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 THE LEBANON WAR OFFICE 
 
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 The Lebanon War Office 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE BUILDING, 
 
 AND 
 
 REPORT OF THE CELEBRATION 
 
 AT 
 
 LEBANON, CONN., 
 
 FLAG DAY, JUNE i^, 1891. 
 
 In Commemoration of the War 
 ^ Office and of the Adoption of o ur ;^ 
 
 National Flag. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 Connecticut Society of Sons of tbe Hmerican TRcvolution, 
 
 AND 
 
 Sold for the Benefit of the Society's Memorial Fund. 
 
 Edited by foNATHAN Trumbull. 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN. 
 
 Press of Thk Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. 
 1S91.
 
 Copyright, 1891, 
 By Jonathan Trumbull.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Lebanon and the War Office 
 
 Importance of Lebanon in Revolutionary times . 
 
 The early history of the War Office .... 
 
 The Council of Safety, and its meetings at Lebanon . 
 
 The War Office after the Revolution .... 
 
 Its conveyance to the Sons of the American Revolution 
 
 Repairs and restorations ...... 
 
 Papers found in the building during repairs . 
 
 Ensign Moland's letter 
 
 History of the writer's adventures .... 
 
 Ralph Isaac's letter 
 
 Gov. Franklin ........ 
 
 Treatment of Isaacs by the General Assembly and Council 
 of Safety .......••• 
 
 The Celebration of the Restoration of the War Office 
 Arrangements and general features of the celebration 
 Address by Gen. Joseph R. Hawley .... 
 
 The Collation 
 
 Afternoon Exercises 
 
 Prayer by Rev. William DeLoss Love 
 
 Presentation of the War Office by Hon. Nathaniel B.Williams 
 Acceptance by the President of the Connecticut Society 
 
 Sons of the American Revolution . 
 Address by Mr. Erastus Geer 
 Poem by Mr. Thomas S. Collier 
 Oration by the Rev. Dr. Leonard W. Bacon 
 Reading of Letters by the Hon. E. J. Hill . 
 Congratulatory Address by the Hon. Charles A. Russell 
 Flag Day Address by Mr. Jonathan F. Morris 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Buckingham 
 
 Appendix 
 
 Gov. Trumbull's Proclamation 
 
 The Trumbull Papers 
 
 Anecdote of a patriotic woman 
 
 A Newspaper comment 
 
 Index 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 7 
 9 
 
 lO 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 15 
 i6 
 i6 
 
 17 
 
 20 
 27 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 33 
 35 
 38 
 43 
 57 
 62 
 64 
 74 
 
 83 
 88 
 
 89 
 90 
 
 93
 
 f N connection with this publication, it seems really neces- 
 * sary that a slight historical sketch of the War Office 
 should be given, embodying such matters of interest as did 
 not come within the scope of the various able and interest- 
 ing addresses of the occasion. This report is, therefore, 
 prefaced by the following sketch, which was read before 
 the Connecticut Historical Society, Sept. 15, 1891. That 
 society having joined in the celebration at Lebanon, it 
 seemed appropriate that the historical portion of this work 
 should be submitted to its criticism before publication, in 
 order to avail of the authority which such criticism can give 
 to any work of the kind. j. t.
 
 LEBANON AND THE WAR OFFICE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Lebanon appears to have been exceeded 
 in population by thirteen of the seventy-six towns 
 enumerated in the census of 1 774, the excess was, in most 
 cases, slight, and the population, 3,960, is, by no means, 
 an adequate measure of the importance of the town in 
 the days of the Revolution. In the grand list of 1775, 
 but ten towns showed a higher valuation of taxable 
 property. But most significant of all is the fact that, in 
 the awards for services in the Lexington Alarm, but two 
 towns in the vState, Windham and Woodstock, were 
 granted larger sums of money as their compensation. 
 
 The reasons for a service so largely in excess of any 
 quota which Lebanon might have been called upon to 
 furnish at this time seem evident. Here were the resi- 
 dence and home office of the only colonial governor who 
 asserted the rights of his country as opposed to the 
 oppressive measures of his king, which very fact must 
 have given to that all-potent assemblage of the day, the 
 town meeting, an inspiration and force which it might 
 otherwise have lacked. Owing to the location of the 
 town and the fact that the governor resided there, Leba- 
 non must have been the place where the news from Bos- 
 ton was usually received in the exciting times which led 
 up to the Revolution. 
 
 The limits of this publication prevent us from making 
 extracts from the town records of these days, especially 
 in the time of the non-importation agreements, the Port 
 Bill, and the Boston massacre, records of proceedings and 
 measures echoed and duplicated, no doubt, in many 
 another Connecticut town, but peculiarly inspired in
 
 Lebanon — seeming to-day almost ludicrously fervent in 
 their expressions of " afifectionate loyalty to his excellent 
 Majesty," the acts of whose parliament they denounce in 
 the most uncompromising terms. Such expressions of 
 loyalty should not, however, be taken as a hypocritical 
 cloak for the subsequent revolt, but rather as a bona fide 
 endeavor to obtain rights which, had they been granted 
 at the time, might have caused quite a difference in our 
 present form of government. 
 
 In this atmosphere and on this soil of patriotism stood 
 the humble little gambrel-roofed building which was the 
 home office of the ( lovernor ; some rods from its present 
 site, and facing the Colchester road near the northwest 
 corner of its junction with Town street. It is impossible 
 to determine the exact age of this building. It may have 
 been, and probably was, the store of Governor Trumbull's 
 father in 1732, the date which marks the beginning of 
 the son's mercantile career; and it is more or less 
 intimately connected with that career to the time of his 
 failure in 1 766 or thereabouts. 
 
 Owing to the public offices which Trumbull held dur- 
 ing this period of thirty-four years, it is safe to assume 
 that much business of a public as well as private 
 character was transacted within this building during this 
 time. Its importance in the history of our State and 
 country begins more particularly with the year 1769, 
 when, at the death of Governor Pitkin, Trumbull was 
 elected as his successor, taking up, among other things, 
 the important correspondence with William vSamuel 
 Johnson, who was then in England undertaking the settle- 
 ment and management of the celebrated jMohegan case. 
 The Mohegan case, however, sinks into insignificance 
 during the time of Johnson's embassy ; for while it was 
 dragging its tedious course through the British tribunals 
 from 1767 to June 11, 1771, the riots in Boston and the 
 non-importation agreements of the colonics were leading 
 to hot di.scussions and oppressive legislation in the British 
 Parliament, which at last led to our independence in the
 
 war of the Revolution. Johnson faithfully attended 
 these sessions of Parliament while patiently waiting the 
 final issue of the Mohegan case. His letters to Govern- 
 ors Pitkin and Trumbull during this time show that he 
 was then intelligently watching, and, so far as he could, 
 influencing the action of Parliament in its all-important 
 measures concerning the American Colonies. The let- 
 ters of Trumbull to Johnson at this critical time are, with 
 one exception, dated at Lebanon, and hardly could have 
 been written elsewhere than in the private apartment of 
 this little building where the writer had been accustomed 
 to transact his business for some thirty years. 
 
 The interval from 1769 to 1775 is one in which much 
 business of vital importance must have been transacted 
 at the (Tovernor's home office. The history of all that 
 may have taken place there, beyond the correspondence 
 just mentioned and the discussions to which this corre- 
 spondence must have led, can only be supplied by con- 
 jecture. Lying, as Lebanon lay at the time, on the 
 direct road to Boston, it is certain, as has been said, that, 
 during this interval, many important despatches were re- 
 ceived at this office, and that much serious and earnest 
 counsel was held there regarding the alarming state of 
 public affairs. 
 
 Soon after the Lexington Alarm, it became evident 
 that the General Assembly must delegate its powers to 
 provide for the sudden and imperative daily needs of the 
 time. The following act was therefore passed at the 
 May session of 1775 : 
 
 " This Assembly do appoint the Hon'''" Mathew Gris- 
 wold Esq"", and the Hon'''"^ Eliphalet Dyer, Jabez Hunting- 
 ton, and Samuel Huntington Esq", William Williams, 
 Nathaniel Wales jun', Jedidiah Elderkin, Joshua West, 
 and Benjamin Huntington Esq", a Committee to assist 
 his Honor the Governor when the Assembly is not sit- 
 ting, to order and direct the marches and stations of the 
 inhabitants inlisted and assembled for the special defence 
 of the Colony, or any part or parts of them, as they shall
 
 8 
 
 judge necessary, and to give order from time to time for 
 furnishing and supplying said inhabitants with every 
 matter and thing that may be needful to render the de- 
 fence of the Colony effectual." 
 
 It will be seen at a glance that this act contemplated 
 that the meetings of the committee should be held at 
 Lebanon, three of its members besides the Governor be- 
 ing residents of that town, and the other members, with 
 the exception of Deputy-Governor Griswold, being resi- 
 dents of the then adjoining towns of Norwich and Wind- 
 ham. This committee was kept in existence, by renewed 
 acts of the General Assembly, during the entire war, with 
 such extension of its powers and changes in its member- 
 ship as appeared to be required. It soon became known 
 as a council instead of a committee, being so named in 
 the records of the General Assembly, as well as in the 
 journal of its proceedings under its appointment by that 
 body. This journal, with the exception of the record of 
 a very few meetings, is complete to November, 1783, the 
 original being in the custody of the State. The complete 
 text of this journal is only printed to October, 1776, in 
 the valuable Colonial Records, edited by Dr. Charles J. 
 Hoadly. 
 
 A review of the number of meetings of the Council of 
 Safety, of which abstracts were published by Hinman, 
 has led the late Mr. Nathaniel H. Morgan to the estimate 
 that, of the whole number of meetings during the war, 
 some 1.200 in all, 1,145 were held in the War Office at 
 Lebanon. 
 
 Of the proceedings at these meetings, it is, of course, 
 impossible to give an adequate idea in this connection. 
 The members of the Council of Safety may, perhaps, 
 appropriately be called the minute-men of the General 
 Assembly. Not only were they ready at all times for the 
 arduous and important duties imposed upon them ; but 
 the.se duties made continual demands upon their time 
 and energies. In the momentous month of July, 1776, 
 eighteen meetings were held at Lebanon, and in the fol-
 
 lowing month, sixteen, one of wliicli was held on Sunday. 
 The records of the Council tell, among- other things, of 
 the raising of troops, their apportionment to different 
 fields of service, the fitting out of war vessels, the pur- 
 chase and despatch of provisions and munitions of war, 
 and the disposal of prisoners. Many of the distinguished 
 officers of the time were present at these meetings or in 
 private interviews with the Governor and members of 
 his Council. The well-worn oaken floor of the War 
 Office has doubtless been trodden by Washington, Sulli- 
 van, Knox, Parsons, Spencer, and by many of the officers 
 among our French allies who were cantoned at Lebanon, 
 or camped there on their marches during the years 1 780 
 and 1 78 1. Among these French officers may be men- 
 tioned Lafayette, Rochambeau, and the Duke de Lauzun. 
 The many sudden and urgent calls of Washington for 
 men, money, and materials in the dark days of the Revo- 
 lution were m.et in the old War Office with that prompt- 
 ness and adequacy which have given to our common- 
 wealth the historical title of the Provision State. 
 
 With the close of the Revolution in the victory of our 
 arms came the close of the public career of Connecticut's 
 war Governor and his War Office. The Governor saw 
 the victory for which he had toiled and hoped and prayed, 
 vsaw with it the completion of his life-work, and resigned 
 his office to younger and less tired hands. After a time, 
 the War Office passed into other ownerships. Removed a 
 little from its original site, it filled, for a time, the modest 
 function of a country store, and is still remembered as 
 filling this function by some of the older inhabitants of 
 Lebanon. Under another change of ownership, it was 
 again removed to its present site, where, for a time, it 
 was used as a dwelling-house ; until at last it appeared to 
 have outlived its usefulness. But during all this time its 
 history was not forgotten. It was always known as the 
 " War Office," and local tradition as well as written 
 history told the story of the building. Whenever the 
 occasional newspaper correspondent visited Lebanon, the
 
 lO 
 
 building- and its history were made the usually unfortu- 
 nate victims of his pen. The varied and variously at- 
 tired accounts of the building and its surroundings which 
 have appeared in the metropolitan journals would form a 
 little literature on the subject rather more amusing, 
 and sometimes more provoking than accurate. Even 
 romance has hovered about the old building in the story 
 of Mistress Prudence Strong, printed some twenty years 
 ago in the New York Sun, and largely copied by other 
 papers of lesser note. The heroine appears to have been 
 a mythical personage unknown to the town records or 
 the families of Lebanon ; while the hero, whose name 
 may or may not be correctly given, was a French soldier, 
 who, for some trifling lapse in duty, was sentenced by a 
 court-martial to be shot as a deserter. The romance tells 
 how Mistress Prudence Strong procured his pardon at 
 the War Office from Rochambeau, how the pardon was 
 entrusted to a sentry for delivery, and delivered too late. 
 A French soldier of Lauzun's legion was certainly shot as 
 a deserter at Lebanon ; but beyond this fact, the romance 
 of ]\Iistress Prudence Strong appears to be romance, pure 
 and simple. 
 
 During the ownership of Mrs. Bethiah H. Wattles, an 
 attempt was made towards the repair, restoration, and 
 custody of the War Office by the town, at the desire of 
 its owner. The failure of this attempt reflects no dis- 
 credit upon the people of Lebanon as a community, but 
 goes to show, in a general way, that the town meeting of 
 the present day is not the town meeting of the days of 
 the Revolution, and usually yields surprises to the class 
 of citizens composing the best and most broadly patriotic 
 portion of the communit}' who are absent from gather- 
 ings of the kind, or unprepared for the methods of oppo- 
 sition which they have to encounter. Probably for this 
 reason, it is impossible, after considerable search, to find 
 a ca.se in which the preservation of a building of such 
 historical interest, involving considerable expense and 
 continual care, has ever been undertaken by a town or a
 
 
 '% 
 
 'm 

 
 II 
 
 small local organization. The proper custodian, unless it 
 be the State itself, is an organization of the State at 
 large, whose scope and purposes contemplate work of 
 this kind. Such an organization, the Connecticut Society 
 of Sons of the American Revolution had grown to be in 
 the winter of 1890-91, at which time Mr. Frank Farns- 
 worth Starr was appointed by the society's board of 
 managers to visit Lebanon, and make such arrangements 
 as could be made for the preservation of the War Office. 
 His explanation of the nature of the organization he 
 represented and of the object of his visit resulted in the 
 prompt execution of a deed of gift of the building, and a 
 suitable portion of the land upon which it is located, to 
 the society by Mrs. Wattles, the owner, a lady ninety-one 
 years of age, who, with the relatives composing her 
 household, had long cherished the design of placing the 
 building beyond the danger of destruction. The sole 
 condition of the deed was that the building should be 
 properly repaired, and kept in repair in the future. This 
 condition the society gladly and gratefully accepted, and 
 appointed its president to investigate the condition of the 
 building, and, subsequently, to arrange for and superin- 
 tend the necessary repairs and restorations. The oak 
 framework, with the exception of the sills, was found to 
 be in a good state of preservation. Traces of the origi- 
 nal partitions, windows, and doors were also found to be 
 so plainly marked that the restoration could really be 
 made complete. The work was commenced early in 
 May, by Mr. Charles Morgan Williams of Norwich, who 
 planned and carried out the entire undertaking. 
 
 A completely new stone foundation was laid under 
 the building, the decayed sills were replaced by new tim- 
 ber, the sides and roof were newly shingled, the original 
 partitions, doors, and windows were restored, and an en- 
 tirely new chimney of the colonial type was substituted 
 for the very small one which had evidently been placed 
 in the building as a substitute for the original chimney. 
 Old-fashioned stone fire-places form a marked feature of
 
 12 
 
 the restored chimney. These fire-places were procured 
 by Mr. Williams, with some difficulty, from buildings in 
 Lebanon which had either fallen down from their age, or 
 had outlived their usefulness. Andirons made by a 
 Lebanon blacksmith in the days of the Revolution were 
 presented by i\Iiss Dutton, forming, with the old iron 
 cranes, a complete outfit for these important features of 
 the interior. 
 
 In the romance to which reference has been made, it 
 is intimated that certain documents of importance were 
 concealed by Mistress Prudence Strong within the walls 
 of the building. While the story was known to be a 
 romance, this intimation served, at least, as a reminder 
 that it would be well to make a careful search for relics 
 wherever opportunity offered. This search was, at first, 
 rewarded only by the finding of fragments of papers 
 among the solid mass of oat-husks, nutshells, rags, and 
 other materials which, at unknown times during the past 
 century, had formed the nests of rats and squirrels under 
 the upper flooring. These fragments were as interesting 
 in their indications as they were provoking in their in- 
 completeness. They appeared to be scraps of old muster- 
 rolls, with here and there a complete name, fragments of 
 old newspapers, and bits of correspondence, one of which, 
 in the Governor's handwriting, reads thus : 
 
 - y'-». ..• _ .
 
 13 
 
 Two days before the date of this fragment, Governor 
 William Franklin of New Jersey had been sent to the 
 care of Governor Trumbull, as a prisoner, and had asked 
 to be paroled in New Jersey. Possibly this fragment 
 was a part of the correspondence regarding Franklin's 
 parole. 
 
 About a week after the discovery of these fragments, 
 some papers were found in a wonderfully good state of 
 preservation, considering the fact that the rats and 
 squirrels had been their custodians for, perhaps, a cen- 
 tury. The following is a list of the most important 
 of these papers : 
 
 Bond of Noah Dewey, Jan. 8, 1740, to "the Governor 
 and Company of the English Colony of Connecticutt " for 
 the sum of eighteen shillings. 
 
 Letter of John Ledyard, Hartford, " to Col". Jona 
 Trumble, merchant, at Lebanon," Nov. 20, 1762. 
 
 Official census-return of the " Town of Glassenbury on 
 the first of January, 1774." 
 
 Letter of R. Isaacs, New Haven, " to his Excelency 
 Gov'. Franklin at Middletown," Aug. 7, 1776. 
 
 Petition of Ens. Joseph Moland, Nov. 25, 1776, asking 
 the Governor for release from imprisonment. 
 
 Attested copy of vote of a town meeting at New 
 Haven, December 9, 1776, asking for small arms, field- 
 pieces, etc., for the defense of the town. 
 
 Full Q.Q>Y^ oi'' Frecmaiis Journar'' Numb, i, April 25, 
 1781. 
 
 The interest in these papers is, of course, heightened 
 by the singular circumstances under which they were 
 discovered. They M^ere, perhaps, mislaid, some of them 
 being regarded as unimportant at the time ; yet it is dif- 
 ficult to conceive how certain papers covering a range of 
 forty-one years, received at this office at various times 
 during that period, should have been stowed away in one 
 place in the building. Perhaps when the Governor was 
 selecting matter among his papers, as he did at one time, 
 for the use of future historians, these documents were dis-
 
 14 
 
 carded by him as unnecessary in the valuable collection 
 which his son David presented, in 1795, to the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society.* Being so discarded, the rats 
 probably took possession of them, and laid them by for 
 future use as building material of their own. But had the 
 rats been infected with the same regard for the chronicler 
 of the future which actuated the Governor at the time, they 
 hardly could have made a more appropriate selection for 
 the purpose of confirming the outline already given of 
 the history of the building during the most important 
 period of its existence. 
 
 The bond of Noah Dewey carries us back to the year 
 1 740, when Trumbull, then a man of thirty, occupied the 
 position of " Assistant " in the General Assembly, and 
 was at the same time engaged in mercantile pursuits. 
 This bond pertained to the business of the State, and was 
 witnessed and perhaps procured by Trumbull, who, it 
 should be remembered, spelled his name Trumble up to 
 the year 1766, when his son's researches in the Herald's 
 office caused him to adopt the present spelling. The 
 letter of John Ledyard relates entirely to matters of per- 
 sonal business at a time when Ledyard was a partner in 
 the business then carried on. 
 
 A fragment of a newspaper, not mentioned in the 
 above list, is probably of the date of 1763, and shows that 
 the news of that important time was read and discussed 
 in the War Office. 
 
 The three papers bearing the date 1776 relate, 
 evidently, to business of the Council of Safety ; and, as 
 they refer to a time every moment and circumstance of 
 which is interesting to the historian and to the patriot, 
 we reproduce, first for its quaintness, and for the reason 
 that its .story has been already told in the publications of 
 the Connecticut Historical Society, the petition of 
 Ensign Joseph Moland. 
 
 * See Appendix p. 88.
 
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 15 
 
 From researches made by Mr. Jonathan F. Morris of 
 Hartford, it appears that this Ensign Moland was one of 
 the officers of the Seventy-sixth regiment, captured 
 at Ticonderoga May lo, 1775, and brought to Hartford, 
 where he was paroled in company with his fellow 
 officers, Major Skene, Captain Delaplace, and Ensign 
 Rotton. 
 
