USA > New York > Suffolk County > Riverhead > History of Suffolk country, comprising the addresses delivered at the celebration of the bi-centennial of Suffolk county, N.Y., in Riverhead, November 15, 1883 > Part 11
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LITERARY CULTURE.
while the cheapness of books have added largely to their ownership, to the credit of our people's morals, to their refined taste and literary culture, we find but few copies of questionable books in any part of our County. French Novels and Poetry of the Byron and Swineburne schools are as effectually banished as if they were fire-brands arrows and death to all we hold dear. Dime-novels and demoralizing journals find few patrons in our County, and the best Reviews, the choicest Magazines, the most scholarly edited journals, are as plentiful as leaves in Valambrosa. Our people aim to enrich themselves with the spoils of all pure literature, knowing that he who would make a favorite of a bad book, simply because it contains a few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because of the jewelry which sparkles on his fingers. Our people generally can earnestly respond to the apostrophe of Doctor Channing: No matter how poor, I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof; if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live.
Having organized our County politically and developed in a marvel- ous degree its material resources, we should make longer strides toward literary culture and eminence. We must not ignore the progress already made, nor fail to profit by it. The most celebrated historical models of antiquity have been surpassed; Gibbon, Grote and Macauley, are decidedly superior in general merit to Herodotus, Thucydides, and Tacitus; and, besides, our historians have opened up a wider field of study, and have found new methods of ascertaining the truth. Historical criticism has taught us how to separate the mystical from the historical in ancient story, and linguistic ethnology and archæological and philological research have opened up vast realms of knowledge. We have learned to distinguish be- tween the history of our race and that of a few individuals who happened to hold office, and our historical composition is changing from a personal to a philosophical character. Let us with the new light beaming upon us add largely to that culture which has given us so prominent a place in the history of counties throughout the State. And to make my leaden discourse not worthless by reason of the gold wedded to it, I cannot better conclude my rambling remarks than by giving you a few pearls from the matchless casket of Emerson. Culture is the suggestion from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities, through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tone that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses his balance, puts him among his equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympa- thy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion. Books, as containing the finest records of human wit, must always enter into our notions of culture. The best heads that ever existed, Pericles, Plato, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Gæthe, Milton, were well-read, universally educated inen, and quite too wise to undervalue letters. Their opinion has weight, because they had means of knowing the opposite opinion. We look that a great man should be a good reader, or, in proportion to the spontaneous power should be the assimilating power. Good criticism is
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very rare and always precious. I am always happy to meet persons who perceive the transcendent superiority of Shakespeare over all other writers. I like people who like Plato. Because this love does not consist with self- conceit.
Let me say here, that culture cannot begin too early. In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boy- hood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem. I find, too, that the chance for appreciation is much increased by being the son of an appreciator, and that these boys who now grow up are caught not only years too late, but two or three births too late, to make the best scholars of. And I think it a presumable mo- tive to a scholar, that, as, in an old community, a well-born proprietor . is usually found, after the first heats of youth, tobe a careful husband, and to feel a habitual desire that the estate shall suffer no harm by his administra- tion, but shall be delivered down to the next heir in as good condition as he received it ;- so, a considerate man will reckon himself a subject of that secular melioration by which mankind is mollified, cured, and refined, and will shun every expenditure of his forces on pleasure or gain, which will jeopardize this social and secular accumulation.
The fossil strata show us that Nature began with rudimental forms, and rose to the more complex, as fast as the earth was fit for t .eir dwelling place; and that the lower perish, as the higher appear. Very few of our race can be said to be. yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us, some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half engaged in the soil. pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disen- gage him. If Love, red Love, with tears and joy; it Want with his scourge; if War with his cannonade; if Christianity with its charity; if Trade with its money; if Art with its portfolios; if Science with her telegraphs through the deeps of space and time; can set his dull nerves throbbing, and by loud taps on the tough chrysalis, can break its walls, and let the new creature emerge erect and free,-make way, and sing pæan ! The age of the quad- ruped is to get out, -the age of the brain and the heart is to come in.
The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no more be organized. Man's culture can spare nothing, wants all the material. He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power. The formidable mischief will only make the more useful slave. And if one shall read the future of the race hinted in the organic effort of Nature to mount and meliorate, and the corresponding impulse to the Better, in the human being, we shall dare affirm that there is nothing he will not overcome and convert, until at last culture shall absorb the chaos and gehenna. He will convert the Furies into Muses, and the hells into benefit.
[It is but proper to state that Ex-Judge Reid's address was made ex- tempore, after ten o'clock at night, and with great rapidity. Having taken but few notes, the foregoing may be termed the intended rather than the real address-although it embodies most of the topics discussed by the speaker .- ED. ]
VACUATION BY THE
BRITISH.
