History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 50

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

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

It is not within the purposes of this work, however, to present a narrative of the various movements and counter-movements of the rival faetions of the con- federated party of the Opposition, again disunited, in their determined struggle for supremacy-nominally, for the establishment of their respective principles, in opposition to or in support of a general "Suspen- " sion of Trade," but, really, for places on the ticket for Delegates to the proposed Congress of tlie Con- tinent-which was continued, without eeasing, from the seventh until the twenty-seventh of July ;3 and

which was terminated, on the last-mentioned day, only after Philip Livingston, Isaae Low, John Alsop, and John Jay, four of the nominees of the aristocratic and conservative Committee of Correspondence, liad inconsistently and venally declared, in direct con- tradiction of the constantly declared poliey of that Committee, previously coneurred in by themselves, that "a general Non-Importation Agreement, faith- " fully observed, would prove the most efficacious " Measure to procure a Redress of our Grievances," 4 which had been the peculiarly distinguishing feature in the declared poliey of the revolutionary factiou, in the City of New York, as well as in that of the sim- ilar faction, iu Boston ; and after those four of the nominees of the Committee had thus practically abandoned their aristocratic and anti-revolutionary associates ; withdrawn from the Committee which they had largely assisted in organizing and by whom they had been nominated; and united with those whom they persoually despised and by whom they were quite as earnestly distrusted and despised-when, after the fashion of such corrupt political alliances, then and since-the way was prepared for a peaceful Elec- tion of the nominees of the Committee,5 four of whom no longer represented the declared poliey of the Committee; and one, if not more of the number was more of a Spy, in the service of the Colonial Government, than anything else.

It will be seen that James Duane did not disgrace himself or his name by placing the latter, with those of liis four aristoeratie associates on the ticket for Delegates to the proposed Congress, on the letter through which those four bartered the little of politi- eal and personal integrity and the modicum of unsel- fish principles which they respectively possessed, for a small mess of very thin official pottage ; and, in that instanee, his backwardness was honorable and timely, since there is every reason for the belief that, at that time, he was not master of himself; that he had, al- ready, been purchased by another ; and that, then, he was, in fact, only the servant of his master.

History has revealed6 what, otherwise, would have remained, concealed, in the files of the Colonial Land Papers, in the Secretary's Office, in Albany,7 concern-

1 Proceedings of the Meeting, appended to the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, " NEW YORK, July 7, 1774."

See, also, Holt's New- York Journal, No. 1644, NEW-YORK, Thursday, July 7, 1774; Gaine's New-York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1185, NEW- YORK, Monday, July 11, 1774; Rivington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 65, NEW-YORK, Thursday, July 14, 1774 ; Lieutenant governor Colden to Gor- ernor Tryon, "SPRING HILL, 2nd August, 1774 ; " Hamilton's Life of Alexander Hamilton, i, 21-23; Dawson's Park and its Vicinity, 34-37; Dunlap's History of New- York, i., 453 ; Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 79, 80; the same, centenary edition, iv., 355, 356 ; de Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War. i., 451.

2 Minutes of the Committee. July 7, 13, 19, 25, and 27, 1774 ; Dunlap's History of New York, i., 453 ; Hildreth's History of the United States, First Series, iii., 39 ; Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 80, 81 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 356, 357 ; Leake's Memoir of General Lamb, 93 ; de Lancey's Notes on Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 451-466.

3 Decidedly the most complete narrative of that notable factional struggle may be seen in de Lancey's Note xiv. on Jones's History of New

York during the Revolutionary War, (i., 449-467,) which has been prepared with great labor. and which contains carefully-made copies of many of the original handbills and placards which were, then, scattered through- out the city.

4 Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, and John Jay to Abraham Brasher, Theophilus Anthony, Fraucis Van Dyck, Jeremiah Platt, aud Christopher Duyckinck, " NEW YORK, July 26, 1774."

5 Proceedings of " a Meeting of a number of Citizens convened at the " House of Mr. Marriner," at which the nominations by the Committee of Correspondence were acquiesced in, by those who assumed to repre- sent the unfranchised inhabitants of the City, "NEW YORK, 27 July, " 1774."

