Historic Towns of New England

by Unknown

No political subject has ever been the theme of more gross misrepresentation or more constant reproach than the assembly of delegates from the New England States which met at Hartford in December, 1814. After the war of 1812 had continued two years, our public affairs were in a deplorable condition. The army intended for defending the sea-coast had been sent to the borders to attack Canada; a British squadron was lying in the Sound to blockade the harbors on the Connecticut coast, and to intercept our coasting trade; the banks, south of New England, had suspended the payment of specie; our shipping lay in our harbors, embargoed, dismantled, and perishing; the Treasury of the United States was nearly exhausted, and a general disheartenment prevailed throughout the country. In this situation of affairs a number of gentlemen in Massachusetts believed that a convention of prominent men might do good. Many petitions from numerous towns in Massachusetts were received, stating the sufferings of the country in consequence of the embargo and the war, and Governor Strong summoned a special meeting of the Massachusetts Legislature in October, 1814, when a resolution was passed appointing delegates to a convention to be held in Hartford. The Connecticut Legislature was in session at the same time, and received a communication from the Massachusetts body, requesting them to join in appointing delegates to the convention. This they did, and seven

delegates were sent. On December 15, 1814, the convention, numbering twenty-six delegates, representing Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, met in the council chamber of the State House, now the City Hall of Hartford. Among the delegates were men of such assured position as Harrison Gray Otis, George Cabot, William Prescott, the father of the historian, and Stephen Longfellow, the father of the poet, from Massachusetts; Chauncey Goodrich, Governor John Treadwell, Roger Minot Sherman, and James Hillhouse, of Connecticut. Their deliberations continued for three weeks, and their sittings were held with closed doors, a fact which was brought up against them by their political adversaries as evidence of dark and nefarious designs. During the sessions a small body of recruits for the army, then in Hartford, were paraded in a threatening manner by the officer in command. The proceedings resulted in the adoption of a report and the passage of resolutions recommending amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Among the recommendations was one proposing that representative and direct taxation should be apportioned according to the respective numbers of free persons in the States, excluding slaves and Indians. This document was immediately published, and was read with great eagerness. Those who expected to discover sentiments of a seditious and treasonable nature were disappointed. The report expressed an ardent attachment to the integrity of the republic, and its sentiments were liberal and patriotic. A short time after the publication of this document the news of the declaration of peace was received. The people, without waiting to hear the provisions of the treaty, showed their joy by bonfires and illuminations,—a striking commentary upon the character of the war and the general feeling about it. The war being over, the work of the Hartford Convention was no longer needed, and the jarring interests of the State and Federal governments were harmonized.

During the last century the chief business of Hartford was the trade with the West Indies. There was also some trafficking with Ireland and with Lisbon, timber being exported to the first named, and fish to the latter. From 1750 to 1830, Hartford not only imported goods from the West Indies, but was also a distributing centre for the surrounding country, and for the region that stretches northward to the sources of the Connecticut. During the first thirty years of this century the wharves on the river bank were bustling with traffic and lined with vessels, often three or four rows deep. Large warehouses extended along the banks of the river, where beef and pork were packed for the export trade, great quantities being brought down the river in brine, and inspected and repacked here. The numerous scows and flat-boats in which the up-river trade was carried on, were loaded on their return voyage with sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, salt and other West Indian commodities. S. G. Goodrich, in his Recollections of a Lifetime, describes the city as a centre of the West India trade, and as smelling of rum and molasses. The inland transportation of goods was carried on by lines of freight-wagons running to Westfield, Granby, Monson, Brimfield, Norfolk, Canaan, and the towns in Berkshire County. There were also packet lines running to Boston, New York, Albany, Nantucket, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond. But the building of the Boston and Albany, and of the New York and New Haven railroads cut off gradually all the inland and up-river commerce from Hartford, and diverted trade into other directions. This obliged the merchants of Hartford to turn their energies to other lines of business.