 From the diary of Major French, who was also among 
 the numerous prisoners under parole at Hartford at the 
 time this letter was written, it appears that there were 
 continual demonstrations of enmity on the part of the 
 people of Hartford against these prisoners, which demon- 
 strations may have had something to do with Aloland's 
 attitude towards his landlord. The diary of Alajor 
 French from January i to September 13, 1776, is printed 
 in full in Vol. I of the Collections of the Connecticut 
 Historical Society. The story of Moland's unfortunate 
 collision with the chair, and subsequently with his land- 
 lord and landlady, is quite feelingly told in this diary, 
 under date of August 19, 1776, with comments by the 
 writer regarding the summary proceedings by which 
 Moland was consigned to " durance vile." 
 
 In company with Major French and three others, 
 Moland made his escape from "goal" on the 15th of 
 November, i 'j']6, but was captured with his comrades at 
 Branford and again imprisoned. French, Moland, and 
 one other made their final escape December 27, 1776, 
 after which time, so far as can be ascertained, the name 
 of Ensign Joseph Moland is unknown to history. The 
 journal of the Council of Safety makes no mention of his 
 petition for release. The date of this petition is re- 
 moved from the original, but the paper is docketed 
 November 25, 1776, which, as it seems, was ten days 
 after his first escape, which was probably known to 
 the Council of Safety at the time. The name of Moland 
 appears, however," in the journal of this body at an 
 earlier date, at which time, upon his arrival at Hartford,
 
 i6 
 
 his petition to be paroled in company with his fellow 
 prisoners was granted. 
 
 Another of these letters which requires more than 
 a passing glance, and is interesting on account of the 
 history of the person to whom it is addressed, and of the 
 person by whom it was written, is the letter directed 
 
 "To 
 
 "His Excelency Govr Franklin 
 
 att 
 " Per ^liddletown. 
 
 " Mr. J. Perit." 
 
 Governor Franklin of New Jersey, to whom this letter 
 is addressed, is so well known to history that it is hardly 
 necessary to give more than a reminding sketch of 
 his career at the time this letter was written. Unlike 
 his patriotic sire, the illustrious Benjamin Franklin, he is 
 described in the journal of the Council of Safety as 
 " a virulent enemy to this country." He arrived at 
 Lebanon on the 4th of July, 1 776, under guard, having 
 been consigned by the authorities of New Jersey to 
 the care of Governor Trumbull, with the request 
 that he be paroled as a prisoner. After a discus- 
 sion in which it is said Franklin's language and de- 
 meanor were by no means suited to the temper of 
 the Governor and his Council, he was paroled at Wal- 
 lingford, and about two weeks later at Middletown, 
 where, no doubt, he received the letter from Mr. Isaacs. 
 On the 30th of April, 1777, orders were received from 
 Congress to place Franklin in close confinement without 
 access to writing materials. He was, accordingly, sent 
 to Litchfield jail. It is, of course, impossible to say 
 when and how this letter of Isaacs came into possession 
 of the Council of »Safety. Although it is most natural to 
 infer that it was found among Franklin's effects at 
 the time of his imprisonment, still, from what happened 
 to the writer soon after the letter reached its destination, 
 it may have been intercepted and seized at about 
 that time.
 
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 17 
 
 It appears that the writer, Ralph Isaacs, was by no 
 means exempt from the inevitable lot of tories, or sus- 
 pected tories, in our State at this time. September 27, 
 1776, upon a memorial of some citizens of New Haven, the 
 Council of Safety directed that this Isaacs and some other 
 suspected persons be cited to appear before the General 
 Assembly at its coming session in October, to make 
 answer to the charges against them. At the hearing, it 
 appeared that " Mr. Isaacs had been frequently at Gov. 
 Brown's* quarters, and seemed to be pleased in the 
 company of Tories," that he had made derogatory 
 remarks regarding the conduct of the Continental 
 troops at the battle of Long Island, and that he had sent 
 some fine blackfish to Governor Brown at Middletown. 
 
 Isaacs and Capt. Abiather Camp w^ere found guilty of 
 the charges laid against them, and were removed to the 
 Society of Eastbury in Glastenbury, there to remain 
 under careful surveillance and restrictions. Dec. 1 1 , 
 1776, the Council of Safety allowed Isaacs, upon his peti- 
 tion, to be removed to more commodious quarters in 
 Durham, owing to his ill health. During the following 
 January, a complaint was sent to the Council of Safety 
 by the committee of inspection for the town of Durham, 
 stating that Isaacs was a dangerous person to be at large 
 and to retail rum, whereupon further restrictions were 
 laid upon him by the Council, which body ordered 
 that his rum be seized and sold for the benefit of the 
 State. At various other times the name of Isaacs ap- 
 pears as a petitioner to the General Assembly. At the 
 October session of 1777, he was allowed to appear in 
 courts where he had action depending for trial, upon 
 condition of taking the oath of fidelity. At last, his 
 checkered career as a tory prisoner in various towns of 
 the State ended in his release by the General Assembly 
 at its special session in January, 1778, on which occasion 
 
 * Governor Montford Brown of New Providence, Bahama Islands, captured 
 at the taking of tlie island and sent to Connecticut as a prisoner of war.
 
 he showed that he had taken the oath of fidelity, and 
 that he had done and should continue to do much to aid 
 the cause of the United States. 
 
 Although the journal of the Council of Safety makes 
 no mention of the letter which Isaacs wrote Gov. Frank- 
 lin in Augiist, 1776, and although this letter was so 
 neglected that it repo.sed peacefully in the old War 
 Office for nearly one hundred and fifteen years, there 
 can be no doubt that it was quite keenly perused by the 
 Council of Safety at the time of its receipt, and that it 
 may have had more to do with the trials and tribulations 
 of Ralph Isaacs than we are now able to prove. What 
 may have been the effect of reading the title " His Ex- 
 celency," even though it was spelled with one 1, as ap- 
 plied to a tory governor, it is difficult to say. When we 
 imagine the punctilious Huntingtons and others of the 
 council discussing this point at a time when His Honor 
 was a sufficient title for their own patriot governor, we 
 must imagine that their righteous indignation found 
 vent in a way by no means agreeable to Mr. Isaacs.''^ 
 
 Of the other papers discovered in the War Office, it is 
 only necessary to mention the petition of the town meet- 
 ing of New Haven, Dec. 9, 1776, asking for arms and for 
 the adoption of measures for the defense of the town. 
 Although this petition is not specifically mentioned in the 
 journal of the Council of Safety, that body appears to 
 have had it under consideration at its meeting four days 
 after the date of the petition, at which meeting it was 
 voted that six field pieces captured from the Minerva be 
 fitted with carriages for the use of New Haven, and that 
 the militia under Col. Thompson be thoroughly or- 
 ganized for the defense of that town. 
 
 The process of reading between the lines in a state- 
 ment of plain facts and tedious routine like the journal 
 of the Council of Safety is a dangerous and often mis- 
 leading process; yet, if the patient and scientific his- 
 
 * The title His Excellency was adopted in the following year, 1777, as the 
 title of the Governor of Connecticut, by act of the General Assembly.
 
 19 
 
 torian of to-day should apply it to this journal, he would, 
 no doubt, be able to make a volume or two which, while 
 it would form a lasting and fitting tribute to the old War 
 Office, would also throw much new light upon the history 
 of our State in the days of the Revolution. It is to be 
 hoped that the valuable Colonial Records already printed 
 will be followed by the publication of the entire journal 
 of the General Assembly and Council of Safety, as a con- 
 tinuation of this work. 
 
 A new era in the history of the Lebanon War Office 
 has now commenced, and has been celebrated by the 
 Sons of the American Revolution and by the Connecti- 
 cut Historical Society in a way that appears to make it 
 worthy of a carefully printed report, to w^hich the re- 
 mainder of this publication is devoted.
 
 THE CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Restoration of the War Office. 
 
 AT its annual meeting, May ii, 1891, the Connecticut 
 Society of Sons of the American Revolution voted 
 that a celebration should be held at Lebanon, to com- 
 memorate the completion of the repairs and restoration 
 of the War Office, and to re-dedicate the building to 
 public uses. The anniversary of the adoption of our 
 National Flag was selected for this purpose, with a view 
 to establishing an observance of the day, for which the 
 society has adopted the title of Flag- Day. As the anni- 
 versary fell on Sunday of this year, it was found neces- 
 sary to hold the celebration on the following JMonday, 
 June 15th. The Connecticut Historical Society was in- 
 vited to join in this celebration ; and accordingly selected 
 the day as its annual " field day," for that purpose. 
 
 On the part of the Society of Sons of the Revolution, 
 the following committees of Norwich members were ap- 
 pointed by the president to complete the arrangements 
 for the celebration : 
 
 General Coviniittee — ^Ir. Adams P. Carroll, Chairman ; 
 Mr. Burrell W. Hyde, Secretary ; Dr. Leonard B. Almy, 
 Major B. P. Learned, Messrs. Charles R. Butts, George 
 C. Raymond, and J. L. W, Huntington. 
 
 On Programme — Hon. Jeremiah Halsey, Chairman; 
 Dr. Robert P. Keep and Mr. Frank J. Leavens. 
 
 The general committee at once sent two of its mem- 
 bers with the president of the society to arrange with the
 
 21 
 
 residents of Lebanon the details of the celebration. 
 They were most eordially met by a number of Lebanon's 
 leading citizens, in consultation with whom plans were 
 arranged for the leading features of the occasion. They 
 insisted upon offering to the two societies and their 
 guests an ample collation, and made many valuable sug- 
 gestions regarding the general arrangements. The 
 spirit of the people of Lebanon regarding the proposed 
 celebration is, perhaps, best illustrated by a remark made 
 by one of their number. It was suggested that some of 
 the residents who might be called upon to assist in the 
 arrangements might not be able to give up the time 
 which it would be necessary to devote to the work on 
 the day ; to which the repty came in no uncertain tones : 
 " If an}^ man in Lebanon cannot give up the day to this 
 celebration, the town has no use for him." The residents 
 at once took up the work which devolved upon them, 
 placing it in charge of the following committees, ap- 
 pointed at a meeting of the citizens of Lebanon, held in 
 the Town Hall, May 30, 1891. 
 
 Chairman, Hon. J. C. Crandall. 
 Secretary and Treasurer, N. C. Barker. 
 
 Committees. 
 
 To deliver Keys of the War Office to the Society of Sons 
 of the American Revolution — Hon. N. B. Williams. 
 
 On Transportation from Chestnut Hill Station — John 
 H. Avery, John S. King, W. B. Loomis. 
 
 On Transportation from NortJi Franklin Station — 
 Frank K. Noyes, Edgar J. Tucker, Charles J. Abell. 
 
 On Traiisportation from Willimantic — W. F. Gates. 
 
 On Care of Teams —K. R. Post, Clark Standish, L. P. 
 Smith, Charles Sweet, Jr. 
 
 Building Platform and Tables — A. R. Post, W. A. 
 Wetmore, C. L. Pitcher, C. Sweet, Jr., E. W. Hewitt, 
 Sands Throop. 
 
 Dishes — Frank P. Fowler. 
 
 To Solicit Funds — Frank P. Fowler, South Society ;
 
 District No. i 
 
 No. 
 
 No. 3 
 
 No. 4 
 
 No. 5 
 
 No. 6 
 
 No. 7 
 
 No. 8 
 No. 9 
 No. lo 
 
 No. II 
 
 No. 12 
 
 No. 13 
 
 No. 14 
 
 No. 15 
 
 No. 16 
 
 Erastus Geer, Goshen Society ; George A. Mills, Exeter 
 Society ; W. F. Gates, North Society. 
 To Solicit Refreshments : 
 
 ) Mrs. W. F. Gates. 
 ( Mrs. Edward Moffitt. 
 
 Mrs. Charles Robinson. 
 
 Mrs. R. P. Burgess. 
 
 Miss Annie E. Briggs. 
 
 Miss Cecil Browning. 
 
 Mrs. John Clark. 
 
 Mrs. Henry Clark. 
 
 Miss Hattie J. Manley. 
 
 Mrs. John H. Avery. 
 
 Miss Helen O. Prindle. 
 
 Miss Hattie E. Hewitt. 
 
 Mrs. F. K. Noyes. 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Lyman. 
 j Mrs. Phebe C. Irish. 
 ( Miss Minnie Hoxie. 
 
 Mrs. Andrew Waterman. 
 
 Mrs. Charles Winchester. 
 
 Mrs. William W. Gillett. 
 \ Mrs. Erastus Geer. 
 I Mrs. Charles Taylor. 
 j Miss Masey E. Stark. 
 ( Mrs. James Y. Thomas. 
 
 Mrs. A. G. Kneeland. 
 
 Mrs. L. A. Spaulding. 
 \ Mrs. George A. Mills. 
 ( Mrs. Myron Abell. 
 j Mrs. George A. Nye. 
 ( Vlxs. Frederick J. Brown. 
 j Mrs. Edward A. Stiles. 
 ( Miss Waldcn. 
 
 Coffee— I.. P. Smith. 
 To Prepare Tables — 
 Ellen C. Williams. 
 
 Miss Maria F. Barker, Miss
 
 To Set Food on Tables, Toivn Hall — Mrs. H. D. vSteb- 
 bins, Mrs. E. A. Stiles, Mrs. G. A. Mills, Mrs. G. A. Nye. 
 Mrs. C. S. Brig-gs, i\Irs. L. H. Randall, Mrs. Edward 
 Gibbs, Mrs. James Y. Thomas, j\Irs. Wm. Robinson. 
 Mrs. Hobart McCall, Mrs. William Ta3dor, Mrs. Nelson 
 Taylor, Miss Louise Robinson. 
 
 At Brick Church — Mrs,. L. P. Loomis, Mrs. R. P. 
 Burgess, Mrs. W. B. Avery, Mrs. J. H. Avery, Mrs. C. H. 
 Peckham, IMrs. Nancy E. Pettis, ]\Irs. L. L. Lyman, Miss 
 S. M. Dolbeare. 
 
 To Hang Flags — Joe Stedman. 
 
 The society's committee on programme decided upon 
 the following order of exercises :
 
 24 
 
 Lebanon War Office Celebration, 
 FLAG DAY, 1891. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 ll:.'iO A. M. to 1 P. M. 
 
 Flag-raising at the War Office and at the residence of Mrs. Wat- 
 tles, its donor, which was the Governor's residence during the 
 Revolution. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Address bj^ Gen. Josei'II R. Hawley. 
 
 Reception and Loan Exhibition at the War Office. 
 
 1 P. M. 
 
 Dinner-call by Drum Corps, followed by Collation, by invitation, to 
 the Connecticut Society of Sons of the American Revolution ; 
 the Connecticut Historical Society, and their guests. 
 
 2 P. M. 
 
 Assembly-call by the Drum Corps, and procession to the War Office 
 and Speakers' stand. 
 2:30 P. M. 
 
 Prayer by the Rev. Willia.m DeLoss Love. 
 
 Presentation of tlic War Office by Mr. Nathamf.i. B. Williams. 
 
 Response by the President of the Society. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Poem by Mr. TIlo^L\s S. Collier. 
 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Leonard W. Bacon. 
 
 Music, " America," sung by all. 
 
 Addresses by invited guests. 
 
 Benediction.
 
 25 
 
 Tubbs' Military Band of Norwich, twenty-five pieces, 
 and the Nathan Hale Drum Corps of South Coventry, 
 fourteen pieces, were engaged to furnish the instru- 
 mental music of the programme. 
 
 The 1 5th of June was a cloudless and intensely hot 
 day. The early trains brought to Lebanon a throng of 
 members of the Society of Sons of the Revolution and 
 others, who were readily provided with transportation to 
 the center of attraction, the War Office, some three miles 
 from the nearest railway station. On the road the old 
 cemetery was passed, containing the tomb where Gov- 
 ernor Trumbull and other members of his family, includ- 
 ing his son-in-law, William Williams, a signer of the 
 Declaration of Independence, are buried. The tomb had 
 been recently repaired by descendants of these ancestors, 
 and was decorated with flags by the Lebanon committee. 
 Arriving at the Green, a large concourse of people were 
 found assembled at an early hour. The town was in 
 holiday attire, and the houses gaily decorated with bunt- 
 ing and devices. Near the town-house on the Green a 
 large flag extended across the street bore, in conspicuous 
 letters, the words, 
 
 " WELCOME, SONS OF THE REVOLUTION." 
 
 A mound on the Green shows all that is left of a large 
 brick oven in which the cooking was done for the huz- 
 zars of Lauzun's legion when they were quartered at 
 Lebanon in the winter of 1781. At this mound, and at 
 the "barracks lot" near by, the French and American 
 flags were displayed. The grave of the deserter who 
 was shot under sentence of a French court martial was 
 marked by a French flag. 
 
 By ten o'clock the throng had increased to such an 
 extent that it was decided to vary the programme by 
 admitting visitors at once to the War Office for registra- 
 tion and for examination of the loan exhibition. The 
 register was placed upon the broad ann of a chair which
 
 26 
 
 once belonged to Governor Trumbull. Quill pens made 
 by Mr. Nathaniel B. Williams from Lebanon geese were 
 used by those who registered their names. The inkstand 
 was one which had been made of a piece of soapstone by 
 Dr. Nott. The first name upon the register was that of 
 the donor of the building, ^Mrs. Bethiah H. Wattles, aged 
 ninety-one. The band discoursed its music while the 
 visitors examined the exhibition of relics and curiosities 
 which had been carefully collected and arranged under 
 the supervision of Miss Mary H. Button. This exhibit 
 consisted of specimens of old-time needle-work, products 
 of the spinning-wheel, old firearms, sabres and rapiers, 
 pictures, china, old volumes, documents, and utensils, 
 forming a most interesting and valuable collection, of 
 which it is impossible to furnish a catalogue in this con- 
 nection. 
 
 The speakers' stand had been erected under the shade 
 of the maple trees in the ample space in front of the 
 residence of Mrs. Wattles, which, from its history, formed 
 an attraction equal to the War Office itself. This house 
 was hospitably thrown open to the numerous visitors 
 who wished to cross the threshold of the mansion where 
 Governor Trumbull resided in the days of the Revolu- 
 tion, and its dooryard was thronged with those who 
 availed themselves of the numerous seats provided under 
 the welcome shade. 
 
 Owing to a delay of nearly an hour in the arrival of 
 the train from Hartford, it was impossible to commence 
 the exercises until about twelve o'clock. Up to this time 
 the attendance had been steadily increasing by the 
 arrival of the train from New Haven with a delegation 
 of over one hundred, and by the continual influx of visi- 
 tors in carriages from Norwich, Willimantic, Windham, 
 and other towns. The train from Hartford brought the 
 members of the Connecticut Historical Society, many of 
 whom were also members of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution, which society also furnished a large delega- 
 tion from Hartford.
 
 27 
 
 Lineal descendants of Jonathan Trnmbnll and Gen- 
 eral Jabez Huntington stood ready to hoist the flag at 
 the given signal, to signify that TrumbuUs and Hunting- 
 tons could still pull together at the War Office as in the 
 days of '7^- At the roll of the drums the flag, with its 
 thirteen stars, floated over the building. A few minutes 
 later another flag bearing, in large letters, the words, 
 
 " BROTHER JONATHAN," 
 
 was displayed from the residence of Mrs. AVattles. " The 
 Star Spangled Banner " was admirably rendered as a solo 
 by Mrs. Favor of Lebanon, to the accompaniment of the 
 band, the audience joining heartily in the chorus under 
 the leadership of Prof. Favor. 
 
 General Hawley, having been conducted to the plat- 
 form by President Trumbull, was introduced by him in 
 the following words : 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : We are honored to-day by 
 the presence of one whose career as hero and statesman 
 connects him so intimately with our country's flag that 
 we might search in vain for one who could more fittingly 
 utter the sentiments which the sight of our national en- 
 sign inspires. I have the honor and pleasure to announce 
 an address by General Joseph R. Hawley. 
 
 General Hawley 's appearance was greeted with loud 
 and prolonged applause. 
 
 He spoke as follows : 
 
 GENERAL HAWLEV'S ADDRESS. 
 
 [From the Hartford Courant of June i6, iSgi.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 This is an occasion unique in the history of a nation 
 which is, in itself, remarkable. I am told that this is the 
 first time a flag was ever raised over this War Office. In 
 the stirring times of the Revolution they were too busy 
 to attend to it. We look on our country as comparatively 
 new, but that flag is one of the oldest of flags. The
 
 28 
 
 British flag in its present form is of later birth. Our 
 flag is a flag of exceeding beauty. Perhaps a stranger 
 would not think so, but to us at least it is beautiful with 
 its dear associations. It is now the flag of a nation of 
 sixty-two millions of people, next to China and Russia, 
 the largest nation of the world, and a nation which is 
 making rapid progress. 
 
 It has been said that we boast too much, but now men 
 are beginning to look back and to depreciate us. Never- 
 theless there is nowhere in the world a wiser creation of 
 man than the revised statutes of the United vStates of 
 America. Our creed is as near perfect as human thought 
 can make it. I will be glad to have any man compare 
 the list of presidents of this country with the kings and 
 queens of any other nation. For wisdom and fidelity to 
 duty our presidents have far eclipsed the royalty of 
 other nations. 
 
