American Revolution, a Definition
This is taken from The Connecticut Magazine, July, August, September 1906. The article,
entitled “Memoirs of Connecticut” was written by Edward Everett Hale.
“Remember that in that critical struggle of the revolution which we like to go
back to, there was, strictly speaking, no revolution in Connecticut; every form of
government went on without a break of a hair as it had done before. The elections were
the old colonial elections. Governor Trumbull was chosen as every other governor had
been chosen in every other Connecticut election from the beginning. Randolph and some
other English governors were commissioned as governors of New England, but they
exercised no power in Connecticut except, perhaps, sending a catch-poll to hunt up a
fugitive. When the Revolution came, Connecticut had her governor and her army; she
knew how to commission her officers and to arm her troops. Ethan Allen took
Ticonderoga in 1775 and told the commander that he did it in the name of the Great
Jehovah [he probably chose stronger language] and the Continental Congress. This was a
very imaginative use of language. The only commission he had was from the state of
Connecticut, and she used such power exactly as she had used it in commissioning
colonels for one hundred and fifty years.