act, by which the lands of actual settlers were confirmed to them, and the district was erected into the county of Luzerne. Unfortunately, there were dissensions between the old settlers and the new-comers of the Wyoming district, and Pennsylvania suspended the accommodation act in 1788, and repealed it in 1790. There were renewed struggles, and in 1799 the act was substantially reenacted, and the controversy came to an end. The settlement had the result of carrying into Pennsylvania a large infusion of Connecticut blood, the source of the prevalence of Connecticut names in this part of Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE STAMP ACT AND THE REVOLUTION.

THE close of the French and Indian war marks the period when Connecticut's democratic constitution began to influence other commonwealths. Her charter was an object-lesson to all of them. It was the standard to which their demands gradually came up; and their growing demands upon the crown caused an equally steady approximation toward the establishment of a local democracy like that which Connecticut had kept up for a hundred and fifty years.

The passage of the Stamp Act by the English Parliament was met at once by a protest from the Connecticut general assembly, followed by instructions to its agent in London to insist firmly on "the exclusive right of the colonies to tax themselves and on the privilege of trial by jury," as rights which" they never could recede from." It had good reason to speak plainly, for the principle of the act struck more heavily at Connecticut than at any other colony except Rhode Island. No other colonies had been so completely free from any appearance of royal interference as

these; and Connecticut's lack of commerce had prevented it from feeling even those forms of royal interference which the commercial interests of Rhode Island had brought upon it. To Connecticut the act was simply intolerable, and she not only spoke but made ready for action.

Jared Ingersoll, of New Haven, was sent to London as special agent to remonstrate against the passage of the act. When his mission had failed, he accepted the office of stamp agent for Connecticut, by advice of Franklin, and set out for home. He found things there in a ferment. The governor and some of the leading men were willing to submit, rather than risk the loss of the charter, but the instinct of the democracy taught it that this was the time to put its charter privileges into security forever. The ministers were preaching against the act; the towns were ordering their officers to disregard it, promising to hold them harmless; Trumbull had become the head of a popular movement; and volunteer organizations, calling themselves "Sons of Liberty,” were patrolling the country, overawing those who were inclined to support the home government, and making ready to resist the execution of the law. Ingersoll seems to have been sufficiently impressed with the strength of the home government to be willing to avoid a conflict; and he meant now to execute faithfully the office which he had accepted only to make its provisions more tolerable to his

countrymen. The meeting between him and them was that of the flint and steel. The Sons of Liberty were out and in waiting for him as he rode from New Haven to Hartford; and he entered the capital under the escort of a thousand horsemen, farmers and freeholders, who had compelled him to resign his office. He had not lost his head. or shown any craven frailty: he had simply made up his mind that he had gone far enough in an unpleasant duty, and that "the cause was not worth dying for." He had, however, carried his resistance up to the verge of temerity; and, as he rode on his white horse at the head of the triumphant mob, he said afterward that he realized at last what the book of Revelation meant by "Death on the pale horse, and hell following him."

Governor Fitch died in 1766, and, after a three years' service of William Pitkin, Jonathan Trumbull, the first "war governor" of Connecticut, succeeded him. He held the office until 1783; he was the trusted associate of Washington, and the latter's familiar way of addressing him when asking his advice or assistance is said to have been the origin of the popular phrase "Brother Jonathan." The family has been one of the most noted in the history of the commonwealth. It has included Governor Jonathan Trumbull, his sons John (the painter), Jonathan, governor from 1798 until 1809, and Joseph, commissary general

of the Revolutionary army; John Trumbull, the author of "McFingal;" Benjamin Trumbull, the author of one of the standard histories of the State; James Hammond Trumbull, the recognized authority on the Indian languages and the history of the State; his brother, H. C. Trumbull, a leader in missionary and Sunday-school work; and ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois. The reign of the Trumbulls was ushered in brilliantly by the governor. In him the people had found the man they needed, and doubt and hesitation fled before him.

The rapid succession of events which followed the Boston Tea Party- the Boston Port Bill, the Massachusetts Act, and the preparations of Massachusetts for active resistance met prompt sympathy and support in Connecticut. The non-importation agreement had been universally signed in 1768-69, and, if contemporary accounts are to be trusted, was kept far more faithfully in Connecticut than in some of her neighbor colonies. Unofficial preparations, with the quiet approval of the official authorities, were now made, so that, when hostilities began, Connecticut was the first colony to take her place abreast of Massachusetts. In all this there was not one iota of change in the traditional policy of the colony. In the proceedings which led to the loss or serious modification of the Massachusetts charter in 1691, Connecticut had taken no part with the attacked col