History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 53

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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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

mittee should condemn, for having violated that As- sociation, in order " that, thenceforth, the parties to the "said Association should respectively break off all deal- "ings with him or her"-in more modern phraseology, in order that the alleged offender, whether guilty or innocent of any violation of law, on the mere con- demnation of a local Committee, on whom individual animosity or local prejudice might exercise a greater power than either justice or equity could control, might be promptly boycotted, in all his or her busi- ness relations, and, thereby, be involved in disaster and ruin. At the same time, John Jay, Peter T. Cur- tenius, Isaac Low, and James Duane were appointed to prepare a Circular Letter to the different Counties, recommending them, also, to appoint similar "Com- "mittees of Inspection," "agreeably to the provisions " of the eleventh resolve of the Congress." 1

" Some difficulties having arisen relative to the Ad- " vertisement published by the Committee, for clioos- "ing a Committee of Inspection "-in other words, the handful of professional politicians who assumed to represent the unfranchised Mechanics and Working-men of the City, having repudiated the limitations imposed by the Congress, and insisted that the votes of the great body of the inhabitants, as well as those of the Freeholders and Freemen, of the City, should be received, in the election of the pro- posed Committee of Inspection-an interview, betwcen the leaders of those plebeian and revolutionary claim- ants of political authority and their aristocratic and conservative neighbors of the Committee of Corre- spondence, was invited by the latter ;2 and, on the fol-

1 Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, "NEW-YORK, November 7, 1774."

The eleventh Resolution of the Congress, referred to in the text, provided "that a Committee be chosen in every County, City, and " Town, by those who are qualified to vote for Representatives in the " Legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the con- "duct of all persous, touching this Association " [of Nou-Importation, Non-Consumption, and Non-Erportation, ]; "and when it shall be made " to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of any such Committee, that "any person within the limits of their appointment has violated "this Association " fwhether he may hare consented to it, or not] " that " such majority do forthwith canse the truth of the ease to be published " in the Gazette, to the end that all such foes to the Rights of British " America may be publicly known and universally contemned, as the " enemies of American Liberty ; and, thenceforth, we respectively will " break off all dealings, with him or her."

The reader will judge how ill-adapted such a "smelling Committee" as was thus ordered, in every Town, must have been, to promote har- mony among the Colonists, or to give support to those who were seeking a redress of the grievances of the Colonies and a restoration of harmony between the Colouies and the Mother Country.

2 Minutes of the Committee of C'orrespondeuce, "NEW YORK, November "14, 1774 ;" Letter from the Committee of Correspondence to the Committee of Mechanics, "COMMITTEE CHAMBER, November 14, 1774."

The uncertaineies, if nothing else, of political office-seeking, and, the tricks, if nothing else, of office-seekers, during that eventful period, may be seen, although they may not be entirely understood, in a comparison of the contemptuous manner in which the aristocratic Committee had spurued the democratic Committee, when it was proposed that the latter should be cousulted, in the nomination of the ticket for Members of the proposed Congress, (Minutes of the former, June 29 and July 4, 1774,) with the eageruess with which the aristocratie nominees on that ticket, very soon afterwards, repudiated the fundamental principle maintained

lowing day [November .15, 1774,] such an interview was had; but not until the Committee of Correspon- dence, meeting separately, had ordered "that, when " a Committee for carrying the Association of the Con- "gress into execution shall be elected, this Committee " do consider themselves as dissolved; and that this " Resolution be immediately made public."3

