bated by the Linonian Society. It was, 'Is it
right to enslave the Affricans?' I think, by the
way, that this record, bad spelling and all, is made
by my great-uncle, Nathan Hale." These debates
show how seriously, even in the colonial period,
men were thinking of the urgent problems of later
days.

In the debate first mentioned, the others taking
part in it were Benjamin Tallmadge, Ezra Samson,
and William Robinson. Some account of Major
Tallmadge's after life is given in later pages.
Samson was, for a time, a clergyman, and then
became an editor, first in Hudson, New York,
and then of the _Courant,_ at Hartford, Connecticut.

William Robinson was a direct descendant of
Pastor John Robinson of Leyden. He studied
for the ministry and was ordained in 1780 at
Southington, Connecticut. In the winter of that
year--which was one of the coldest and most
severe on record--he walked the whole distance
from Windsor to Southington, about thirty miles,
on snowshoes, to be installed as pastor, an office he
held for forty-one years.

[[28]]

p027 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p028w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p029

v?