President Stiles, in his "History of the Judges," says, "So late as the
last French war, 1760, some British officers passing through New Haven,
and hearing of Dixwell's grave, visited it, and declared, with
rancorous and malicious vengeance, that if the British ministry knew
it, they would even then cause their bodies to be dug up and vilified.
Often have we heard the crown officers aspersing and vilifying them;
and some so late as 1775 visited and treated the graves with marks of
indignity too indecent to be detailed."
By those who can make a due allowance for difference of time and
circumstances, the graves of these exiles will be visited with
sentiments of veneration. It would have been grand to spare the
presumptuous monarch; but we cannot feel surprised that he was
sacrificed to the indignation of an outraged people. In these days,
happily, kings and nations have learned that to take away the life of
tyrannical rulers, or of resisting subjects, is but to sow the seeds of
future troubles, and not to lay the foundation of permanent peace.