Afterward
Were we writing a tale of fiction, we should
feel bound, in deference to the feelings of our
readers, to end our story with the marriage
of Chauncey Judd to Ditha Webb. For certainly that
first unfortunate act of gallantry, which occasioned
him so much suffering, and had so nearly cost him his
life, deserved to be crowned with a correspondingly
felicitous result.
But we are writing history, not fiction; and history,
though often a maker of romance, has little regard for
that which is prepared for her by the schemes of men.
The allotments of human experience are the prerogative
of a higher wisdom than our own. In the beautiful
language of another, Every man's life is a plan
of God, who shapes its progress and its issues to
promote purposes of good beyond our limited vision,
and reaching down through unmeasured ages of the
future.
Ditha's family early removed from Gunntown into
what was then the far-off regions of Central New
York. Of her subsequent history we have found no
record.
Chauncey resided with his parents after his restoration.
Though the war was prolonged nearly three
years further, yet the circumstances of the family
were somewhat more comfortable than they had been
in its earlier years. The money received from the
tories served to remove the debt which rested on the
homestead, and complete the "doing off" of the
house so far as it was ever accomplished. The children
were now getting to be older, the four eldest
being married and commenced housekeeping for
themselves, and the younger ones approaching more
nearly the age when their labor was of substantial
value in the kitchen and on the farm. Chauncey's
slender frame and delicate health, serving as a constant
reminder of the hardships he had undergone,
made him rather the favored member of the family,
as they secured for him a peculiarly tender regard in
the social circle of the neighborhood.
It was at what now would be thought a premature
age that Chauncey took to himself a wife. As we
scan the family records of those days, we are struck
with the prevalence of early marriages. Why, indeed,
should there have been delay? A young man became
of age at twenty-one, and could not well enter upon
his life-work as a farmer till he had a home and a
household of his own. Chauncey's mother married
in her seventeenth year, and was not eighteen years
older than her oldest son. It was to such beginnings,
coupled with industry and temperance, that, we are to
attribute the numerous and healthy families of that
day. The blessing of the full-quivered sire rested
upon many a patriarchal household.
Among the young people who were intimate in the
family was the young sister of his Uncle William's
wife, Mabel Hotchkiss. She was, as before stated,
the daughter of Captain and Deacon Gideon Hotchkiss,
the veteran soldier and one of the leading men
of the town. The houses of the Judds and Williamses
were but a few rods apart. Mabel, of course, was a
frequent visitor at her sister's, and so it was the most
natural thing in the world that he should have won
her regard. Like Desdemona in the play,–
She loved him for the dangers he had passed,
And he loved her that she did pity them.
They were married in September, 1785, a little before
the completion of his twenty-first year.
Little remains to record of his subsequent life. The
religious impressions made upon his mind in the
anguish of his terrible trial never left him. He became
known as a man of exemplary character and devoted
piety. He was at one time chosen a deacon in
the Baptist church, but his great diffidence and self-distrust
led him to decline the office. His wife died
about 1799, after which he married again.
His own death occurred February 24, 1823, at the
age of fifty-three.
Of the tories who engaged actively in the war
against the independence or America, the subsequent
history was for the most part a melancholy one.
Probably not more than one-half of those who went
from Waterbury ever returned. Those who did were
mostly broken-down men, reduced to poverty, laden
with the odium of having made war upon their country,
and in many cases stained with vices and addicted
to habits which sent them to an early grave.
It was one of the questions complicating the peace
negotiations between the States and Great Britain in
1783, what should be done with these tories. Several
thousand in the aggregate had removed to Canada,
New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the greater part of
whom were in circumstances of extreme destitution.
Congress should grant pardons to all political offenders
of this sort, restore their confiscated estates, and
remunerate them for the losses they had suffered.
This was refused, on the ground, first, that congress
was without the requisite authority, its sole power,
under the Articles of Confederation, being to recommend
measures to the several states. Secondly, these
men, by their principles, example and counsels, had
encouraged the British government to prosecute the
war, and many had personally engaged in plundering
and ravaging the country, and ought rather to be
made to render compensation than expect to receive
it. Thirdly, that the confiscated estates had been
sold and resold, often divided, and could not now be
restored without opening the way to endless litigation.
And finally, that in the impoverished condition
of the country it was impossible to pay its own
meritorious soldiers; much more those who had done
so much to bring ruin both upon it and themselves.
The matter was at length compromised by inserting
three articles into the treaty to the effect that the
loyalists should not be debarred from collecting debts
due them before the war; that Congress would recommend
to the states to restore confiscated property as
far as possible, and that no future confiscations should
be made or prosecutions begun because of what had
been done. These terms, which were certainly most
generous on the part of the infant states, were finally,
though with great reluctance, accepted by Great
Britain, and the peace was concluded upon that
basis.
The recommendations of Congress to the states
were, however, ineffectual, as it was probably expected
they would be. Connecticut would not consent to
restore the property of such as had been engaged in
plundering and burning Danbury, Fairfield and other
sea-coast towns. The same was true in other states.
Let England, they said, pay us for the wanton injuries
she has inflicted before she asks compensation for
the traitors by whom it was done.
Failing thus in securing relief from the states for
the refugees, Parliament undertook the duty for themselves.
A commission was appointed to obtain returns
of the losses incurred by their friends, and ultimately
a sum amounting to about fifteen and a half millions
of dollars was appropriated from the British exchequer
for their compensation.
The loyalists, then, says Sabine, were well
cared for. Whatever were the miseries to individuals
occasioned by delay; whatever the injury sustained
by those who were unable to procure sufficient evidence
of their losses; and whatever were the wrongs
inflicted upon others by the errors in judgment on the
part of the commissioners, – the Americans who took
the royal side, as a body, fared infinitely better than
the great body of the whigs, whose services and sacrifices
were quite as great. For, besides the allowance
of fifteen and a half millions of dollars in money,
numbers received considerable gratuities, half pay as
military officers, large grants of land, and shared with
other subjects in the patronage of the crown. The
rewards of those who served under Congress, on the
other hand, were exceedingly limited; and, excepting
those who filled the public offices under the state and,
after the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States, under the national government, few who
served in the field or who suffered by the ravages of
the king's troops, obtained considerable or adequate
recompense. In truth, thousands were allowed to go
down to the grave in the most abject want and destitution. [1]
We must spare room, ere we close, for a single paragraph
respecting our friends, Tobiah and Rachel,
and their descendants. After the war they, continued
to reside in Derby, now Seymour, maintaining a respectable
character in the humble class to which they
belonged. The advantage of common schools, free to
all, the abolition of slavery, and the gradual abatement
of prejudice against the colored race, have
opened to them possibilities which were formerly denied
them. One of Tobiah's descendants, – a great-grandson,
we believe, – the Hon. Ebenezer D. Bassett,
was appointed by President Grant, in l869, minister
resident to Hayti, and now worthily represents the
dignity of the United States at that republic.
A century has passed, and the feeble colonies which,
at such expense of treasure and suffering, in private
and public, planted here the germs of a free government,
have become a rich and powerful nation. The
wildest dreams of our fathers as to the future could
never have conjectured what have now become realities.
The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
our Revolutionary families live in homes which would
then have been palaces, and enjoy luxuries which the
proudest nobles of the mother land could not then
have commanded. The blessings of just laws, of universal
and free education, of unrestricted enterprise in
every branch of industry, and of free, self-administered
institutions of religion, are enjoyed by every
citizen. We shall not have read the lessons of our
early history aright, if we have not learned from them
a just appreciation of our blessings, and a heartfelt
gratitude for them to Him who gave them.
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