History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 49

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

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" sive hand " 1-which the Committee proposed to do by means of an Association providing " that, hence- "forth, we will suspend all commercial intercourse " with the said Island of Great Britain, until the said " Act for blocking up the said Harbour " [of Boston] " be repealed, and a full restoration of our Charter " Rights be obtained."2 But we are told by that gen- erally trustworthy historian,3 that that same Samuel Adams, who was thus inspiring and leading and con- trolling the men of Boston, in their earnest opposition to a general Congress for a general consideration of the grievances of all who were aggrieved, and whose convictions were supposed to have been in harmony with his pretensions before the world, was really in favor of such a Congress and, consequently, really op- posed to the principles which were presented and urged by the Committees, by the Caucus, and by the Town-Meeting, all of whom he had controlled, in the Resolutions, the Letters, and the Address and Assorin- tion of which mention has been made, all of which he is known to have inspired and some of which he wrote; that, as early as the twenty-sixth of May, he " was about to introduce Resolves for such a Congress," into the House of Representatives, of which he was the Clerk ; and that he was prevented from doing so, only by the prorogation of the House, by the Gov- ernor.

If this statement is well-founded, and the name of its author affords a reasonable guaranty that it is so, the world of historical literature will be taught by it, how much the personal character of Samuel Adams has been unduly eulogized ; and every careful reader will also be taught by that new revelation, how much the Clerk of the House of Representatives, in Colonial Massa- chusetts, while he was only an employé of the House, presumed to dictate, in matters of legislation, during that critical period ; with how much of insincerity the leader of the excited people, in that Colony, acted, in all that he said and did, before that people and in their behalf; and, in connection with the recognized " art " and duplicity with which the leaders in New York were, also, then conducting, or endeavoring to conduct, the political affairs of the Continent, how little of real personal integrity, of unqualified unsel- fishness, and of unalloyed patriotism, really controlled or even existed among those, in Massachusetts and New York, who, sensibly or insensibly, were, at that time, conducting the Continent in open insurrection, toward a successful rebellion.

The letters of disapproval and discouragement,

1 Address sent by the Boston Committee to every Town in the Province, dated " BOSTON, June 8, 1774," re-printed in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 397.

2 Form of a Covenant, sent to every Town in Massachusetts, by the Com- mittee in Boston, with the above-mentioned Address, Section 1st.

3 Richard Frothingham of Charlestown, in his Rise of the Republic of the United States, Boston : 1872, 323, whose words are as follows :

"The Massachusetts Assembly convened on the twenty-fifth of May. "Samuel Adams was abont to introduce Resolves for a Congress when "the Assembly (26th) was adjourned by the Governor to meet in Salem "on the seventh of June."

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

against the line of action proposed and solicited by the Town of Boston, in its formal Vote, on the thirteenth of May, of which Samuel Adams was the originator and by whom, as the Moderator of the Town-Meeting, its passage had been seeured, con- tinued to flow into that Town, from all directions,1 carrying with them an influence, with that shrewd politieian, which was more potential than all the enactments of the Parliament and all the power of the Home and the Colonial Governments had pro- dueed ; and he was not slow in accepting the alterna- tive which those letters and the evident danger of a more complete isolation of the Town of Boston than he had supposed to have been possible, had sternly thrust upon him. Accordingly, on the seventeenth of June, the House of Representatives, assembled at Salen, more or less under the guidance of its Clerk, adopted a Resolution deelaring that "a Meeting of "Committees from the several Colonies on this Con- "tinent is highly expedient and necessary, to con- "sult upon the present State of the Colonies and " the Miseries to which they are and must be reduced " by the operation of certain Acts of Parliament re- " specting America; and to deliberate and determine "upon wise and proper Measures to be by them "recommended to all the Colonies, for the recovery "and establishment of their just Rights and Liber- "ties, civil and religious, and the restoration "of Union and Harmony between Great Britain "and the Colonies, most ardently desired by all "good Men." At the same time, five persons, of whom Samuel Adams was one, "were ap- "pointed a Committee, on the part of this Province, "for the Purposes aforesaid, any three of whom to be " a Quorum, to meet such Committees or Delegates " from the other Colonies as have been or may be ap- " pointed either by their respective Houses of Bur- "gesses or Representatives, or by Conventions, or by " the Committees of Correspondence appointed by "the respective Houses of Assembly, to meet in the " City of Philadelphia, or any other Place that shall " be judged most suitable by the Committee, on the "first Day of September next ; and that the Speaker " of the House be directed, in a Letter to the Speakers " of the Houses of Burgesses or Representatives in "the several Colonies, to inform them of the sub- "stance of these Resolves." 2

