Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

mtUin=mioUon
was .annually elected till 1 766, when, in the manner I shall hereafter partic-
ularly state, he was elected Governor in the room of Fitch.
" In May 1754 he was appointed one of three Commissioners to rep-
resent Connecticut at a convention held at Albany, by the request of the
British Government, in order to form a more perfect union between the
colonies, to meet an expected war with France, and at the same time to
secure the friendship of the Northern Indians. The plan drawn up and
recommended was principally the work of Dr. Benjamin Franklin of
Pennsylvania, and was called the 'Albany Union.' It has generally been
stated that all of the Commissioners present approved of this plan ;
those
from Connecticut, however, were not in favor of it, particularly of a part
which gave the veto power to a President General to be appointed by the
Crown. The plan itself, as is well known, was afterwards rejected, not
only by Connecticut, but by all the other colonies as well.
" William Pitkin the third was also very strongly opposed to the cele-
brated Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament in March 1765, to take
effect upon the i'* day of November of the same year. It became a very
serious question whether the Governor and Magistrates should take the
oath to carry the same into execution, as required by the Act. Thomas
Fitch, then Governor, and I believe four of the Council, deemed it proper,
and probably considered it their duty, to take the oath required. But
William Pitkin, then Lieut. Gov'', Jonathan Trumbull and the other
Councillors refused to take it. The two former in fact retired from the
Council Chamber, while it was being administered.^ This proceeding of
Gov. Fitch rendered him very unpopular throughout the colony, of which
he had been Governor since 1754, and in May 1766 Lieutenant Gov.
Pitkin was chosen Governor in his stead, by so large a majority of the
votes of the freemen that the same when separated (as the actual votes
then given by the freemen were returned to the Assembly to be counted
by that body) were noi in fact coimted.
"The 'Connecticut Gazette' gives the following brief account of this
election :
" 'General Election 8" of May 1766. Hon'"" William Pitkin, Governor. Majority
so great, votes not counted.'
"'Hon'""* Jonathan Trumbull, Deputy Governor.'
" As did, also, Matthew Griswold (see ffiiistDolt)).
209