 There is no government that has lived these two 
 hundred and fifty years with so excellent a body of laws 
 and so few changes. By the wisdom of Winthrop we 
 obtained from Charles I. a charter which alloAved us vir- 
 tually a republican form of government. No govern- 
 ment in Europe or elsewhere has continued with so little 
 change since. To what do we owe all this ? The dis- 
 cussion of that history would take too long. But I will 
 say that one thing to which we owe it in large part is the 
 organization of the township, a complete little republic 
 in itself, and this township was formed around a church. 
 The minister was a leader of the flock not only in religion 
 but in politics and various matters of everyday life. 
 Four men were indispensable in the formation of the 
 Yankee township. They were the minister, the school- 
 master, the first selectman, and the captain of the militia 
 company. 
 
 In the French war there were 32,000 separate enlist- 
 ments from Connecticut. These men did not fight at 
 the command of a king ; they went at the request of the 
 govern(;r. Among all those who had a share in the
 
 29 
 
 building up of this commonwealth no one had a greater 
 part than Jonathan Trumbull. He was an excellent 
 governor. He was a born diplomatist. In private life 
 he was a fine old gentleman with a bearing and courtesy 
 that brought to him the love of all. He was a man of 
 activity during that French war. There he stands as 
 the only governor who marched his people into the war 
 and kept them there till the war was over. It was 
 wonderful what qualities of statesmanship were bred in 
 these hills. He was practically the secretary of the navy 
 and the War of the Revolution was won in a large meas- 
 ure by the nav}'-. 
 
 The whole State owes you thanks, Sons of the Revo- 
 lution, for what you are doing here. Some of us have 
 been getting hungry for some real American doctrine. 
 We welcome the emigrants, all who are willing to be- 
 come American citizens, to bear arms for the country 
 and to obey our laws. But many come only to better 
 their own material condition, not recognizing that liberty 
 is not license. There is plenty for this society to do. 
 There are many old relics to be preserved. How strange 
 that the State has not before this taken steps to have this 
 old office preserved. Here was where Trumbull had his 
 headquarters to watch over the interests of the nation. 
 What a noble history ! I believe it is given to departed 
 saints to know what is done on earth. Then the old 
 governor must be here on this occasion. He will be 
 pleased, but he will wonder why this was not done long 
 before. The future looks bright, and greater glories 
 than any of those gone b}^ are yet to come to this great- 
 est country of the world. 
 
 This address w^as received with close attention by an 
 audience of about two thousand people, who frequently 
 interrupted it with applause. 
 
 A meeting of the board of managers had, meanwhile, 
 been held, at which meeting thirty-three members were 
 added to the Society of Sons of the American Revolu- 
 tion, upon applications previously approved by the
 
 30 
 
 Registrar. At this meeting, a flag was presented to the 
 board by ^Ir. Jonathan F. Morris, and was adopted by a 
 vote of the board as the flag of the Society. This flag is 
 a white field with a Mue carton or union in the upper 
 staff corner. These colors, blue and white, were the 
 colors of Washington's Life Ouard, whose uniform was 
 a blue coat, trimmed with white, white waistcoat and 
 knee-breeches. 
 
 The hour of one o'clock having arrived, the drum- 
 corps sounded its call, and headed a long and informal 
 procession for its short march to the town hall and the 
 church near by, at both of which places an ample colla- 
 tion had been provided by the people of Lebanon ; so 
 ample that it sufficed not only for the members of the 
 two societies and their guests, to the number of more 
 than four hundred, but also for visitors who were not so 
 fortunate as to wear the badge of either society, to whom 
 also, to the number of three hundred or more, a cordial 
 invitation was extended and accepted, to partake of the 
 good things which Lebanon hospitality had provided. 
 The dining-rooms were tastefully decorated, and the 
 wants of guests were promptly supplied by a number of 
 the ladies and gentlemen of Lebanon, many of whom 
 deprived themselves of the pleasure of attending the ex- 
 ercises, in order to dispense the hospitalities of the 
 occasion. 
 
 At two o'clock, the drums and fifes sounded the signal 
 for assembling at the speakers' stand ; and at half-past 
 two, the exercises of the afternoon were opened with the 
 following prayer by the Rev. William DeLoss Love, 
 Chaplain of the Connecticut Society of Sons of the 
 American Revolution : 
 
 Almighty God, Thou Father of all mankind, made 
 manifest in Jesus Christ Thy vSon, we adore and worship 
 Thee. Thou didst make a covenant of freedom with 
 our fathers when Thou broughtest them over the seas to 
 these blessed shores. Here they raised their holy altars 
 and taught their children to love liberty and revere the
 
 31 
 
 truth. And in the days of their conflict, Thou didst take 
 command of their armies and gavest them the victory. 
 We bless thee for their memories. Especially do we ac- 
 knowledge Thy guidance in the life of him to whom it 
 was given here in this historic spot to spend and be spent 
 for his country. Thou didst raise him up, and in Thy 
 time, when he had seen the reward of his labors. Thou 
 didst gather him to his fathers in peace. We remember 
 also with gratitude to Thee those patriotic men and wo- 
 men who upheld his hands in the day of conflict until 
 the going down of the sun. O Almighty God, we their 
 sons and daughters, having received at Thy hand a 
 goodly heritage, humbly beseech Thee to instruct us in 
 our duty as citizens that we may maintain the freedom 
 established through their hardships endured and their 
 blood shed. May we love righteousness and hate iniq- 
 uity, and recognize Thee as our lawgiver and Thy 
 blessed Son as our Redeemer. 
 
 Grant Thy providential guidance in all public affairs. 
 Bless Thy servant the chief magistrate of these United 
 States, our judges. Congress, and the governments of the 
 several commonwealths. Unite us as one people, know- 
 ing no other land to call our own than this, and preserve 
 our nation until kings and empires have an end, and 
 Thy kingdom alone endureth, eternal in the heavens. 
 
 This we humbly ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son. 
 Amen. 
 
 At the conclusion of this prayer, Mr. Nathaniel B. 
 Williams of Lebanon arose and presented the War Office 
 to the Society in the following address : 
 
 FORMAL PRESENTATION OF THE WAR OFFICE BY THE 
 HON. N. B. WILLIAMS. 
 
 As we look at yonder flag with its thirteen stars float- 
 ing in the breeze, it carries our minds back to the early 
 history of this country, especially that period covered by 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 Our relations to our mother country are more or less 
 familiar to us all. When our ancestors first landed on
 
 32 
 
 Plymouth Rock, and for a long time thereafter, they had 
 no idea of separating- their relation from Great Britain. 
 But, as time wore on, her measures grew more and more 
 oppressive ; unjust requirements were constantly increas- 
 ing, privileges to which they had a just right were 
 constantly diminishing until at last the yoke became too 
 galling for our fathers to submit to and still maintain 
 their honor and self-respect as men. 
 
 After making appeal after appeal for redress — but 
 all in vain — then followed the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, July 4, 1776. It was easy to make the declaration, 
 but it was a mighty undertaking to maintain it, and this 
 they fully understood when they pledged their lives, 
 fortune, and sacred honor to the cause. 
 
 The foe was strong, our numbers comparatively few, 
 resources limited, traitors numerous. Under such circum- 
 stances to succeed needed sound judgment, wise counsel, 
 iron will, and an unbounded determination, all of which 
 " Brother Jonathan " possessed during the trying years 
 of the Revolution, and his ability to impart the same to 
 others made him a power in maintaining our independ- 
 ence and in laying the foundation for the best govern- 
 ment that the sun ever shone upon ! 
 
 Another point necessary in maintaining our independ- 
 ence was concert of action, and the War Office was the 
 great center of attraction from which such an influence 
 arose, and its associations in this respect are calculated to 
 touch the heart of every patriot. It was in that building 
 that George Washington often met his bosom friend, our 
 first war governor, and the only one in thirteen colonies 
 in whom he could place implicit confidence. In that office 
 they matured plans for future action. It was there that 
 important war measures originated, dispatches were sent 
 to the army, reports returned, and the war council held 
 over one thousand sessions. 
 
 During some of the dark days of the Revolution, so 
 dark as to be depressing to ordinary minds, it was the 
 inspiring words that went forth from this council —
 
 33 
 
 who believed their cause was the cause of God — that 
 gave hope and cheer to the army and renewed courage 
 to trust in Him who overrules all events, to keep their 
 " powder dry " and " fight on, to victory or to death." 
 
 It was military headquarters for this part of the 
 country, and its floors have been trodden by Washing- 
 ton, Trumbull, Adams — Samuel and John — Jefferson, 
 Putnam, Franklin, Knox, and many others of note, both 
 of this country and France. 
 
 The War Office was the center of influence to keep the 
 fires of the Revolution burning, and this vast assembly 
 shows that it will take more than another century to kill 
 out the fire that burned in the bosoms of the patriots of 
 
 I rejoice that there is a society called the " Sons of 
 the American Revolution," formed for the purpose of 
 perpetuating the memory of their fathers and preserving 
 as memorials those relics that are connecting links with 
 the revolution, and it affords me great pleasure, in be- 
 half of Mrs. Wattles, the donor of the War Office, to pres- 
 ent to the Society, through their president, Mr. Trumbull, 
 the key of said office. I do not ask you to keep it in a 
 state of preservation, for what you have already done and 
 the fact that the blood of the Revolutionary fathers 
 flows in your veins is sufficient guarantee for the future. 
 
 This Office withstood the storm of the Revolution ; it 
 saw the birth of this nation ; it has defied the storms and 
 tempests of more than one hundred and sixty years, and 
 there let it stand as a memorial of the past, and an educa- 
 tor for the present and future generations, teaching them 
 that the wise and good may die, but they are not forgot- 
 ten ! 
 
 The president of the society, Mr. Jonathan Trumbull, 
 responded in the following words : 
 
 The Connecticut Society of Sons of the American 
 Revolution gratefully accepts the trust which is implied 
 in your conveyance of the time-honored War Office, in 
 profound consciousness of all that this trust signifies. 
 5
 
 34 
 
 It is not in words that we can convey to you a sense 
 of this consciousness. To thank the donor for the spirit 
 which has prompted the gift ; to thank the people of this 
 historic town for their generous and hearty cooperation 
 in our attempts to honor the gift as it deserves, would 
 be a mockery. Patriotism is not a thing for which one 
 American may thank another ; not a valuable commodity 
 which can be passed over from an individual or a com- 
 munity to an organization like ours as a matter of com- 
 pliment. It is patriotism alone which has manifested 
 itself in the gift, and in all that the people of Lebanon 
 have done in connection with it. We honor that senti- 
 ment too deeply to think of requiting it by empty words. 
 We honor it in the venerable lady who has intrusted to 
 us the completion of a design she has so long cherished ; 
 we honor it in the members of her family who have so 
 effectively promoted and contributed to this purpose ; 
 and we honor it in the people of this town of Lebanon 
 where patriotism always has shown itself, and always 
 will show itself to be native to the soil. 
 
 As the result of a prompt and generous recognition 
 of the character and spirit of our organization, this his- 
 toric building stands once more dedicated to the spirit of 
 '76. It signifies to our society the first tangible result of 
 the purposes for which we are instituted, and an obliga- 
 tion whose sacredness will inspire the many generations 
 which will arise to fill our places in increasing numbers 
 in the future. It signifies to us, also, an unwritten bond 
 of union between the people of Lebanon and ourselves, 
 all the more effective for being unwritten, because it is 
 made in the spirit of patriotism which we recognize in 
 each other, and which alone can give force and perma- 
 nence to such a bond. 
 
 It is, I am told, often lamented that, some forty years 
 ago, the railroads were kept at a respectful distance from 
 the heart of your town. The loss in gro^vth, and in the 
 development of the new and ugly, which may have 
 resulted from this circumstance, is now requited by the
 
 35 
 
 fact that you can show to the Sons of the Revolution 
 and to your other guests to-day, a town so little altered 
 from the Lebanon of 1776, when the sessions of the 
 Council of Safety in the War Office made it the delegated 
 capital of our State. It is appropriate, too, that the 
 American of the present day, and of future days, should 
 undertake something which may savor to him of a pil- 
 grimage when he pays his reverence at the shrine of the 
 old AVar Office, though the journey would have appeared 
 to his ancestors more than luxurious. The pride which 
 you naturally feel in Lebanon's cradle of liberty will be 
 fostered by the fact that, for this same reason, we must, 
 to a great extent, delegate to you the care and custody 
 of the building, uniting with you in plans which shall 
 make it useful and attractive for the future. 
 
 Thanks to the honest carpentry of our ancestors, and 
 thanks to the durability of our good old Connecticut oak, 
 emblematic of patriotism, the old War Office, restored 
 and repaired, will now last through many generations to 
 come, inspiring our children and our children's children 
 as it inspires us on this anniversary of the adoption of 
 our country's flag. 
 
 At the conclusion of this address, Mr. Erastus Geer of 
 Lebanon arose and introduced a most interesting feature 
 in the exercises, which had not been placed upon the 
 programme. Upon front seats on the platform were 
 four venerable citizens of Lebanon. Mr. Geer intro- 
 duced them to the large assemblage in the following 
 words : 
 Mr. President^ Sons, Assembly : 
 
 The War Office is the object of interest that calls us 
 together to-day ; but there is another feature of interest 
 that is worthy of notice. 
 
 We have four citizens of Lebanon who are sons 
 direct of Revolutionary soldiers. With pleasure we in- 
 troduce them. 
 
 Colonel Anson Fowler, eighty-seven and a half years 
 old, son of Amos Fowler, a revolutionary soldier who
 
 36 
 
 served in the war from beginning to end, was orderly- 
 sergeant : was in the battle at Long Island, and at York- 
 town, and for a time was one of the twelve that composed 
 General Washington's Life Guard. He had five brothers 
 in the war, making six soldiers from one family. It is 
 no surprise that Cornwallis surrendered. 
 
 It was John Fowler who bore the lamented Warren 
 from the field at Bunker Hill. While doing it, a com- 
 rade came to his assistance, but John says, " No, I can do 
 it ; go and fight as hard as you can." 
 
 Colonel Fowler was the youngest of a family of 
 twelve children, and is the only survivor. His military 
 career was in the cavalry. He retired with the rank of 
 Colonel. He tells us, that a few days since, he witnessed 
 a lively sham fight on the field where his father fought 
 on Long Island. 
 
 (Here, Colonel Fowler said he wished to say a word, 
 and rising with a fifty-dollar note of old continental 
 money in his hand, he said, holding the note to the view 
 of the audience : " My father fought for eight dollars a 
 month, and was paid in such stuff as this. When he re- 
 turned from the war, with four fifty-dollar notes in his 
 pocket, he could not buy a mug of flip with all of them." 
 This speech elicited a hearty laugh from the audience.) 
 
 Mr. Geer, resuming, then said, I next introduce John 
 D. Kingsley, eighty-three years old, the son of Ashael 
 Kingsley, who entered the Revolutionary service in 1 780, 
 and afterwards became captain. Mr. Kingsley is the 
 youngest of a family of six children, and is the only 
 survivor. 
 
 I now introduce Deacon John D. Avery, eighty-four _ 
 and a half years old, son of David Avery, who entered 
 the service at the age of sixteen, at New London, soon 
 after the Groton massacre. He afterwards became cap- 
 tain. Deacon Avery is the ninth of a family of ten 
 children, and is the only survivor. His military service 
 was that of a musician in the Flank Company, and a
 
 37 
 
 good soldier in the Baptist Church, fighting the good 
 fight, and will win the crown. 
 
 Last I introduce Captain Griswold E. Morgan, eighty 
 years old, son of William Avery Morgan, who was 
 at Bunker Hill and at the battle of Long Island, where 
 a British bullet passed through his hat — first through 
 the brim where it was turned up in front, then through 
 the crown, cutting a lock of hair from his head. He was 
 orderly sergeant, and after the war became captain. 
 
 Captain Morgan is the sixteenth of a family of seven- 
 teen children, and is the only survivor. His military 
 service was in the Lebanon militia, retiring as captain. 
 He gave two sons, William E. and George H., to save the 
 Union in the War of the Rebellion. The former 
 received a ball in his arm, destroying the action of the 
 elbow joint, and the latter died of fever in the hospital 
 at Beaufort, N. C. The late Governor Morgan of New 
 York was Captain Morgan's nephew, and Governor 
 Morgan G. Bulkeley his great-great-nephew. 
 
 Honored Sons : We thank you for your presence with 
 us to-day. We look upon you not as relics, but as treas- 
 ures of your generation, which is the only direct link 
 connecting us with the Revolution. Your fathers, our 
 grandfathers, fought for and won the freedom which has 
 made it possible for this country to become what it 
 is to-day, the nation of nations. You have witnessed its 
 growth from the thirteen original States clustered upon 
 the Atlantic ; it has increased in numbers arithmetically 
 and in expanse geometrically. Stars have lit upon 
 its flag like snowflakes. 
 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The President : Lebanon has done much for us to-day. 
 She has given us the War Office, and has ably assisted us 
 in honoring it, and she has loaned us four honored sons 
 of Revolutionary sires. It is hardly a fitting time for 
 us to ask more, but allow me to say to you, Mr. Geer, as 
 a member of our Society, that Lebanon should give 
 us these sons, as she has given us the War Office. {Col-
 
 38 
 
 oncl Fowler: "I am ready.") We will take them on 
 the same terms, repairs and all, for they are specimens 
 of our good old Connecticut oak, which needs no repairs. 
 The only conveyance necessary is the filling up of 
 that brief statement of pedigree and ancestor's service 
 contained in our form of application for membership, 
 with which you can provide them. 
 
 One of our poets has said, " Let me make my nation's 
 songs, and I care not who makes its laws." We are 
 happy in having among the contributors to this occasion 
 one whose muse has often inspired the sentiment of 
 patriotism, which makes lawgiving a matter of unused 
 form. I have the honor and pleasure to announce a 
 poem b}' Air. Thomas S. Collier of New London. 
 
 j\Ir. Collier read the following poem, which he had 
 kindly composed for the occasion : 
 
 POEM BY MR. THOMAS S. COLLIER. 
 
 What is the soul of a nation? 
 
 Lo, is it not deeds well done? 
 Red blood poured out as libation ? 
 
 Hard toil till the end is won? 
 Swift blows, when the smoke goes drifting 
 
 From the cannon, hot with flame? 
 And work, when the war clouds, lifting, 
 
 Show the blazoning of fame ? 
 These hold that aftiuence golden. 
 
 Bright fire of sword and pen, 
 Which from the ages olden 
 
 Has thrilled the hearts of men. 
 
 Not where the trumpets bluster. 
 
 And answering bugles sound, 
 As martial legions muster, 
 
 Are all the heroes found ; 
 But where the orchards blooming 
 
 Foams white the hills along. 
 And bees, with lazy booming. 
 
 Wake the brown sparrow's song,
 
 39 
 
 By quiet hearths are beating 
 
 The hearts that watch and wait, 
 With thought each act completing, 
 
 That conquers Time and Fate ; 
 Rounding with patient labor 
 
 The work of those who died. 
 Where sabre clashed with sabre 
 
 Above war's sanguine tide. 
 
 Here was no field of battle, 
 
 These hills no echoes gave 
 Of that fierce rush and rattle 
 
 Whose harvest is the grave ; 
 Yet where the drums were calling. 
 
 And where the fight was hot, 
 And men were swiftly falling 
 
 Before the whistling shot. 
 No soul with hope was stronger 
 
 Than that which blossomed here- 
 No voice, as days grew longer, 
 
 Was louder with its cheer. 
 
 Ah, souls were bent and shaken 
 
 As days grew into years. 
 And saw no bright hope waken 
 
 To gleam amid the tears — 
 Heard no call, triumph sounding, 
 
 From mountain side and gorge, 
 Only the low graves rounding — 
 
 The gloom of Valley Forge ; 
 Yet here a strength unbroken 
 
 Met all the storm-filled days, 
 Rising sublime, a token 
 
 Of faith, in weary ways. 
 
 What built the power, unfolding 
 Such glorious purpose, when 
 
 War's carnival was holding 
 
 High feast with homes and men?
 
 40 
 
 When grew the thought, whose glory 
 
 Burned like a sun supreme, 
 Above the fields, all gory 
 
 With battle's crimson stream? 
 Where bloomed the manhood, keeping 
 
 Such steadfast step and strong. 
 When the red sword was reaping 
 
 The harvesting of wrong? 
 Here in the peace, and tender 
 
 Warm light of heart and hearth. 
 Was born that virile splendor 
 
 Which filled the waiting earth, — 
 That flame of Freedom, rising 
 
 In broadening waves of light. 
 The souls of men surprising, 
 
 And lifting them from night ; 
 Here, and in kindred places. 
 
 The fire that all could see 
 Shone from determined faces, 
 
 And taught men to be free. 
 
 Why are we gathered together? 
 
 The land is full of peace. 
 And high in the halcyon weather 
 
 The songs of labor increase. 
 What makes the drums beat, ringing 
 
 Their challenge to the hills? 
 Why are the bugles flinging 
 
 Swift calls to marts and mills? 
 Because these walls have cherished 
 
 A memory bright and high ; 
 No name they knew has perished. 
 
 For deeds can never die ; 
 And here, when hearts were beating. 
 
 Half hoping, half in fear. 
 Strong souls, in council meeting, 
 
 Spoke firm, and loud, and clear.
 
