Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 9

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 9

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ALBANY COUNTY, N. Y.

OUTLINE HISTORY

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

REVISED AND CORRECTED BY PROF. JONATHAN TENNEY, PH.D.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK-THE INDIANS OF THE FIVE NATIONS.

IN 1524, John de Verazzano, a Florentine naviga- tor in the service of Francis I. of France, made a voyage to the North American coast, and, as is believed from the account which he gave, entered the harbor of New York. No colonies were plant- ed ; no results followed ; and the voyage was almost forgotten.

Though discoveries and settlements were made by the French north from this point, and colonies were planted by the English farther to the south, it is not known that New York was again visited by Europeans till 1609,* when the Dutch East India Company sent Henry Hudson, an Englishman by birth, on a voyage of discovery, in a vessel called the Half Moon. He reached the coast of Maine, sailed thence to. Cape Cod, then south- westerly to the month of Chesapeake Bay ; then, coasting northward, he entered Delaware Bay, on the 28th of August. From thence he proceeded northward, and on the 3d of September, 1609,

anchored in New York Bay. On the 12th he en- tered the river that bears his name, and proceeded slowly up to a point just above the present site of the City of Hudson; thence he sent a boat's crew to explore farther up, which probably passed above Albany. September 23d he set sail down the river, and started on his return to Europe, Oc- tober 4th.

In 1609 Samnel Champlain, a French navigator, sailed up the St. Lawrence, explored its tributaries, and on the 4th of July, in that year, discovered the lake which bears his name.

At the time of the discovery of New York by the whites, the southern and eastern portions were in- habited by the Mohegan Indians ; while that por- tion west from the Hudson River was occupied by five confederate tribes, afterwards named by the English the Five Nations, by the French the Iroquois, and by themselves called Hodenosaunee -people of the Long House. The Long House formed by this confederacy extended east and west through the State, having, at its eastern portal, the Mohawks, and at its western the Senecas ; while between them dwelt the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas ; and, after 1714, a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, southeast from Oneida Lake. Of these Indians, Parkman says that at the commence- ment of the seventeenth century, "in the region now forming the State of New York, a power was rising to a ferocious vitality, which, but for the presence of Europeans, would probably have sub- jected, absorbed. or exterminated every other In- dian community east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio."

" The Iroquois was the Indian of Indians. A thorough savage, yet a finished and developed savage, he is. perhaps, an example of the highest elevation which man can reach without emerging from his primitive condition of the hunter. A geo- graphical position, commanding, on the one hand,

* And yet there is abundaot evidence from the older French, Spanish and Italian writers of the frequent visits of French traders to that part of America lying between the northeastern part of Florida and the coast of Newfoundland, and even up the Hudson River to Cohoes Falls. This view is confirmed by the map of Visconte de Maiollo of Genoa, in 1527, where the territory above named is clearly shown by a boundary line and the arms of France, with the name of Francesca designating it, and capes and headlands all along the coast indicated and named : by the map of Gerard Mercator, made in Duisburg in 1569, where the Hudson River is shown to the north of the junction of the Mohawk: and by the map in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of André Thevet, printed in Paris in 1575, where the Hudson River is shown as in the map of Mercator above mentioned. The very name of this section of the country, Norumbega, is doubtless of French origin, being a corruption of "L'anorme berge," "the great rock ledge, or escarpment," now called the Palisades. For these facts and for an examination of the maps mentioned, I am greatly indebted to the late work of Mr. A. J. Weise, entitled, " Discoveries of America to 1525." G. R. H.

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

the portal of the great lakes, and, on the other, the sources of the streams flowing both to the Atlantic and the Mississippi, gave the ambitious and aggressive confederates advantages which they perfectly understood and by which they profited to the utmost. Patient and politic as they were fe- rocious, they were not only the conquerors of their own race, but the powerful allies and the dreaded foes of the French and English colonies ; flattered and caressed by both, yet too sagacious to give them- selves without reserve to either. Their organiza- tion and their history evince their intrinsic superior- ity. Even their traditionary lore, amid its wild puerilities, shows at times the stamp of an energy and force in striking contrast with the flimsy crea- tions of Algonquin fancy. That the Iroquois, left under their own institutions, would ever have developed a civilization of their own, I do not be- lieve."

