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and British officers returned him their warmest thanks. He witnessed the close of the great drama, when the British evacuated New York city." (From J. S. Headley, in the New York Observer for 1875.)

The following is taken from Hollister's History of Connecticut:

"Rev. Judah Champion, of Litchfield, was an ardent patriot. Besides acting as a chaplain in the army, he used all his influence in arousing and sustaining the enthusiasm of the people in favor of liberty; at one time preaching eloquent sermons, at another encouraging enlistments and contributions of clothing and provisions for the army. In 'the alarming crisis, he thus invoked the sanction of Heaven :'

"Oh Lord! we view with terror and dismay the enemies of thy holy religion; wilt thou send storm and tempest, to toss them upon the sea, and to overwhelm them in the mighty deep, or scatter them to the uttermost parts of the earth. But peradventure, should any escape thy vengeance, collect them together again, O Lord! as in the hollow of thine hand, and let thy lightnings play upon them. We beseech thee, moreover, that thou do gird up the loins of these thy servants, who are going forth to fight thy battles. Make them strong men, that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight.' Hold before them the shield, with which thou wast wont in the old time to protect thy chosen people. Give them swift feet that they may pursue their enemies, and swords terrible as that of thy destroying Angel, that they may cleave them down when they have overtaken them. Preserve these servants of thine, Almighty God! and bring them once more to their homes and friends, if thou canst do it consistently with thine high purposes. If, on the other hand, thou hast decreed that they shall die in battle, let thy spirit be present with them, and breathe upon them, that they may go up as a sweet sacrifice into the courts of thy temple, where are habitations prepared for them from the foundation of the world."

REV. JAMES DANA, D. D., born, Mass., May 11, 1735; Harvard University, 1753; settled in Wallingford, Oct: 12,

1758, and in New Haven, April 29, 1789; died, August 18, 1812.

The following is an extract from Bacon's Historical Discourses, p. 273:

"There was a time, while the Revolution was approaching, when public sentiment in Connecticut had by no means become unanimous as to the expediency of attempting to stand against the British government, or of taking any measures which might sever the tie between the colonies and the present empire. The eastern part of the State was somewhat in advance of the western, and, if I mistake not, the 'new lights,' as a body, were a little before the old lights, or conservative party, as a body. So slow was Governor Fitch in coming up to the grand movement of the day, and consenting to the adoption of strong measures, that during the agitations consequent upon the Stamp Act, he lost the confidence of the people, and lost his office. It was not far from this time that Dr. Dana, then a young man, was invited to preach in this place (New Haven). Many, particularly of the eastern members, would have refused to hear so suspected a preacher, if they had not understood that he was strongly on their side in politics. Their curiosity, and their confidence in his political orthodoxy, overcame their dislike of his ecclesiastical irregularity. His audience, therefore, included all the leading political men of the colony. Expecting, or at least hoping for such an audience, he had prepared himself for the occasion. His text was, Heb. xi, 24, 25. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' And though to men not in the habit of looking for a double sense, the sermon might have seemed far enough from having any political bearing, there were few in that audience who did not see the meaning. As the preacher illustrated and vindicated the conduct of Moses, when he had come to years,' it became very plain that Connecticut, having come to years, was old enough to act for herself, and trusting in the God of Israel, to refuse to be any longer dependent

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upon Pharaoh. As he held up for imitation the faith of the great Hebrew lawgiver, whom all the blandishments of royalty could not pervert, whom the wrath of the king could not deter, and who renounced the court and identified himself with the cause of the wronged and oppressed people, there was no hearer who did not see for himself, in the contrast, the picture of those timid politicians of the times, who were likely to become the tools of the court. No man was ever more than he a master of that sort of eloquence in which 'more is meant than meets the ear.' The prejudices of his auditors were vanquished. From that time forward, whenever the General Assembly held its session at New Haven, it was expected of course that Mr. Whittlesey would gratify the members by exchanging once with his brother Dana."

CHAUNCEY WHITTLESEY, Son of Samuel Whittlesey, born in Wallingford, 1718; Yale College, 1738; ordained in New Haven, March 1, 1758; died, July 24, 1787.