6 " Duane, justly eminent as a lawyer, was embarrassed by large spec- "ulations in Vermont lands, from which he could derive no profit, but "through the power of the Crown."-(Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 79 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 355.)

ī New York Colonial Manuscripts indorsed " Land Papers," in the office of the Secretary of State, at Albany, xviii., 100; xix., 68; xx., 168, 169 :

203

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

ing his speeulations in the Crown lands, in New York and Vermont, to secure entire suecess in which the countenance of the Colonial Government was needed and had been secured; and the intimaey of his personal relations with the head of that Govern- ment, the venerable Cadwallader Colden,1 and the remarkable similiarity of his views concerning the leading political questions of the day, among which the demand for a suspension of the trade of the made only to that other patent fact, that the Con- gress had no sooner closed its sessions, at Philadel- phia, than he hastened to his master, in New York, and reported to that anxious listener, for the use of the Ministry, in England, not only the doings of par- { ticular Delegations, in the Congress, and those of the Congress itself, but his own general dissent from the proceedings, his request that that dissent should be entered on the Journal, and the absolute refusal of Colonies with the Mother Country was one of the i permission to have that privilege given to him, all of most prominent, and those, on the same questions, which were thus communicated in open violation of his promise " to keep the Proceedings seeret, until "the Majority shall direct them to be made Publick."3 Indeed, he and Joseph Galloway, of Philadelphia, the latter of whom, also, had been a Delegate in the Con- gress, visited Lieutenant-governor Colden, soon after the adjournment of that body, and communicated to that distinguished member of the Government, all that he desired to know of the entire subject, not sparing even those portions of the proceedings of the Congress which it regarded as too delieate to be submitted to the light of day, in its subsequently published Journal;4 and that, too, in theface of the no- torious fact that each had already assented to and sign- ed the Association of Non-Importation which the Con- gress had adopted,5 which, prima-facie, carried with it, in each instanee, to his constituents and to the world, a guaranty of his faithful discharge of the duties con- nected with the great trust which had been laid upon' him ; but, when regarded as only one of the links of a chain of evidence, concerning his entire conduct, in the political events of that period, it is one which, until the end of time, will establish the stern fact that James Duane, among others, was insineere, un- trustworthy, and dishonest, as a man and as a politi- eian. which were maintained by that unusually zealous servant of the King, are also well known to every careful reader of that portion of the political history of the Colony. Indeed, in the latter connection, it is known that, subsequently to his election as a Dele- gate to the Congress, and before he left New York, to take his seat in that body, as the trusted Envoy of all the inhabitants of that City, nominally charged with the great and honorable duty of seeking, in their behalf, a redress of the political grievances which had been imposed upon them by the Home Government, he visited and confidentially compared notes, on political subjects, with, if he did not also communicate information to, the official representa- tive of that Government, in New York ;2 and, with that fact established, even in the absence of direct and positive testimony thereon, it would not be un- reasonable to suppose or to say that specific lines of action, in the interest of the Crown, which were sub- sequently followed, within that Congress, individually and in concert with other Delcgates, were, also, con- sidered, and canvassed, and determined on, during that interview. In harmony, also, with that evident connection of James Duane with the Colonial Gov- ernment,-in support, also, of the suspicion that par- ticular lines of action, in the interest of the Crown, to be taken in the Congress, were considered and deter- inined on, in advance of the meeting of the Congress, by that particular Delegate and the venerable Lieu- tenant-governor of the Colony-reference nced be

The Colonial Government was decidedly and pe- euliarly opposed to the adoption of any measurc, either by the people or the Congress, which wouldl possibly disturb the Trade and Commerce of Great Britain ; and James Duane, a dependent on that Gov- ernment, was not at liberty to sign sueh a letter, ap- proving the establishment of a Non-Importatim Agreement, as that which his four associates on the aristoeratic ticket, thus smeared with corruption, had signed, even if the consequence had been a sacrifice

xxi., 10, 95 ; xxii., 15 ; xxxiii., 19, 41 ; xxvii., 17 ; and the many papers, concerning Duanesburg, of which he was a principal Proprietor.