SON. CHARLES R. STREET.
B Y a remarkable coincidence the two hundreth year since the formation of Suffolk County happens to be the one hundreth year since the triumph of the American Colonies over British oppression and the departure of the British troops from Suffolk County. I am assigned to speak to you concerning the memorable events which cluster around this, as it were, "half way house" in the history of our country; events which always stand out in bold relief and the memory of which always stir the · hearts of all patriotic citizens with the deepest emotion. The few minutes only given me in which to deal with this topic will only enable me to pre- sent a "bird's eye" view of the subject.
You are all familiar with the story of the Old Revolution and how one hundred years ago, out of the terrible sufferings, the gloomy apprehensions and the desolation of seven years of war, the patriots suddenly emerged victorious: How Suffolk County, desecrated with the tramp of invading armies and environed with hostile fleets, was in 1783, one hundred years ago, liberated, and freedom and independence established.
Some of you who are about my age will remember how in our youth the gray haired men of the Revolution were seen on the platforms at all Fourth of July Celebrations, and how we then listened to the story of the war as it fell from the lips of our grandfathers and grandmothers. Now they have gone to their graves and our children only read in books a his- tory of these events. The old time honored custom of celebrating Inde- pendence Day by popular assemblages of the people, by music and oratory has largely fallen into disuse, but we may well, at least in this centennary of the triumph of our forefathers, honor them and their cause with a few moments of our thought. And what was the oppression from which the people of Suffolk County were then liberated? and in what way did the relief come ?
My friends, go back with me in imagination, just a moment, to the period of the outbreak of the Revolution. Suffolk County then occupied a strong and prominent position in the Colony of New York. In numbers, wealth, resources, the physical and intellectual power of its people, and in political influence, it stood in the front rank. For more than a hundred years these people, and their ancestors through many generations, had been building for themselves homes in this land and had incessantly struggled
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for liberty and equal rights against arbitrary power. Look at the situation. Suffolk County had its ablest men as delegates in the Continental Congress at Philadelphia-the declaration of Independence, announcing the separa- tion of the Colonies from Great Britain and the fundamental principles of liberty, had been proclaimed by that Congress. All but about five hundred of the three thousand male inhabitants capable of bearing arms in this County were devoted to the Patriot cause. All over the land these men were organizing in military companies. In Southold, Southampton, East- Hampton, Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington, the old towns of that period, the militia were drilling and preparing for the struggle. Washing- ton, anxious to save Long Island from subjugation, had thrown such force as he could spare across the East River, under General Green, occupying fortifications on Brooklyn Heights.
It was midsummer. The fields of golden grain waved in the sea breezes which fanned the Island. At all the farm-houses the impending . invasion occupied the thoughts of all, and the hearts of all men and women throbbed with apprehension of the approach of startling events, when sud- denly there came horsemen riding swift as the wind into all the villages who announced in breathless tones that Lord Howe had arrived in New York harbor with an immense fleet of war ships and transports and thirty thousand soldiers threatening a landing on Long Island, and threatening to sweep it with fire and sword.
The militia of . Suffolk County, though weak in numbers, de- termined to make a bold stand. The work of drilling and organizing for resistance was pushed with renewed vigor. Col. Josiah Smith, then at Southampton, was, on the roth of August summoned by the Continental Congress to take command of the Suffolk County militia and hasten to Brooklyn in aid of General Green. In about four days he had gathered a men of about four hundred men-the towns in the County each contrib- uting about their proportion of this force. General Woodhull, of lamented memory, a son of Suffolk County, was also ordered to the front with the force at his command. In all the homes of the Patriots, intense excitement and hopeful courage prevailed. The question was which of the sons should go to the war; and who can describe the emotion written in the faces, and the tender words of parting which fell from the lips of the mothers of that day as their sons hastily gathered their arms and left their homes, many to be absent in the Continental Armies for long years, and many never to return.
But bitter humiliation and defeat, for a time, awaited the patriot cause. The story of their subjugation is short. The Battle of Long Island was fought at Brooklyn, August 27th, 1776, and lost. Long Island lay prostrate at the feet of a conquering army.
The military plans of General Washington for the defense of New York and Long Island have met with adverse criticism, as do all plans that fail, and the movements of the two armies at the battle of Long Island, in which the British had about 15,000 soldiers partially engaged and the patriots about an equal number, are involved in considerable obscurity, but there is evidence enough to show that the Suffolk County Militia were in the thickest of the fight for two days-that they stood in the trenches two nights in the face of the enemy-that they suffered excessive loss owing to their isolated position and want of support, and that they bravely main-
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tained their position until withdrawn from the field by order of General Putnam in the retreat to Westchester County.
