The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-06-29


mittee on the Wooster Monument, favorably 10 a.
appropriation OF fifteen hundred dollars for the cree
| ton Of . monument to the memory Of Gen. David
| Wooster being under consideration,
| Mr.. Smith, Of Sharon, said:-Mr. Speaker, 1t Is
easy to advocate cause when one Is conscious that
| the feelings, sentiments, and sympathies OF his
audience are In unison with those that animate him
SELF and that their hearts beat responsive with his
own. It is light and grateful task to support such
q resolution as the one before US, in the presence Of
the descendants Of that dauntless yeomanry whom
British gold could not buy, nor British promises Sc
duce nor British bayonets ntmidate The episode OF
the revolutionary history of Connecticut causes the
heart Of true son of her soil to heave with strong
and proud emotion and rehearsed in song or story,
| strs up his blood like the blast Of trumpet. In
the opinion Of her intelligent population, It was
eminently war of principle, struggle between the
great antagonistic forces-arbitrary power on the
one hand, and civil and religious liberty on the
| other. So far as she was concerned the Revolution
severed only nominal tie but effected no organic
change either in the structure or the action Of her
| government. From the first commencement, when
| the three plantations of Hartford, Windsor and
Wethersed constituted the whole Of the infant CO.
lony, its chief magistrates were chosen not by the
authority Of the Crown as in her sister colonies but
by the sufages Of her independent people, and their
plain and simple style of living was never shocked
or insated by the display Of regal pomp in the per
son Of some pampered mental Of royal master.
There is no State in the Union says Bancroft. the
American Gbbon, " In whose early history if / were
citizen could find more Of which to proud, and
a noble truth. Independent and rebeious from the
start as colony, it was natural that Connecticut
should have been among the foremost to sever the
last link that bound her to foreign power. Three
times had the gallant little republic while yet in the
cradle, dared TO provoke the wrath Of the mighty
monarch of England, and as often had she
triumphed by her undaunted resolution She refused
to deliver up the Judges Of Charles the First, and
those noble exiles, thanks to her her0sm, spent in
quiet rep0se the evening OF their iustrious lives
Who has not heard Of the c0ncealment of her glo-
rous charter in the historic monumental oak? and
here cannot but express my earnest hope that the
gifted son OF the State, over whose dwelling almost
stretch its mighty arms, may be inspired by its daily
vision to write, as he well can write the annals Of
her magnificent history, and thereby gain not only
the lasting gratitude and admiration Of each and al
of her children, but erect to his own fame monu-
ment more enduring than the granite Of her eternal
hills. Again, third time did she show her spirit
in 1893, when Governor Fletcher, the Kings chief
magistrate OF New York, coming to demand the con-
troll Of her militia was literally booted and drummed
out Of the limits of the town Of Hartford Thus our
State went into the Revolution under peculiar ad.
vantages Her civil organization by townships, each
one little self-supporting democracy, we'll disci-
pned citizen soldiery the best bulwark Of freedom,
no royal Governor to eject court influence to dis
tract all fitted her to await the crisis,
Firm rock Of the ocean that braves
thousand wild waves on the shore.
Why is it, said the author Of the crisis, that the
enemy have left New England, and made these mid.
die States the seat OF war! Because New England is
not infested by tories, and we are" And preemi.
nenty may this be said in relation to Connecticut
Her people met the shock in one united phalanx
with the clergy at their head, who, while they fer
venty prayed for help to the God Of their fathers
took good to deserve the aid of Providence by
sending every fencible man into the army and ma
king the pulpits resound with the stirring exhorta
ton be strong, that 20 be not servants; equip your
selves like men, and fight" Her sons were present
on every field of contest from Bunker Hill to York
town. She took from the enemy at Ticonderoga the
cannon which drove him out of Boston, and Numbered
against his lines during the whole Of the war
In TIT, Lord CORVALLIS declared South Carolina
a conquered province" while none of the royal ge
neras ever spoke of Connecticut in their dispatches
"as an impudent buzzng nest Of rebel hornets"
Thirty one thousand six hundred men did she furnish
to the continental army more by five thousand than
either New York, or Pennsylvania or Virginia;
while the contributions OF money, clothing, and pro-
visions, were, if possible, in still larger and more
generous proportion. But the striking fact in her
revolutionary annals is that which, in part has given
rise TO the resolution before the House. Although
tile enemy occupied the States south Of at their
leisure during the whole course of the war; though
their feet in the port OF New York for seven long
years had full possession Of the Sound, and one
hundred miles Of the coast lay perfectly exposed,
yet the enemy made but three plunderng excursions
ran back to their boats, like beaten pirates, much
faster than they marched into the country. The
women OF Connecticut, like those OF Sparta, never
saw The smoke OF an enemy's camp. 1t was in one
1777 that the veteran Wooster, in beating back the
force, received mortal wound, and
Sunk to rest,
In all his .untrys wishes best"
He was born at Stratford in l7I0 and was liueally
descended from that mighty generation, who in old
England 'set their foot upon the neck Of their king"
and tramped the Anglo Norman arstocracy into the
dust in score Of welfought battle fields, and in
New England laid deep and strong upon the basis of
liberty civil and religious, the firm foundations OF
mr. Of no WOr He q
OF Yale, that nursing mother OF SO many Of the illus
trious names Of our past history, and embracing in
early life military career, he served the State with
distinguished reputation throughout the protracted
struggle which drove the arms of France from the
American continent At the outbreak Of the Revou-
ton he was appointed a Brigadier in the CoDnecti-
cut line by the Continental Congress- and senior Ma
jor General of her militia by the State Legislature.
1t was in this latter capacity that he met the force OF
the invader with little band Of volunteers hastily
collected and badly armed. Throwing himself in the
enemies track, the grey haired soldier animates his
men to sweep from the soil Of the State the rufan
mercenaries who had dared to poute it by their
presence. He calls TO them
To co or de-
To "stIike for their alars snd their sres,
God, and their native land
While thus waving his sword, his white hairs
streaming in the wind, and his voice sounding above
the roar Of the battle the fatal bullet is Sped and the
veteran hero
{" Leaving in battle DO blot on his name
Looks proudly to Heaven, from the death bed fame .
Glorious contamination of an honorable life. death
worthy Of Roman greatness in Rome's best days;
and yet while the world visits the tomb of the Sci.
pios, not a stone marks the spot where repose the
remains of Wooster. He left no child but the State
he defended and che must discharge the NEST sacred
of obligations As the Indian, in passing by the grave
of some eminent and distinguished cheitain Of his
race, regards it holy duty to add stone to the
pile that covers his remains, so should each OF
in whose veins runs drop of the blood OF that
revolutionary band, bring his little tribute of afec.
tionate respect to aid the erection of their monu
ments and the conservation of their memories.
doubt not for single moment in this house the
success of this resolution. As the unanimous aye
that responds to it shall be uttered in this hail. not
only will it meet the response of every son and
daughter of the State but the great and the good Of
former generations, the wise statesmen the learned
and pons divines the brave and patriotic soldiers
now in glory, when they learn this well deserved
mark OF respect paid to of the best and nobest
OF their compeers, will send to us from the spirit
land, with their thousand voices shout responsive
to our own, "qia baHsfnlH, susftnet?" Connecticut
for ever! Esto perpeti,a!
Question taken and carried unanimously