These institutions were not only characteristic and curious, but almost unique. Without sharing Morgan's almost fanatical admiration for them, or echoing the praises which Parkman lavishes on them, it may be truly said that their wonderful and cohesive confederation furnished a model worthy to be copied by civilized nations ; while, so long as they were uncontaminated by the vices of civiliza- tion, they possessed, with all their savagery, many noble traits of character, which would adorn any people in their public, social, or domestic rela- tions.

They made themselves the dreaded masters of all their neighbors east of the Mississippi, and carried their victorious arms far to the north, the south and the east. Their dominance is thus eloquently pictured in Street's " Frontenac " :

" The fierce Adirondacs had fled from their wrath, The Hurons been swept from their merciless path ; Around, the Ottawas, like leaves, had been strewn, And the lake of the Eries struck silent and lone. The Lenape, lords once of valley and hill, Made women, bent low at their conqueror's will. By the far Mississippi the Illini shrank

When the trail of the TORTOISE was seen on the bank ; On the hills of New England the Pequod turned pale When the howl of the WOLF swelled at night on the gale ; And the Cherokee shook in his green, smiling bowers,

When the foot of the BEAR stamped his carpet of flowers."

It will hereafter be seen that the Iroquois acted an important part in the early history of the State.

Space will not permit a description of their league, or confederation, a sketch of their tribal re- lations, and their religious, social, and domestic customs, or a history of their warlike achievements. Nor is it necessary. Every one has heard or read the story.

CHAPTER II.

NEW YORK UNDER THE DUTCH-ENGLISH GOVERNORS TO 1765.

IN 1610, another vessel was sent from Holland to trade with the natives. Soon after others fol- lowed. A small fort and a few rude buildings were erected at the southern extremity of Manhat- tan Island, in 1612, and the place was named New Amsterdam. In 1614, the States General of Hol- land granted a charter to the merchants engaged in these expeditions, under the title of United New Netherlands Company, giving exclusive privileges of trade for four years. The Hudson River had been ascended by Hendrick Corstiaenssen, and in 1623 a fort and trading house were erected on the east bank of the river about fifteen leagues above Manhattan Island, called Fort Nassau. This was the first of four forts built by the Dutch on the Hudson River, all of which were erected in the same year .*

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was chartered, and in 1623, a small fort was built near the Hudson River, in what is now the City ot Albany, called Fort Orange, and traders were sent to occupy and to carry on traffic in furs and peltry with the Indians. In 1626, Peter Minuit, as direc- tor-general of the province, arrived with other set- tlers, and purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for trinkets valued at about $24. In 1629, the Company offered grants and privileges to patroons who should found settlements in the province of New Netherlands of fifty or more adults. Several availed themselves of this offer. In 1632, Minuit was recalled and Wouter Van Twiller appointed in his place. During his ad- ministration a controversy concerning jurisdiction was commenced between the Dutch and the Eng- lish. The latter claimed the country on the ground of prior discovery by Cabot and the grant of James I. covering the territory.

In 1638, the weak and rapacious Van Twiller was succeeded in the government of the colony by William Kieft. Hostilities, long and merciless, occurred with the Indians, for which the rash and

* The first Dutch traders on their arrival at the present site of Albany, found the remains of a fort or chateau on Castle Island, took measurements of it (which are recorded on an old map in the New York State Library) and called it Fort Nassau, but they at that time built no fort there. The old fort on Castle Island, which suggested the name for the island itself, was undoubtedly the relic of a previous oc- cupation by the French as a trading port. The name of Fort Orange, a fort on the mainland at the foot of State Street, Albany, was on September 1, 1673, changed to Fort Nassau, and the name of the settle- ment Beverwyck to Willemstadt.