It was thus acknowledged by that Committee which had been originated in the memorable Caucus, at Sam. Francis's, six months previously, and which had been subsequently organized, with so much osten- tation, at the Coffee-house, nominally, for the promo- tion of " the common cause " of the Colonies, in their reasonable dispute with the Home Government ; but, more surely, for the protection of the conservative and aristocratic elements of the City's population from the already unwelcome and yet more threatened aggressions of those which were more democratic and revolutionary in their inclinations; and, less promi- mently, but most surely, for the advancement of the individual purposes of those who were its originators and master-spirits-by that hitherto respectable Com- mittee of Fifty-one which no longer represented, without wavering, those political principles on which it had been originally founded and for which it had resolutely contended, not always unsuccessfully ; which was no longer controlled by those who even appeared to be actuated simply by an unselfish de-

by their own organization, and accepted that of their plebeian neigh- bors' organization, in order to secure the support of that body, at the Polls, and to assure their election, (Correspondence between Abraham Brasher aud others, a Committee, aud Philip Livingston and others, nominees for the office, July 26 and 27, 1774) ; and with the voluntary invitation, from the aristocratie to the democratie Committee, to meet in conference, iu the instance mentioned in the text, when the primary movement was to be made, toward the election of another Delegation, to meet in another Congress, in the eusning May. If the reader will elosely watch the snecessive events, iu that connection, and notice the final result, lie will see, also, how well the consolidation of aristocracy and demoerney, into one mass of political conglomerate, for the advancement in authority of particular wien, accomplished that purpose, the interests of the Colo- nies and those of political honesty, in the meanwhile, having been en- tirely disregarded.

8 Minutes of the Committee, "NEW YORK, November 15, 1774."

Judge Jones, in his History of New York during the Revolutionary War, (i., 4,) said, " This Committee met frequently, and violent Resolutions " were proposed, but ever rejected. Mr. Low and the republicans of the " Committee finding it not to answer their purposes, actually dissolved " it, and nominated one of their own, without an election or the least "notice to the Citizens. Mr. Low continued Chairmau. They acted as "a legal body, legally chosen, and fined, imprisoned, robbed, and ban- "ished His Majesty's loyal subjeets with a vengeance." As will be seen, hereafter, the Judge was in error, when he supposed and stated that the second Committee, that of " Inspection," was not elected, and was created secretly, without notice to the Citizens. On the contrary, the two factions of the Opposition, in the City, having been consolidated in order to secure such a result, that "Committee of Inspection " was elected by "a respectable number of the Freeholders aud Freemen " of this City, assembled at the City Hall, where the Election was con- "ducted under the iuspection of several of the Vestryuien" of the City.

The unquestionable records of the doings of both Committees, as well as all knowu authorities brought down from that period and relating thereto, abundantly prove that there is uothing which was inaccurately stated, in any other portion of the statement, notwithstanding the learned Editor of the Judge's work, singularly enough, appears to entertain a dif- fereut opinion on that subject .- (Notes to the History, i., 438.)

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

sire to promote the common weal; and which had been invaded, if it was not, then, controlled, by those, of the opposite and less eomely faction of the party of the Opposition, with whom the majority of its members, by a formal vote, had already declined to affiliate-that its mission was completed, and that its original anthority and power, through corrupt in- fluences with which it was not unacquainted, had passed into other hands. It had, indeed, asserted and successfully maintained those conservative poli- tical principles, directly antagonistic to the more revolutionary political principles which the men of Boston had asserted and insisted on, which it believed to have been better adapted for the promotion of "the "common eause " and for that of the best interests of the Colonies ; and, for the further promotion of " that "common cause," consciously or unconsciously, it had unselfishly prepared a way for the advancement of those, within itself, who eoveted place and its pre- rogatives, by nominating them for seats in the Con- gress of which it had been the originator and the un- yielding promoter. It had seen, however, the nomi- nces of its seleetion, with one exception, barter that fundamental principle which it had especially cherished, for the votes, at the Polls, of those whom it had previously deelined to recognize as parties in the struggle ; it had subsequently seen those nomi- mees, after their election, as members of the Delega- tion from New York, concur in the adoption of measures which it had already declined to approve and which were nothing if they were not aggressive and revolutionary ; and, at last, it had seen the party of the Opposition crowded toward Rebellion, by the Congress of its own creation; and its own whilom master-spirits in conservative exclusiveness, anxious for a further advancement in place-holding and for the promotion of that particular purpose, joining hands with the principal supporters of what was, very clearly, only demoeratie and revolutionary. There was a fitness, therefore, that those of the Committee who had honestly and unselfishly opposed the ag- gressians of the Home Government, should cease to allow their names and whatever influence those names might possess, to be used by those who had betrayed the eonfidence which had been reposed in them, dircetly, for the advancement of their own per- sonal ends, and, indirectly, for the promotion of Revo- Intion, if not for that of Rebellion ; and there was a peculiar fitness, also, that, whatever those conservative members of the Committee of Fifty-one should do or decline to do, in the interests of the Colonists and of the Colony, they should not remain, associated with, if not controlled by, those of the opposite faction of the confederated party of the Opposition, whose ultimate object, very clearly, was nothing else than the ad- vancement to place and political authority of those who were its leaders, even if that advancement should be made at the cost of a Revolution and of a Civil War. The Committee of Correspondence did well,