At the same time that the House of Representa- tives, at Salem, was thus adding the weight of its of- fieial judgment against the line of action proposed and solicited by the Town of Boston and in support of that proposed and insisted on by the Committee in New York, the former, also, in a duly assembled Town-Meeting, John Adams occupying the Chair, in seeming forgetfulness of its Vote, on the thirteenth of

the preceding month, willingly or unwillingly, for- mally wheeled into the line of the general opposition to the Home Government, under the guidance of that foreign Committee; and, without making the slight- est allusion to her ill-conceived and injudicious ac- tion, in her adoption of that Vote, the Town " en- "joined " the Committee of Correspondence, " forth- " with, to write to all the other Colonies, acquainting "them that we are waiting with anxious expectation "for the Result of a Continental Congress, whose "Meeting we impatiently desire, in whose Wisdom "and Firmness we ean confide, and in whose Deter- " mination we shall cheerfully acquiesce " 3-a eliange of policy which was, in the highest degree, remark- able, and which would be entirely unaccountable were the capabilities of Massachusetts-men, of every period, for making remarkable changes of policy and of action, whenever their material interests have seemed to call for such changes, less known to the great world in which we live.

The Committee of Correspondence in New York having, meanwhile, received assurances of their ap- proval of its proposition to invite a meeting of Depu- ties from the several Colonies, in a Continental Con- gress, from the Committee of Correspondence of Con- necticut 4 and. from that in Philadelphia5 -with the knowledge, also, that the "Standing Committee ot "Correspondence," which the General Assembly of the Colony of New York had appointed, on the twentieth of January, 1774, had also approved and concurred in that proposition,6 and, undoubtedly, although in- formally,7 with information of the action of the Town of Boston and of that of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, on the same subject,-on the twenty-seventh of June, it entertained and " debated "

3 Proceedings of the Adjourned Town-Meeting, June 17, 1774, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 423.

+ The Committee of Correspondence for Connecticut to the Committee in New York, "HARTFORD, June 4, 1774," enclosing a letter, to the same effect, which had been sent by the Committee in Hartford to the Com- mittee in Boston, on the preceding day.

5 Proceedings of a Meeting of the Freeholders and Freemen of the ('ity and County of Philadelphia, Saturday, June 18, 1774, enclosed in a letter from the Committee of Correspondence in Philadelphia to the Commit- tee in New York, " PHILADELPHIA, 21st June, 1774."

6 That Committee of the Assembly was composed of John Cruger Frederick Plnlipse, Isaac Wilkins, Benjamin Seaman, James Jauncey James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, Simeon Boerum, John De Noyelles, George Clinton, Daniel Kissam, Zebulon Williams, and John Rapalje, the names of ten of whom, including that of Frederick Philipse of Westchester-county, are appended to a letter, addressed to the C'ommittee of Correspondence of Connecticut, dated " NEW YORK, June 24, 1774," in which it "agrees with you, that, at this alarming juncture, a general "Congress of Depaties from the several ('olonies would be a very expe- "dient and salutary measure." regretting, however, that it was " not "snthiciently empowered to take any steps in relation to so salutary a "measure."

" The Minutes of the Committee in New York, notwithstanding the carefully made record of the letters which were received by it, make no mention whatever of its receipt of letters from either the Town of Boy- ton or the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, on any subject, after its receipt of that, from the former, dated the thirtieth of May ; and it may, therefore, be reasonably supposed that whatever knowledge the Committee then possessed, concerning the political some sanlt of t1. Massachusetts-men, was anofficial and informal.

1 Despatch from Governor Gage to the Earl of Dartmouth, " BOSTON, 31st "May, 1774," laid before Parliament, on the nineteenth of January, 1775 -(Parliamentary Register, i., 36.)

