THE TREES OF AMEBICA. 41 



for Woodcocks, in order to go to Connecticut to assume y* government of y' 

 place." 



On Ms arrival at Hartford, lie sent a message to the General Court demanding 

 the surrender of the Charter. The Assembly met on the 31st of October, 1687, 

 and deliberated until evening upon this message, without coming to the conclu- 

 sion to obey the royal order. The divine right of kings had already begun to 

 be disputed by these hardy sons of the Pilgrims. In the evening. Sir Edmond, 

 becoming impatient of the delay, came in person to demand it, or to seize it, if 

 the Assembly should refuse to yield it up. Suddenly the lights were extin- 

 guished in the very face of His Excellency, and when they were re-lighted the 

 precious document was nowhere to be found. It had been conveyed away and 

 lodged in the old oak, which had for ages stood the guardian of the land, and 

 now was to become the keeper of an instrument which secured the liberties of 

 a people. This bold deed was done by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, then a young 

 man, who, in spite of the presence of the governor and his armed soldiers, bore 

 away the precious Charter in triumph, and consigned it to the keeping of the 

 " brave old oak." For some time after this. Sir Edmond administered the gov- 

 ernment of the colony, and sadly oppressed the people, loading them with heavy 

 taxes, questioning the titles of their estates, and causing them much trouble. 

 Upon the accession of William and Mary to the throne, he was seized and 

 imprisoned by the people of Boston, and the old Charter again became the law 

 of Connecticut. The government was administered under this instrument until 

 1818, when the present State Constitution was adopted. This venerable docu- 

 ment is preserved in a frame made of the wood of the Charter Oak itself. This 

 was the gift, we believe, of the patriotic gentleman on whose estate the tree 

 stood. One of the children of the old tree has been planted on the spot where 

 the parent grew. May it live a thousand years. 