Dr. Bacon in his Historical Discourses, p. 255, quotes the following portion of a prayer from the handwriting of Rev. Chauncey Whittlesey:

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"O thou Most High! as thou wast pleased to speak by thy prophet to Rehoboam and the people of Judah and Benjamin, so be pleased in thy providence to speak to the king of Great Britain and Ireland: Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, but return every man to his house, and thus without the farther effusion of blood.' O God most high and gracious! may tranquility be restored to the nation and to these American States. As thou didst then. influence the minds of the men of Judah and Benjamin to refrain from the destruction of their brethren, so, O God! in whose hands are the hearts of all men, Thou canst easily influence the minds of those who are invading our land, and threatening to lay us waste. Would to God that they might be influenced to desist from their cruel and destructive designs."

NAPHTALI DAGGETT, D. D., born Attleboro', Mass, Sept. 8, 1727; Yale College, 1748; Prof. of Divinity in Yale Col

lege from March 4, 1756 till his death, and acting President in 1766-78; died Nov. 25, 1780.

"My first recollections of Dr. Daggett go back to the autumn of 1775, when I entered Yale College. In person he was of about the middle height, strong framed, inclining to be corpulent, slow in his gait, and somewhat clumsy in his movements. When I first knew him, he was about fortyeight years old, and had been twenty years Professor of Divinity, and nine years President. When appointed to the latter station, there was no expectation of uniting the two offices in the same individual; and he took the Presidency only for a time, until a proper person could be found to fill it. This proved more difficult than was expected, and he continued to hold the office until I was a junior in college, in the year 1778. There was a story among the students on this subject, which illustrates one prominent characteristic of the clergy of that day,-I mean, a love of drollery and of keen retort. 'Good morning, Mr. President pro tempore,' said one of his clerical brethren, on some public occasion, bowing very profoundly, and laying a marked emphasis on the closing words of his title. 'Did you ever hear of a President pro æternitate?' said the old gentleman in reply, drawing himself up with an assumed air of stateliness, and turning the laugh of the whole company on his assailant. There was hardly anything which the old clergy loved better at their occasional meetings than such a keen encounter of the wits.

"For about three years after I entered college, the faculty consisted of Dr. Daggett, who was President and Professor of Divinity, the Rev. Nehemiah Strong, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and two or three tutors. was in the midst of the Revolutionary War, and the number of students was greater than at any former period, many young men having been placed in the institution by their parents, to prevent them from being drafted into the army. The agitated state of the country was unfavorable to study. The neighborhood of New Haven was, at one time, so drained of provisions for the public service, that it became necessary to dismiss college for want of a competent supply of food for the

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consumers. Our proximity to New York, which was occupied by the enemy, created great anxiety for the safety of the students, and the corporation at last decided to remove the students into the country. For nearly two years, the classes were distributed into different towns in the interior; two at Glastonbury, one at Farmington, and one at Wethersfield. Dr. Daggett, in the meantime, remained at New Haven, in charge of the college buildings and other property, without being statedly engaged in preaching or instruction. several years there were no regular Commencements,—the graduating classes received their degrees in private. In 1778, Dr. Stiles, who had some time before been elected President, entered on the duties of his office. The exercises of college had already been resumed in New Haven. Dr. Daggett was now freed from the responsibilities of the presidency, and recommenced his labors as Professor of Divinity, preaching to the students regularly in the chapel on the Sabbath.

"These labors were continued about a year, during which the institution was in a state of increasing prosperity under the new President, when everything was thrown into confusion by rumors of a meditated attack on the town by the British under General Tryon. It soon came. On the evening of the 4th of July, 1779, a force of twenty-five hundred men, which had previously sailed from New York, landed in the south part of West Haven, a parish of New Haven, about five miles from the center of the town. College was, of course, broken up; and the students, with many of the inhabitants, prepared to flee on the morrow into the neighboring country. To give more time for preparation, and especially for the removal of goods, a volunteer company of about a hundred young men was formed, not with the expectation of making any serious stand against such a force, but simply of retarding or diverting its march. In common with others of the students, I was one of the number; and I well remember the surprise we felt the next morning, July 5th, as we were marching over West bridge towards the enemy, to see Dr. Daggett riding furiously by us on his old black mare, with his long fowling-piece in his hand ready for action. We knew the old

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