G. R. H.

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

cruel Kieft was deservedly censured. He was re- called, and succeeded by the sturdy and honest Peter Stuyvesant, in 1647. Controversy concern- ing jurisdiction and general disorders troubled his administration, till, in 1664, Charles II. of England, regardless of the claims of the Dutch, granted to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, afterwards James II., the whole country from the Connecticut to the Delaware, including the entire Dutch possessions. A fleet was sent under Col. Richard Nicolls by the Duke, to enforce his claim, and on the 3d of September, 1664, the province was surrendered without bloodshed, and the government of New Netherlands passed into the hands of the English.

Col. Nicolls at once assumed the functions of governor ; the name New Amsterdam was changed to New York, and Fort Orange to Albany ; laws for the government of the province were prescribed, and courts for their administration established. In 1668, the unpopular Nicolls resigned, and was suc- ceeded by the odious Col. Francis Lovelace. Eng- land soon became involved in a war with Holland. July 30, 1673, New York surrendered to the Dutch without resistance. Capt. Anthony Colve became Dutch governor ; but on the conclusion of peace between the two powers, February 9, 1674, the province, by treaty, reverted to the English. A new patent was issued to James, confirming the first, and Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned governor. The despotic agent of a despotic ruler, he was unpopular, and became involved in diffi- culties with the neighboring colonies. He was re- called, and Thomas Dongan, his successor, ar- rived August, 1683. October 17th of the same year, the first Colonial Assembly was convened ; many needed reforms were instituted, counties were erected, and better times appeared to have dawned. The most important act of this Assembly was the adoption of a charter of liberties and privileges, or bill of rights. The hopes thus raised were soon disappointed. On the accession of James II. to the English throne, in 1685, he refused confirma- tion of the privileges which had been granted while he was Duke of York, prohibited the Assembly. forbade the establishment of a printing press in the colony, and filled the principal offices in the prov. ince with partisan Roman Catholics. During Dongan's administration, a war broke out between the Iroquois and the French. The country of the former had been invaded by De la Barre and M. Denonville successively ; and, in retaliation, the Iro- quois, twelve hundred strong, fell upon the French on the south side of the island of Montreal,

" burned their houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women and chil- dren without the skirts of the town. A thousand French were slain in this invasion, and twenty-six were carried into captivity and burned alive." The French yielded their claim to the territory south of Lake Ontario, and peace returned.

In 1688, New York was placed in the same jurisdiction with New England ; the liberal Dongan was recalled, and Francis Nicholson temporarily succeeded him. The arbitrary and foolish King James II. abdicated in 1688, and in 1689 William and Mary ascended the English throne. Sir Ed- mund Andros was seized at Boston, and the popular Jacob Leisler held the fort at New York, awaiting the policy of the new sovereigns. During the two years of Leisler's control, the French and English made a descent on Schenectady, February 8, 1690, and massacred about sixty of the inhabit- ants. The danger by which they were threatened induced all the people, many of whom were op- posed to Leisler-to submit to his authority for the time. On the arrival, in March, 1691, of Col. Sloughter, who had been commissioned governor, Leisler was unfairly tried by a special commission, and unjustly sentenced to death. The governor refused to sign his death warrant, until over-per- suaded while intoxicated. Leisler was murdered by his enemies before the governor had recovered from his intoxication. Sloughter died after a weak administration of only a few months.

In August, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher arrived with a commission as governor. He was narrow, violent, avaricious and bigoted, and his administration was a continual exhibition of these qualities.

During his time, the Episcopal Church became the religion of the province, as the Dutch Reformed had previously been. In 1696, Wm. Bradford es- tablished the first printing-office in New York. Bold piracies, reaching into the very harbor of the city, crippled the commercial inter- ests. The war with France raged, and the French and Indians under Count Frontenac invaded the country of the Iroquois, killing and taking prison- ers. The Indians retaliated by hostile incursions among their enemies, but the peace of Ryswick, between France and England, in 1697, terminated these hostilities.

