Litchfield enquirer., 1875-04-29
After Lexington.

During the last ten days of April 1775. New England was springing to arms against Old England. For years before the parent country had been pressing its authority over it's stubborn child to harsh CT and harsher extremes. At last the long dreaded explosion came, and all New Eng fast as the news of Lexington reached them, the men of Connecticut, New Hampshire. and Rhode Island, hurried to the assistance of their sister colony. Bancroft thus describes the rising in Con- necticut:
 In Connecticut Trumbull. the governor, sent out writs to convene the legislature of the colony at Hartford on the Wednes- day after the battle. Meantime the peo- pie could not be restrained. On the morning of the 2Oth, Israel Putnam, of Pomfret. in leather frock and apron, was assisting hired men to build stone wall oa his farm. when he heard the cry from Lexington. Leaving them to continue their task. he set of instantly to rouse the 1M4AkSA8 OA0CC10 OI tuS uGtIGSb tOWUSs Ou his return he found hundreds who had mustered and chosen him their leader. Isaning orders for them to follow, he him. self pushed forward without changing the check shirt he had worn in the field, and reached Cambridge at sunrise the next morning, having ridden the same horse a hundred miles within eighteen hours.
 VU~Al.MwuG~1l volunteers marched for Boston on the 22d, well armed and m high spirits. From the neighboring towns men of large estates and the most esteemed for character, seiz. cd their Hrelocks and followed. By the see0nd night several thousand from the colony were on their way. Some fixed on arms. and round it the motto, that God Who had brought over tlfe fathers would sustain the sons. " o ss.t s.a 5.
 In New Haven, Benedict Arnold, cap- tain of volunteer company, agreed with his men to march the next morning for Boston. ''Wait for proper orders," was the advice of Wooster; but the self-willed commander, brooking no delay, extorted supplies from the committee of the town, and, on the 18th, reached the American headquarters with his company. There was scarcely town in Connecticut that was not represented among the besiegers.
 The hundred years that have passed sincs our ancestors began their great wan of independence ought to enable their de- scendants to consider the s'irrepressible conflict" of that time in very different spirit from that which prevailed on both sides the water in the spring of 1775. Mir. GlAdstone's letter to the Lexington Gen. >tennial committee which we republish elsewhere hints politely at the iuster feel ing which he thinks should now prevail in America towards the Great Britain of & century since. George III was a narrow man, and his Ministry was weak Minis try. Yet their policy was satisfactory to the averAge Engiishman of that day. In the fall of 1774, parliament was dissolved end the popular feeling ran so strongly in favor of King and Ministry that Edmund Burke could scarcely obtain seat in the new House of Commons. Nor, looking back at the momsntous question involved, can we wonder that England sided with the King against Chatham, Burke, and the real statesmen of the time.
 The theory of Chatham and the Colo nists made of the government of the Brit ish Empire much what the theory oi John Q. Calhoun made of the government of the United States. It took from the British parliament the substance of au. thorsty over America and gave it to the various colonial legislatures, retaining on y nominal sovereignty for the home government. The issue of the war of 177t has given not only the United States, but Canada, Australia. and all the other true Enghsh colonies their independence Those colonies are no real source ot strength to the mother country. Though she must defend them from hostile attack they are under no obligation to defend her. She cannot call on them for eithel money or soldiers. So obvious are tn. disadvantages of such an arrangement, ,tha British statesmen have even advocated tho sevsring by the home government of SC improbable e connection. .f...
 The Americans who fought the great war of 1881 rather than submit to any eomprcmise that would have destroyed the vitality of the Union. ought to hay, come sympathy for the British resistanc, to ths Notification theory of I775. eTh, fatal vsakness of the British government ahowsd itself, however, in their failure t. offer America any alternative between Nul iAeation and Snbjection. When eiel, million Englishmen at home, went to wa with thres million Englishmen acrossn tn Atlantic. to enforce the un. .Engliah de mand of taxation without representation they, obviously put themselves in tn wrong. Obviously the three millions 0 EnElish i'd America, even if beaten at first mhat grow too strong in the end for th theory of sqbiection. After century . szpsrisnes and improvement in repre sentative government we wonder Englan, did not tell America, as she had told Scoi land bafors, to send along her two ilui dfsd meanbsra of pafiianent to help Ia
 the taxes and allfninistef the govsrnmen of the British Empire. Bnt neither sid