“Since no man has any natural authority over his fellows, and since force alone bestows no right, all legitimate authority must be based on covenants.”
ROUSSEAU
1776
This is one of my first and favorite stories that I wrote. The history of the Charter Oak updated and my hometown remembered.
In your face history.
The Fundamental Orders
Since
the beginning of civilization, wartime has depleted and polluted the earth’s
resources, and absorbed the lives of the civilian-soldiers. Death and injury brought
grief and disruption to innumerable families over thousands of years and
innumerable wars. Most accepted their lives of toil and misery as THEIR
BODIES were no more than CANNON FODDER, their labor taxed heavily by the local
despot.
The despair of the working poor is captured in the 17th century phrase, “Thy
life is a bitch, and then thouest dies.” In time, the pilot light of personal
liberty had begun to flicker, and new lands were
sought.
Punishment was everywhere and eternal in
those olden days, with a vengeful God and a diabolical Devil waging a
war for our souls. Many people rolled their eyes and shook their heads at the
superstitious nonsense spouted by religious zealots at the time before the
Revolutionary War. Logic had taken hold in cultures during the Enlightenment of
the 1700’s. As it needs to today.
Going back to 1600, much trade had developed between Europe and the Far East, and a curiosity developed about the edge of the world, maybe it wasn’t flat! The Greeks figured that out a long time ago, but Christianity insisted the earth was a flat plane (maybe it is) and was the center of the Universe. lol. I mean, it was in a Papal Bull and everything. Who knows, maybe we are the only flat planet in the Universe.
European
explorers and adventurers wondered if there was an ocean or a continent they
needed to cross to get to China, and during the first decade of the 1600’s. Dutchmen drove their ships up the Hudson River in New York State. In 1614 a
Dutchman, Adrian Block, sailed up the Connecticut River as far as the Enfield
Falls. Meanwhile, the French were exploring the Canadian wilderness via the St.
Lawrence River.
There was a lot of friendliness and trade between the natives and
the original European roughnecks and roustabouts. These original explorers
paved the way for other pioneers. The first waves were the Gypsie's, the
individuals, the characters, and the Johnny Hucksters by the score. Dudes
looking for adventure led the way, and the families came along later.
It wasn't until after the initial explorations into Indian territory that the elitists actively promoted the slaughter of the indigenous people. Faith based genocide; it was. The New Capitalists found easy money as they stripped the country of resources with the backing of the crooked clergy. Buy land. Watch the value triple in ten years was customary.
Elitist
historians think our history is war; true, a war to stamp out the heathen
polytheists, in any form! A war on nature. A war on life. Always war. Always
fear. Fear of an angry god that needs you to obey coercive authority. You know
what? FTS.
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Plymouth Massachusetts became the first permanent European town in 1620, and other settlements began on the nearby east coast. The Puritans were a dominant force in the settlement, and despite escaping the clutches of tyrannical royalty in England, they then imposed a ridiculously restrictive theocracy on themselves when they got here.
For instance, if you said a curse word and
the authorities found out, you might get your tongue nailed to a board in the
center of town. It was going to take a while for this place to be
called "land of the free," with this christian albatross around our
neck.
The tally ho of the English elitists became
the westward ho of those disenchanted with the Puritans and the Royalists in
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and thusly began the westward movement in this country.
Starting in the 1630’s, pioneers emigrated from Plymouth and Boston
Massachusetts, and after that the religious zealots fanned out among the
countryside looking for towns that would support and sponsor their
"ministry".
Truthfully, I realize many preachers started their own towns for the captive audience that ensued, and that is part of history also. They were portrayed as great Pioneers. They were actually instilling people with fear and damnation, and it kept them employed. There was always one religious sect or another trying to capture your mind and control your town. As it been pointed out, less than 20% of the population went to church.
Eventually,
the preachers asked, do we worship the Creator or the Creation? Most preachers
seemed to think we must worship God and to hell with the animals and trees. WTH. Forests and babbling brooks and a countryside filled with animals. It’s not
reality they insist. We must bow down to the creator, they implore. The
only salvation.
He's so big we
can't see him.