Gov. Fletcher was succeeded in 1698 by Richard, Earl of Bellomont. He died in 1701, leaving a name honored for integrity, capacity and sympathy with the people. In his time the_citizenship and estate of the Leisler family were restored, and piracy was checked. John Nanfan succeeded him till the

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

arrival of the next governor, Lord Cornbury, in 1702. The administration of this governor was chiefly distinguished for religious intolerance, dis- honesty and licentiousness-the worst governor under the English regime. He was succeeded, in 1708, by Lord Lovelace, who soon died. Under Lieut .- Gov. Ingoldsby, who administered the gov- ernment after his death, an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken, and he was re- moved. June 14, 1710, Gov. Robert Hunter ar- rived. In 1711, another disastrous expedition against Canada was made ; but in 1713, the treaty of Utrecht terminated the war between England and France. In 1719, Hunter returned to England, in failing health, and Peter Schuyler was governor, ad interim, till the arrival of William Burnet in 1720. On the accession of George II. the accom- plished Burnet was transferred to the government of Massachusetts, succeeded, in 1728, by John Montgomerie, who died in 1731. Rip Van Dam, by virtue of seniority in the council, was his suc- cessor, till William Cosby, the next governor, be- gan, in 1732, an administration memorable for its arbitrary proceedings and tumult, rather than for striking or important events. The libel trial of Zenger was in his term. Cosby died in 1736, and was succeeded by George Clark, senior counselor after Van Dam. Clark was commissioned lieutenant governor in the following October. During his term, the " negro plot " and the disfranchisement of the Jews were leading matters. An antagonism had been growing during some time between the democratic and the aristocratic parties in the col- onies. Clark, at first, sought to conciliate both, but in the end had the confidence of neither, and his retirement, on the arrival of his successor, Ad- miral George Clinton, in 1743, was little regretted. The administration of Governor Clinton was characterized by a continual conflict with the peo- ple, represented in the provincial Assembly. Un- able by repeated prorogations and dissolutions to coerce them into submission, he resigned after an administration of ten years, and was succeeded, in 1753, by Sir Danvers Osborne. After an adminis- tration of a few days he committed suicide by hang- ing, deranged, probably because of the embarrass- ment by which he was surrounded and domestic grief. He was succeeded by Lieut .- Gov. James De Lancey, till the arrival, in 1755, of Sir Charles Hardy, who. though nominally governor, surren- dered the duties of the office into the hands of De Lancey. Gov. Hardy resigned in 1757, and De Lancey became governor. He died in 1760, and Cadwallader Colden, president of the council, took

charge of the government until October, 1761, when Gen. Robert Monckton assumed the guber- natorial functions ; but on the 13th of the follow- ing month he left the administration of affairs in the hands of Colden, and went on an expedition against Martinique. Colden's administration continued till 1765.

CHAPTER III.

WAR WITH FRANCE AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.

AS S early as 1722, a trading post was established at Oswego by Gov. Burnet, with the view of establishing others farther west on the lakes, and se- curing the trade of the western Indians. To inter- cept this, and secure this trade for themselves, the French established a post and erected a fort at Ni- agara, with the design of extending a chain of military posts to the Ohio River, and thus limiting the English trade.

In March, 1744, war was declared between France and England, in which the colonies of New York and New England participated. During its continuance the country north from Albany was frequently ravaged by parties of French and In- dians. Saratoga was burned, and nearly all the in- habitants either killed or made prisoners, and the village of Hoosic taken.

In 1746, an unsuccessful expedition against Canada was undertaken, for which the colony of New York furnished sixteen hundred men. Peace was concluded at Aix La Chapelle in 1748, and a period of nominal tranquillity followed, though the frontier was desolated by savage parties, encouraged by the French.

In 1755, with the view of checking their en- croachments, four expeditions were sent against them, two of which were in the colony of New York. One of them, that against Niagara, under Gov. William Shirley, was unsuccessful ; and the other, against Crown Point, under Sir Wm. John- son, achieved only a partial success.

It was not till 1756 that the English ministry aroused from its imbecility and formally declared war. In the campaign of 1756, the English and colonial forces met with no success, but the two forts at Oswego were lost, with 1,600 prisoners and much war material. The campaign of 1757 was equally unsuccessful and disastrous. Fort William Henry, on Lake George, with 3,000 men, fell into the hands of the French under Montcalm.