therefore, in thus providing for its own dissolution, without permitting itself to be crowded out of its ex- istence by that faction of its own political party for whom it had, generally, no respect-by that faction of that party of the Opposition, hitherto its only poli- tical antagonist, which, then, appeared with John Jay and James Duane, lately two of the Committee, among its nominal leaders.

The result of the interview which the Committee of Correspondence had thus invited-one of the high contracting parties rapidly approaching its own disso- lution, with only twenty-three of its fifty-one men- bers present, and with eight of the twenty-three predestinated by their associates to an early retire- ment : the other of the two parties to the conference flushed with that most recent and most important of its victories over the aristocracy of the City-was a determination to nominate sixty persons who should be agreeable to both the Committee of Correspondence and the Committee of the Mechanics, all of whose names should be submitted to the Freeholders and Freemen of the City, at a Meeting to be called for that purpose, at the City Hall, for their approval and election ; ' all of which was evidently done and com- pleted, on the twenty-second of November, exactly in conformity with the programme which the two poli- tical "rings" of that period, consolidated for the purpose of promoting their mutual political interests, had already prepared and promulgated.2

There is abundant evidenee concerning the peculiar zeal of that new-formed Committee of Inspection- sometimes styled " THE COMMITTEE OF SIXTY," and at others, " THE COMMITTEE OF OBSERVATION "-in the discharge of its self-imposed duties ;3 but, generally, the purposes to which this work is specially devoted do not require a more extended notice of them, in this place. Those purposes require, however, that men- tion shall be made of the fact, in this connection, that whatever the Circular Letters which were sent to Westchester-county, by the Committee of Corres- pondence or by any other body, for the purpose of

1 Proceedings of the Conference with the Committee of Mechanics, in the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, "NEW YORK, November 15, "1774."

" Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1664, NEW-YORK, Thursday, November 24, 1774; and Rivington's New York Gazetter, No. 84, NEW-YORK, Thurs- day, November 24, 1775.

"The first Thing done by the People of this place in consequence of "the Resolutions of The Congress, was the Dissolution of the Committee " of 51, in order to choose a new Committee of Inspection, to carry the " Measures of the Congress into effect. A Day was appointed by Adver- " tisement for choosing sixty Persons to form this Committee, Abont 30 "or 40 Citizens only appeared at the Election, & chose the GO who had " been previously named by the former Committee. I can no otherwise " my Lord account for the very small umber of People who appeared on " this occasion, than by supposeing that the Measures of the Congress "are generally Disrelished."-(Lieutenant governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, No. 9, " NEW YORK, December 7th, 1774.")