Things were different with the freedom loving, non-Puritan pioneers, who were
agriculturally independent and self-sufficient working slobs, ruled by good
spirits and kindness. They were not puppets of a conquering tyranny or Lemmings
following absurd theocratic philosophies. Remember that, dinner party libruls,
when you say the pioneers were racist genocidal maniacs. Not the working
people.
Before Plymouth and Boston, there was the first
settlement of English-Europeans at Jamestown Virginia. The indentured white
servants of the wealthy English were supposed to hold down the fort during the
winter but were missing the next spring when a fresh new crop of rich preppies
came to rule them. All that was left of the settlement of Jamestown was a note
that said ’Gone to Croatan,’ that was carved in the tree. Croatan were nearby
Native Americans.
In 1631, stifling and stultifying governments around the world led many of its citizens to look for new homelands.
Where was Connecticut's Charter Oak located?
ALTERNATIVE STARTING POINT>>> Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor became known as the Connecticut Colony and this was a good area for those wishing to work their craft and live honestly.
It
wouldn’t be long and there would be 50 different sects and religions in the
colonies. It was a pity the pesky Puritan preachers promoted patriarchal
platitudes. These vultures were always looking for cowering, fearful,
suspicious people to brainwash. Like todays Republicans.
Most of the
population paid lip service to the preachers who were whipping up an
anti-native frenzy. The new world was filled with heathens, the
population was warned from the pulpits of hate, and a popular T-shirt back then
in the church book stores, would have been, “So little time, so many pagans to
smite.”
They used scare tactics suggesting these Native Americans needed to be slaughtered. Never doing any of the killin' themselves, these moral high ground religious hypocrites saw the native population as troublesome and ungovernable, and sought their extinction from the start, and encouraged their parishioners to kill as many as possible. Seriously, WWJS?
Seriously, WWJD? He'd
break out a can 'o whoop ass right there. Did Jesus have a grudge with the
native North Americans?
Encouraged by a Podunk Chief
whose tribe was settled on the east side of the Connecticut River, settlers
explored the west side of the Connecticut River and found a Dutch trading post
there in 1632 at the future site of Wethersfield. In 1633, the first permanent
settlement was built in Windsor. In 1634, Wethersfield became the first
incorporated town in Connecticut, and in 1635, an area between the two towns, Hartford was
founded. Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford commingled in trade and held town
meetings, and in 1639 banded together into what they called, "One Publick
state or commonwealth".
Unbeknownst to today’s pious hypocrites, Wethersfield settlers were about trade and not religion. The Podunks were looking for friends and allies. They were a peaceful woodland tribe but hostile tribes needed to stay in their own lands.
Inspired by Thomas Hookers iconoclastic sermons, Roger
Ludlow drew up a document for governing this new organization and called it THE
FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS
He created what has been praised as the first practical constitution to declare, "The foundation of authority rests with the free consent of the people."
Also at that time, in 1636,
Roger Williams said the king had no right to claim native lands and he was
banished for his efforts. He went south to Rhode Island where he started
his own colony through legal means, purchasing land from the Narragansets at
fair value.
By 1662, the
Connecticut Colony was a proud and thriving region. The Wethersfield Red Onion
was getting known around the world and was a superlative cash crop. Here's the story of the tobacco chewin' Onion maidens of Wethersfield.
The locally elected Governor of the Connecticut Colony sailed across the Atlantic to see the King of England. The governor and the king had a splendid time, and along with extending the Connecticut Colony borders to the Pacific Ocean (I got your colonization right here), So in 1662, he legalized the Fundamental Orders of 1639. It was the most liberal document ever approved by an English monarch, ever; anywhere.
Remember the English counted India, Africa, Hong
Kong and many other places as part of their empire. The sun never sets,
remember? On the British Empire. Now 61 countries have Independence Day to
deter the colonialism of the past.
Things went well for another 25 years as people peacefully farmed fertile flood lands in the Connecticut River Valley. Their only government was the monthly town meetings that were guided by the spirit of The Fundamental Orders of 1639.
In the mid 1680’s one of the first sparks of revolutionary fervor burned right
in my old hometown of Wethersfield. A previously unprecedented defiance,
they succeeded in their refusal to pay a five-pound fine, which was imposed on
them by the Royal Courts. They held a public election and voted in favor of not
paying and this was a form of anarchy, thwarting government.