1 lle was the Clerk of the Colonial Court of Chancery ; he was, often, the retained Counsel of the Colonial Government ( Opinions of Counsel in the Matter of t'unningham, Appellant, against Forsey, and in the Matter of Charges against Judge Wells ;) he was the Counsel of the Lieutenant. governor, in the celebrated Suit, in Chancery, concerning a division of the Fees of his office, with the Earl of Dunmore, (Letters, etc., in the Matter of the Attorney-general pro Rege against Colden ;) and the tone and the terms of tire letters which passed between them, as they have been preserved in " the Colden Papers," in the Labrary of the New York Ilis. torical Society, leave no room for doubt on the subject.

2 " By my Letter of the ith of September your Lordship would find I "entertained Ilopes that the People of this Province would adopt mod- "erate Mensures and avoid giving any new offence to the Parliament. I "know such were the sentiments of Farmers and Country People in "general who make a great Majority of the Inhabitants. I had a con- "fidential conference with one of the Delegates sent from this city to the "Congress now met at Philadelphia who I thought had as much infin- "ence as any from this place, and he gave me assurances of his disposition "being similar."- Lieutenant governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, No. 7., " NEW YORK 5th October 1;74.")

3 The fourth Resolution or " Rule of Conduct to be observed," etc., is in these words : " RESOLVEn : That tho Doors be kept shut during the Timo "of Business : and that the Members consider themselves under the "strongest Obligations of Honour to keep the Proceedings secret, until " the Majority shall direct them to be made Publick."-(Journal of the Congress, " Tuesday, September 6th, 1771, ten o'clock, A MI.")

The Despatch of Lieutenant governor Colden to the Earl of Init- mouth dated, " NEW YORK, December 7th, 1774," in which the Home Government was informed of these dishonorable revelations of the action of the l'ongress, is too extended to be copied into this Note. The reader is consequently referred to it.

3 .A carefully prepared fac-simile of the last sheet of that Association, which contained the signatures of the several Delegations-there of James Duane and Joseph Galloway being among them-may be seen in Force's .Imerican .Irchices, Fourth series, i., opposite folios 9157, 916.

204

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

of that opportunity to obtain, for himself, a seat in that Congress, a contingency which the Colonial Government was, probably, quite as anxious to avoid, and one which was evidently guarded against by means which were entirely effective. James Duane was not amoug those who were suddenly converted, in order to ensure their success at the Polls; but, nevertheless, on the day after the disgraceful political somersault of Philip Livingston, Isaac Low, John Alsop, and John Jay had been declared satisfactory by their plebeian and revolutionary auditory, that eminent adherent to the original policy of the Com- mittee of Correspondence, as well as those who had so iguominiously abandoned it, was elected, at the Polls, by the unanimous vote of "the Inhabitants," 1 affording an example, in political engineering, which has been too often followed, at the expense of indi- vidual integrity and of the good of the country, from that time until the present.

Perhaps the preceding detail belongs more properly to the political history of the commercial City of New York than to that of the purely agricultural County of Westchester ; yet it would be impossible to present any narrative of the events of the Revolu- tion which occurred within that portion of the Col- ony, which should pretend to completeness, or preci- sion, or accuracy, without having previously explained the precise nature of those influences which were brought, from beyond the limits of the County, to undermine the fundamental and rigid conservatism of those staid, well-to-do, and contented farmers who occupied that County, and to draw any portion of them from the quiet of their rural homes into the seething vortex of partisan excitement, concern- ing measures of the Home Government which did not affect them nor their interests, in the slightest degree -a departure from the ways of their fathers, which, before many months had elapsed, transformed that quiet, and neighborly, and law-abiding community into one of entire unrest and disorder, of the most intense partisan bitterness, and of the most complete disregard of all law, human and divine; converting what had been a quiet, and well-cultivated, and pro- ductive agricultural region into one over which were spread the evidences of partisan lawlessness, of vigi- lant suspicion and distrust, of sullen neglect, and, too often, of hopeless and lamentable ruin. The pur- poses, apparent or concealed, of those who created the Committee of Correspondence in the City of New

