The appearance, therefore, of Mr. Trumbull’s work gives the public but one side of the case; under these circumstances I have been induced to republish the work from the original copy belonging to Dr. Peters, using notes and quotations from writers and authors of high repute, and from documents and manuscripts written before the Revolutionary War, which have come into my possession since Mr. Trumbull’s work has appeared, and which, I believe, will show the unbiased public that Mr. Trumbull has not been guided solely by unselfishness in attempting to wipe out the ridicule entailed on Connecticut by the early Blue Laws; but he still retains a little of the fanaticism, bigotry, and
spleen, so justly attributed to his ancestor, who was the cause of driving Dr. Peters from his native country; and he would now attempt to cast discredit upon a work that was well received in the State by the intelligent portion of the community, and indorsed as a true history.
In writing of the “Blue Laws,” Prof. De Vere, of the University of Virginia, in his volume on “Americanisms,” published in 1872, says, “They are confirmed without a doubt.” The late Rev. A. B. Chapin, in his article published in the Churchman of Hartford, Connecticut, August 19, 1876, entitled “Was the History of Connecticut a Fabrication?” says, “If Dr. Peters had had my advantages he might have been a worse historian for Connecticut than he has been already.” I might continue such quotations from persons of equally high standing, but my object is to let the work stand upon its merits, giving it to the public as it left the author’s hands, merely adding such portions as I find in the unpublished manuscripts in my possession, relating chiefly to the doctor himself, and the cause of his having to leave the country; also to the action taken by the colony of Connecticut for the relief of the destroyers of the teas in Boston.
It has not been for the purpose of obtaining a character for the work, which it did not before possess, that I again bring it before the public; but that they may
have both sides of the case for their view, joined with that of defending my ancestor, the author, a good and venerable old clergyman, who was driven from his country, and his large estates sequestrated, for obeying “the laws of his God, the laws of his country, and the dictates of his conscience, by the fanatics of Connecticut,” and from the unjust and unwarrantable attacks of Mr. Trumbull.
S. J. McCormick.
GENERAL HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
After several unsuccessful attempts to form settlements in the southern part of North America, in which little more had been done than giving the name of Virginia, in compliment to the virgin Queen Elizabeth, to the country, a patent was obtained in 1606, from James I., by Sir Thomas Gates and associates, for all lands there between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude; and, at the patentees’ own solicitation, they were divided into two companies;[1] to the former of which were granted all the lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees of north latitude, and to the latter all those between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. A part of the coast of the territory last mentioned being explored in 1614, and a chart presented to the then Prince of Wales, afterward Charles I., it received from him the appellation of New England.