Feisty,
independent and developing a fervent civic pride, the Connecticut Colony did
not kowtow or patronize British leadership. Moreover, yes, they excluded many
from voting but the evolution of personal liberty had to begin somehow,
and it had to begin somewhere. Many Third World countries are
hundreds of years behind us in understanding the notion that all people deserve
freedom and liberty, so give these patriots a break.
The
Connecticut Colony was mostly taking care of themselves, and they enjoyed
unprecedented economic freedom. This was something new. It was
anarchy in a sense because of the completely decentralized nature of authority. Don't
get in the way of chimney and fence inspectors, and if there aren't any religious
kooks in the neighborhood, you could get by pretty well. If you worked hard, if you were good at
storing crops for the winter and could get a load of firewood piled up in time
for the winter.
So anyhow, years went by and the new king found this self-rule, this unity without hierarchy, this … freedom, was absolutely outrageous. He appointed his own governor who went to Wethersfield to proclaim his royal authority while trying to invalidate the Fundamental Orders. Andros listened to the colonists for hours. Being Halloween night, it was sensed something was afoot.
A meeting was held and residents argued with Andros for hours. They weren't going to handover the charter. Apparently, the town narcoleptic fell asleep at the main table and knocked the
candles over as the Crown appointed governor, Edmund Andros, went to take the
document. When the candles were relit, Andros was stunned that the
charter, the original copy of the Fundamental Orders that was in plain view,
had disappeared even though no one had left the meeting!
Tradition states that the Charter was thrown out the window
to someone who traveled on horseback from the meeting place at the Wethersfield
Cove to be hidden in an oak tree on a hill near the Hog River, a small creek
near the Connecticut River in Hartford and site of the current capital
building. The Redcoats could search homes and possessions but would be hard
pressed to figure out where else it was hidden, like in a tree.
As the years went by, it was a source
of pride and mystery. The Fundamental Orders was radical for the time and
became an important part of the fuel that built our 1776 revolutionary machine.
The Charter Oak is a symbol of American defiance against colonial authority,
and it is carved into the famous arch as you drive into downtown Hartford.
America is an example of
how coercive authority was given the boot. No messing around like the Third
World Half Men that kowtow to illegitimate authority. Many people in many
countries need to just grow a backbone and fight for their family and their
future. Stop coming to America because the gravy boat can only sink. Men that
allow tyranny or fascist and obnoxious zealotry should be ashamed of themselves
for not speaking up. We need to learn from the freedom-seeking activists of the
Connecticut Colony so many years ago, and be inspired by their charter of
freedom called the Fundamental Orders.
In time, a cult developed on the hidden document. Someone hid it and kept it
hidden. The infamous tree became known as the Charter Oak. The tree, a
white oak, was huge and hollow. It was reputed to be 33 feet in its
circumference at the base but was blown down in a hurricane in 1856. When I
wrote the original story of the Charter Oak in the Bicentennial year of 1976,
my idea was to show the fire in the belly the original settlers in Wethersfield
possessed.
After
a couple hundred years, Wethersfield citizens became complacent, with the “old
families” running the Bored of Education and ruling other functions. Stuffy
aristocrats you just wanted to slap upside the head. The story of the
Fundamental Orders and the Charter Oak is the story of the roots of our
eventual American Independence and not some Puritan fairy tale.
The pioneers did not want to be toadies to royalty, and independence
burned in their hearts, and this spirit moved with the pioneers. Kissing feet
and rings and kowtowing profusely was not on their agenda and they were less
enamored with the clergy than you are led to believe by TV.
Interestingly, in 1999, the U.S. Mint allowed states to design quarters and Connecticut chose to use a representation of the Charter Oak, Rockin‘!
The story goes even deeper and the following is from
Wikipedia, “The Dutch explorer Adrian (or Adriaen) Block described, in his log
in 1614, a tree, at the future site of Hartford, understood to be the Charter
Oak. In the 1630s, a delegation of local Indians approached Samuel Wyllys, the
early settler who owned and cleared much of the land around it, were encouraging
its preservation and describing it as planted ceremonially, for the sake of
peace, when their tribe first settled in the area. “This tree has been the
guide of our ancestors for centuries as to the time of the planting our corn;
when the leaves are the size of a mouse’s ears, then is the time to put the
seed into the ground.”