2 Journal of the House of Representatives, June 17, 1771.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

a Resolution, offered by Alexander McDougal, con- cerning "which was the most eligible mode of ap- " pointing Deputies to attend the ensuing General " Congress." 1

In submitting that Resolution, which had not re- ceived the imprimatur of those who represented the majority of the Committee, and, for that reason, was not received with any favor by that majority, it is evident that Alexander McDougal acted in behalf of the minority of that body -- of those of its members who had been selected from the revolutionary faction of the Tradesmen, Mechanics, and Workingmen of the City-and it is evident, also, that the purpose of that minority was to secure to "the Committee of Mechanics," which, notwithstanding its formal acquiescence in the appointment of the Committee of Correspondence, continued to assume authority to represent the un- franchised portion of the people, in all which related to their political action, a right to concur in or to re- ject any nomination of Delegates to the proposed Congress, which the Committee of Correspondence should determine to make. The struggle between the two factions, within the Committce, was continued to an Adjourned Meeting of that body, on the evening of the twenty-ninth of June, when Alexander Mc- Dougal moved " that this Committee proceed, im- " mediately, to nominate five Deputies for the City "and County of New York, to represent them in a "Convention of this Colony,2 or in the general Con- "gress, to be held at Philadelphia, on the first of "September next, if the other Counties of this Col- "ony approve of them as Deputies for the Colony ; " and that their names be sent to the Committee of " Mechanics, for their concurrence ; to be proposed on " Tuesday next, to the Freeholders and Freemen of " this City and County, for their approbation." Without having reached a vote on that Resolution, however, the Committee adjourned to the following Monday evening, the fourth of July ;3 at which time, after another severe struggle, the Resolution was re-

1 Minutes of the Committee, "New-York, June 27, 1774."

It has been said, (de Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 449, ) that "the Committee met to con- "sider " that Resolution; but that would indicate that the Resolution was submitted to the previous Meeting, which is contradicted by the Min- utes. It is clear, as we understand the record, that Alexander McDou. gal offered it, for consideration, only at the Meeting on the twenty- seventh of June.

2 This portion of the Resolution evidently looked for the establishment of a Provincial Congress or Convention, in which should be vested si- preuve and arbitrary power, without limitation, over the persons and properties and actions aud thoughts and convictious of every.one within the Colony ; overthrowing all Government ; cancelling all Rights of Persous and Properties ; and establishing, in their stead, au active scourging Despotism. Such an one was, soon afterwards, established ; but, just at the time under consideration, the master spirits of the ma- jority of the Committee had not secured the places to which they were aspiring ; and, for that reason, they were not, theu, ready to concur in that revolutionary, ultra revolutionary, measure.

3 Minutes of the Adjourned Meeting of the Committee, "NEW-YORK, June " 29, 1774."

jected, by a formal vote of thirteen in support of it and twenty-four in opposition thereto. Immediately afterwards, without a division, on the motion of Theophilact Bache, seconded by John De Lancey, the Committee resolved "to nominate five persons, to "meet in a general Congress, at the time and place " which shall be agreed on by the other Colonies ; and " that the Freeholders and Freemen of the City and "County of New York be summoned to appear at a " convenient place, to approve or disapprove of such "persons, for this salutary purpose; also, that this " Committee write Circular Letters to the Super- " visors of the several Counties, informing them what " we have done, and to request of them to send such " Delegates as they may choose, to represent them in "Congress "-a Resolution which was so general in its terms, that, in a body which was composed, ex- clusively, of those who, politically, were in opposition to the Home Government, there was no room for op- position to it, notwithstanding its silence concerning the Committee of Mechanics and the claim which had been made in its behalf ;4 but it was, also, one which laid the foundation for further and very important action, in which the bitterness of feeling, concerning the distribution of the proposed offices, which con- tinued to exist between the rival factions of the con-

4 It is proper to remind the reader, iu this place, of two well-known facts, each of which had an important benring on the political events of the period now under consideration.

