The Connecticut courant — Hartford, Conn., 1774-03-29 00:00:00, page 3

order ; which, beyond al! doubt, wu the prefeat charter of the colony
cf Connecticut.
Farther, let it be remembered. That Connecticut in their pleading*
against date Hamilton, bur three yctn after the g>rant of their letters
pttent, declare it is a matter of the most certain netoriety, that the
original PATENT granted by royal authority to the lord Say ana Seal
and others nobles and gentlemen which they purcha'ed at a aear rate it
lately ratified andconfi'/nea by our anctovs sovereign under thb
broad SEAL of Englamd And, that it was so accepted, by the
council, before whom the p'eadings were made, acd that an award was
given accordingly. ; 4 , ,
BcGdec it is worthy c>k facial attextbnyhit his majeGy in Paid charter
of confirmation, hath made this royal declaration, “ these cor letters
patents (bill be firm, good, and 'effedtuaHu law, to all intents, con
ftrudions anl porpofet whatever, as (hall be confitued, reputed, and
adjudgedmofl favourable on the behalf and for the beff benefit, and be*
hoof of the (aid governor and company and their fucccfiors.”
In the lall plcace it thculd be observed tha t nineteen yean after this
ample grant under the great seal, Sir William Fenn obtained his char*
eer, which, lapping more than a degree upon Connecticut, cuts it in
two, nearly e.t right angles, and lays the foundation ./or the prefect
controferfy. Icdeed (hou'd I take the fame liberty with the charter
of Sir William, which the inventive examiner of the Connecticut claim,
hath been p’eafed to take with the Connecticut patents, it would be
easy toremove all objections at once, and to set the claim of Conncc
ticut in fuel* a point of view, as that it could find no rival. I Ihould
argue in my tern that the words north and Jouth could Have no meaning,
and that the mention of the northern extremity of Delaware river was
a blunder in the scribe. I fhou'd infill, cutting (bort the grant to Sir
William Jess by feme thousand mi'es, than he hath that of Connecticut,
that by the beginning of the forty third degree cu'd be meant nothing
but the Couth line of ConocClcut. This important reifon would be
urged to prove that the length of his patent was not from south to
north, but from east to wed, viz. That every province must have a sea
front and run off at right angles from the ccceao ; and this little trail
would be (welled with h dorieal quotations to prove the favourite whim.
But I cannot defeeod to a conduct Lke this. The patent of Sir Willi
am (hail be treated with geoerofify and candour, and be allowed to have
its full operation. .
Had the king, at the time when letters patent were granted to Sir
William Penn, been adual y veiled with the right of said lands, then it
is true that the charter of Sir William would be pleadable againfl the
claim cf Connecticut; but as the king, by previous griots had conveyed
She fame lands under the great seal to others,, it is mofi absurd to fop
pofc, that, without any forfeiture or forrender of the prior grant, or any
public ad or process agaioft it, reeking it null and void, he could make
an effectual conveyance of it to any perfoo whatsoever. All the right,
of which the king could pcflibly be pefiefied, in 1620 when the great
patent of New England was issued, by royal authority, adually passed
from the (overigq, and became veiled jo fad in the great Plymouth
company. To feppofe that the right and title to. said lands did, or
could in fad remain in the sovereign after said grant, is in effed to fay
that nothing was conveyed or granted ; or that royal grants and con
veyancea are mere nultities,and that title and property remain after
they are molt amply unde acd confirmed, jolt as they were before.;
than which there connot be a greater abufnrdity ; nor yet a greater re
st dion upon crowned heads. But if the right and title did pass from
the king to the Plimouth company, then it mad certainly passed also
from them to the ear! of Warwick, and to l^rd Say and Seal, &c. Mid,
•Ifo to the colony of Conntdicut, as there is the cleared evidence, that
said patent to the earl of Warwick, of which he made a consignment to
lord Say and Seal, &c. wft purchatcd by the Conntdicut planters and
confirmed to them, by royal authority, in their renewed letters patent.