 41 
 
 There was no weak denying, 
 
 There was no backward glance, 
 But where the flags were flying, 
 
 And red shone sword and lance, 
 Their words rang swift and cheerful. 
 
 And skies grew bright again, 
 For those whose hearts were fearful, 
 
 For these were master men ; 
 And one led, who unknowing 
 
 Linked to the land his name, 
 By earnest manhood showing 
 
 How near we live to fame. 
 
 Ours is the sunlit morning — 
 
 Ours is the noontide's gold — 
 And the radiant light adorning 
 
 The paths once dark and cold ; 
 But the savor of our treasure 
 
 Was the salt of toil, and tears. 
 And want, that filled the measure 
 
 Of long and bitter years ; 
 We drink the wine of gladness. 
 
 We reap the harvest sheaves. 
 Whose seed was sown in sadness. 
 
 And the drift of yellow leaves ; 
 With faith, and not with grieving. 
 
 Was built the mighty past ; 
 What good gift are we leaving 
 
 To those who follow fast ? 
 What thought, what deed, what glory 
 
 Shall mark this epoch ours, 
 And leave our names and story 
 
 High set where grandeur towers? 
 
 What thing shall make men cherish 
 
 The memory of to-day ? 
 Ah, actions will not perish 
 
 Though monuments decay. 
 6
 
 42 
 
 We see, spread out before us, 
 
 The fairest land of earth, 
 Loud with the ringing chorus 
 
 That only here has birth : 
 Ours is the holy duty 
 
 To build, with firmer hand, 
 This heritage of beauty. 
 
 That it may ever stand ; 
 Our deeds should make more lavSting 
 
 The freedom that has grown 
 From toil, and tears, and fasting, 
 
 And strength of blood and bone. 
 Then like the blossoms vernal 
 
 That with the spring combine. 
 Our age will shine eternal. 
 
 To all mankind a sign ; 
 A star serene, yet showing 
 
 Near kindred to the sun, 
 Whereon these names are glowing — 
 
 Trumbull and Washington. 
 
 (Applause.) 
 
 TJic President : The transition from poetry to prose is 
 usually abrupt and depressing ; but we are fortunately so 
 situated to-day that, in making this transition, we shall 
 only pass from one inspiration to another. No one could 
 more fittingly deliver the address now to follow than one 
 of Lebanon ancestry whose utterances from the rostrum 
 and through the press have marked him as the champion 
 of the things honest, true, and of good report, of which 
 the apostle speaks. 
 
 I take great pride and pleasure in announcing an 
 address by the Reverend Dr. Leonard W. Bacon, the 
 orator of the day. 
 
 Dr. Bacon spoke as follows :
 
 43 
 
 MR. bacon's address. 
 
 It is written in an ancient report of an old-time ora- 
 tion on some public occasion in New England, that the 
 orator began by disabling himself. It was only a phrase 
 of the English of the period, to signify that the speaker 
 began by acknowledging his disqualifications for the 
 function he was about to attempt — a most injudicious 
 form of exordium, which has not gone wholly out of 
 fashion to this day. Let the audience find out for them- 
 selves, if they can, that the speaker is not master of his 
 subject ; if they do not find it out, why should he be so 
 foolish as to tell them ? 
 
 Do not expect from me, then, any superfluous 
 acknowledgments of what is perfectly understood be- 
 tween us already. It was only after those had declined, 
 to whom the thoughts of all had naturally turned as the 
 fitting and representative spokesmen for this occasion 
 and this venerable place, that the committee had re- 
 course, at a late hour, to one whose fitness consists in his 
 bearing, by inheritance, the name of a most loving, 
 learned, and eloquent historian of the best and noblest 
 things in the past of New England and especially of 
 Connecticut ; and in his being at two removes a son of 
 this ancient town of Lebanon. Whether also a Son of 
 the Revolution by virtue of any deeds in arms of the 
 Beaumonts and the Parks of this town he cannot say, 
 having been too much occupied in caring for his descend- 
 ants to pay, as yet, much attention to his ancestors. 
 Such qualifications, joined with a true and reverent love 
 for the occasion and the subject, are my only fitness for 
 this office. I can hope to make no contribution to the 
 rich stores of history that have been already gathered ; 
 but only to revive your own memories of the great and 
 heroic history that centered in the old War Office, and in 
 the person of Governor Jonathan Trumbull the First, and 
 to reiterate the lessons of patriotic virtue that it teaches, 
 lessons that cannot be heard too often nor too deeply im- 
 pressed.
 
 44 
 
 At the very threshold of our study of the subject, we 
 need to divest our minds of the false impression conveyed 
 by the current popular name of the War of Independ- 
 ence. In others of the thirteen colonies, this war was 
 indeed a " Revolutionary War." But Connecticut never 
 had a revolutionary war. Let other States recount the 
 blessings that have accrued to them as the results of the 
 Revolution, and the cost in blood and treasure that was 
 paid for them, saying, as well they may, " with a great 
 price obtained I this freedom." But let Connecticut 
 never forget to make her proud reply, " but I was free- 
 born." The commonwealths of Virginia and Massachu- 
 setts were first, perhaps, to feel the irksomeness and galling 
 of the yoke of bondage. The free democratic republic 
 of Connecticut, free, democratic, and independent from 
 its first inception, never ceased to be free and independent 
 except in name. The people whose " strong bent of 
 mind " inclined them to seek a settlement outside the 
 chartered limits of any existing colony — they and their 
 children were a chosen people who never were in bond- 
 age to any man. The history of that wonderful prophetic 
 constitution of Connecticut first told in monograph by my 
 father,'-- since illuminated by the research of Dr. Hammond 
 Trumbull, now known and honored by the first publicists 
 of the world, as for instance by Dr. Bryce in his classic 
 volumes on the American Commonwealth, has just now 
 been admirably retold by Mr. Alexander Johnston f and 
 by Mr. Joseph H. Twichell.:}; We all know now, thanks 
 to these lucid exponents, what unique glory in the 
 history of Civil Liberty belongs to " Mr. Hooker's com- 
 pany " and pre-eminently to that divinely anointed 
 prophet of the coming age, Thomas Hooker himself. 
 We know that it was on the banks of the Connecticut, 
 250 years ago, that the first notes of that march were 
 
 ♦Discourse on the early Constitutional History of Connecticut, delivered 
 before the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. May 17, 1S43, by 
 Leonard Bacon. Hartford, 1843. pp. 24. 
 
 + " Connecticut" in the American Commonwealth Series. 
 
 $ Historical address delivered at Hartford January 24, 1889, and published 
 by the Connecticut Historical Society.
 
 45 
 
 sounded to which the constitutional liberties of America 
 and the world are keeping time to-day. And the next 
 chapter in the history is no less marvelous than the first, 
 the chapter which tells how, when the first of all written 
 constitutions had to be superseded by a royal charter, the 
 work of Hooker, Haynes, and Ludlow and the people 
 whom they led was so conserved by " the accomplished 
 diplomacy of the younger Winthrop," that the change 
 from constitution to charter was practically little more 
 than a change of name. The original free democratic 
 republic went on as before, choosing its own governors 
 and legislators, enacting and enforcing its own laws. No 
 royal assent was ever asked or given to a Connecticut 
 statute. No royal governor ever successfully asserted 
 his authority on Connecticut soil. Among the " Sons of 
 the Revolution " the Connecticut society is entitled to a 
 pre-eminence as sons of sires who were always free, and 
 who fought in a war which was for them no revolution, 
 not to win freedom for themselves, but to win it for 
 other commonwealths less privileged, and for themselves 
 to maintain it always inviolate, under a title, not of 
 human rights, but of a divine right not less sacred and 
 far better attested than any jus divinmn ever pretended 
 by Stuart or Hanoverian. 
 
 Naturally, this characteristic of the War of Independ- 
 ence in Connecticut, that it was a war, not of revolution, 
 but of conservation, gave a characteristic steady and con- 
 servative tone to the course of the State throughout the 
 war. Elsewhere the war was a rebellion, the insurgent 
 people arming against the constituted government. 
 Here, it was the State itself, as an organic unit, under its 
 constitutional and lawful officers, arming in its own de- 
 fense against a threat of revolution to be enforced upon 
 it from without. And it moved with calmness, dignity, 
 and solid weight. There was no need here of the stormy 
 eloquence which rocked the Cradle of Liberty, and stirred 
 up the stones of Boston streets to mutiny. There was no 
 occasion, there was no chance, for fights like Lexington
 
 46 
 
 and Concord and Bunker Hill. The people and the 
 State were one. There was no domestic enemy. There 
 were individual tories — and an unhappy time they had of 
 it — but there was no tory party. There was no hospi- 
 tality here for invading armies. Never but twice did they 
 venture to stay over night, and never did they wait long 
 enough to be whipped. Therefore it is that we are so 
 poor in battlefields and in monuments of that period. 
 What fiehtingr Connecticut had to do • — and she did her 
 full share — had to be done on the soil of other States. 
 I do not know the particular origin of that sobriquet 
 which characterizes our State as " the land of steady 
 habits." But it may well have had its rise in the sobriety 
 and tenacity with which Connecticut so sovereignly 
 moved into the war and then moved on with it. I have 
 already given reasons why it could not be so with the 
 neighbor States. The Scripture saith not in vain, " Op- 
 pression maketh a wise man mad." There were w^ise 
 men in the Bay State, and when actual oppression began, 
 they were mad, very mad indeed. Massachusetts had 
 more than once asserted her claim to the hegemony 
 among the New England colonies, and at this time was 
 much disposed to force the fighting ; was much vexed 
 indeed, when Connecticut, instead of falling promptly 
 into line behind her Committees of Safety, continued 
 in correspondence through her Governor with the royal 
 Governor Gage at Boston, as between co-ordinate 
 authorities, seeking in all sincerity to avert the war for 
 which nevertheless she went on making strenuous pre- 
 paration. But Massachusetts patriots had reason to change 
 their mind, and to be thankful for the sober, steady 
 little State to the south of them which moved in solid 
 organization beside them into the smoke and dust of the 
 fight, never hurrying and never flinching. They came 
 to think better of Connecticut when from all her towns 
 the supplies voted regularly in her town meetings came 
 flowing in to the relief of beleaguered Boston, and es- 
 pecially when the thirty barrels of gunpowder that had
 
 47 
 
 been stored by provident Governor Jonathan Trumbull 
 arrived in time to fill the cartridge-boxes and the powder- 
 horns on Bunker Hill. 
 
 Great as was the advantage to the cause of America 
 and freedom in the existence of a State like Connecti- 
 cut, not disorganized by the war, these advantages would 
 have been nullified, or worse, if the head of the vState 
 had been feeble and timid like Governor Wanton of 
 Rhode Island, or a bitter and malignant tory like Trum- 
 bull's Harvard classmate, Governor Hutchinson of Massa- 
 chusetts. What was needed was a wise, energetic, 
 patriotic governor at the head of a patriotic vState. And 
 it was to meet this exigency that God raised up Jona- 
 than Trumbull, and trained him with a singularly varied 
 discipline for a great career. It was wisely fitted to the 
 time and the place that this training should begin with 
 the college education which in early New England, be- 
 fore the days of professional seminaries, was eminently 
 a theological education, fitting one for the ministry of 
 the gospel, and in a State whose system of laws was 
 distinctly and professedly founded on the Institutes of 
 Moses, fitting one no less for the profession of the law 
 and for all the relations of civil and political life. It was 
 a noble and worthy beginning of life, to begin with the 
 diligent and enthusiastic study of the Scriptures in Greek 
 and Hebrew, and with the religious purpose of devoting 
 his life to the ministry of Jesus Christ. But for a more 
 special preparation for his destined work, the wit of man 
 could have invented nothing more exactly fitting than 
 that into which he was presently coerced by providential 
 circumstances — the business of a country merchant as it 
 was then carried on. How completely and marvelously 
 different from our conditions were those in which a great 
 and far-reaching mercantile business, spreading into all 
 parts of the State and into other States and sailing its 
 own ships for export and import into distant seas of either 
 hemisphere, could grow up having its principal head- 
 quarters in an inland farming town, is a subject on which
 
 48 
 
 we all know something, but on which we might all be 
 glad to be taught by some such master of economic his- 
 tory as David A. Wells. But the essential fact is clear, 
 that the country-store of Trumble, Fitch & Trumble 
 brought its proprietors into practical acquaintance with 
 all the resources of the country and their relations to the 
 trade of the world. Presently his position as Colonel 
 of a regiment of Connecticut militia in those French and 
 Indian wars that were the West Point in which our Revo- 
 lutionary officers were trained, gave him occasion to study 
 the application of the country's resources to the uses of 
 war. Meanwhile the good, old-fashioned steady habit, 
 before " rotation in office " had been invented, of keeping 
 a good officer in the public service when once his qualities 
 had been proved, was exercising Trumbull successively 
 in legislative and judicial functions ; for successive years 
 he held the seat of chief-justice of the Commonwealth. 
 His education was becoming complete. He became 
 Governor of Connecticut just as the years of trial were 
 drawing nigh that were to put to illustrious use for the 
 salvation of the whole American nation, all his judicial 
 wisdom, and all his executive sagacity and energy. 
 
 It is easy for us to read a providential purpose in those 
 ill winds which swept from the sea all his ships in a 
 single year, and brought his firm to bankruptcy. They 
 released his time and strength from private cares, that 
 they might be given wholly to the service of the im- 
 perilled country ; and they vacated the old country-store 
 of its merchandise, that it might become, practically, and 
 some of the time literally, the headquarters of the com- 
 missary department of the United States during the War 
 of Independence. 
 
 Let me not attempt to tell of the doings imder the 
 roof of the old War Office. They ought, indeed, to be 
 told as they never have been. Whoever shall write the 
 history of the recruiting and the commi.ssariat of the Con- 
 tinental army, will tell the story, not of the most showy, 
 but, I do not hesitate to say, of the most arduous, part of
 
 49 
 
 the War of Independence. When it came to this anxious 
 and perplexing work, the national leaders were glad to 
 bethink them of the State which had no fiery popular 
 orator, a Sam Adams or a Patrick Henry, to kindle 
 the general patriotism, because it had no function for 
 him ; which had no record of stormy uprisings or do- 
 mestic conflicts, because its people were all of one mind ; 
 which had no petty vice-regal court to be a center of 
 tainting influence and anti-patriotic intrigue ; which had 
 no battle-fields to show, because its soil was so intolerant 
 of hostile feet — the State which free from internal dis- 
 sension and from hostile occupation had, as no other had, 
 both the power and the will to give its entire resources of 
 men and material to the general good. This, no doubt, 
 determined the appointment to the office of Commissary- 
 General of the Continental Army, of Governor Trumbull's 
 eldest son Joseph, a man like-minded with his father ; 
 and when he sank under its exhausting labors and crush- 
 ing responsibilities, as truly a martyr to American free- 
 dom as Warren on the field or Nathan Hale on the scaf- 
 fold, the same reason called for the appointment of an- 
 other Connecticut man as his successor. Col. Wadsworth, 
 and required him to come from Hartford and fix his 
 headquarters here hard by the Governor's house and 
 ofiice in Lebanon. 
 
 One may read in Stuart's Life of Trumbull something 
 of the details of the business that was done in the old 
 War Office — the ceaseless and tireless meetings of the 
 Committee of Safety — the coming and going of couriers 
 with dispatches to and from Congress and the generals 
 and the Commander-in-chief — the fitting-out of provis- 
 ion-trains and supplies of beef upon the hoof — the rais- 
 ing of recruits for the dwindling army — the ordering of 
 militia regiments to threatened points of the State 
 frontier, and to the relief of neighbor States — the 
 equipping and commissioning and commanding of Con- 
 necticut's adventurous little navy — the councils of war 
 and of state there held with Washington and other Con- 
 
 7
 
 5^> 
 
 tinental generals, with Rochambeati and the Duke de 
 Lauzun and other French commanders, military and 
 naval. One may read of them there, and in some other 
 special and local histories, but not, I am bound to say it, 
 in any just or due proportion, in the general histories of 
 the war. The latest of these, by John Fiske, a great 
 man, Connecticut-born, a man who knows the difference 
 between surface and substance, between the pomp and 
 circumstance of war and the hard, steady work of it, and 
 who is aware that an army, like a serpent, moves on its 
 belly, tells the story of the American Revolution in two 
 volumes, and (I am informed) dispatches the part done 
 by Jonathan Trumbull in twelve words. 
 
 The time came, in the course of the struQ-grle, when it 
 might have been pardoned to the infirmity of human 
 nature if the doubt had occurred to some of the sons of 
 Connecticut whether the magnificent unselfishness of 
 her course had not been overdone. That was the time 
 when the British war policy changed from one of hope, 
 of conciliation mingled with severity, to a policy of 
 desperation and destruction and ravage. No wonder 
 that the State whose sons were found in arms everywhere 
 but on their own soil, whose hard-tilled acres furnished 
 .so largely the subsistence and whose mines and mills 
 furnished the equipment of the Continental forces, 
 should be the first and favorite quarry for British ven- 
 geance. It was then that Norwalk and Fairfield and 
 New Haven went up in smoke, and at last, when, after 
 coun.seling with Washington over the plan of the York- 
 town campaign, the French troops that had been cantoned 
 in Lebanon and elsewhere, with all that Connecticut 
 could spare, and more, of her last remaining forces, had 
 been sent far south for the final struggle of the war, — it 
 was then that the fleet bearing " traitor Arnold and his 
 murthering crew " - crept through the Sound on its mis- 
 
 * The phrase of righteous horror and detestation that is inscribed t)n 
 scores of head-stones in various cemeteries of Southeastern "Connecticut, 
 over graves of victims of the Groton massacre.
 
 51 
 
 sion of destruction and massacre at New London and 
 Groton. 
 
 The Governor's face grew sad, 
 
 In his store on Lebanon hill; 
 He reckoned the men he had; 
 
 He counted the forts to fill; 
 He traced on the map the ground 
 
 By river, and harbor, and coast, — 
 " Ah, where shall the men and the guns be found. 
 
 Lest the State be lost ? " 
 
 The brave State's sons were gone; 
 
 On many a field they lay; 
 They were following Washington, 
 
 Afar down Yorktown way; 
 The men and the weapons failed. 
 
 They were gone with our free good-will; 
 But Jonathan Trumbull never quailed. 
 
 In his store on Lebanon hill. 
 
 There was New London fort. 
 
 And the fort on Groton Height, 
 And the rich and crowded port; 
 
 But where were the men to fight ? 
 Might it not be we had erred 
 
 To care for our homes so ill ? 
 Nay, never a word of such grudge was heard 
 
 On Lebanon hill. 
 
 Remember, citizens, and 
 
 If ever the ill thought comes 
 To reck less of the broad, great land. 
 
 And more of your own small homes, 
 Think of your fathers' dust; 
 
 Think of their brave good-will. 
 And the Puritan Governor's toil and trust 
 
 On Lebanon hill.* 
 
 If there were time, and the question were not 
 rather what to omit than what to say, it would be a most 
 interesting matter to take this figure of Jonathan Trum- 
 bull, the finest and most perfect type of the Puritan 
 magistrate of the eighteenth century, and study it in 
 
 * From a poem recited at Groton, on the one hundredth anniversary of 
 the massacre, September 8, 1881.
 
 52 
 
 comparison and contrast with other typical men with 
 whom he was closely associated. 
 
 One would have been more struck with the points of 
 likeness than of ditTerence between Trumbull, son of 
 the New England Puritans, and Washington, son of the 
 Virginian Cavaliers, as they met for the first time at 
 Colonel Huntington's house in Norwich. 
 
 But if it is true (I find no evidence or probability of 
 it) that the Governor once entertained Thomas Jeffer- 
 son in this venerable and hospitable mansion, it must 
 have been by a supreme effort of courtesy and policy on 
 both sides that the irreconcilable contrariety between 
 the theologian-governor and the free-thinking political 
 doctrinaire of the French school was kept from breaking 
 out openly — as it did indeed break out in sharp words, 
 on a later occasion, between Jefferson and the gover- 
 nor's son John, the painter, a man who rarely erred by 
 excess of meekness.- The difference is most vividly 
 illustrated in two memorable papers — Jefferson's Decla- 
 ration of Independence of July 4, 1776, and that 
 solemn proclamation of Governor Trumbull of twenty 
 days earlier, lately discovered by the keen eye of Mr. 
 Hoadly, and characterized, perhaps with a strained use 
 of the word, as " the Connecticut Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence." f The one starts with an enumeration of 
 self-evident truths, and with a doctrine of human 
 rights, and is grounded on the principles of the contrat 
 social of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The other begins 
 with the creation and the fall of man, is grounded on 
 the Holy Scriptures, and is the utterance throughout of 
 a lofty and noble religious faith. Jefferson's Declaration, 
 accepted as the voice of the American people, is famous 
 through the world. The proclamation of Trumbull has 
 only just now been rescued from its century of oblivion 
 by the hand of the patient antiquary. But we may 
 
 * The incident is told by Cohjnel J(jhn in his interesting volume of Remin- 
 iscences, p. 171. 
 
 + See Appendix, p. 83.
 