The news of the disaster flew fast through all the villages and hamlets, carrying terror and dismay to a people cut off from communication with the rebel army and too weak to resist the overwhelming force of the in- vaders; and to add to the alarm British ships were landing troops near Wading River who were pillaging the country. Five days from this, British infantry and cavalry entered Huntington village, tore out the seats in the Presbyterian Church and converted it into a stable for their horses. Proc- lamations went forth from General Erskine commanding obedience and submission by Suffolk. County and that the people take the oth of alle- giance to the King.
At first these demands were met with stern refusal. The people had not yet tasted fully of the bitter cup of humiliation in store for them. General Tryon with an army of 1000 men swept Long Island from end to end of its horses, cattle, grain and stores for food for the British Army. General Clinton was at Southampton with 2,500 soldiers and dragoons and twenty-five British war vessels lay in Sag Harbor. Everywhere violence and pillage accompanied the march of the British soldiery. With a long extent of vulnerable sea coast, its best commanders and soldiers in the Continental armies, destitute of necessary cannon, ammunition and the ap- pliances of war, and their communications cut off from Washington's army, the people of Suffolk County were compelled to submit. At the point of the bayonet or under threats of confiscation or banishment of themselves and families, hundreds signed the o1th of allegiance to the King. They took the oath as an outward form but inwardly revolted against it. They yielded to the King a lip service extorted by force too great to be overcome, but mentally abhorred the act, and all their sympathies were with the patriots who were fighting with Washington. There were those however who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the King, and we cannot help admiring that band of patriots whose spirit could not be broken, and who at the approach of winter abandoned their homes and farms, gathered wife and children, and fled to within the lines of the Con- tinental army. They were worthy descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers whose indomitable souls and iron nerves never knew defeat.
We read in history the events of the long years of war, oppression, destitution and vassalage which followed. Time does not permit me here to describe them. Let us change the scene seven years later on. Imagine yourselves on the threshold of 1783, the year of which this is the centen- nial. It is winter. British soldiers swarm in all the large villages of Suffolk County. The invader is the master-the native of the soil is the servant, driven to menial service as hewers of wood and drawers of water for an arrogant soldiery. Forts and barrfcades bristling with guns frown upon the disarmed and impoverished people. Troops of dragoons with gaily caparisoned horses prance along all the great highways. Trains of military wagons are conveying the scanty food of the people to the camp of the enemy. The churches and places for worship of Almighty God are turned into stables or barracks for a ribald, blasphemous soldiery, and their ministers driven into exile or in prison under the brutal Provost Marshal Cunningham. From Fort Golgotha in Huntington, there comes the sound of revelry and music, as gay dragoons move in the dance over a floor made of the tombstones of the, torn up dead from the grave-
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yard on which the fort is built.
But the avenging angel had not been idle. Justice, though to mortal conception sometimes tardy, moves with unfaltering tread and reaches the goal at the appointed hour. There comes swift riding" couriers now, from the camp of the victorious army of the patriots. With trumpet sounding over all the hills and valleys, the glad words are heard "Peace has come ! The armies of Washington are triumphant !- Glory to God in the highest !" If we could call from the tomb these pa- triots of old and they could stand in our midst to-night, with what unspeakable joy they would join in this celebration. If their souls hover over us in the shadowy unseen world, may they not look with gratitude and loving approbation upon their children who here commemorate the hundreth year of their glorious victory.
Since these events we have had a war for the preservation of the Union which called forth greater armies and was waged on a vaster field; and though the battles of the old Revolution may be dwarfed in comparison with the gigantic military operations on land and sea which larger numbers and advanced military science has made possible, yet the value of the principles which the Revolutionary Fathers' contended for, remains undim- inished, and the justice of their cause, the purity of their purposes, their unfaltering courage and patriotism, continue, as they ever have, to challenge the admiration of mankind.
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Appendix.
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APPENDIX .*
APPENDIX A.
WASHINGTON, D. C., OCT. 11, 1883.
