ocure,
either by bounty, hire, or in any other way, such a sum to
be paid to their masters as such negro or mulatto shall be
judged to be reasonably worth by the selectmen of the town
where such negro or mulatto belongs, shall be allowed to
enlist into either of said battalions, and shall thereupon
be, de facto, _free and emancipated_; and that the master of
such negro or mulutto shall be exempted from the support and
maintenance of such negro or mulatto, in case such negro or
mulatto shall hereafter become unable to support and
maintain himself.

"'And that, in case any such negro or mulatto slave shall be
disposed to enlist into either of said battalions during the
[war], he shall be allowed so to do: and such negro or
mulatto shall be appraised by the selectmen of the town to
which he belongs, and his master shall be allowed to receive
the bounty to which such slave may be entitled and also
one-half of the annual wages of such slave during the time
he shall continue in said service; provided, however, that
said master shall not be allowed to receive such part of
said wages after he shall have received so much as amounts,
together with the bounty, to the sum at which he was
appraised.'"

In the lower house the report was put over to the next session, but
when it reached the upper house it was rejected.

"You will see by the Report of Committee, May, 1777, that
General Varnum's plan for the enlistment of slaves had been
anticipated in Connecticut; with this difference, that Rhode
Island _adopted_ it, while Connecticut did _not._

"The two States reached nearly the same _results_ by
different methods. The unanimous declaration of the officers
at Cambridge, in the winter of 1775, _against_ the
enlistment of slaves,--confirmed by the Committee of
Congress,--had some weight, I think, with the Connecticut
Assembly, so far as the formal enactment of a law
_authorized_ such enlistments was in question. At the same
time, Washington's license to _continue_ the enlistment of
negroes was regarded as a rule of action both by the
selectmen in making up, and by the State Government in
accepting, the quota of the towns. The process of
draughting, in Connecticut, was briefly this: The
able-bodied men, in each town, were divided into 'c