 53 
 
 safely challenge the twentieth century to pronounce be- 
 tween the two as to which is the nobler, more solemnly 
 eloquent document, and the worthier of the great 
 theme which is common to them both. 
 
 A contrast even more antagonistic would be that be- 
 tween Trumbull and the faded-out, apostate Puritanism 
 embodied in that brilliant soldier from the next-neigh- 
 bor town, who seemed also at first to be a great and 
 generous patriot, Benedict Arnold. What was the esti- 
 mate of Arnold, from the beginning, on the part of his 
 own native State and its governor, is seen in the fact 
 that they constantly refused to trust him. He never 
 bore a Connecticut commission. His titles and honors 
 and his opportunities of treason all came to him from 
 other States, or from the continental authorities. It is 
 to the honor of his native State that she rejected him, 
 and that he hated her in return with a malignant hatred. 
 
 But a contrast as startling and intense as the canvas 
 of history has ever exhibited was that which was ex- 
 hibited here on Lebanon green when the French regi- 
 ments lay cantoned here in winter quarters. Where, in 
 American history at least, could such subjects be found 
 for romance, or for the pencil of the historical painter ? 
 These representatives of the gayest, most brilliant, 
 most corrupt and vicious court in Europe, what kind of 
 figure did they make in the midst of the severe sim- 
 plicity of old Lebanon? We are not without some 
 record of their impressions, in the journal of the Count 
 de Rochambeau and the travels of the Marquis de 
 Chastellux. But the contrast between the foremost 
 personage among the Frenchmen here, the gay Duke 
 de Lauzun, who made his headquarters at the house of 
 David Trumbull, and the serious, precise figure of the 
 governor is drawn already to our hand by the graceful 
 pencil of Donald Mitchell. 
 
 " And what a contrast it is — this gay nobleman, 
 carved out, as it were, from the dissolute age of Louis 
 XV., who had sauntered under the colonnades of the
 
 54 
 
 Trianon, and had kissed the hand of the Pompadour, 
 now struttinor amongr the staid dames of Norwich and of 
 Lebanon ! How they must have looked at him and his 
 fine troopers from under their knitted hoods ! You 
 know, I suppose, his after history ; how he went back to 
 Paris, and among the wits there was wont to mimic the 
 way in which the stiff old Connecticut governor had 
 said grace at his table. Ah ! he did not know that in 
 Governor Trumbull, and all such men, is the material to 
 found an enduring state ; and in himself, and all such 
 men, only the inflammable material to burn one down. 
 There is a life written of Governor Trumbull, and there 
 is a life written of the Marquis [duke] of Lauzun. The 
 first is full of deeds of quiet heroism, ending with a 
 tranquil and triumphant death ; the other is full of the 
 rankest gallantries, and ends with a little spurt of blood 
 under the knife of the guillotine upon the gay Place de 
 la Concorde." " 
 
 This is an occasion when the orator cannot comfort 
 himself with the rhetorical maxim that " no one knows 
 the good things that you leave out," for every one 
 knows them, and judges the speaker for his sins of 
 omission. We cannot say all that ought to be said, but 
 we must not stop at such a point as to leave the impres- 
 sion that "the glory of Lebanon" ceased when that 
 stately cedar fell — the first Governor Trumbull. There 
 was a goodly forest of Lebanon in other names beside 
 that of Trumbull. But in that one stock the names of 
 the second governor and the third governor show the 
 divine law of heredity working with the promise of 
 the divine covenant to children's children ; and show 
 this democratic people, so ready to prune off and fling 
 into the Gehenna-heap any degenerate scion, even of 
 the noblest parentage, that sinks himself down to general 
 worthlessness and baccarat, are not ungenerous, as other 
 names, like vv'inthn^p and Adams and Harrison, have 
 proved, to honor ancestral virtues fitly worn by worthy 
 
 * Speech at the Norwich Jubilee, 1859.
 
 55 
 
 sons. And this day reminds us that if Connecticut 
 should seek in the old stock for the old vStyle of Christian 
 probity and faithful citizenship with which to dignify 
 her list of worthies by adding to it the title of a new 
 Brother Jonathan, a Governor Trumbull the Fourth, she 
 need not seek in vain. 
 
 There is another line of pedigree, too, down which 
 the influence of the great names and examples of the 
 Lebanon heroes has descended. It is a line not always 
 as easy to be traced as that of natural genealogy, but it 
 is sometimes clear enough. There is the story, for in- 
 stance, of the country boy who grew up in this old town 
 some fourscore years ago, where, in the vast ampli- 
 tude of the town street, he marked the traces of the old 
 French camp, and where every house was inhabited 
 with heroic memories and traditions. I love to imae:- 
 ine the handsome little fellow wandering thoughtfully 
 among the gravestones in the old burying-ground, that 
 tell of holy ministers, and brave soldiers, and upright cit- 
 izens, and pausing to read the four inscriptions on the 
 Trumbull monument, recording the career of one who, 
 by the force and dignity of his character, rose from pri- 
 vate station to be the foremost man in all the common- 
 wealth, and, next to Washington himself, the chief pro- 
 moter of his country's liberty. I love to imagine how 
 that shining example of a Christian patriot dwelt in the 
 young man's mind when he had removed from ancestral 
 Lebanon to Norwich for the beginning of his fair ca- 
 reer ; and how, in the midst of daily duties in counting- 
 room and church and municipal business, the lineaments 
 of that heroic Puritan character unconsciously repro- 
 duced themselves in his mind ; and as great events went 
 on, and lifted him as by a rising tide into the highest 
 station in the State, history for once consented to repeat 
 itself, and to complete that impressive parallel on which 
 later historians of Connecticut will delight to dwell, be- 
 tween the great War Governor of the War for Inde- 
 pendence, and the great War Governor of the War for 
 the Union and the Constitution.
 
 56 
 
 We want to see the bright succession perpetuated 
 along- tills line of descent to all generations. Let this be 
 a result of our gathering here to-day to hoist the old 
 flag again over the old War Office now secured by the 
 patriotic gift of its venerable owner as a lasting monu- 
 ment of the great deeds it has witnessed. Let it not be 
 said that the fair and fertile acres of this ancient town- 
 ship have lost their old quality and become sterile of 
 great men. To this end, citizens of Lebanon, let not 
 this stir of patriotic feeling end with the jubilation of 
 to-day. Let it enter into the education of your children. 
 Let it be settled that in your common schools the study 
 of American history begins with the history of Lebanon, 
 the object-lessons of which are about them on every side. 
 Let the great families sprung from this soil, but all re- 
 moved from it without leaving a representative behind 
 them — the se-cedars of Lebanon, as they might be 
 called — families illustrated everywhere in the land 
 except here, in the highest stations of church and state 
 — be called upon to "remember the hole of the pit 
 whence they were digged," and to provide liberally that 
 the great deeds here enacted by the sires shall be so 
 worthily commemorated as to reflect honor instead of 
 discredit on the scattered descendants. Let it be their 
 task — it is not conceivable that they should decline it — 
 to provide that the old bur3dng-ground where their fath- 
 ers lie, instead of being, as now, with its tumbling mon- 
 uments and overgrown epitaphs, a very emblem of neg- 
 lect and sheer oblivion, shall show the proofs of pious 
 and reverent care. It will do them good, as well as you 
 and your children. But the best of the work and of its 
 fruits will be with you of the Lebanon of to-day, to 
 whose faithful custody this sacred charge of the graves 
 of saints and heroes is of necessity personally committed. 
 
 "Guard well your trust, 
 The truth that made them free, 
 The faith that dared the sea, 
 Their cherished purity, 
 
 Their garnered dust."
 
 57 
 
 The President : This occasion has been honored by 
 many expressions from invited guests, some of whom 
 have sent to us expressions of interest and of patriotic 
 sentiment which should be heard now. I will ask our vice- 
 president, the Hon. E. J. Hill, to read such extracts from 
 these letters as we have been able to select for the limited 
 time which we can devote to that purpose. 
 
 The Vice-President : I will first read a letter from 
 the Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President of the United 
 States : 
 
 " Rhinecliff, N. Y., June 9, 1891. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I regret very much that a previous en- 
 gagement makes it impossible for me to accept your 
 kind invitation to be present on the occasion of the 
 transfer of the Lebanon War Office to your Society, and 
 the commemoration of the adoption of our National flag. 
 The event is one in which I take much interest, and 
 would much like to attend. 
 
 " Very truly yours, L. P. Morton." 
 
 The Minister of France writes : 
 
 " I beg to assure you that I sincerely appreciate the 
 thought which has prompted your kind invitation, and 
 in reply, to express my regret that a previous engage- 
 ment will prevent me from being in your midst next 
 week. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, Th. Roustan, 
 
 French Minister y 
 
 The Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, ex-Secretary of State : 
 " I regret that engagements already made will pre- 
 vent my leaving home on the day appointed (the 15 th 
 inst.). I should have felt deep interest in the locality of 
 your meeting, and the object." 
 
 The Hon. William Wirt Henry : 
 
 " I congratulate the Connecticut Society on its auspi- 
 cious beginning, and trust it may be a potent agent in
 
 58 
 
 keeping fresh the memories of our glorious Revolu- 
 tion." 
 
 Mr. Frederick S. Tallmadge, President of the New 
 York Society of Sons of the Revolution : 
 
 " So long as our Societies live and prosper under the 
 protection of the flag with thirteen stars, so long 
 our pride and patriotism will know no bounds." 
 
 Mr. Paul Revere of the New Jersey Society : 
 " Permit me to congratulate you on your acquiring so 
 interesting a memorial of the Revolution, and to wish 
 you every pleasure in celebrating its acquirement and 
 the anniversary of the adoption of our national flag." 
 
 Hon. Lyman Trumbull of Chicago : 
 
 " I am much gratified to witness the renewed interest 
 which, of late years, seems to be taken by the present 
 generation in tracing their origin back to the heroes 
 of the Revolution, and in commemorating the important 
 events of that most interesting period in our country's 
 history. It serves to keep alive that spirit of patriotism 
 which animated our forefathers in securing our inde- 
 pendence as a nation, and establishing a government 
 based upon the liberty and equality of all its inhab- 
 itants." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale : 
 
 " The occasion interests me much, and there is no 
 place which I wish to see more. I take great interest in 
 the Sons of the Revolution. I am theoretically con- 
 nected with them here, but know a great deal more 
 of their work at the West. There, their men have been 
 the central men in what I call the education for 
 patriotism, — a thing vastly important there or here." 
 
 Mr. William G. Hamilton of New York: 
 " Knowing how well your wSociety will care for and 
 preserve this historic building, which so nobly links the
 
 59 
 
 past with the present, this event will have a most salu- 
 tary effect in re-arousing patriotic sentiments, and do 
 much good to the cause of the vSons of the Revolution," 
 
 Hon. Champion S. Chase, Omaha, Neb. : 
 " Here's to Connecticut, a State whose patriotic sons 
 do not forget to celebrate the victories of her fathers, 
 achieved on many a battlefield, when America was first 
 saved for Americans." 
 
 A telegram received to-day from Mr. John W. Bu- 
 chanan, Secretary of the Kentucky Society : 
 
 " Sons of the American Revolution of Kentucky 
 greet you and give three cheers for the flag with thirteen 
 stars. We are as heartily with you to-day as were our 
 forefathers with yours an hundred years ago, when they 
 
 ' Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world." 
 
 Dr. Daniel C. Oilman, President of the Johns Hop- 
 kins University, and a member of the Connecticut 
 Society, writes : 
 
 " If I were free, it would give me the greatest pleasure 
 to accept the invitation for June 15th, but I am detained 
 here by the fact that our session closes on that very day, 
 and it would be quite unworthy for a Son of the Revo- 
 lution to be absent from his post at the time of an 
 important engagement." 
 
 A telegram from the Hon. William D. Cabell of 
 Washington : 
 
 " Heartfelt congratulations ! The Sons of the District 
 rejoice with you." 
 
 A telegram from Mr. J. C. Pampelly of the New 
 Jersey Society : 
 
 " Present this sentiment : Our national flag. May its 
 red, white, and blue be to the Sons a perpetual incite-
 
 6o 
 
 ment to courage of conviction, purity of purpose, and 
 unswerving vigilance." 
 
 Hon. Edwin »S. Barrett, President of the Massachu- 
 setts Society, writes : 
 
 " Connecticut, ever the ally of Massachusetts in the 
 Revolution, is kindly remembered when she celebrates 
 her historic events." 
 
 Hon. Nathanael Greene, President of the Rhode 
 Island Society of the Cincinnati : 
 
 " You have my best wishes that the occasion may be 
 an enjoyable one, and that it may help to preserve in the 
 memory of the American people the inestimable privi- 
 leges we inherit from our illustrious fathers of the Revo- 
 lution." 
 
 Hon. Albert Edgerton, President of the Minnesota 
 Society, S. A. R. : 
 
 " I am rejoiced that an old landmark around which 
 cluster such interesting memories of events of mighty 
 importance, is to become the property of your Society, 
 to be sacredly guarded, and kept as a beacon light for 
 posterity." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. John P. Gulliver of Andover, Mass. : 
 " I can only express to you personally my high appre- 
 ciation of the work your Society has undertaken in 
 regard to the memorabilia of the Revolutionary period. 
 Any service, however trivial, which this generation can 
 render, will increase in value as the years roll on." 
 
 The Right Reverend Frederick D. Huntington of 
 Syracuse, New York : 
 
 " From my father and resident relatives I have 
 almost all my life been receiving information about the 
 history and inhabitants of Lebanon, both orally and in 
 writing, and I have come to feel an attachment for 
 its soil and scenery."
 
 6i 
 
 Letters of regret had also been received from Hon. 
 Redfield Proctor, Secretary of War, President Charles 
 W. Eliot of Harvard, Dr. William Seward Webb, Presi- 
 dent-General of the National Society S. A. R., Major 
 Asa Bird Gardiner, Secretary-General of the Society of 
 the Cincinnati, Mrs. Flora Adams Darling- of the Daugh- 
 ters of the Revolution, General Alexander S. Webb, Mr. 
 Charles H. Woodruff, General William S. Stryker, 
 President E. B. Andrews of Brown University, Dr. 
 Henry A. Coit of St. Paul's School, Mr. Richard M. Cad- 
 walader, President of the Pennsylvania Society wS. R., 
 General William B. Franklin, Hon. John Whitehead, 
 President of the New Jersey Society S. A. R., Mr. Fred- 
 erick Van Lennep of New York, Mr. James M. Mont- 
 gomery, Mr. Clarence W. Bowen, Mr. R. Fulton Ludlow, 
 Mr. Henry E. Turner, Vice-President of the Rhode 
 Island Cincinnati, Mr. G. Washington Ball, nearest 
 lineal male descendant of George Washington, President 
 Timothy Dwight of Yale, Mr. Luther L. Tarbell, and 
 the Hon. William H. Arnoux. 
 
 After the celebration, letters were received from Ex- 
 President Grover Cleveland, Ex-Minister Edward J. 
 Phelps, and the Right Reverend Charles E. Cheney, all 
 of whom, owing to absence from home, were unable to 
 reply to their invitations at the time of their receipt. 
 These letters all express deep interest in the occasion, 
 and full sympathy with its objects. 
 
 At the conclusion of the reading of the letters, the 
 President called upon the Hon. Charles A. Russell, 
 Member of Congress for the Third Connecticut District, 
 in which the town of Lebanon and the War Office 
 are located. After repeated calls from the audience, Mr. 
 Russell appeared at the front of the platform, declining 
 to make a formal address, and greeting the audience 
 substantially as follows :
 
 62 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES A. RUSSELL. 
 
 Mr. President, Sons of the American Revolutio)i, Kind 
 
 Friends of Lebanon : 
 
 It was my expectation to attest interest and pleasure 
 on this occasion by my presence rather than by my 
 utterance. And at this closing hour of a most delight- 
 ful day I am inclined to think that this splendid gather- 
 ing has been sufficiently enthused by the glorious 
 memorials of the past, and by the stirring eloquence of 
 those who have already spoken. I judge that we all are 
 about ready to join in singing with patriotic spirit, and 
 with fervent thanksgiving, " Our Country, 'tis of thee," 
 as a fitting close to the exercises of the day, and then to 
 go home with the inspiration and the assurance of 
 another century of prosperous nationality looming be- 
 fore us. At any rate, I am not disposed to extend the 
 programme beyond the opportunity of offering greeting 
 to all who have in any way planned and carried forward 
 this object lesson of grand American history, and ex- 
 pressing satisfaction at the pleasant and perfect result of 
 their work. 
 
 Yet I have one thought which I would briefly give to 
 you. As I came on to this Lebanon common to-day a 
 worthy citizen of the town said to me : " This is a day 
 when we pick up the history of our old backwoods coun- 
 try towns in New England, and introduce history and 
 town to the country." There was a world of meaning 
 in that remark, and it struck me as mighty fortunate for 
 the country to have such introduction now and then. 
 I believe it well for the Republic at large to form ac- 
 quaintance with the history and character of its " coun- 
 try towns." They are now, as in the past, the stiff back- 
 bone of the nation. They possess, in most unadul- 
 terated form, the sturdy character and reliable action of 
 a free populace in a free country. They have never 
 been wanting in all the trials of our nationality, and 
 they have stood stolidly for good government and good
 
 63 
 
 citizenship. There can no great harm come to our be- 
 loved institutions and our fair land while these " country- 
 towns " preserve their pristine virtues, and continue to 
 furnish true men and noble women from the farms to 
 build up the firesides of homes all over the country. 
 So I rejoice at this chance which introduces Lebanon in 
 its history and present worth to the country. The 
 nation will learn that it has not yet exhausted its rich 
 deposit of loyal strength and patriotic progress on Leba- 
 non hills. [Applause.] 
 
 And taking example from this occasion, and from the 
 Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revo- 
 lution, and from the good town of Lebanon, I hope for 
 more and more such introductions of " country towns " 
 to our general populace. And to the end that our chil- 
 dren and youth may know the better of our history, and 
 our citizenship may trust the better to its power, I urge 
 a wider acquaintance with the character of the sturdy 
 yeomanry of " the country town." This occasion has 
 especially directed attention to the Lebanon patriots, 
 and I look forward to the near future when nation or 
 state shall erect suitable memorials at the tombs of 
 Lebanon patriots. [Applause.]
 
 64 
 
 The President : Twenty-nine years ago a bill was in- 
 troduced in Congress, and eloquently advocated by a son 
 of Connecticut, providing for the observance of the anni- 
 versary of the adoption of our national flag. In the 
 stirring legislation of those troublous times of 1862 the 
 bill was laid upon that convenient and capacious piece 
 of congressional furniture, the table, and has there re- 
 mained, badly " snowed under," ever since. Its cham- 
 pion, to whom I have referred, the Hon. Mr. Dwight 
 Loomis, has honored us with his presence to-day. We 
 had hoped that he could remain long enough to take the 
 flag-day bill from the table on this occasion, but since he 
 has been obliged to leave us, let me pass that duty to 
 the originator of the movement, Mr. Jonathan F. ]\Ior- 
 ris, w^hose untiring interest in the matter and whose 
 earnest efforts in promoting the movement fit him pecu- 
 liarly to speak on this subject. 
 
 Mr. Morris spoke as follows : 
 
 MR. JONATHAN F. MORRIS'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlejiien, Sons of the American Revolution and 
 Fellozu Members of the Connecticut Historical Society : 
 
 I very much regret the absence of Judge Loomis, who 
 was expected to address you on the topic on which I am 
 called to speak, for he would have much better discharged 
 this duty than I, especially in regard to the action of Con- 
 gress twenty-nine years ago, to which President Trumbull 
 has referred. 
 
 President Trumbull has introduced me as the origi- 
 nator of " Flag Day." I should be very proud indeed if I 
 were entirely worthy of such distinction, for while it is 
 true that I perhaps did make the first suggestion in re- 
 gard to the observance of the day, I was not alone in 
 bringing the matter to public attention. 
 
 I am asked to give you the history of " Flag Day," 
 which originated just thirty years ago. Thirty years 
 ago! How rapidly have the years sped away! What
 
 65 
 
 mighty changes have those thirty years wrought in the 
 world's history ! What changes in our own land ! Thirty 
 years ago the nation was in the first throes of a civil war. 
 I need not recount to you the events of that war ; they 
 are still fresh in the memory of every one in middle life. 
 I need only to recall to your recollection its early days. 
 You remember the secession of several States from the 
 Union ; the rejection of the Constitution of the Republic 
 and its authority by their inhabitants. You remember 
 how the Stars and Stripes were pulled down, cast aside, 
 and trodden in the dust as " a detested rag." You re- 
 member the beleaguered fortress in Charleston harbor, 
 and its nearly starving garrison. You remember that 
 dismal night and that eventful day, April 12, 1 861, when, 
 with the break of day, a shot was fired from a battery on 
 James Island on the flag on Fort Sumter. You remem- 
 ber the exciting days which followed ; the call to arms 
 by President Lincoln ; the rising of the people ; the rally- 
 ing of the troops for the defense of the Union ; the spon- 
 taneous and universal raising of flags. How from mast 
 and spire, from tower and turret, from private houses 
 and public buildings, the flag was flung to the breeze. 
 Never before in all its history had it been so displayed. 
 Banners were everywhere. 
 
