Abraham Davenport quotes
Several inhabitants have been killed and wounded, and nearly sixty within a short time carried into confinement and robbed of their property, and unless some protection is afforded, those who are of ability and inclination will retire into the country, and others will make their peace. The ardor of the people, (which is to be lamented,) has abated in consequence of their distresses, so that very little opposition is to be expected from them.
Abraham Davenport
Abraham Davenport was one of those solid men who participated in community, state and national affairs on every level simultaneously, from attending meetings as Selectman of Stamford to meetings of the august Connecticut Council of Safety which, having the powers of life and death and property confiscation, for all practical purposes ran the state on a day-to-day basis during the Revolution.
Abraham Davenport
During the American Constitutional Convention, just before the convention, there was in Hartford, Conn., one day a storm which overcast the United States, and in that religious day men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came. The Connecticut House of Representatives was in session and many of the members clamored for immediate adjournment. The speaker of the house, one Colonel Davenport, came to his feet and he silenced the din with these words: "The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought."
I hope in a dark and uncertain period in our own country that we, too, may bring candles to help light our country's way.
Abraham Davenport
Wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport,
Straight to the question, with no figures of speech
Save the ten Arab signs, yet not without
The shrewd dry humor natural to the man
His awe-struck colleagues listening all the while,
Between the pauses of his argument,
To hear the thunder of the wrath of God
Break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud.
And there he stands in memory to this day,
Erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen
Against the background of unnatural dark,
A witness to the ages as they pass,
That simple duty hath no place for fear.
Abraham Davenport