The first of these facts is, the " friends of the Government " took no part whatever, iu the formation of the Committee of Correspondeuce nor in its doings. That body was denounced by the Colonial Govern- ment, from the beginning, as " illegal "-"it is allowed by the Intelli- "gent among them, that these assemblies of the People without au- " thority of Government arc illegal and may be dangerous," (Lieutenant - gorernor C'olden to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW YORK Ist June 1774.") " These transactious " [the nomination of Deputies to the Congress and the proposed ratification of the ticket by the body of the people] "are dangerous, "my Lord, and illegal, but by what means shall Government prevent "them? An attempt by the power of the Civil Magistrate would only

"show their weakness, and it is not easy to say upon what foundation a " military aid should be called in. Such a Measure would involve us in " Troubles which it is thought much more prudent to avoid ; and to shun " all Extreams while it is yet possible Things may take a favourable " turn."-(The same to the same, "NEW YORK, 6th July, 1774.")

The party of the Government-subsequently called "Tories"-in- cluded only the members of the Colonial Government, in its various de- partments, and its dependents ; it was, unwillingly, only a passive spec- tator of what, then, took place, in the political doings of that period ; and it was wholly powerless to suppress the rising spirit of Revolution, which it would have gladly done. The party of the Opposition to the Government-subsequently called "Whigs"-included the great body of the inliabitants, aristocratic as well as democratic, the patricians as well as the plebeians. It was cut up into factions, based on social and fi- nancial standings; but, in its opposition to the Government, it was united and determined,

The second of the facts referred to is, at the time under consideration and during the succeeding half century, as we have already stated (vide pages 4, 5, ante,) those who were not Freeholders or Freemen of a Municipality, were not vested with the right of suffrage, in auy of the Colonies ; aud it need uot be a matter of surprise that, at that early day, the great body of the Freeholders and Freemen, in New York, was not inclined to permit any interference, iu political affairs, by those who were not, legally, entitled to take part in theu. Indeed, the rule of universal suffrage is not, to-day, generally recognized ; and one State, in New England, if no more, continues to make a division of her citi- zens, at the Polls.

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

federated party of the Opposition, notwithstanding their apparent harmony on other questions, was promptly and very energetically displayed.

The Resolution offered by Theophilact Bache had no sooner been declared to have been carried, than Isaac Sears, seconded by Peter Van Brugh Living- ston, representing the minority of the Committee, of- fered another Resolution, providing "that Messrs. " Isaac Low, James Duane, Philip Livingston, John " Morin Scott, and Alexander McDougal be nomi- " nated, agrecable to the question now carried ;" but it was not the intention of the aristocratic, conserva- tive majority of the Committee that the plebeian, revolutionary minority of that body should have the slightest representation in the proposed Delegation ; and, notwithstanding its seeming fairness, the Reso- lution was promptly rejected, by a vote of twelve to twenty-five. The subject was subsequently disposed of, as it then appeared, by a Resolution, offered by John De Lancey and seconded by Benjamin Booth, providing for the nomination of the Delegates by the body of the Committec, of which the conservative aristocrats held the entire control, which resulted in the nomination of Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane, and John Jay, of whom John Alsop and John Jay, who had been substituted for the two candidates of the minority, John Morin Scott and Alexander McDougal, by reason of their known peculiarly conservative tendencies, were cspe- pecially obnoxious to that revolutionary minority, as well as to the revolutionary portion of the unfrau- chised masses whom that minority indirectly repre- sented. Another Resolution, requesting "the Inhab- "itants of this City and County to meet at the City- " Hall on Thursday, the seventh of July, at twelve " o'clock, to concur in the Nomination of the fore- " going five Persons, or to choose such others in their " stead as in their wisdom shall seem mect," was then adopted ; and, the majority, probably, being well-con- tented with its apparent success, the Committee then adjourned.1

The minority of the Committee and those with whom it sympathized and acted, in political affairs- the " Bellwethers " and the "Sheep " of Gouverneur Morris's metaphor-were not inclined, however, to submit, tamcly, to the arbitrary dictation of their " Shepherds," composing the majority of that body ; and they promptly determined to carry the contest into a new field, and with heavy reinforcements. For that purpose, anonymous handbills were posted throughout the City,2 on the day after the Commit-

tee's Meeting, calling a Meeting of "the good People " of this Metropolis,"' to be held in the Fields,3 on the following day, [ Wednesday, July 6 ] at six o'clock, " when Matters of the utmost Importance to their " Reputation and Security, as Freemen, will be com- " municated." At the appointed hour, it is said, "a " numerous meeting " was collected, with Alexander McDougal in the Chair, forming what continues to be known, in history, as "the great Meeting in the " Fields," at which several Speeches were made,4 and nine Resolutions adopted, expressing the popular will.