 " Banners from balcony, banners from the steeple. 
 Banners from house to house, draping the people; 
 Banners upborne by all, men, women, and children. 
 Banners on hoi'ses' fronts, flashing, bewildering." 
 
 Indeed, with the revival of patriotism there seemed a 
 baptism of flags. In these exciting days the Union Army 
 gathered on the banks of the Potomac, and before the 
 end of May fifty thousand men were waiting and watch- 
 ing the foe which menaced Washington. Among the 
 soldiers from Connecticut was Joseph R. Hawley, to 
 whose patriotic address you have listened to-day. At the 
 outbreak of the rebellion he was the editor of the Hart- 
 ford Evening Press. On receiving the news of the Presi- 
 dent's call for troops, he dropped his pen, and leaving his 
 9
 
 66 
 
 paper in the hands of his friend and college classmate, 
 Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, he hastened to offer his ser- 
 vices to Governor Buckingham as the first volunteer from 
 Connecticut in defense of the flag and the Union. I was 
 wont, as were many others in those stirring times, to 
 visit the newspaper offices in quest of news. On one of 
 the early days of June, when in the office of the Press, 
 and in a conversation with Mr. Warner, it occurred to me 
 that the birthday anniversary of the flag was near. I 
 suggested to Mr. Warner the propriety of celebrating the 
 day by public demonstration. He at once fell in with the 
 idea. I said the flag and the Constitution were both on 
 trial, and it was the duty of every loyal man to sustain 
 them. Mr. Warner said he would write an article on the 
 subject, and he did so in an editorial in the Press of the 
 8th of June, in which he advocated the establishment of 
 the 14th day of June and the 17th day of September as 
 national holidays, the one to be known as " Flag Day," 
 the other as " Constitution Day." 
 
 We talked of the manner in which these days should 
 be celebrated. We said we would leave the snap of the 
 firecracker, the crack of the musket, the roar of cannon, 
 and all the noise and racket which characterizes the 
 Fourth of July to "Independence Day." Our "Flag Day" 
 should be quiet. It would come at a season of the year 
 when nature is rich in foliage and bloom, and when time 
 is most enjoyable for out-of-door pleasures, and so parties, 
 picnics, excursions should form part of the pleasures of 
 the day. It should be a day of banners and decorations, 
 but above and more beautiful than all should wave the 
 vStars and Stripes of the Union. We said we would deco- 
 rate our persons, our houses, and everything with flowers ; 
 that the world should bloom with beauty and be filled 
 with fragrance. We said we would crown youth and old 
 age with garlands, and every face should be radiant with 
 joy. We said that night should be aglow with the can- 
 dle, the rocket, and the gleam of the tinted lantern, and 
 then when the festive day was over, we would go to our
 
 67 
 
 rest amidst sweet slumbers and dreams of Arcadian days. 
 Such was our early idea of " Flag Day." Mr. Warner's 
 suggestion for the observance of the day was well taken 
 by the citizens of Hartford. There was a very general 
 display of flags and decorations, — the "red, white, and 
 blue " was displayed everywhere : from shops and houses ; 
 the dry goods stores vied with each other in their efforts 
 at decoration. Other cities and towns had their celebra- 
 tions also. 
 
 I do not know what was done here in Old Lebanon, 
 but I know that your neighbors in Columbia did celebrate 
 the day. The custom was kept up in more or less degree 
 for some time, but with the exception of the display of 
 flags there has been but little attempt to celebrate other- 
 wise. A year passed away, and by June, 1862, the flag 
 which had been deserted, pulled down, and disgraced in 
 several of the States was again raised in them, and the 
 authority of the Union partially restored. Early in this 
 month I wrote to Hon, Dwight Loomis, then a member 
 of Congress from this vState, asking him to introduce in 
 Congress a resolution for the observance of " Flag Day " 
 as a national holiday, to embrace " Constitution Day " 
 also. He readily complied with my request. I very 
 much regret that I am left to tell this story of Congres- 
 sional action. I hoped that Judge Loomis would have 
 remained to tell it himself, but on account of the lateness 
 of the hour he has been obliged to leave. Mr. Loomis 
 introduced the following joint resolution on the 12th of 
 June, and it was taken up in the order of business on 
 the 13th: 
 
 " Whereas, The Continental Congress, on the 14th day 
 of June, 1777, adopted the present flag of the United 
 States, and the convention for the formation of a 
 Constitution for the United States, on the 17th day 
 of September, 1787, adopted our present Constitu- 
 tion ; and whereas, that Constitution and flag, dear 
 to us as the organic law and symbol of the Union
 
 68 
 
 wtich our fathers established, and which we have so 
 long loved, have become more endeared to us by the 
 toils and sacrifices which we are at this day called 
 upon to undergo, and which we cheerfully accept, to 
 preserve our national existence and the union of 
 States ; and whereas we desire, by an annual com- 
 memoration, to express our affection for our Consti- 
 tution and flag, and to teach that affection to after 
 generations ; therefore, 
 
 " Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America, in Congress assembled. That 
 we recommend to the people of the United States to ob- 
 serve the 14th day of June and the 17th day of Septem- 
 ber in each year as national holidays — the first to be 
 known as Flag Day, and the latter as Constitution Day." 
 Speaking on this resolution, IMr. Loomis said he 
 offered it in good faith, believing that its adoption would 
 do good ; that it was worthy of the sanction of the 
 House, and would meet with hearty response from loyal 
 hearts throughout the land. If adopted, we should 
 have three patriotic days commemorative of three im- 
 portant events in our national history — Independence 
 Day, Flag Day, and Constitution Day — the first to com- 
 memorate the anniversary of our national independence ; 
 the second to commemorate the birthday of the national 
 flag, for it was on the 14th day of June that the Conti- 
 nental Congress passed the resolution creating the flag, 
 which resolution was : 
 
 " Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thir- 
 teen stripes, alternately red and white, and that the 
 Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, represent- 
 ing a new constellation." 
 
 The third holiday — the 1 7th of September — would 
 commemorate the adoption of the Constitution. These 
 holidays, Mr. Loomis said, would be none too many ; 
 that, indeed, we had too few. The days named were 
 worthy of commemoration. The glorious memories of 
 the past, and the contest for the preservation of the
 
 69 
 
 Union and Constitution united in rendering the days 
 doubly dear through all future time to the American 
 people. Mr, Looinis spoke with great eloquence and 
 earnestness, and as no one desired to speak on the sub- 
 ject, he called the previous question. One would have 
 supposed that the resolution, offered in good faith and 
 in such patriotic spirit, in a time when both flag and con- 
 stitution were undergoing the severest trial, would have 
 been received without cavil or ridicule ; that it would 
 have been welcomed as a stimulant to the cause of the 
 Union. How was it received? Mr. Thomas of Massa- 
 chusetts suggested that the celebration of the 17th of 
 September be funeral services of the Constitution ; Mr. 
 Hutchins of Ohio suggested that it be referred to the 
 Committee on Judiciary. Mr. Thomas suggested it be 
 referred to the special committee on the bankrupt law. 
 Mr. Mallory of Kentucky thought it ought to go to the 
 special cominittee on emancipation. Mr. E. B. Wash- 
 burne of Illinois was opposed to any more holidays, and 
 moved to lay the resolution on the table. The question 
 was taken, and there was, on a division : Ayes 67, noes 
 33. So the resolution was laid on the table. Such was 
 the temper of the House of Representatives, and such 
 was the fate of " Flag Day " in that Congress. They 
 thought it was a sentimental thing unworthy of the 
 notice and favor of practical men. Then they wanted 
 no more holidays. There was one holiday — the Fourth 
 of July — that was enough for the people. Only Con- 
 gress needs holidays. We know that the average Con- 
 gressman always takes a holiday for a fortnight at 
 Christmas, and then as much more just before election 
 to go home for the purpose of " mending his fences " — 
 that is a practical use of time ! There is no waste or 
 sentiment in that ! Well, those men in Congress who 
 were so opposed to sentiment and holidays are all gone ; 
 they have all passed away. They lived, however, to see 
 a little more of both. They lived to hear the chant and 
 song of the Union soldier in camp or on his march to
 
 70 
 
 the battlefield. They heard his shout of " We'll Rally 
 'round the Flag, Boys," and " Down with the Traitor 
 and up with the Stars." They lived to see him on his 
 homeward march, bearing aloft the dear old flags, torn, 
 bullet-riddled, and begrimed and scorched with the 
 smoke and fire of many battles — the battle flags. 
 
 " Nothing but flags, but simple flags, 
 Tattered and torn and hanging in rags ; 
 Baptized in blood, our purest, best, 
 Tattered and torn, they're now at rest." 
 
 They lived to see the Union restored, and its banner 
 waving in victory, and in the sunlight of peace, in the old 
 places from which it had been driven. They lived to 
 see the centennial of its natal day in 1877 celebrated 
 throughout the land, and they saw that all this was 
 something more than sentiment. There was a meaning 
 in it. It was sincerity, love, devotion, the expression of 
 true patriotism. They lived to see more holidays estab- 
 lished — to see the birthday of Washington commemo- 
 rated, on which we recount the deeds, the virtues, and 
 wisdom of the father of his country ; and Memorial Day 
 and Thanksgiving Day — our old New England festival 
 nationalized. And they lived to see Labor claiming 
 its day for recognition and rest. And Judge Loomis has 
 lived to see all this, and more. He has lived to see the 
 old flag flying, by official order, every day from every 
 public building, and from nearly every schoolhouse in 
 the land — an object lesson in childhood; an educa- 
 tional force in the school of patriotism. And he is here 
 to-day, to join in celebrating its birthday with the 
 sons of those who fought to sustain it at its birth, 
 and who followed it in victory through the Revolu- 
 tion. In connection with the celebration of the cen- 
 tennial of the flag in 1877, let me state that a dis- 
 tinguished editor in the Southwest, Hon. Henry Wat- 
 terson of Louisville, Kentucky, had on Memorial Day, 
 that year, in an address at Nashville, paid a beauti- 
 ful tribute to " the starry flag of the Republic." I
 
 71 
 
 wrote to him thanking him for the spirit of his address, 
 and suggested the observance of Flag Day that year, 
 and the making of the day a national holiday. He was 
 absent from home when my letter arrived, and did not 
 return until after the day had passed. On his return he 
 wrote me that he thought the suggestion an admirable 
 one. 
 
 The National Society of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution have authorized the commemoration of " Flag 
 Day " by the State societies, and here to old Lebanon the 
 Connecticut Society has come to celebrate the day. And 
 what more fitting place could they have chosen ? Leba- 
 non ! the home of patriots ; the home of the Trumbulls, 
 the Williams, the Clarks, and others. Lebanon ! where 
 so many plans were made and measures taken to carry 
 on the revolution. Lebanon ! soil trodden by Washing- 
 ton, Knox, and Trumbull ; by Lafayette, Rochambeau, 
 Tiernay, De Lauzun, and Chastellux, brave allies of the 
 American cause. 
 
 Here in the old War Office of Brother Jonathan they 
 held councils which led to victory. Here on the spot 
 where we are gathered, and on the broad field before 
 us, the golden lilies of France bloomed in beauty on 
 their white banners beside the stars and stripes of Amer- 
 ica. Surely no spot is more sacred to Liberty than this ! 
 There was no place in the whole land where the princi- 
 ples of the Revolution were better understood and main- 
 tained than here. 
 
 This whole section was filled with the spirit of lib- 
 erty. No two counties in the thirteen colonies did 
 more for the patriot cause than the counties of New 
 London and Windham. Certainly none furnished pro- 
 portionately more soldiers for the army. I have won- 
 dered, Mr. President, why this was so, but when I re- 
 member the fact that the early settlers here were those, 
 and the descendants of those, who in the old Bay 
 opposed the oppressive measures of Charles I, and James 
 II, I no longer wonder. Here, too, came men from the
 
 72 
 
 Old Colony, — the Brewsters, the Bradf ords, the Robin- 
 sons, the Hinckleys, and the Bartletts. The seed of the 
 Mayfloivcr was widely scattered here, and at the out- 
 break of the Revolution the compact signed in its cabin 
 had not been forgotten. Then other influences were 
 instrumental in the formation of the patriotic spirit. 
 The clergymen of this section were all imbued with it. 
 Here in Lebanon was Rev. Solomon Williams, father 
 of the signer of the Declaration, and Thomas Brockway ; 
 in Norwich was Joseph Strong and Benjamin Lord ; in 
 Griswold, Levi Hart ; in Woodstock, Abial Leonard ; in 
 Stonington, Nathaniel Ells; and down in Lyme, Rev. 
 Stephen Johnson, the " incomparable " Stephen Johnson, 
 whose pen was so prolific and powerful in the patriotic 
 cause. 
 
 Then there were the two newspapers, — The New Lon- 
 don Gazette, published by the fearless Timothy Greene, 
 who dared to face the stamp act by issuing his paper 
 unstamped ; and the Norwich Packet, under John Trum- 
 bull, who sent away his Tory partners to New York to 
 find more congenial society. All these contributed to- 
 wards moulding public opinion ; so, under these influ- 
 ences, there was not room for Tories to flourish, and 
 there was not very much trouble with them. In 
 fact there were only two or. three of any note. Rev. Sam 
 Peters, up in Hebron, was the most bitter and spiteful 
 of them ; but the Sons of Liberty took care of him. 
 Rev. Mather Byles, in New London, didn't make 
 much trouble, nor did Colonel Godfrey Malborne, up in 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 But I have digressed. Well, our dream of " Flag 
 Day " has not been realized in all its features. We 
 were not as correct in our prophecy as was John Adams 
 of Independence Day! Time has changed our pro- 
 gramme. Another day has come into our calendar. If 
 we have failed to weave garlands for youth and old age 
 on " Flag Day," on "Memorial Day "we decorate with 
 flowers and wreaths the graves of the fallen brave —
 
 73 
 
 fallen in defense of the flag-. This is now the duty of 
 the living, and will be after the last veteran of the civil 
 war shall have gone to his rest. 
 
 We need all these national holidays — never so much 
 as now. We are absorbing into our social and political 
 system hordes from other lands whom we must instruct 
 and educate in the principles and institutions of our 
 country, if we wish to preserve them ; and we must con- 
 tinually refresh our studies of them ourselves. If " eter- 
 nal vigilance is the price of liberty," that vigilance must 
 be stimulated by the memories of the past. For the love 
 of our country, we must forsake the pursuit of pleasure 
 and wealth, and devote ourselves to duties of patriotism. 
 As citizens, we can make no better use of time. 
 
 And the flag! In what better way can we tell its 
 story. We hardly know its early history ; the theories 
 in regard to it are hardly tenable. Only the poet has 
 divined its origin : 
 
 " When Freedom from her mountain height, 
 
 Unfurled her standard to the air, 
 She tore the azure robe of night 
 
 And set the stars of glory there. 
 She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
 
 The milky baldric of the skies ; 
 And striped its pure celestial white, 
 
 With streakings of the morning light. 
 Then from his mansion in the sun 
 
 She called her eagle-bearer down, 
 And gave into his mighty hand 
 
 The symbol of her chosen land." 
 
 We may well believe its bright stars were a gift from 
 the constellations ; its stripes from the rays of the morn- 
 ing, sent to herald and lighten the day of liberty to the 
 world. 
 
 The old flag ! It is something more than a harmoni- 
 ous arrangement of beautiful colors. It means some- 
 thing. It represents .something. It is indeed the signal 
 of liberty. Its bright stripes bear the record of a pro- 
 test against tyranny and oppression. It enfolds the his- 
 
 lO
 
 74 
 
 tory of coiivStitntional liberty and free government. 
 Henceforth its birthday will be remembered as the years 
 come around. The dear old flag ! Glorious as has 
 been its past, its future shall be more glorious still. 
 Brighter and brighter shall its stars shine, and more and 
 more brilliant shall its stripes glow. Over broader lands 
 and wider seas and on greater heights shall its glory 
 spread and its victories be won. 
 
 The President : This occasion would not be complete 
 if we should fail to hear the voice of a well-known and 
 well-beloved son of Lebanon, the brother of the second 
 war-governor whom this honored town has furnished to 
 our State and country. I have the pleasure and honor 
 to inform the audience that the Rev. Dr. Samuel G. 
 Buckingham has kindly consented to address us. 
 
 DR. BUCKINGHAM'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. President and People of Connecticut : 
 
 I am not, I suppose, one of the Sons of the Revolu- 
 tion, but I claim to be a true and loyal son of Connecticut. 
 Though I have spent all my professional life in Massa- 
 chusetts, and cherish the profoundest respect for her in- 
 stitutions and people, still I was born and trained here. 
 Our ancestor was one of the original settlers of the New 
 Haven Colony, and one of his sons bore a leading part 
 in the organization of your churches and in the founding 
 and rectorship of Yale College. And familiar as I am 
 with your achievements, is it strange that I honor and 
 love my native State ? Especially since you selected my 
 brother to be your Governor, when the war for the Union 
 was coming on, and so nobly sustained him and the 
 Union until all opposition to it was put down, and slav- 
 ery, the cause of all our dissensions, was forever removed, 
 do you wonder that my heart turns admiringly and grate- 
 fully to you, and always will under whatever skies I may 
 chance to find myself? Since the State put $2,000,000 at
 
 75 
 
 his disposal at the outset of the war for the purposes of 
 the war, and at his suggestion loaned the credit of the 
 State to the General Government to sustain its credit, 
 and furnished soldiers at his call till every quota called 
 for was supplied without ever submitting to a draft, and 
 when you withheld not your noblest sons from the sacri- 
 fices of war, and so many of them went forth never to 
 return, — can one brought up among them, with their 
 principles in his heart, if not their blood in his veins, fail 
 to admire them and the State that trained them to be 
 such patriots? 
 
 God's best gift to Lebanon zvas its first settlers. Captain 
 Joseph Trumbull, the first of the name here, and the 
 founder of the Lebanon branch of the family, settled here 
 in 1704, just after the town was organized. He was a 
 farmer and a merchant, and subsequently engaged, with 
 his sons, in foreign commerce, building vessels of their 
 own on the Thames and the Connecticut, and exchanging 
 their exports for imports from the West Indies, England, 
 and Holland. He had eight children, four sons and four 
 daughters, of whom his oldest son, Joseph, his partner 
 in business and supercargo of one of their ships, was lost 
 at sea, and David, the youngest, was drowned in the mill- 
 pond at home on his college vacation. Jonathan, the 
 " War Governor," had just graduated from college and 
 finished his preparation for the ministry, and was to have 
 been settled in Colchester, when his brother was lost at 
 sea, and he felt constrained to abandon the ministry and 
 go to the assistance of his father. Here he acquired that 
 business knowledge and ability which proved so valuable 
 when he came to administer the affairs of the State and 
 succor Washington and his army in their extremity. No 
 wonder General Washington looked to him with hope 
 when he could find help nowhere else, saying, " Let us 
 see what Brother Jonathan can do for us " ; and little 
 wonder that he found it when the State responded with 
 such contributions and sacrifices to the appeals of their 
 heroic Governor.
 
 76 
 
 The Governor's own family was as follows : 
 
 Joseph, born March, 1737, was Commissary-General 
 of Washington's army. 
 
 Jonathan, Jr., born ]\Iarch 26, 1740, was Paymaster 
 in Washington's army, and afterwards Governor of the 
 State. 
 
 Faith, born Jan. 25, 1743, married Gen. Jedediah 
 Huntington, of the Revolutionary army. 
 
 Mary, born July 16, 1745, married William Williams, 
 " signer of the Declaration of Independence." 
 
 David, bom Feb. 5, 1751, was Assistant Commis- 
 sary, etc., and father of Governor Joseph. 
 
 John, born June 6, 1756, was Aid-de-Camp to Wash- 
 ton, and the renowned painter. 
 
 To say that this whole family filled so many high 
 positions with distinguished ability and fidelity ; that the 
 father filled every civil and judicial office of the State, 
 from one of the deputies of the town to the General 
 Court, to the speakership of the House of Representa- 
 tives, and from Judge of Probate to the office of the 
 Chief Justice of the Superior and Supreme Courts, before 
 he became Governor ; that the sons all filled their mili- 
 tary offices with honor, and especially in departments 
 which required the highest financial integrity and ability, 
 and when the youngest showed such peculiar aptitude 
 for the military profession, and yet turned away from it 
 to become the historical painter of his country, and make 
 the panels of the Capitol at Washington the memorial 
 of his genius ; and that the daughters each adorned her 
 sphere with equal grace and patriotism ; and, to vSay no 
 more, is honor enough for one household. 
 