On the accession of William Pitt to the head of

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

the British ministry, in 1758, new energy was in- fused into its measures, and a fresh impulse given to the colonies. Success soon turned in favor of the English, and, with few exceptions, continued till Canada was subdued. Louisburg surrendered in 1758 ; Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec fell in 1759 ; and Montreal, Detroit, Mich- ilimackinac and all other Canadian posts in 1760. The French power in America was ended.

A great obstacle to the prosperity of New York was removed by the conquest of Canada. There were no further hostile incursions of French and Indians into its territory. The treaty of peace was signed in 1763.

During many years the government of Great Britain had attempted to make encroachments on what the colonists regarded as their rights, but without complete success. The taxation of the people without their consent was sought to be ac- complished in some insidious manner, and was steadfastly and watchfully guarded against by the colonists through their representatives in the colonial Assembly. In 1765, the notorious Stamp Act was passed, and its enforcement in the City of New York and elsewhere attempted. It was re- sisted by the populace ; the effigy of Gov. Colden, who was charged with its execution, was hanged and burned in the streets, and a quantity of the stamped paper was seized and consumed in a bon- fire.

Through the influence of London merchants, whose colonial trade suffered by reason of the act, the odious law was repealed in 1766 ; but its re- peal was followed by a declaration by Parliament of the right " to bind the colonies in all cases what- soever." Troops were quartered in New York City, for the purpose of enforcing the laws that Parliament might enact. Collisions occurred be- tween these troops and the people, and the As- sembly refused appropriations for their support. Parliament declared the legislative powers of the Assembly annulled until compliance with the de- mands of the government. In June, 1767, a bill was enacted by Parliament imposing duties on tea and certain other articles imported into the colonies. This was followed by a revival of the non-importa- tion agreement that had previously been entered into by the colonists, and again the interests of the English merchants procured the repeal of all these duties, except that on tea.

Sir Henry Moore succeeded Gov. Colden in 1765, and his administration continued till his death, in 1769, when the government again de- volved on Cadwallader Colden. Between the

soldiers and the Sons of Liberty animosities con- tinued to exist. On the 18th of January, 1770, a collision between patriot citizens and the soldiery occurred at Golden Hill, in New York City, in which several of the citizens were wounded.

In October, 1770, Lord Dunmore superseded Colden. In 1771, he was transferred to Virginia, and succeeded in New York by William Tryon.

The non-importation agreement was continued so far as related to tea, and the East India Com- pany suffered severely in consequence. Deter- mined to maintain the assumed right of taxation, the British government remitted to the company the export duty on tea shipped to the colonies, and demanded 3d. per pound to be paid in America. Regardless of this appeal to their cupidity, the people made such demonstrations of resistance that the consignees in New York resigned, and when an attempt was made to land a quantity of tea clandestinely, it was thrown overboard by the vigilance committee, April 22, 1774, as it had been done in Boston on the 16th of the previous De- cember. It is hardly necessary to say that the op- pressive acts of the King and Parliament met with as firm resistance in the other colonies as in New York. The battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, was the signal for a general rush to arms through- out all the colonies. The first Continental Con- gress met September 5, 1774.

In New York City the arms in the arsenals were seized and distributed among the people, and a provisional government for the city was organized. Ticonderoga was seized on the 10th of May, 1775, by Vermont and Connecticut patriots under Col. Ethan Allen, and two days later, Crown Point was taken by Seth Warner. Thus the command of Lake Champlain was secured.

The adjourned Continental Congress, with five members from New York, assembled in Phila- delphia on the roth of May. The Provincial Con- gress assembled in New York April 20th and May 22d.

It authorized the raising of two regiments, en- couraged the making of powder and muskets, projected forts, and appointed a Committee of Safety.

In the autumn an armament was collected by Gen. Philip Schuyler, at Ticonderoga, and an ex- pedition went against Canada, under Gen. Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, December 31, 1775. The forts at Chambly, St. Johns and Montreal were taken, and Quebec was assaulted ; but the colonial force was finally repulsed by over- whelming numbers, and driven out of Canada,

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 9

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452