York; the purposes, published or withheld, of the Committee itself; and the purposes, generally well- concealed, of some of those who wielded the iuflu- ence of that Committee, sometimes for the promotion of their individual and not always righteous interests and sometimes for the suppression of the aspiratious of others which were quite as praiseworthy as their own, are, therefore, subjects which cannot be disre- garded, in whatever relates to revolutionary West- chester-county, since it was that Committee, as has been already stated, who made the first assault on the long-established couservatism of the farmers of that ancient County -- an assault which was made entirely unsuccessful by their sturdy disregard; since it was that Committee, returuing to the assault and offering the tempting allurements of place and official author- ity to those who should break from the ranks of their conservative countrymen-who, as will hereinafter appear, by means of such corrupt allurements, first broke the line of those rural home-guards which had previously thrown back the power of the insidious invader; aud because it was that Committee who called into existence, successively, the revolutionary Congress of the Continent and the yet more revolu- tiouary Provincial Congress, whence, subsequently, flowed that torrent of disorders and disasters over which Westchester-county has not ceased to mourn, from that period until the present. These have been consequently presented, as briefly, however, as was consistent with perspicuity ; and a more complete, and precise, and accurate understanding of the details of the revolution of sentiments within Westchester- county, as portions of that more extended revolution, throughout the Colony and the Continent, "in the "minds and hearts of the people," 2 it is believed, will, therefrom, be more readily and more certainly, if not more permanently, assured to the greater number of readers who shall resort to these pages.

Without the slightest indication of any concern be- cause of the humiliating defeat to which it had been subjected, in the abandonment of one of the principal of its peculiar and emphatically declared principles, and in the acceptance, in the place of that abandoned principle, by its own nominees, of one of the pecu- liarly antagonistic principles of those whom it had persistently endeavored to silence and suppress, on the day after the election of the Delegates to the pro- posed Congress, [July 29,] the Committee of Cor- respondence in New York addressed a second Circu- lar Letter to the County Committee, where there was one, or to the Treasurer, where there was no Com-

1 Letter of the Committee of Correspondence of New York to the Commit- tee in Charleston, " NEW YORK, July 26th, 1774," Postscript, dated " July " 28th ;" the same to the Committee in Philadelphia, "NEW YORK, July 28th, " 1774 ; " the same to Matthew Tilghman, Chairman of the Maryland Com- mittee, " NEW YORK, July 28th, 1774;" Lieutenant-gorernor Colden to the Eurl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK 2 August 1774;" the same to Governor Tryon, " SPRING HILL 2 Angust 1774; " the same to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK Tth Septr 1774;" the same to Governor Tryon, "Septr 7th " 1774; " Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i, 34, 35 ; Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii, 83; the same, centenary edition, iv., 358.

2 "An History of Military Operations, from April 19, 1775, to Septem- "ber 3, 1783, is not an History of the American Revolution, any more "than the Marquis of Quincy's Military History of Louis XIV, though "much esteemed, is a History of the Reign of that Monarch. The " Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, and in the "Union of the Colonies, both of which were substantially effected before " hostilities commenced."-(Letter from John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, " QUINCY, November 29, 1815.")

205

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

mittee, in each of the several Counties in the Colony, in which, after it had stated the election of Delegates to represent the City of New York, in the proposed Congress, to be assembled on the first of September ensuing, at Philadelphia, it presumptuously and with an assumed air of leadership, continued, in thesc words: "It therefore becomes necessary that the " Delcgates to represent the other Counties in this " Province be specdily appointed. The Counties will " judge of the propriety of confiding in the same per- " sous only which we have chosen, or to appoint such " others to go, with them, to the Congress, as they ' may think fit to depute, for that purpose. Permit " us to observe that the number of Delegates is imma- " terial, since those of each Province, whether more " or less, will conjointly have ouly oue vote at the " Congress. In order, however, that the representa- " tion of the different Counties may be quite com- " plete, it is absolutely necessary that your Couuty " appoint, with all possible speed, one or more Dele- " gates to join and go with ours to the Congress, or, if " you choose to repose your coufidence iu our Dele- " gates, that you signify such your determination, iu " the most clear and explicit terms, by the first op- " portunity, after the sense of your County can be " known, on so interesting a subject." 1

To this Circular Letter which was thus sent to the several rural Counties throughout the Colony, only six of those Counties are known to have paid the slightest atteutiou, those of Westchester, Duchess, and Albany having respectively authorized the Delegates whom the City of New York had elected, to represent them, also, iu the Congress ; 2 while those of Kings, 3 Suffolk,4 and Orange,5 respectively, sent Delegates of their own appointment ; and Richmond, Queens, Ul- ster, Cumberland, Gloucester, Charlotte, and Tryou, respectively, did not manifest the slightest interest in the subject.6 For the purposes of this work, only the aetion of the County of Westchester, on that Circular Letter, can be noticed in this place.