HON. HENRY A. REEVES, Greenport, L. I., N. Y .: My Dear Sir .-- Your letter of the 8th inst, requesting statistical information in regard to the commerce, navigation and fisheries of Long Island, is received. I must sympathize with you, and am very sorry that I cannot felicitate you upon the task assigned to you, viz: that of preparing a paper upon the Com- merce, Navigation and Fisheries of Suffolk County, to be read on the oc- casion of the County's bi-centennial celebration. Long Island probably con- sumes fully her share, if not more than her share, in proportion to popula- tion, of foreign goods imported; but they are all imported
New
that city at York. and appear as the imports at
with imports for consumption in all parts of the United States; for with respect to foreign commerce, New York represents the whole country. It would be utterly impossible to find out the value of foreign goods consumed in Suffolk County, unless you were to inquire of every village merchant as to the amount of foreign goods which he had bought and sold during the year, and, besides that, propound the same question to every lady in the county who has gone down to New York in the morn- ing and done her shopping during the day. That, you see, would involve something in the nature of a census work quite unique as a governmental operation. Besides, it would be entirely too inquisitorial, I fear, for the average Long Islander.
In the second place, there is probably a very small part of the products of Suffolk County exported to foreign Countries, but she performs indirect- lya very important service in feeding the population of New York City which is so extensively engaged in this great foreign commerce of the country, as well as in its much more important domestic commerce and industries. You and I know that Long Island is the garden spot of this Country, if not of the world, and we also know very well that Suffolk County is the most beautiful and best part of Long Island. We also know the important ser- vice which Long Island renders in sustaining the vital forces of New York City, the commercial centre of this country, from the time of the first ap- pearance of water cresses and early spring greens, until the last harvest home of the Autumn crops.
Next, I will touch upon navigation. It so happens that under our laws both the northern shore and the southern shore of Long Island are
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APPENDIX.
embraced in the customs district of New York City. The only district which at all represents Suffolk County is the customs district of Sag Har- bor, embracing the waters between Oyster Pond Point and Montauk Point. I will have the tonnage of that district made up for the last five years and also the amount of tonnage belonging to that district for the decennial years back as far as 1830. The only customs officer on the north side of Long Island is located at Port Jefferson. He is a Surveyor and reports to the Collector of Customs at New York. I will send you a table extending as far back as possible, of vessels built at Port Jefferson and the tonnage owned there; also the same as to Patchogue. Some time ago I tried to formulate some commercial statements in regard to Long Island and re- gretted very much that there was not a Chief of Bureau of Statistics of Suf- folk County, clothed with ample powers to collect information.
The most valuable commercial expression which you could get would I think, be a statement of tonnage and of passengers carried by the Long Island Railroad to and from Suffolk County; but there again you would meet a difficulty, for the Long Island Railroad Company does not separate its traffic by counties. I think, however, that they may be able to give you something which would show the growth and present magnitude of the traffic east of Farmingdale. I would advise you to apply to . the secretary of the Company for such data. The railroad is now the principal highway of the commerce of Suffolk County and railroad cars are the vessels in which she carries on trade with the outside world. As we know, there are many sloops and schooners trading between New York and points along the entire shores of the County, and a few steamer lines, but their opera- tions, I fancy, embrace only a comparatively small part of the commerce of the County- what part it is impossible to tell. The collection of such in- formation in full as to Suffolk County, would not only be a serious incon- venience, but I fear be an insufferable perplexity to the people of this county. As neither the National Government, nor the State, nor the County itself, raises any revenue from internal commerce, there is no suf- ficient reason why the people of the'County should be required to report all their commercial transactions.
In regard to the Fisheries of Long Island, the difficulties in procuring exact data are even greater than those with respect to commerce and navi- gation. Many years ago Long Island was, to some extent, engaged in the whale fisheries. I am having prepared for you a statement upon this sub- ject which you will find enclosed herewith. During the last century, and first part of this century, those monsters of the deep were so accommodating as to present themselves as living sacrifices to the temporal interests of the people residing at the east end of Suffolk. All those people had to do was to go out from the shore in whale boats and capture the welcome visitors. But that has long since ceased, and the vessels engaged in whale fisheries have also disappeared.
I also enclose herewith a statement showing the value of the products of American Fisheries of all kinds brought into the United States at the Customs District of Sag Harbor. This embraces only small fisheries, but Long Island has to-day fishing interests exceeding in value those hereinbefore mentioned. I refer to the fisheries of the Great South Bay, and all along the eastern and northern shores. But the value of these fisheries cannot be estimated upon any trade standard such as obtains in Fulton Market. The chief value of these fisheries is in the line of sport and of recreation from
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APPENDIX.
business cares in the great city. If you should undertake to ascertain the value of these fisheries you would have upon your hands a most perplexing work. You would have to hunt up every man who has enjoyed the exhil- arating sport of trolling for blue fish. But then not one of them would be able to tell you what he estimated to be the value of his day's catch; for in catching fish, he also caught health and recreation and joy. Besides fish so caught are not usually sold.
I remember a notable day's fishing on the Great South Bay many years ago which has an ever increasing value in its pleasant recollections.
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