Association and
of the Board, and shall keep a full and true account of his receipts
and payments. No money shall be paid from the treasury, except
upon the order of the President, countersigned by the Recording
Secretary,

©ffiwrB anb iHmbers of tl)e ^dissociation.

OFFICERS,

PEESIDENT,
GEOEGE MOEGAN BEOWNE,
VICE PUESIDENTS,
OLIVEE ELDEEDGE, for Windham County.
THADDEUS NICHOLS, for Middlesex County. ,
JOHN P. PUTNAM, for Hartford County.
Eev. JOHN PIEEPONT, for Litchfield County.
Eev. PHINEAS STOWE, for New Haven County.
Eev. ISAAC P, LANGWOETHY, for New London County.
S. N. UPFOED, for Faibpibld County.
S. P. GILBEET, for Tolland County.
COBKESPONDING SECRETARY.
ELI WHITNEY BLAKE.
BECOEDING SECHETABY,
CHAELES SCOTT.
teeasuree.
STILES FEOST.
DIEECTOEB,
Hon. JOHN A. BOLLES,
Hon. JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM,
PEEKINS CLEVELAND, Esq.
Rev. LYMAN BEECHEE,
HENRY W. BUTTON, Esq.

50

MEMBERS.

Alanson Abbe,
William A, Abb6,
William C, Alden,
J, F. Alderman,
Frederick Allen,
N. A, Apollonio,
H, N, Avery,
Steuben T, Bacon,
Charles C, Baldwin,
Eli Baldwin,
John D, Baldwin,
John Stanton Baldwin,
Daniel C, Bates,
George W. Beach,
Harry H. Beadle,
Laban S, Beecher,
Eli Whitney Blake,
Sylvester Bliss,
Giles Meigs Boardman,
Charles H, Bolles,
Frederick D, Bolles,
John Augustus Bolles,
Matthew Bolles,
William C, Boon,
S, G, Boughton,
John Brigham,
William P. Brigham,
George Morgan Browne,
Joseph T, Buckingham,
Simon Burnett,
Wellington Burnett,
W, B, Button,
Charles Cleveland,
E, S, Cleveland,

Perkins Cleveland,
William L, Coan,
William F, Coburn,
Andrew Coe,
Daniel Tyler Coit,
John Hyde Collins,
George W, Concklin,
Josiah Curtis,
H, M, Cushman,
Noah Davis,
Charles Wheeler Denison,
Benjamin Dodd,
Horace Dodd,
Timothy Dodd,
Jacob A, Dresser,
C. H, Dunham,
Henry W, Dutton,
Oliver Eldredge,
Henry Emmons,
Andrix A, Foster,
George Frost,
Stiles Frost,
Henry A, Fuller,
Oliver A, Gager,
Orrin W, Gardner,
Henry Clay Gilbert,
S, P, Gilbert,
Edward W, Gilman,
Walter Goodell,
E, D, Goodrich,
H. A, Gore,
H, A, Gouge,

51

Henry Hall,
H, W. Harrington,
Simeon Havens,
Amos P. Hawley,
Whiting H. HoUister,
Lucius B. Horton,
Nelson A. Hotchkiss,
Sanford M. Hunt,
Edward B. Huntington,
L. A. Huntington,
J. M. Ives,
Asa Jacobs,
Hiram Jacobs,
William Keith,
Hamlin W, Keyes,
P. M, Kibbe,
Comfort V, Lane,
Isaac P. Langworthy,
J, H, Lester,
Melvin Lord,
Chester Lyon,
Daniel H. Maine,
Sebeus C, Maine,
William Mack,
Theodore D. Mansfield,
George Marsh,
J. Frederick Marsh,
Theophilus Rogers Marvin,
William G. Moseley,
Alonzo F, Neale,
Rollin H, Neale,
Edward C, Parkhurst,
Giles Pease,
A, G. Peck,
John W. Phelps,

William H, Phelps,
W, H, Pitkin,
George E, Porter,
Levi Prosser,
J, P, Putnam,
George Richards,
W, A, Richards,
John Q,, Robertson,
Marcus T, Robinson,
H, E, Rockwell,
Horace T, Rockwell,
James E, Root,
Richard H, Salter,
Charles Scott,
George Sherman,
Benjamin H, Skinner,
Allen D, Smith,
Jerome C, Smith,
Jared Sparks,
Amariah Storrs,
William Storrs,
Phineas Stowe,
J, P, Sullivan,
Increase N, Tarbox,
Edward S, Taylor,
Joseph W, Taylor,
George Newton Thomson,
Henry R. Tracy,
Samuel L. Usher,
Henry Warfield,
E, Baker Welch,
E, M, P. Wells,
Guy L. B. Wheeler,
Joseph B. Whitmore,
Joseph P. Williams,
William Woolsey Winthrop,
Edward T, Woodward,

52

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS.

Rhoda A, Apollonio,
Abram Avery,
Horace Barnes,
Dr, John S, Butler,
Benjamin Callender,
H, J, Cleveland,
Dr, Ezra Dean,
Henry Dexter,
William T, Eustis,
Samuel J, M, Homer,
Dr, J, P, Jewett,
Henry W. Nelson,

Rev. Bradford K. Pierce,
Hon, Charles H, Pond,
Eleanor M, Porter,
Hon, A, A, Richmond,
Sidney Sargent,
Wingate P, Sargent,
Lebbeus Stetson,
Rev. Mr, Storrs,
Hon, I, W, Stuart,
Rev, Mr, Teal,
H, G, Ufford.

HONORARY MEMBERS,

James D, Allen,
Seth Bliss,
E, W. Hale,

Elisha B, Pratt,
S, N, Ufford,
Rev, A, H, Vinton.