As the Committee of Correspondence evidently in- tended that ouly the united action of the entire County, in every instance, should be invited, on the subject of appointing Delegates to the proposed Con- gress, it is not probable that the sentiments of the iu-

dividual Towns, on any other subjects, were consid- ercd desirable, or were expected to be ascertained, or, if ascertained, werc desired to be given to the public. Be that as it may, for some reason, if more than four Towns in Westchester-county took any action what- ever, in response to the Circular Letter of the Con- mittee, concerning the political questions of that period, or for the appointment of Deputies to repre- sent the County in the proposed Congress, or for any other purpose, the record of that action has escaped the notice of working historical students-the pro- ceedings of Mamaroneck were communicated directly to the Committee, at New York, in a letter dated on the seventh of August; and those of Bedford were al- so communicated, directly to the same Committee, in a letter dated on the ninth of that month :" the pro- ceedings of Rye and those of the Borough Town of Westchester, because of the respective opinions of those Towns, on other subjects, which were more fully and formally expressed, require more particular notice.

On the tenth of August, responsive to the Circular Letter from the Committee in New York, the Free- holders and Inhabitants of Rye, who sympathized with that Committee in its proposal that Westchester- couuty should appoint Delegates to represent it iu the proposed Cougress, met and appointed Jolin Thomas, Junior, Esq., James Horton, Junior, Esq., Robert Bloomer, Zeno Carpenter, and Ebenezer Haviland, for " a Committee to consult and determine, with the " Committees of the other Towns and Districts within " the County," in County Convention, to be assem- bled at the Court-house, at the White Plains, on Monday, the twenty-secoud of August, " upon the ex- " pedieucy of sending one or more Delegates to the "Congress, to be held in Philadelphia, on the first- " day of September next."

The Meeting appears to have patiently waited, without adjourning, while the Committee which it had appointed, organized, by the appointment of Ebenezer Haviland, as its Chairman; aud considered the great political questions of the day; and ex- pressed its conclusious on those questions, in a series of Resolutious, in the following words :

" THIS MEETING being greatly alarmed at the late "Proceedings of the British Parliament, in order to "raisea Revenue in America; and considering their late " most cruel, unjust, and unwarrantable Act for block- " ing up the Port of Boston, having a direct tendency to " deprive a free People of their most valuable Rights "and Privileges, au introduction to subjugate the In- " habitants of the English Colonics and to render " them Vassals to the British House of Commons :

" RESOLVE, FIRST, That they think it their greatest " Happiness to live under the illustrious House of " Hanover ; and that they will steadfastly and uni- "formly bear true and faithful Allegiance to His

1 Draft of the Circular Letter sent to the Committec or Treasurer of the different Counties, "NEW YORK, July 29, 1774," appended to the Minutes of the Committee, "NEW YORK, July 28, 1774."

See, also, Lieutenant governor Colden to Governor Tryon, “SPRING " llILL 2 August 1774."

2 Credentials of those Delegates-Journal of the Congress, "Monday, " September 5, 1774." 3 Credential of Simon Bocrum-Journal of the Congress, "Saturday, "October 1, 1774."

+ Credential of William Floyd-Journal of the Congress, "Monday, " September 5, 1774." 5 Credential of Heury Wisner-Journal of the Congress, "Wednesday,

"September 14, 1774, A.M." and that of John Herring-Journal of the " Congress, " Monday, September 26, 1774, A. MI."

6 Lieutenant-gorernor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK, " 7th September, 1774."

7 Minutes of the Committee, " NEW YORK, August 29, 1771."

206

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

" Majesty, King George the Third, under the enjoy- " ment of their constitutional Rights and Privileges, " as fellow-subjects, with those of England.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 50

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