Corn was
easily their most important crop because it could be saved for lean times and
crop failures. Important to note is that the local “Indians” knew that
this tree was planted ceremoniously in the name of peace three hundred years
previous and I find this fairly amazing and an example of our Native American
pagans and what was sacred to them.
This Charter Oak has a much deeper meaning and deeper roots than I realized. The tree’s beginning was actually in the 1400’s when the Oak was born and began to grow. When the tree was 20 years old or so, it was ceremoniously consecrated to be THE OAK they used as their corn-planting guide in the 1500's.
It must have been a marvelous tree in its
youth. Eventually the open gap in the trunk of the tree was the hiding place of
the banned Fundamental Orders in the late 1600’s. In later years 28 men stuffed themselves into the giant cavity. Previously, it was enlarged by kids starting a fire and it burned all the rooten pieces and made it bigger.
A venerated oak in its youth and a symbol of the new American Nation during its maturity, imagine then the positive energy created by this one tree!
Fourth of July is a lot more than waving flags to me and this story had its
original inspiration from the Bicentennial in 1976. The ideas of the
Revolutionary Era should remind us not to take our freedoms for granted.
Today’s Moral High Ground Hypocrites, the religious right and the alt-right and
the not quite right, and are all about power, not liberty, and they have more
power than numbers.
Not all of our oppressors are hiding in caves plotting our
destruction. The Christians have been trying to create a theocracy for nearly
forty years now, and they think they are in control with the alt-right coup of
our United States.
If America is ever taken
over, I know I will create my own fundamental orders and fight with others to
regain our freedom, we all would. Whether it's Nancy Pelosis gay police
that are going to take your guns away, or some theocracy led by a hallucinating
pastor who sees demons everywhere, we got to be ready for a loony toons fascist
coup. Turnip talks a lot about “bloodbaths” when he talks.
All you need to remember
as The New World Order engulfs the earth, the spirit of America, is this:
"The foundation of authority rests with the free consent of the
people." Their sacred document was hidden in a tree that was 275
years old and lived to be 450 years old. For America to last that
long, we need to oppose the growing fascist theocracy.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Was this freedom in 1662 a form of anarchy? The
Connecticut Colony ran itself without government pretty much and my definition
of anarchy is the absence of coercion. There were monthly town meetings to take
care of most business.
I have written some quotes from the
article to create some educational type questions
"The Puritans were a dominant force in the settlement,
and despite escaping the clutches of tyrannical royalty in England, they then
imposed a ridiculously restrictive theocracy on themselves when they got
here. For instance, if you said a curse word and the authorities found
out, you might get your tongue nailed to a board in the center of
town. It was going to take a while for this place to be called
"land of the free" with the christian albatross around our
neck."
"The new world was filled with heathens, the population was warned from
the pulpits of hate. A popular T-shirt in the church book stores, would have
been, “So little time, so many pagans to smite.” These preachers used
scare tactics, suggesting the Native Americans needed to be slaughtered. Never
doing any of the killin' themselves, these moral high ground religious
hypocrites saw the native population as troublesome and ungovernable, and
sought their extinction from the start, and encouraged their parishioners to
kill as many as possible. Seriously, WWJD? He'd
break out a can 'o whoop ass right there. Did Jesus have a grudge with the
native North Americans?
I don't think so"
" Inspired by Thomas Hookers iconoclastic sermons, Roger Ludlow
drew up a document for governing this new organization and called it
The Fundamental
Orders
.
He created what has been praised as
the first practical constitution to declare, "The foundation of authority
rests with the free consent of the people."
"As the years went
by, it was a source of pride and mystery. The Fundamental Orders was radical
for the time and became an important part of the fuel that built our 1776
revolutionary machine. The Charter Oak is a symbol of American defiance against
colonial authority."
" THE
OAK they used as their corn-planting guide in the 1500's. It must have
been a marvelous tree in its youth. Eventually the tree was the hiding place of
the banned Fundamental Orders in the late 1600’s. A venerated oak in its youth
and a symbol of the new American Nation during its maturity, imagine then the
positive energy created by this one tree! "
