This oak he knew was hollow. Reaching it
he thrust the parchment deep into the hole and carefully covered it
up with dried leaves and bark. Thus was the charter of Connecticut
saved.
The man who saved it was Captain Wadsworth. Ever afterwards the
tree was called the Charter Oak, and until about sixty years ago
it stood a memorial of his deed. But some wise folk say this story
of the Charter Oak is all a fairy tale. That may be so. But it
deserves to be true.
Yet though the men of Connecticut may have succeeded in saving the
sign and symbol of their freedom, they could not save the reality.
For whether Sir Edmund Andros was in possession of their charter
or not he stamped upon their liberties just the same. In the public
record the secretary wrote: "His Excellency Sir Edmund Andros,
Knight Captain General and Governor of His Majesty's Territory and
Dominion in New England, by order from his Majesty, King of England,
Scotland and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his
hands the government of this Colony, of Connecticut, it being by
his Majesty annexed to the Massachusetts and other Colonies under
his Excellency's Government.
"Finis."
"Finis, " as you know, means "the end." And one cannot but feel
sorry for that stern, old, freedom loving Puritan gentleman who
wrote the words. For indeed to him the loss of freedom must have
seemed the end of all things.
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