3 Lieutenant-gorernor C'olden to Captain Montague, "NEW-YORK, 8 Feby, "1775;" the same to General Gage, " NEW-YORK, 20th Febry, 1775:" the " same to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK, 1st March, 1775 ;" Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 34; Leake's Memoir of General John Lamb, 97 ; etc.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

enlisting her farmers in the support and execution of the Association or of any other of the measures or recommendations of the recent Congress, may have been or may have proposed, they were evidently en- tirely disregarded; and that, at least as recently as the carly Winter of 1774-75, there was not sufficient interest, friendly to the revolutionary movements which were so deeply exciting the inhabitants of the neighboring City, within any portion of that rural County, to do even the paltry service of eirenlating those Circular Letters thronghont the Towns; al- though there were a few, a very few, who were begin- ning to look favorably on those movements, and to talk and write, in the support of them. We shall notice all of these earlier demonstrations of which we possess any information, sinee they were the small beginnings of that Revolution, within the County of Westchester, of which so mueh has been said and written.

The first of these was a Letter, in support of the revolutionary movements and in answer to the tracts of " .A. W. Farmer," which had made so muel excite- ment, throughout the Colonies. It was written by a Weaver and published in Holt's New- York Journal, No. 1668, NEW-YORK, Thursday, December 22, 1774. The Editor assured his readers that it was actually written by a working Weaver, who lived in Harri- son's Purchase ; 1 and it was in these words :

" To the city and country inhabitants, of the province of New York. " Friends, and fellow mortals.

"INTHE division between Britain, and her Colo- nies, is very alarming; but what I think " would be more alarming, is a division between the in- " habitants of the colonies ; the effect of which wehave " from holy writ, that a house divided against itself, " cannot stand. I have seen a pamphlet printed by " Mr. Rivington, entitled the Country Farmer, which " seems to be calculated to throw all into confusion, " & to no other end ; and artfully to gain his point, " as a Farmer, he addresses himself to the Farmers, " and their wives; he tells the latter, they cannot " treat a neighbour with a dish of tea ; and that will " be a dreadful thing indeed ; to the former, he saith, " their produce will rot on their hands, and they can- " not pay their weaver, &e. Being a Wearer myself, " and tho' they be generally poor, still they are as " useful a set of men, as any in the world, and so will " remain, as long as, from the King to the peasant, " all are born naked. I therefore, would beg leave

" to say a word in answer to our pretended Farmer, " and make no doubt but the lowness of stile I shall " speak in, will be exeused, when it is considered that " a man may be a profonnd Weaver, and no gram- " marian ; and being a useful branch of mankind as " above, ought to have the privilege of speaking in " his own stile. If so, then my first answer to our " Farmer is, that we Weavers, and I believe I may " say most of other trades too, cannot live without " meat, bread and elothing, all which I shall gladly " take in exchange for my labour; and If I could " earn more at the year's end, than a supply for my " family, I would be content, (at this troublesome " period, which our Farmer sets up for sneh a terror) " to have my employer say to my creditor. I owe " the Weaver so much, which I will engage to pay to you, " when I can sell my produce. It may be my ereditor " may answer, the produce will suit me, and then all " will be well ; but if not, the promise will answer at " this time, with every ereditor that hath any spirit of " patriotism. Now to the wires, I would address my- " self as follows, viz. to remember when their parents " were first placed in the garden, that it was said to " the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of " every trec of the garden ? but the woman was pre- " vailed on by a deceiver, to disobey the command, " and to eat. But (! the consequence ! and so like- " wise, a deeciver now says to you what! are you de- " nied the pleasure of drinking tea ? But I beg of you " not to be now deceived, nor prevailed on to bring " ruin and slavery on your country and posterity, by " tasting of that detestable herb, which hath already " been the cause of so much confusion. But if you " will not be entreated, but will 'persist in using it, "you will find your case similar to that of Eve, she " lost her innocence, and plunged all her descendants " into everlasting misery ; you will lose liberty, and ' plunge your descendants into everlasting slavery. " The Farmer too, complains bitterly about not " transporting sheep. I wish to God, the congress " had let us send away our black sheep; for then per- " haps this pretended Farmer, might have been trans- " ported before he could have made such a bleating.

