History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

K82.] REVOLUTION—ARMY SUPPLIES—SAMUEL ELY. 455
have represented that town. He was a brazen-faced hypocrite,
a demagogue in the most offensive sense, unprincipled,
ambitious of notoriety : " a Seditious man and a person
of depraved, impious and disc^uiet mind, and of sedi-
tious disposition and conversation." ^ Apparently he spent
his time in traversing the count}^, exciting the citizens to
oppose the government. In January at Sunderland, he
loudly asserted that the people must "throw up our con-
stitution,"' saying that he " had got a constitution in his
pockett that the angel Gabriel could not find fault with,"
and that "the constitution is broke already." He contended
that the Governor and the Judges received too much
salary, asserting that '
' we
can get men that will ride the
circuit for half the money." Another argument used by
him was that "Officers hold two offices." "The Justices
of the Supreme Court," he said, " have gone beyond their
power and should not sitt, nor the General Court should
not sitt," and " we will pay no more regard to them than
puppies." At the same time "in pursuance of his wicked
intentions aforesaid then and there Maliciously and sedi-
tiously did endeavor to incite and procure the Selectmen of
said Sunderland to meet and draw a Warrant to call a
meeting of the Inhabitants of the same town to break up
the courts and to Give him a Copj^ of the same Warrant to
carry to Conway."' He also boasted that he "had been to
all the Towns in the Lower part of the county, and that
they were all for breaking the Courts up." He had talked
with Col. Worthington and Moses Bliss Esq., of Spring-
field, and " they were of the mind that the courts had better
be broken up." And " that he did then and there wick-
edly declare that the Attornies, Sheriffs, and all Officers
should be sacrificed, that Major John C. Williams should
be made a sacrifice of and his body should be given to the
Fowls of the air and to the Beasts of the field. " Throughout
the county, from January 4^'' till the 30^'' of April, he
1 " Ely was an uulicensed and disorderly preacher and could not obtain an ordination.
* * * He possessed the spirit, and so far as his slender abilities would
permit, the arts of a demagogue in an unusual degree. He was voluble, vehement in
address, bold, persevering, active, brazen faced in wickedness. * * * The Association
of New London County some years before, when his character was very imperfectly
known or suspected, licensed him to preach."' and he was employed by the
people of Somers, Ct. Afterwards he was brought before a council and pronounced
to be wholly unqualified to be a preacher. He left Somers and drifted into Hampshire
County, taking up his residence inConway.—Dwight's Travels, vol. 2, pp. 273. 276.
—