 Add to this the Williams family, that married into 
 the Trumbull family. Rev. Solomon Williams, D.D., 
 who was for fifty-four years the pastor here, belonged to 
 the family of those who suffered the barbarities of cap- 
 tivity that attended the burning of Dcerfield by the 
 Indians in 1 704. One of his sons, Eliphalet, was pastor 
 of the church in East Hartford some fifty years, and
 
 17 
 
 another, Ezekiel, was for thirty years high sheriff of 
 Hartford county, and he the father of one of the Chief 
 Justices of Connecticut. Dr. Williams might well have 
 been the father of one of the signers of the Declaration 
 of Independence, judging from the jubilant sermon he 
 preached on the surrender of Quebec in 1759, when a 
 general thanksgiving was observed, and he so well 
 appreciated the importance of it, regarding " the con- 
 quest of Quebec, the capital of Canada, as of more im- 
 portance than has ever been made by the English since 
 England was a nation." His son William, — usually 
 styled Colonel William Williams — the one who immor- 
 talized himself by signing that Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, graduated at Harvard College and studied for 
 the ministry with his father, but joined the English and 
 Continental forces in the old French war, on the staff of 
 his cousin, Colonel Ephraim Williams, who fell in that 
 campaign. Of ardent temperament, beautiful in person, 
 eloquent of speech, and capable of inspiring others with 
 his own convictions and patriotism, he went over the State 
 arousing the people to their danger and their duty, while 
 his brother-in-law, David Trumbull, was buying up 
 all the pork in the State, and collecting gunpowder and 
 clothing from every quarter, to enable our poor army to 
 keep the field. The man who would risk his life to 
 secure our independence, and impoverished himself to 
 maintain the cause, might well be regarded as the 
 apostle of Liberty, and the most efficient supporter of the 
 patriotic Governor. When the outlook was darkest, and 
 one of the Council of Safety expressed the hope that we 
 might yet be successful, he replied : " If we fail, I know 
 what my fate will be. I have done much to prosecute 
 the war, and one thing which the British will never par- 
 don, I have signed the Declaration of Independence. 
 I shall be himsi ! "' "Well," said another member of the 
 Council, " if we fail, I don't know that I could be hung. 
 For my name is not attached to that Declaration, nor 
 have I written anything against the British govern-
 
 7S 
 
 ment." " Then," said Williams, "jwe ovgJit to be Imng for 
 not doing yonr dnty^ As has been said of him : " With 
 tongue, pen, and estate he gave himself to the cause of 
 the colonies. During the gloomy winter of i 'j'j'j he sent 
 beef, cattle, and gold to Valley Forge, saying, ' If inde- 
 pendence shall be established, I shall get my pay ; if not, 
 the loss will be of no account to me.' " 
 
 Another of those families was the Mason family, not 
 only distinguished by their natural characteristics and 
 practical ability, but by their high descent. They were 
 the descendants of Major John Mason, of Pequot fame, 
 and the first proprietor of land within the limits of the 
 town. The Colony gave him for his services five hun- 
 dred acres of land, and much more was purchased of the 
 Indians, until he was the chief proprietor of the whole 
 township. Fifty years ago, three of his descendants, two 
 sons and a daughter, with large families, were influential 
 people in the town, and not only noted for their noble 
 personal appearance, but as well for their business ability 
 and public spirit. Another of them was Jeremiah 
 Mason, the famous Massachusetts lawyer, and contem- 
 porary of Mr. Webster, who paid such a beautiful tribute 
 before the Boston bar to his abilities and worth. But the 
 most remarkable characteristic of this family was — as 
 has been shown in Chancellor Walworth's " Genealogy 
 of the Hyde Family" (Vol. II, page 926) — that they 
 were descended from William the Conqueror, from the 
 Plantagenets of England, Matilda of Scotland, Louis the 
 Fair of France, and from Charlemagne, the great 
 Emperor of the West, and with blue blood enough in 
 their veins to stock a kingdom. 
 
 Such were some of the people who had the early 
 guidance of affairs and the shaping of public sentiment 
 in this New England town. And such were some of the 
 moulding influences which made the State what it was 
 and shaped our general government ; and wherever they 
 have been carried by emigration, must have been a
 
 79 
 
 blessing, as they have been here.* The vsprings where 
 mountain streams take their rise, and flow down through 
 fertile plains, and alongside of wealthy cities, to enrich 
 the commerce of the world, and bless its countless inhab- 
 itants, are interesting spots to visit, and suggestive of 
 what smaller towns may have done for the world and are 
 likely to do in the future. 
 
 The list of Governors which this town has furnished 
 to the State is certainly remarkable, both in number and 
 character, especially considering its population and bus- 
 iness. Entirely an agricultural town, with never more 
 than three (3,000) thousand inhabitants, it has filled the 
 chair of State with such men as these, and for such 
 terms of office: 
 
 Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., - 1769 to 1784. 
 
 Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., - 1798 to 1809. 
 
 Clark Bissell, - - - 1847 to 1849. 
 
 Joseph Trumbull, - - 1849 to 1850. 
 
 William A. Buckingham, - 1858 to 1866. 
 
 Here are five Governors from the same town, holding 
 the office by annual election for one-third of a century, 
 and filling the office with becoming dignity and distin- 
 guished usefulness. We do not wonder at the pleasant 
 boast of the people of the town : — " We supply Norwich 
 with butter and cheese, a)id the State luith Governors, espe- 
 cially when they zv ant good ones.'' 
 
 * When I was a boy, emigration from this town was going on to 
 " 'hio," — Ohio — " Genisee cotmty," in and about Rochester, N. Y., and " up 
 county," which meant Vermont. Dartmouth College, under Pres. Whee- 
 lock, then " Moore's Charity School " for the education of Indian youth, had 
 been taken up almost bodily and transported from Columbia, then a part of 
 this town, to Hanover, N. H., just across the river. And so many of the 
 settlers went with it from this vicinity that twenty or more of the neighbor- 
 ing towns in Vermont bear the names of Connecticut towns from which the 
 settlers came. Indeed, the State had so much of this settlement in it that it 
 was named " New Connecticut," and the name was only changed because 
 there were other settlements of similar origin taking the same name — like 
 the " New Connecticut " in the Susquehanna Valley, and the " New Connec- 
 ticut " of Northern Ohio, both of which distinctly show the characteristics of 
 their origin.
 
 80 
 
 The Trumbull Tomb, where so many of the family 
 and their kindred sleep, is an object of peculiar interest. 
 As has been said : " Within this family mausoleum rest 
 the sacred ashes of more of the illustrious dead than in 
 any other in the State, or perhaps the country. Here rest 
 the remains of that eminently great and good Jonathan 
 Trumbull, Sr., the bosom friend and most trusted coun- 
 sellor of Washington ; of his good wife, Faith Robinson ; 
 of his eldest son, Joseph, the first Commissary-General of 
 the army under Washington ; of his second son, Jona- 
 than, Jr., Paymaster-General of the same army, private 
 secretary, and first Aid-de-Camp to General Washington, 
 and afterward Speaker of the United States House of 
 Representatives, member of the United States Senate, 
 and Governor of this State ; and by his side his good 
 wife, Eunice Backus; of his third son, David, Commis- 
 sary of this Colony in the Revolution, and Assistant- 
 Commissary-General under his brother in the army of 
 Washington, and by his side his good wife, Sarah 
 Backus ; of his second daughter, Mary, and by her side 
 her illustrious husband, William Williams, one of the 
 signers of the immortal Declaration of Independence, — 
 and many others who have from these descended. What 
 a tomb is here ! What a shrine for patriotic devotion ! " 
 — [Rev. Mr. Hine's " Early Lebanon."] 
 
 As I have stood before that tomb with my brother, I 
 can think of nothing so likely to have inspired him with 
 his patriotism as this. Sure I am, that next to his duty 
 to God, no stronger motive influenced him than the 
 desire to be to his State and country somewhat such as 
 Trumbull was in the War of the Revolution. And the 
 heroic statue to his memory, which you have set up in 
 your State Capitol, like the one erected to the honor of 
 his predecessor in the National Capitol, will carry down 
 their names together to posterity, — the one as " the War 
 Governor of the Revolution,'' and the other as " tJie War 
 Governor of t lie Rebellion^ 
 
 It is the memory of such spotless and noble charac-
 
 ters ; the places where they were born, and lie sleeping ; 
 the associations of their early lives, and the scenes of 
 their active usefulness, which serve to influence and en- 
 noble us. And it is to revive and deepen such impres- 
 sions and transmit them to others that we gather in this 
 old historic town, and set apart, with appropriate vSer- 
 vices, Governor Trumbull's War Office to such uses. It is 
 only a plain wooden building, built by the Governor for 
 a store, but where most of the twelve hundred sessions 
 of the Council of Safety were held during the war. 
 Here is where Washington and so many of the leading 
 men of the times came to consult him, and where some 
 of the important expeditions of the war were planned. 
 It is generally understood that the meeting here of so 
 many of the commanders of the French land forces and 
 the officers of their navy with our own statesmen and 
 commanders had reference to the combined expedition 
 against Yorktown, which terminated the war, though the 
 final determination might have been reached at " the 
 Webb Tavern " in Wethersfield — a humble building, 
 but ennobled by the great men who gathered there, the 
 noble plans projected there, the great achievements 
 carried out to their sublime results from such a place. 
 It is the glory which sunshine gives to a humble flower ; 
 the glory of modest worth and faithful usefulness ; the 
 glory somewhat which Heaven sheds over a sainted 
 
 soul : — 
 
 " Sacred the robe, the faded glove, 
 Once worn by one we used to love ; 
 Dead warriors in their armor live, 
 And in their relics saints survive." 
 
 As we have thus re-read this chapter of your history, 
 we have been more than ever impressed with the in- 
 fluence of individual characters and families and noble 
 deeds upon a town, a State, the country. It is men and 
 women that make history, and it is history, in turn, that 
 makes them of coming generations ; it is parents who 
 transmit their own characteristics ; it is the family that
 
 82 
 
 moulds the children; it is such characters and such 
 families which are the wealth of the nation ; it is their 
 principles and achievements which are the cherished 
 treasures of our State and of the country. And so we 
 reckon them among God's best gifts to any community. 
 But for these how changed would our condition be, and 
 how different our history ? If our old Puritan Governor 
 had been no more patriotic than the rest of them ; if 
 his son-in-law had not affixed his signature to that im- 
 mortal declaration ; if his sons, in the commissary de- 
 partment of the army, had not been so efficient and in- 
 corruptible in the management of its affairs ; if France 
 had not sent Lafayette and her army and her navy to 
 our assistance ; if the last expedition of the war had not 
 been planned in that old War Office — how changed 
 would have been the result! And we are grateful to 
 God — supremely grateful — for such a result. His 
 Providence settled the town with such families, and 
 trained such characters. The same good Providence 
 gave us the sympathy and aid of the French nation. 
 And the God of battles gave us the final victory. We 
 bow with reverent and grateful hearts before this God 
 of our fathers ; and He shall be our God, as well as 
 theirs, forever and ever. 
 
 At the conclusion of Dr. Buckingham's address, the 
 benediction was pronounced by the Rev. S. Dryden 
 Phelps, chaplain of the New Haven branch of the 
 vSociety. 
 
 The audience then gradually dispersed in various di- 
 rections, the band ^\a.y'v!ig Auld Lang Syne as its closing 
 piece.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The proclamation to which Dr. Bacon refers in his 
 address is here given in full : — 
 
 " By the Honorable Jonathan Trumbull Esq Gover- 
 nor and Commander-in-chief of the English Colony 
 of Connecticut in New England. 
 
 "A PROCLAMATION 
 
 " The Race of Mankind was made in a State of In- 
 nocence and Freedom subjected only to the Laws of God 
 the Creator, and through his rich Goodness, designed for 
 virtuous liberty and Happiness, here and forever ; and 
 when moral Evil was introduced into the World, and 
 Man had corrupted his Ways before God, Vice and 
 Iniquity came in like a Flood and Mankind became ex- 
 posed, and a prey to the Violence, Injustice and Oppres- 
 sion of one another. God in great Mercy inclined his 
 People to form themselves into Society, and to set up 
 and establish civil Government for the Protection and 
 security of their Lives and Properties from the Invasion 
 of wicked men. But through Pride and ambition, the 
 Kings and Princes of the World appointed by the Peo- 
 ple the Guardians of their Lives and Liberties, early and 
 almost universally degenerated into Tyrants, and by 
 Fraud or Force betrayed and wrested out of their hands 
 the very Rights and Properties they were appointed to 
 protect and defend. But a small part of the Human 
 Race maintained and enjoyed any tolerable Degree of 
 Freedom. Among those happy few, the nation of Great 
 Britain was distinguished by a Constitution of Govern- 
 ment wisely framed and modelled to support the Dignity
 
 84 
 
 and Power of the Prince, for the protection of the 
 Rights of the People, and under which that Country in 
 long succession enjoyed great Tranquillity and Peace, 
 though not unattended with repeated and powerful 
 efforts, by many of its haughty Kings, to destroy the 
 Constitutional Rights of the People, and establish arbi- 
 trary Power and Dominion. In one of those convulsive 
 struggles our Forefathers, having suffered in that their 
 native Country great and variety of Injustice and Op- 
 pression, left their dear Connections and Enjoyments, 
 and fled to this then inhospitable land to secure a lasting 
 retreat from civil and religious Tyranny. 
 
 " The God of Heaven favored and prospered this 
 Undertaking — made room for their settlement — in- 
 creased and multiplied them to a very numerous People 
 and inclined succeeding Kings to indulge them and 
 their children for many years the unmolested Enjoyment 
 of the Freedom and Liberty they lied to inherit. But 
 an unnatural King has risen up — violated his sacred 
 Obligations and by the Advice of Evil Counsellors at- 
 tempted to wrest from us, their children the Sacred 
 Rights we justly claim and which have been ratified and 
 established by solemn Compact with, and recognized by 
 his Predecessors and Fathers, Kings of Great Britain — 
 laid upon us Burdens too heavy and grievous to be 
 borne and issued many cruel and oppressive Edicts, de- 
 priving us of our natural, lawful and most important 
 Rights, and subjecting us to the absolute Power and Con- 
 troul of himself and the British Legislature ; against 
 which we have sought Relief, by humble, earnest and 
 dutiful Complaints and Petitions : But, instead of ob- 
 taining Redress our Petitions have been treated with 
 vScorn and Contempt, and fresh Injuries heaped upon us 
 while hostile armies and ships are sent to lay waste our 
 Country. In this distressing Dilemma, having no Alter- 
 native but absolute Slavery or successful Resistance, this, 
 and the United American Colonies have been constrained 
 by the overruling laws of Self Preservation to take up
 
 85 
 
 Arms for the Defence of all that is sacred and dear to 
 Freemen, and make this solemn Appeal to Heaven 
 for the Justice of their Cause, and resist Force by- 
 Force. 
 
 " God Almighty has been pleased of his infinite 
 Mercy to succeed our Attempts, and give us many In- 
 stances of signal Success and Deliverance. But the 
 wrath of the King is still increasing, and not content 
 with before employing all the Force which can be sent 
 from his own Kingdom to execute his cruel Purposes, has 
 procured, and is sending all the Mercenaries he can 
 obtain from foreign countries to assist in extirpating the 
 Rights of America, and with theirs almost all the liberty 
 remaining among Mankind. 
 
 " In this most critical and alarming situation, this and 
 all the Colonies are called upon and earnestly pressed by 
 the Honorable Congress of the American Colonies united 
 for mutual defence, to raise a large additional number of 
 their militia and able men to be furnished and equipped 
 with all possible Expedition for defence against the soon 
 expected attack and. invasion of those who are our Ene- 
 mies without a Cause. In cheerful compliance with 
 which request and urged by Motives the most cogent 
 and important that can affect the human Alind, the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of this Colony have freely and unanimously 
 agreed and resolved, that upwards of Seven Thousand 
 able and effective Men be immediately raised, furnished 
 and equipped for the great and interesting Purposes 
 aforesaid. And not desirous that any should go to a 
 warfare at their own charges (though equally interested 
 with others) for defence of the great and all-important 
 Cause in which we are engaged, have granted large and 
 liberal Pay and Encouragements to all who shall volun- 
 tarily undertake for the Defence of themselves and their 
 country as by their acts may appear, I do therefore by and 
 with the advice of the Counsel, and at the desire of the 
 Representatives in General Court assembled, issue this 
 Proclamation, and make the solemn Appeal to the Vir-
 
 86 
 
 tue and public Spirit of the good People of this Colony. 
 Affairs are hastening fast to a Crisis, and the approaching 
 Campaign will in all Probability determine forever the 
 fate of America. If this should be successful on our 
 side, there is little to fear on account of any other. Be 
 exhorted to rise therefore to superior exertions on this 
 great Occasion, and let all that are able and necessary 
 show themselves ready in Behalf of their injured and op- 
 pressed Country, and come forth to the help of the Lord 
 against the Mighty, and convince the unrelenting Tyrant 
 of Britain that they are resolved to be Free. Let them 
 step forth to defend their Wives, their little Ones, their 
 Liberty, and everything they hold sacred and dear, to de- 
 fend the Cause of their Country, their Religion, and their 
 God. Let every one to the utmost of their Power lend a 
 helping Hand, to promote and forward a design on which 
 the salvation of America now evidently depends. Nor 
 need any be dismayed : the Cause is certainly a just and 
 a glorious one : God is able to save us in such way and 
 manner as he pleases and to humble our proud Oppres- 
 sors. The Cause is that of Truth and Justice; he has 
 already shown his Power in our Behalf, and for the De- 
 struction of many of our Enemies. Our Fathers trusted 
 in him and tvere delivered. Let us all repent and thor- 
 oughly amend our Ways and turn to him, put all our 
 Trust and Confidence in him — in his Name go forth, 
 and in his Name set up our Banners, and he will save us 
 with temporal and eternal salvation. And while our 
 Armies are abroad jeoparding their lives in the high 
 Places of the Field, let all who remain at Home, cry 
 mightily to God for the Protection of his Providence to 
 shield and defend their lives from Death, and to crown 
 them with victory and success. And in the Name of the 
 said General Assembly I do hereby earnestly recommend 
 it to all, both Ministers and People frequently to meet 
 together for social prayer to Almighty God for the out- 
 pouring of his blessed vSpirit upon this guilty land — That 
 he would awaken his People to Righteousness and Re-
 
 87 
 
 pentance, bless our Councils, prosper our Arms and suc- 
 ceed the Measures using for our necessary self defence — 
 disappoint the evil and cruel Devices of our Enemies — 
 preserve our precious Rights and Liberties, lengthen out 
 our Tranquility, and make us a People of his Praise, and 
 the blessed of the Lord, as long as the Sun and Moon 
 shall endure. 
 
 " And all the Ministers of the Gospel in this Colony, 
 are directed and desired, to publish this Proclamation in 
 their several churches and congregations, and to enforce 
 the Exhortations thereof, by their own pious Example 
 and public instructions. 
 
 " Given under my Hand at the Council Chamber in Hart- 
 ford, the 1 8th day of June Anno Domini 1776. 
 
 "Jonathan Trumbull." 
 
 Regarding this proclamation. Dr. Charles J. Hoadly, 
 in an unpublished letter, writes as follows : 
 
 "In May, 1776, the convention of Virginia passed 
 certain resolutions instructing their delegates in Con- 
 gress to propose to that respectable body to declare the 
 United American Colonies Free and Independent States, 
 and ordered copies to be communicated to each of the 
 other Colonies. There was a special session of the Con- 
 necticut General Assembly held June 14-21, 1776. With 
 other papers, the Virginia resolves w^ere laid before it. 
 On the forenoon of the 15th, a joint committee was 
 raised to consider the expediency of instructing our dele- 
 gates in Congress to declare the United Colonies inde- 
 pendent States. This committee reported a preamble 
 and resolves very closely echoing those of Virginia, 
 which passed unanimously. The proclamation by Gov. 
 Trumbull was dated the 1 8th. It is probable that it had 
 passed both Houses like a bill — at least, that would 
 have been the usual course then." 
 
 This proclamation is also mentioned in the diary of 
 Major French in Vol. I of the Collections of the Connecti- 
 cut Historical Society.
 
 88 
 
 Regarding- the Tnimbiill papers in possession of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, the following items are 
 of interest : 
 
 At its May Session of 1771, the General Assembly of 
 Connecticut passed the following resolution : 
 
 " That his Honor the Governor be desired to collect 
 all the publick letters and papers which may hereafter in 
 any way affect the interest of this Colony, and have the 
 same bound together that they may be preserved." 
 {Colonial Records of Cofiitecticiit, Vol. X 11 I, page ^2.^.) 
 
 In a foot note referring to this resolution. Dr. Charles 
 J. Hoadly, the editor, says : 
 
 " Of the papers collected by Governor Trumbull 
 under this resolution, his son David in 1794 presented to 
 the ]Slassachusetts Historical Society a great number, 
 which are now in the possession of that society, known 
 as the Trunibull Papers, and bound in thirty volumes. 
 Another volume, containing papers of an earlier date 
 than 1 75 1, was destroyed by a fire in 1825. Some of 
 these papers have been published in various volumes of 
 the society's Collections; the recently printed Vol. IX 
 of the fourth series consists entirely of the so-called 
 Trumbull Papers. 
 
 "Pursuant to a resolve of the May session, 1845, a 
 claim was made to these papers as belonging to the 
 archives of Connecticut. Some of the correspondence on 
 the subject may be seen in Vol. II of the Proceedings of 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society. The demand was not 
 acknowledged by the society, on the ground that, in their 
 opinion, the papers were the private property of Gov. 
 Trumbull, and that his heirs had the right to dispose of 
 them at their pleasure. 
 