Further the king having once made a conveyance of his right
could not ifiumc said rght and become again veiled with it, without
some forfeiture, (urrender, or legal process, for much the fame reasons,
as he could not remain veiled with the title and property after he hsd
made royal conveyances of them to his fubjeds. If the king hs ha
right to resume his own grants at all.he hath a right to do it imm.eda.
ately in one moment after tkey have paded the great Seal as well as a
year or twenty or a hundred years after* , , „ ...
But to (uppofe this is in fad to fuppefe, ss before, that grants frosa
the crown are of co validity or importance,and thit colonies are just as
well without them as with them ; which may by no means be ioppoJcd.
Be*ides we have the royal declaration under the Great Seal that
the charter fhxuld be firm. good, and valid in law do all intents con
Bruflitns,andpurpofes whatfaver, which mull mean that the patent (hall
be pleadable in point of law,and that the title to the lands therein con
veyed (hall be tenable io Grid law, and be determeoed by it, to all in
tents and purposes t as far as in any legal conveyance whatfocrer. There
fore it will follow, that by said patent, title was adually in fad and
law confirmed, and all dene by the king which he could do to veil the
title in his fubjeds, the .governor and company of Connecticut, and
that it could not in any fenle remain io the king cr be resumable by
him. For io all legal grants the right and title do actually paG from
the grantor or grantee, and are not to be, nor can be resumed by .the
grantor. A thoufaod deeds of coovcyaece after the firfl is well ezc?,
cuted, are of no vilidity or fignificance ~ Therefore .in this view is it
not most evident, that the right and title to the lands, comprised with
in the limits of the charter of this colony, beyond the wefiern bounda
ries of the province of New York,arc veiled in the goverr or and com
pany of laid colony, and ever ha^cbeen, in the moll ample manner;
at lead fiace the renewal of his majedy’s letters patent to said colony ?
And is it not equally evident, that the modern charter of Sir William
^nn, dan be of 00 force or validity, nor on any fair and legal footing
t ? « Fraeadly ADDRE SS to the FREE ME N.
GOD, the creator, possessor, and Lord of heaven and earth, who
does according to his wi lin the armies of heaven above, and
among the inhabitants of the earth beneath, whose kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom and hi* dominion from generation to generation,
feem* the original source and foustaio of all perfeflion, power acd au •
tbsrity, ‘ by him kings reign, and princes decree jodice.* This g’orious
God (eem* to have inspired man with the principle of felf preservation ;
and by the nature that Ged has given him, nicely adapted to the cir-’
cumdancc* God has placed him in, (cents', by his very conditutioo, ae
c ear’y and p'ainly a* by a voice from the mod excellent glory, to
command him to defend his person his property, bis religion and his
liberty. And divine revelation feem* to confirm these didhtes Of oa»
smal reason, sccordingly we are to’d, ‘ where the (pirit'of the Lord i* 9 ‘
there is liberty,’ and eshorted to ‘ (land fad in the liberty, wherewith
Chrid ha* made ns free?< Aad we ire likewise told ‘no man ever ha
ted hi* own fk(h? and arc Commanded to love our neighbour* Is cur-“
felve* not more or better than ourfelve*, and ‘he that takes no care
•ad provide* not for hi* own, (we are told) has denied the faith, and
is worse than an infidel? And if we examine the bible wr (hall find
God always addreftes himfelf to the principles of reason and felf intered,
aud thit all his hws are founded in the reason and fitnefs of thing*
perfe&ive cf the nature, and productive of the happinef* of mankind.—
And all civil rulers,; from the very natcre/aod design of their ioftitution
are under the Rrongeft obligations to imitate the fbprecne ruler of bea*
ven and earth, in premoting the virtue and happinef* of human Mature/
by being benefactors, that is J ‘ minider* of God for good,’ by ranking
and impartially executing the good laws already made. The confu
tation and law* are properly the supreme power io every well regu-1
fated government—Accordingly we sre told, that a ruler being asked
‘ who governed at Sparta ? a -fwered the laws, and the magiflraies ac
