CHAPTER XIX. OLIVER WOLCOTT. "His deeds stand brightly on the scroll of fame, THE name of Wolcott, says Mr. Lossing, appeared among the early settlers of Connecticut, and from that day to this, it has been distinguished for living scions, honored for their talents in legislation or literature. It appears, however, that his English ancestor, Henry Wolcott, first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, after his arrival in 1630. Six years afterward, he, with a few associates, moved to Windsor, in Connecticut, and formed a settlement there. He was among the first who organized the government of that State, and obtained a charter from King Charles II. But the subject of this brief memoir was born in the town of Windsor, on the 26th of November, 1726. His father was a distinguished man, having been Major-General, Judge, Lieutenant-Governor, and finally Governor of the State of Connecticut. Oliver Wolcott entered Yale College at the age of seventeen years, and graduated with the usual honors in 1747. He received a captain's commission in the army, and raising a company immediately, he marched to the northern frontier to confront the French and Indians. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated the hostili ties, and he returned home. He arose regularly from Captain to Major-General. Young Wolcott now. turned his attention to the study of medicine, under his distinguished uncle, Dr. Alexander Wolcott; but when he had just completed his studies, he was ap pointed Sheriff of the newly organized county of Litchfield. In 1774 he was elected a member of the Council of his native State, and he was annually reelected until 1786, notwithstanding he was during that time a Delegate to the Continental Congress, Chief Justice of Litchfield County, and also a Judge of Probate of that District. Mr. Wolcott was appointed by the first General Congress one of the Commissioners of Indian affairs for the Northern Department; and he performed excellent service to the American cause by his influence in bringing about an amicable adjustment of the controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania concerning the Wyoming settlement, a controversy at one time threatening serious effects upon the confederacy. Toward the close of 1775, Mr. Wolcott was elected a delegate to the second General Congress, and took his seat in January, 1776. He took a prominent part in the debates respecting the Independence of the Colonies, and voted for, and signed that glorious Declaration of American disenthralment. Soon after this act was consummated, he returned home, and was immediately appointed by Governor Trumbull and the Council of Safety to the command of a detachment of Connecticut militia, consisting of fourteen regiments, destined for the defense of New York. After the battle of Long Island, he returned to Connecticut, and in November of that year he resumed his seat in Congress, and was in that body when they fled to Baltimore on the approach of the British toward Philadelphia, at the close of the year 1776. During the latter part of the summer of that year, he was actively engaged in the recruiting service; and after sending General Putnam, who was then on the Hudson River, several thousand volunteers, he took command of a body of recruits, and joined General Gates at Saratoga. He aided in the capture of General Burgoyne and his army in October, 1777, and soon afterward he again took a seat in Congress, then assembled at York, in Pennsylvania, where he continued until July, 1778. It will be remembered that, during the Revolution, Congress held its sessions in Philadelphia, but on several occasions was obliged to retreat to a more secure position. At the close of 1776 it adjourned to Baltimore, when it was expected Cornwallis would attack Philadelphia, after his successful pursuit of Washington across New Jersey. Again, when Howe marched upon Philadelphia in September, 1777, Congress adjourned to Lancaster, and three days afterward to York, where its sessions were held during the winter the American army were encamped at Valley Forge. In the summer of 1779, Oliver Wolcott took command of a division of Connecticut militia, and undertook, with success, the defense of the southwestern sea-coast of that State, then invaded by a British army. The British force was led by General Tryon, of New York, and was characterized as a plundering and desolating expedition. Fairfield and Norwalk were laid in ashes, and the most cruel atrocities were inflicted upon the inhabitants, without regard to sex or condition. Houses were rifled, the persons of the females abused, and many of them fled half naked to the woods and swamps in the vicinity of their desolated homes. From that time until 1783, Oliver Wolcott was alternately engaged in civil and military duties in his native State, and occasionally held a seat in Congress. In 1784 and 1785 he was an active Indian agent, and was one of the six commissioners who prescribed terms of peace to the "Six Nations of Indians," who inhabited Western New York. History informs us that the five Indian Tribes, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, had formed a confederation long before they were discovered by the whites. It is not known when this confederation was first formed, but when the New England settlers penetrated westward, they found this powerful confederacy strongly united, and at war with nearly all of the surrounding tribes. The Onondagas seemed to be the chief nation of the confederacy, for with them the great council fire was specially deposited, and it was kept always burning. Their undisputed domain included nearly the whole of the present area of the State of New York. They subdued the Hurons and Algonquins in 1657, and in 1665, they almost annihilated the Eries. In 1672 they destroyed the Andastes, and in 1701 they penetrated as far south as the Cape Fear River, spreading terror and desolation in their path. They warred with the Cherokees, and almost exterminated the Catawbas, and when in 1674, they ceded some of their lands to Virginia, they reserved the privilege of a war path through the ceded domain. In 1714 they were joined by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, and since that time the confederacy has been known as the Six Nations. They uniformly took sides with the British, and entered into a compact with them against the French in 1754. In the war of the Revolution, "the whole confederacy," says De Witt Clinton, “except a little more than half the Oneidas, took up arms against us. They hung like the scythe of death upon the rear of our settlements, and their deeds are inscribed with the scalping-knife and the tomahawk, in characters of blood, on the fields of Wyoming, and Cherry Valley, and on the banks of the Mohawk.” In 1786 General Wolcott was elected LieutenantGovernor of Connecticut, and was re-elected every year until 1796, when he was chosen Governor of the State. He was elected again to that office in 1797, and held the station at the time of his death, which event occurred on the first day of December of that year, in the seventy-second year of his age. As a patriot and a statesman, a Christian and a man, Governor Wolcott presented a bright example; for inflexibility, virtue, piety, and integrity, were his prominent characteristics. In every respect, he was a man of exemplary conduct, worthy of our esteem and emulation. He lived a hero in the cause of right, Humble in peace-unyielding in the fight! He spurned the tyrant's proffered bribes of gold, |