 " Of the volume lately printed, above referred to, 
 pages 213-490 contain letters of William vSamuel Johnson 
 to the Governors of Connecticut during his agency 
 in England, 1766-71. The book from which these were 
 taken is described in the prefatory editorial note to the 
 volume of Collections, page x, as being already bound
 
 89 
 
 when it came into the society's possession. In our 
 archives, Finance a)id Currency, v. doc. 82 a, is Gov. Trum- 
 bull's account of conting^ent expenses rendered in 1774, 
 one item in which is ]\Ir. Green's charge of 5s. 6d. 
 'for binding Dr. Johnson's Letters.' " 
 
 This note of Dr. Hoadly was printed in 1885. Since 
 then, in 1888, another volume of the " Trumbull Papers'' 
 has been published by the Massachusetts Historical Society 
 in Vol. X, fifth series, containing, mainly, " Truinhull and 
 Wash ington Letters. 
 
 A well-authenticated story of the wife of David 
 Trumbull forms one of the many illustrations of the 
 patriotic spirit of the women of the Revolution, and 
 seems worthy of a place in this connection. 
 
 In the winter of 1780-81, at a time when Lauzun's 
 French Legion was on the march for its quarters in 
 Lebanon, the question of providing accommodations for 
 the officers became a serious one. Accustomed to every 
 luxury at home, they were expected to need the most 
 luxurious quarters which Lebanon could afford. As the 
 time for their arrival drew near, the question was still 
 agitating the plain people of Lebanon. But one house 
 in the town boasted a carpet, used as an ornament, with 
 an ample border of bare floor for the family to tread 
 upon to save the wear of the carpet, which rare decora- 
 tion was in a large room in the house of the Governor's 
 son, David, who had then been married scarcely three 
 years to Sarah Backus of Norwich, who was just a year 
 his junior. 
 
 In the emergency just mentioned, the Governor asked 
 his son, David, if he would give up his house to the 
 French officers, — Rochambeau, the Baron de Stael, the 
 Duke de Lauzun, and others, Lafayette being also ex- 
 pected as an occasional visitor. To this, the son very 
 properly replied that he must consult Mrs. Trumbull, 
 which he proceeded at once to do. To the question, 
 " Will you allow me to take you to your mother's house
 
 90 
 
 at Norwich, and give up our house to the French offi- 
 cers ? " Mrs. Trumbull promptly replied. "Certainly." 
 She was informed that the troops were already on the 
 march, and was asked when she would be ready for her 
 journey. " In just one hour," was the prompt reply ; 
 and at the appointed time, with her infant daughter, 
 fifteen months old, leaving everything in the way of 
 comforts in her house, this patriotic lady set out for her 
 drive of twelve miles on a cold December day. On the 
 second day of the following January, her second daugh- 
 ter, Abigail, was born at Norwich. 
 
 During the following April, while Lafayette was at 
 Lebanon, Mrs. Trumbull paid a visit to her home. La- 
 fayette requested that he might see the " patriotic 
 lady " and her " patriotic baby." He met them at the 
 door of their own house, and taking the baby in his arms 
 kissed it tenderly and handed it about to the other offi- 
 cers. A portion of a brocade dress which ]\Irs. Trumbull 
 wore on this occasion is still preserved as a family heir- 
 loom. 
 
 Although the story of the contribution of a cloak by 
 her mother-in-law. Faith Trumbull, may be more thrill- 
 ing on account of the dramatic situation at the time, the 
 actual sacrifice of the daughter-in-law to the cause will 
 certainly bear comparison. 
 
 The following editorial comments from the Hartford 
 Coiirant of June i6, 1891, form a just and fitting tribute 
 to the occasion, and to the town and people of Lebanon : 
 
 " Lebanon's Great Celebration. 
 
 " It was a great day for Lebanon, Monday, and a 
 good one for Connecticut, too. Every day is good that 
 tends to revive and quicken the local pride of our Con- 
 necticut towns, and surely that must have resulted from 
 Monday's celebration in Lebanon. This old town has 
 furnished governors for the State through thirty-six of
 
 91 
 
 our one hundred and fifteen years of statehood. There 
 was old Brother Jonathan's headquarters, and in that 
 central and thriving community, right on the highway 
 to Boston, a vast amount of the work was done that 
 brought the Revolutionary war to its successful issue. 
 
 " All this picture of the past was vividly recalled, 
 Monday, both by the occasion and the admirable 
 speeches, and all who were present had their patriot- 
 ism profoundly stirred. Lebanon has become a ' back 
 town.' It is on the same road as of old, but that is no 
 longer the great highway to Boston. The town is still 
 given to agriculture ; and farming, they tell us, is played 
 out, and the soil of Connecticut is being worked by those 
 who are strangers to it. 
 
 " The town of Lebanon furnished its own answer, 
 Monday, to these charges. The farming people were 
 there, and they were a genuine American crowd — sober, 
 interested, orderly, intelligent, the strength of the State. 
 To say that the back towns are degenerating when such 
 people make up the bulk of their population is to ignore 
 facts. Brother Jonathan himself, great man as he was 
 in many ways, would have found himself at home and 
 at his ease could he have visited Lebanon, Monday, and, 
 while the material changes might have seemed strange 
 to him, the people would have been of the sort he knew 
 and trusted."
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abell, Charles J., 21. 
 
 Abell, Mrs. Myron, 22. 
 
 Adams, John, 33. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 33, 49. 
 
 Adams, 54. 
 
 Almy, Dr. Leonard B., 20. 
 
 Andrews, President E. B., 61. 
 
 Arnold, 50, 53. 
 
 Arnoux, Hon. William H., 61. 
 
 Avery, David, 36. 
 
 Avery, Deacon John D., 36. 
 
 Aver}', John H., 22, 23. 
 
 Avery, Mrs. W. B., 23. 
 
 Backus, Eunice, 80. 
 
 Backus, Sarah, 80, 89. 
 
 Bacon, Rev. Dr. Leonard, 44. 
 
 Bacon, Rev. Dr. Leonard W., 
 
 42, 43. 83- 
 Ball, George Washington, 61. 
 Barker, Mrs. Maria P., 22. 
 Barker, N. C, 21. 
 Barrett, Hon. Edwin S., 60. 
 Ba3'ard, Hon. Thomas P., 57. 
 Beaumonts, The, 43. 
 Bissell, Clark, 79. 
 Boston, 5, 6, 7, 45, 46. 
 Bowen, Clarence W., 61. 
 Bradfords, The, 72. 
 Branford, 15. 
 Brewsters, The, 72. 
 Briggs, Mrs. Annie E., 22. 
 Briggs, Mrs. C. S., 23. 
 Brockway, Thomas, 72. 
 Brooklyn, 72. 
 
 Brown, Gov. Montford, 17. 
 Brown, Mrs. Prederick, 22. 
 Bro\\Tiing, Miss Cecil, 22. 
 Bryce, Dr., 44. 
 
 24. 
 
 Buchanan, John W., 59. 
 Buckingham, Rev. Dr. Samuel G., 
 
 74. 82. 
 
 Buckingham, Gov. William A., 79. 
 
 Bulkeley, Gov. Morgan G., 37. 
 
 Bunker Hill, 36, 47. 
 
 Burgess, Mrs. R. P., 22, 23. 
 
 Butts, Charles R., 20. 
 
 Byles, Rev. Mather, 72. 
 
 Cabell, Hon. William D., 59. 
 
 Cadwalader, Richard M., 61. 
 
 Camp, Capt. Abiather, 17. 
 
 Carroll, Adams P., 20. 
 
 Chase, Hon. Champion S., 59. 
 
 Chastellux, Marquis de, 53. 
 
 Clark, Mrs. John, 22. 
 
 Cheney, Rt. Rev. Charles E., 61. 
 
 Clark, Mrs. Henry, 22. 
 
 Cleveland, ex-President Grover, 61. 
 
 Coit, Rev. Dr. Henry A., 61. 
 
 Collier, Thomas S., 24, 38. 
 
 Colonial Records, 8, 19, 88. 
 
 Connecticut, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 52, 57. 
 
 Conn. Historical Society, 14, 15, ig, 
 20, 24, 26, 87. 
 
 Conn. Society Sons of the Am. Rev- 
 olution, II, 19,20, 21,24, 25.26, 
 29. 30, 33. 45- 
 
 Constitution Day, 66, 67, 68. 
 
 Cornwallis, 36. 
 
 Council of Safety, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 
 17, 18, 19, 49, 77. 
 
 Crandall, Hon. John C, 21. 
 
 Darling, Mrs. P. A., 61. 
 
 Dartmouth College, 79, 
 
 Delaplace, Capt., 15. 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 25, 
 32. 52.
 
 94 
 
 Dewey, Noah, 13, 14. 
 
 Dolbeare, Miss S. M., 23. 
 
 Durham, 17. 
 
 Dutton, Miss Mary H., 12, 26. 
 
 Dwight, President Timothy, 61. 
 
 Dyer, Eliphalet, 7. 
 
 East Hartford, 76. 
 
 Edgerton, Hon. Albert, 60. 
 
 Elderkin, Jedidiah, 7. 
 
 Eliot, President Charles W., 61. 
 
 Ells, Nathaniel, 72. 
 
 Fairfield, 50. 
 
 Favor, Mrs., 27. 
 
 Favor, Prof., 27. 
 
 Fiske, John, 50. 
 
 Fitch, 48. 
 
 Flag Day, 20, 24, 64, 66, 67, 68, 71. 
 
 Fort Sumter, 65. 
 
 Fowler, Amos, 35. 
 
 Fowler, Col. Anson, 35, 36, 38. 
 
 Fowler, Frank P., 21. 
 
 Fowler, John, 36. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 16, 33. 
 
 Franklin, Gen. William B., 61. 
 
 Franklin, Gov. William, 13, 16, 18. 
 
 Freeman's Journal, 13. 
 
 French, Major, 15, 87. 
 
 Gage, Gov., 46. 
 
 Gardiner, Major Asa Bird, 61. 
 
 Gates, W. F., 21, 22. 
 
 Gates, Mrs. W. F., 22. 
 
 Geer, Erastus, 22, 35, 37. 
 
 Geer, Mrs. Erastus, 22. 
 
 General Assembly, 7, 8, 14, 17, 19, 
 
 86, 87, 88. 
 Gibbs, Mrs. Edward, 23. 
 Gillett, Mrs. William W., 22. 
 Gilman, President Daniel C, 59. 
 Glassenbury, Towm of, 13. 
 Glastenbury, 17. 
 Greene, Hon. Nathanael, 60. 
 Greene, Timothy, 72. 
 Griswold, Hon. Mathew, 7, 8. 
 Griswold (town), 72. 
 Groton Massacre, 36, 50, 51. 
 Guilliver, Rev. Dr. John P., 60. 
 
 Hale, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett, 58. 
 
 Halsey, Jeremiah, 20. 
 
 Hamilton, William G., 58. 
 
 Harrison, 54. 
 
 Hart, hevi, 72. 
 
 Hartford, 15, 26, 67. 
 
 Hartford Courant, 90. 
 
 Hawley, Gen. Joseph R.,24, 27,65. 
 
 Hajmes, 45. 
 
 Hebron, 72. 
 j Henr}', Patrick, 49. 
 
 Henrj", Hon. William Wirt, 57. 
 I Hewitt, E. W., 21. 
 j He\^^tt, Miss Hattie E., 22. 
 IHill, Hon. E. J., 57. 
 i Hinckleys, The, 72. 
 ! Hinman, 8. 
 
 I Hoadly, Dr. Charles J., 8, 52, 87, 
 i 88, 89. 
 
 I Hooker, Thomas, 44, 45. 
 I Hoxie, Miss Minnie, 22. 
 I Hutchins, Hon., of Ohio, 69. 
 
 Hutchinson, Gov., 47. 
 
 Huntington, Benjamin, 7. 
 
 Huntington, Rt. Rev. F. D., 60. 
 
 Huntington, J. L. W., 20. 
 
 Huntington, Jabez, 7, 27, 52. 
 
 Huntington, Samuel, 7. 
 
 Hyde, Biirrell W., 20. 
 
 Irish, Mrs. Phebe C, 22. 
 
 Isaacs, Ralph, 13, 16, 17, 18. 
 
 James Island, 65. 
 
 Jefferson, 33, 52. 
 
 Johnson, Stephen, 72. 
 
 Johnson, Wilham Samuel, 6, 7, 88, 89. 
 
 Johnston, Alexander, 44. 
 
 Keep, Dr. Robert P. , 20. 
 
 King, John S., 21. 
 
 Kingsley, John D., 36. 
 
 Kingsley, Ashael, 36. 
 
 Kneeland, Mrs. A. G., 22. 
 
 Knox, 9, 33. 
 
 Lafayette, 9, 82, 89, 90. 
 
 Lauzun, Duke de, 9, 10, 25, 50, 53, 
 54, 89. 
 
 Learned, Major B. P., 20.
 
 95 
 
 Leavens, F. J., 20. 
 
 Lebanon, 5. 6, 7, S, 9, 10, 11, 16, 20, 
 
 21, 24, 25, 30, 34, 35, 43, 50, 51, 
 
 54, 56, 61,62, 63, 67, 80, 90,91. 
 Ledyard, John, 13, 14. 
 Leonard, Abiel, 72. 
 Litchfield, 16. 
 Loan Exhibition, 24, 25. 
 Loomis, Hon. Dwight, 64, 67, 68, 
 
 69, 70. 
 Loomis, Mrs. L. P., 23. 
 Loomis, W. B., 21. 
 Love, Rev. WilHam deLoss, 24, 30. 
 Long Island, Battle of, 17, 36. 
 Ludlow, 45. 
 Ludlow, R. Fulton, 61. 
 Lyman, Mrs. G. W., 22. 
 Lyman, Mrs. L. L., 23. 
 Lyme, 72. 
 
 Malborne, Col. Godfrey, 72. 
 Mallory, Hon. Mr., of Kentucky, 69. 
 Manley, Miss Hattie J., 22. 
 Mason, Col. John, 78. 
 Mason, Jeremiah, 78. 
 Massachusetts, 44, 45, 46. 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, 
 
 14, 88. 
 McCall, Mrs. Hobart, 23. 
 Middletown, 16. 
 Mills, George A., 22. 
 Mills, Mrs. George A., 22, 23. 
 Minerva, The, 18. 
 Mitchell, Donald G., 53. 
 Moffit, Mrs. Edward, 22. 
 Mohegan Case, 6, 7. 
 Moland, Ensign Joseph, 13, 14, 15. 
 Montgomery, James M., 61. 
 Moore's Charity School, 79. 
 Morgan, Capt. Griswold E., 37. 
 Morgan, George H., 37. 
 Morgan, Gov., of N. Y., 37. 
 Morgan, Nathaniel H., 8. 
 Morgan, William Avery, 37. 
 Morgan, William E., 37. 
 Morris, Jonathan F., 15, 31, 64. 
 Morton, Hon. Levi P., 57. 
 
 New Connecticut, 79. 
 
 New Haven, 13, 17, 18, 26. 50. 
 
 New Jersey, 13, 16. 
 
 New London, 36, 51, 72. 
 
 New London County, 71. 
 
 New Providence, 17. 
 
 Norwalk, 50. 
 
 Norwich, 8, 20, 25, 26, 54, 72, 90. 
 
 Nott, Dr., 26. 
 
 Noyes, Frank K., 21. 
 
 Noyes, Mrs. F. K., 22. 
 
 Nye, Mrs. George A., 22, 23. 
 
 Parks, The, 43. 
 
 Parsons, 9. 
 
 Perit, J., 16. 
 
 Peckham, C. H., 23. 
 
 Peters, Rev. Samuel, 72. 
 
 Pettis, Mrs. Nancy E., 23. 
 
 Phelps, Hon. Edward J., 61. 
 
 Phelps, Rev. S. Dryden, 82. 
 
 Pitcher, C. L., 21. 
 
 Pitkin, Governor, 6, 7. 
 
 Post, A. R., 21. 
 
 Prindle, Miss Helen O., 22. 
 
 Proctor, Hon. Redfield, 61. 
 
 Provision State, 9. 
 
 Pumpelly, J. C, 59. 
 
 Putnam, 33. 
 
 Randall, Mrs. L. H., 23. 
 
 Raymond, George C, 20. 
 
 Revere, Paul, 58. 
 
 Robinsons, The, 72. 
 
 Robinson, Faith, 80. 
 
 Robinson, Mrs. Charles, 22. 
 
 Robinson, Miss Louise, 23. 
 
 Robinson, Mrs. William, 23. 
 
 Rochambeau, 9, 10, 50, 53, 89. 
 
 Rotton, Ensign, 15. 
 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 52. 
 
 Roustan, Theodore, French i\Iin- 
 
 ister, 57. 
 Russell, Hon. Charles A., 61, 62. 
 Skene, Major, 15. 
 Smith, L. P., 21, 22. 
 Spaulding, Mrs. L. A., 22. 
 Spencer, 9.
 
 96 
 
 Stael, Baron de. 89. 
 
 Standish. Clark, 21. 
 
 Stark, Miss Masey E.. 22. 
 
 Starr. Frank Farnsworth, 11. 
 
 Stebbins. Mrs. H. I)., 23. 
 
 Stedman, Joe, 23. 
 
 Stiles, Mrs. Edward A., 22, 23. 
 
 Stonington, 72. 
 
 Strong, Joseph, 72. 
 
 Strong, Mistress Prudence, 10, 12. 
 
 Stryker, Gen. William S., 61. 
 
 Sullivan, y. 
 
 Sweet, Charles, Jr., 21. 
 
 Tallmadge, Frederick S., 58. 
 
 Tarbell, Luther L., 61. 
 
 Taylor, Mrs. Charles, 22. 
 
 Taylor, Mrs. Nelson, 23. 
 
 Taylor, Mrs. William, 23. 
 
 Thomas, Hon. Mr., of Mass., 09. 
 
 Thomas, Mrs. James Y., 22, 23. 
 
 Thompson, Col., 18. 
 
 Throop, Sands, 21. 
 
 Ticonderoga, 15. 
 
 Tiernay, 71. 
 
 Trumbull, Abigail, 90. 
 
 Trumbull, David, 53, 77, 80, 88, 89. 
 
 Trumbull, Faith, Elder, 90. 
 
 Trumbull, Faith, 76. 
 
 Trumbull, Dr. Hammond, 44. 
 
 Trumbull, John (painter), 52, 76. 
 
 Trumbull, John (editor), 72. 
 
 Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, Senr., 6, 
 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, if), 25. 26, 27, 29, 
 32, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 
 54. 71. 75. 79. 80. 83, 88, 89. 
 
 Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, second, 
 
 76. 79- 
 
 Trumbull, Jonathan, 33. 
 
 Trumbull, Capt. Joseph, 75. 
 
 Trumbull, Gov. Joseph, 79. 
 
 Trumbull, Joseph (Commissary- 
 General), 49, 76, 80. 
 
 Trumbull, Hon. Lyman, 58. 
 
 Trumbull, Mary, 76. 
 
 Trumbull Papers, 13, 14, 88. 
 
 Tucker, Edgar J., 21. 
 
 . Turner, Henry E., 61. 
 ' Twichell, Joseph H., 44. 
 
 Valley Forge, 39, 78. 
 
 Van Lennep, Frederick, 61. 
 
 Virginia, 44, 87. 
 
 Wadsworth, Col., 49. 
 
 Walden, Miss, 22. 
 I Wales, Nathaniel, Jr., 7. 
 ■ Wallingford, 16. 
 
 Wanton, Governor, 47. 
 
 War Governors, 55. 
 
 War Office, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 18, 19, 
 24, 25, 26, 27, 35, 43, 48, 61, 81. 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley, 65. 
 
 Washburn, Hon. E. B., 6g. 
 
 Washington, 9, 32, 33, 42, 43, 48, 
 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 71. 75, 81. 
 
 Waterman, Mrs. Andrew, 22. 
 
 Watterson, Hon. Henry, 70. 
 
 Wattles, Mrs. Bethia H., 10, 11, 24, 
 26, 27, 33. 
 
 Webb, Gen. Alexander S., 61. 
 
 Webb, Dr. William Seward, 61. 
 
 Webb's Tavern, 81. 
 
 Wells, David A., 48. 
 
 West, Joshua, 7. 
 
 Wethersfield, 81. 
 
 Wetmore, W. A., 21. 
 
 Whitehead, Hon. John, 61. 
 
 Williams, Charles Morgan, 11. 12. 
 
 Williams, Eliphalet, 76. 
 
 Williams, Ephraim, 77. 
 
 Williams, Ezekiel, 77. 
 
 Williams, Hon. Nathaniel B.. 21, 
 24, 26, 31. 
 
 WiUiams, Miss Ellen C, 22. 
 
 Williams, Solomon, 72, 76. 
 
 Williams, William, 7, 25,72, 77,78,80. 
 
 Willimantic, 26. 
 
 Winchester, Mrs. Charles, 22. 
 
 Windham, 5, 8, 26. 
 
 Windham County, 71. 
 
 Winthrop, 28, 45, 54. 
 
 Woodruff, Charles H., 61. 
 
 Woodstock, 5, 72. 
 
 York town, 36, 51, 81.
 
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