One of the Resolutions adopted by that notable as- semblage of the inhabitants of the City of New York, was almost identical, in words and sentiments, with that voted by the Town of Bostou, on the thirteenth of May, of which mention has been made herein ; another "instructed, empowered, and directed " the Deputies from New York, in the proposed Con- gress, " to engage with a majority of the principal "Colonies, to agree, for this City, upon a non-impor- " tation, from Great Britain, of all Goods, Wares, and " Merchandises, until the Act for blocking up the " Harbour of Boston be repealed, and American " Grievances be redressed ; and, also, to agree to all " such other measures as the Congress shall, in their " Wisdom, judge advancive of these great Objects, " and a general Security of the Rights and Privileges " of America ;" and another pledged the Meeting to abide by all that the proposed Congress should "come into, and direct or recommend to be done, " for obtaining and securing the important ends men- " tioned in the foregoing Resolutions." It also re- solved " that it is the opinion of this Meeting that " it would be proper for every County in the Colony, " without delay, to send two Deputics, chosen by the " People or from the Committees chosen by them, in " each County, to hold, in conjunction with Deputies " for this City and County, a Convention for the "Colony, on a day to be appointed, in order to elect " a proper Number of Deputies to represent the Col-

3 What were then called, sometimes, "The Fields," and, at other times, " The Common," on which has occurred so much of public inter- est, in later as well as in earlier days, have been called, during more than half a century past, "The Park ;" and by that name it is still known, notwithstanding the greater attractions which, for some years past, have been presented to merely pleasure seekers, in the new pleasure-grounds known as " The Central Park."

4 Among the speakers at that Meeting, it has been usual, for some years past, to give a prominent place to Alexander Hamilton, then a mere lad, who had been thrown into this City, a few years previously, by those, in the West Indies, who, for domestic if not for social reasons, had desired his removal from the place of his nativity. As there is no contemporary authority for such a favor to the previously questionable reputation of that " young West Indian, " however, aud because the only modern anthority for the statement is the young man's son, John C. llamilton, (Life of .llerander Hamilton, by his son, New York : 1840, i., 22, 23,) in whose unsupported testimony, in historical subjects, we have no confidence whatever, we prefer to leave that portion of the history of " the " great Meeting," if it is truly such a portion of it, where those who were present and who recorded the doings of the great assemblage then left it, entirely untolel.

1 Minutes of the Committee, Adjourned Meeting, "NEW YORK, July 4, "1774 .**

See, also, Lieutenant governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW "YORK, July 6, 1774 ;" the same to Governor Tryon, "SPRING HILL, 6th " July, 1774."

" One of those handbills has been preserved and may be seen, among other broadsides of that period, in the Library of the New York Ilistori- cal society.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"ony in the general Congress. But that, if the " Counties shall conceive this mode impracticable or " inexpedient, they be requested to give their appro- " bation to the Deputies who shall be chosen for this " City and County, to represent the Colony in Con- "gress ;" and it "instructed " "the City Committee of "Correspondence" "to use their utmost Endeavours " to carry these Resolutions into execution." After ordering the Resolutious to be printed in the public Newspapers of the City, and to be transmitted to the different Counties in the Colony and to the Commit- tees of Correspondence for the neighboring Colonies, the Meeting then adjourned ;1 but its great influence was continued to be felt, long after the circumstances which had caused it to be assembled had passed from the memories of those who were present and who par- ticipated in its doings.

Inspired by the strength and the spirit of the Meet- ing in the Fields, and led in their opposition to the majority of the Committee, by all the old-time ex- perienced popular leaders, the "Inhabitants of the City "and County," ofevery class, met, agreeably to the pub- lished request of the Committee of Correspondence, at the City Hall, at noon, on the day after those Inliabit- ants had assembled in the Fields; but they did not con- firm the Committee's Nominations, for Deputies to the proposed Congress; and the utmost bad feeling, between the aristocratie majority of the Committee and the great body of the plebeian Tradesmen, Arti- sans, and Workingmen, whom it had betrayed, pre- vailed throughout the city .?

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 49

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354