One of the most successful of these, and one in which Hartford now holds a unique position, is the insurance business. Nowhere else has the business of fire insurance reached such magnitude as in Hartford. The aggregate capital of the six fire insurance companies in the city is $10,250,000, which exceeds one quarter of the capital of all the fire companies in the country. It is supposed that the business began in marine underwriting, as Hartford formerly had such large shipping interests and so many vessels concerned in trade with the West Indies. An insurance office was opened in Wethersfield in 1777 by Barnabas Dean, presumably for shipping. Fire insurance policies were issued in 1794, and in 1795 a company was formed for the purpose of underwriting on “vessels, stock, merchandize, etc.” In 1810 the oldest of the present Hartford fire insurance companies was formed,—the Hartford, with a capital of $150,000. All the early insurance companies made the mistake of dividing profits in periods of prosperity, reserving little or nothing for a day of adversity. But the Hartford met with a severe lesson in December, 1835, when the great fire in New York swept away the capital of the company. All losses were paid in full, and the confidence inspired by this policy increased the business of the company fivefold. In 1871 the great Chicago fire endangered the existence of the strongest Hartford companies, and five of them were forced to discontinue. But the able management of the four that paid their losses and continued to do business has given the Hartford companies a good reputation. The life insurance business was also early organized in Hartford, which was the earliest place, except the already great cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, to establish this system firmly, and several of the Hartford companies rank among the leading institutions in this business in the country. In Hartford was founded the first accident insurance company organized in America.

Hartford possesses a number of well-known educational and philanthropic institutions,—Trinity College; the Wadsworth Athenæum, containing the Watkinson Library of Reference, the Connecticut Historical Society’s collections, the picture gallery and public library; the Theological Seminary, the School for the Deaf, the Retreat for the Insane; all founded in the first half of this century.

First, chronologically, comes “The American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons,” the mother-school of all similar institutions in this country. In 1887, when the recurring years brought about the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the founder of this school for the deaf, the day was celebrated by all deaf-mutes throughout the United States, and commemorated by public services and general festivities. In a building on Main Street, now constituting the southern end of the City Hotel, the American Asylum gathered its first seven pupils, April 15, 1817. The starting-point of the enterprise was the eager desire of Dr. Mason F. Cogswell to secure an education for his daughter, Alice, a deaf-mute, whose infirmity was caused by an attack of spotted fever. In 1815, several prominent gentlemen in Hartford took steps towards the organization of such a school at the instance of Dr. Cogswell, and decided to send the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, then just out of the Andover Theological Seminary, to Europe, for the purpose of acquiring the art of instructing deaf-mutes. Accordingly, Mr. Gallaudet proceeded to Paris, where he was cordially received by the Abbé Sicard, the Director of the famous Institution for Deaf-Mutes, founded some years earlier by the Abbé de l’Epée. Here every facility was accorded to Mr. Gallaudet, and when he was ready to return to America, one of Sicard’s pupils—Laurent Clerc by name,—offered his services as an instructor in the school to be founded in America, and as he was himself a deaf-mute he was a living demonstration of the fact that a very high degree of education was possible to deaf-mutes. In 1818, the number of pupils having increased to sixty, it appeared to the directors that their work was likely to become national, and it seemed proper to invoke the aid of Congress. A petition was accordingly sent to Congress, and was strongly supported by the Connecticut members, by the Speaker, Henry Clay, and by many other influential and philanthropic men. Congress responded by an appropriation of an entire township, comprising 23,000 acres of land. This grant was judiciously converted into cash and invested, and the income thus received has enabled the institution to receive pupils at about one half the actual cost of their education. The building now in use was completed in 1821. Since 1825 pupils have been received from the States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island, under an arrangement made with the official authorities in those States. While a large proportion of the instructors have always been college graduates, at the same time industrial instruction has, since 1823, been an essential feature in the training, thus rendering the pupils self-supporting members of society.

Another evidence of the philanthropic feeling animating the citizens of Hartford about the same date as the foundation of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, was the establishment in 1824, of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane. At that time there were only two other institutions in the country for the exclusive care of insane persons, and the importance of restorative treatment was but little understood.

Many citizens of Hartford signed the petition requesting the General Assembly to pass an act of incorporation for Washington College, and when the news of its passage was received, May 16, 1823, their joy was manifested by the lighting of bonfires and the firing of cannon. The people of Hartford surpassed all others in raising money for the new institution. More than three fourths of the sum appropriated by the State, $50,000, was contributed by them, and their city was therefore selected as the seat of the College. A fine site was secured on an eminence overlooking the Little River, the hill now crowned by the beautiful State Capitol, and in 1825 two buildings were ready for occupation. The College was opened under the presidency of the Rt. Rev. Thomas C. Brownell, Bishop of Connecticut, and at all times since its foundation the institution has been administered by men of learning and wisdom. The name was changed in 1844 to Trinity College. In 1871, when the city of Hartford decided to offer to the State a site for the new Capitol, it was proposed to purchase the College campus for that purpose and in February, 1872, the trustees sold the grounds to the city, reserving the right to use them for five or six years. In 1873 a site of