cording to the laws Indeed it Gems no officer ha* ady authority but
from the conflitutioo and laws : and whenever tny officer or private*
man traofgreffes the laws, we have a good right to refill him, and de«
Lnd ourfclves. AaJ it Lems a* lawful and agreeable to right reason
and revelation to defend ourselves againH lawleG fir eng th and brutal
force, as it is to breath, or wink, and •* natural, that i* as agreeable to
the nature God has given as 3 whicb it (semi (honld be treated as sacred,
far ‘ in the image of God made hs man? and ‘ the inspiration df the
Almighty has given him uodcrflanding.’ And this seems to bold e
quslly true, whether these beifis of prey attack a country, a nation, off f
a man only ; and if wc examine h/lery, wc fhalJ find that the Romaotr
and Britons have laudably sded upon this principle. Tar quin and
Julius Cafa among the Roman*—Charles I. and James 11. among the
Britons, Hand recorded as the cverlafliog atonement* of the jo fl ice of
human refeotmeot and refinance, ar well as of the divine wrath and dif
pleafurc, that (hall finally be executed on all the worker* of iniquity
* Great part of the general happiness of mankind, (fays a learned
writer of great authority) depends upon those means, by which the
innocent may be saved from their crud invaders : amco£ which the op
portunities of defending themselves may be reckoned the chief ; there
fore to debar men the nfc of these opportunities, and the right of de
fending themfelve* againtl injurious treatment And violence', mud be io
confiQent with the law* of nature. If a man has no right to defend
himfdf, and what is his. he can have no eight to any thing—ficcc that
cannot be his right, which he may not maotain to be hi* right ; If a
min hat no right to defend himfelf, it mud be bccaufe the agrrjfr has
a right to adu! the other, and usurp what is his- and more th^n that,
it include* s great abfardhy, to commence the injury, or to begin the
violence, being io a nature more thaw only to repel it, *H* who be
gins is the true, caufc of ail that follows, and whatever falls upon hin?
from the oppofiiion made by the defending psrty, is but the effect of
his own or it is that violence of which he is (he author refleHed back
upon himfelf It is as when a man spits at^heaveo, and the (pittle falls
back upon his own face. vLaft’y, since every man is obliged to consult
hi* own happioefs, there can be no doubt, but that he-not only may;
but even ought to defend it, and conftont/cr« with forte, otherwise he
will fail io hit duty to himfelf, and deny happioefs to be happinefs.’* a
' If a mao beat, weuod or maim one who makes an affanlt upon hi?
person, er that of his wife, parent, child or mailer, or if a man fight
with or beat one, who attempt* rd kill any ftranver, in these cafe* it
(terns the party may juflify the a (fault and battery. J Indeed this seems
to be agreeable not only to the letter but spirit of the Eoglilh law—
according ... to Lord Coke, Lock, Hate, and even down to the elegant
Jadge Black Hone, who affirms, ' if one Grike* me firß, or even only
aiTrult* me, I may Rrike in my own defence ’§ And it seems at ju^
•nd right for fecietiet, nations or kingdom* of men to defend their
perfoos,. their properties, their religion and liberties, as for individual* 9
at a late elegant writer well observes, * even a chrifiian people, whe
fee pleadable in law or equity Igaicfi said title ? It could not be in the
power of the king to make an effectual conveyance to him, of that
which he had before so clearly and amply granted to the colony ofCoo
ncflicut. This conclusion I conceive to be weH groundcd on the fads
and reafoiogs above; and E am so happy as to find the greeted meo
in the nation, of the law department, agreeing with me io sentiment 00
this important fubjed. The Words of the crownlawyers, with which
I (h»II conclude this part of my efiay are, “ As the charter to Cinneflh
cut, nuns granted but eighteen years before that feSiR William Penn,
there is no ground to contend that the crown could at that period make aK
effectual grant to him of that country which had been so recently grant
ed to othersV [To be continued io our next ]
■ • - ~ ■■■■■■ ■ ■■■ II ■■ ” ■■ ■' ■—— * - I '
* Walla/i. R. N f 244 ; $ Bacon’s A. vol. I. fol.
Btackftonc t vol, lit. fol.