" Now I would beg leave to say a few words on his " clamour against our delegates. He calls them trait- " ors, which name, he had much better have taken " on himself, where it might have been applied with propriety. I cannot see any room for this vil- " est of mankind, to insinuate, that those men would " attempt to betray their country. Besides their un- " spotted characters, are they not men of extensive " interests in America ? have they estate in any other " country ? No, what then should induce them to " betray America, seeing that if America falls, they " must fall with it? This consideration alone, is suf- " ficient to clear them from our Farmer's aspersion. " But in my opinion, a still stronger security for their " integrity and faithful discharge of the trust reposed " in them, is, the unblemished character they have

1 " The public may be assured. that the following letter is the produc- "thon of a real, and not a fictitious wenver in West Chester. It Is the "offspring of an honest warmth In the cause of his country ; nad tho' "his sentiments, and remarks, appear in n homespun dress, they never- " theloss are not without force, and we presine, will contribute to the "entertainment of our readers." -(Editorial, introductory to the letter of the Weder ".)

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" ever supported; nor in this do I trust alone to " common fame, having known Mr. Jay, from his " early youth, and had some acquaintance with Mr. " Duane, from which I have had so much reason to " confide in them, that I could contentedly trust them " to contend for my liberty, or my life. And on the " whole, I think that it would be well for us farmers, " and mechanicks to consider whether it is not likely " that each colony took as much care in choosing " their delegates, as we did. That is, to send men of " knowledge, men of interest, and men of honour. If " so, we must look on our farmer to be a man wholly " given to ridicule, misrepresentation, and malevo- " lence; for he hath declared that most honourable " and never to be forgotten congress, to be either a " set of ignorant men, or else to be traitors !

" I would now recommend to the notice of every " reader of Rivington's Farmer, that it is the usual " practice of evil minded persons, when they would " disturb the quiet of any man, or body of men, " against whom they can find no just cause of com- " plaint, to raise against them, without any evidence, " the highest clamours, suggest the most criminal de- " signs, and if possible, represent even their most " laudable actions in an odious light : The best char- " acters and most commendable actions, are no sccur- " ities against attacks like these of the Farmer, to " which the best of men are most exposed ; but it is " a proof against them, that they are unsupported by " reason, or by credible evidence ; when, if either had " existed, they would certainly have been produced " by the same malevolence that raised the clamour " without them. I would only desire the reader to " consider the Farmer's clamour, invectives and " abuse, calmly and dispassionately, give them their " due weight and no morc. I would not even desire to " turn them upon his own head, and cause him, like " Haman, to be hanged on his own gallows-I only " desire that, unjust and unreasonable as they are, " they may have no weight with the reader, or raise " any prejudice in his mind against the cause of truth " & his country, or against any man or body of men, " especially those worthy men who have nobly stood " forth and exerted themselves to save their country " from slavery and destruction.

" I come now to consider his clamour against the " citizens, in which he declares, at a certain time, " there was no magistrate with virtue enough to do " his duty ; and that there is no merchant he would " trust. I don't recollect any thing said of the law- " yers, but he hath been severe upon the mayor and " commonalty, on account of the snipe act, with " which act, it he had gone a little further, he would " amply have justified our struggle, with the mother " country.

" I would ask, why does not that act continue in " force to this day?

" The answer is, because the country people were " very unanimous in opposition to it; though it was

" to the loss of individuals, myself for one, still they " stood out; which caused the framers of that act to " consider closely the consequences which would at- " tend its continuance-and so it was thought best to " make it void. Here we may see the effect of a " steady opposition to an odious law; and similar " causes will produce similar effects. We may assure " ourselves that a steady and firm opposition to the " late acts of Parliament, will cause our sovereign to " examine into the state of the case with great atten- " tion ; and when he finds he has been led into un- " warrantable acts by diabolical counsellors, he will " dismiss them from their offices, by which they have " wickedly devised to throw the nation all into con- " fusion, and thereby to dethrone the King.

" Therefore my fellow mortals, let me beseech you, " as you value your liberty, and the liberty of your " posterity, take the advice of the ever to be admired " and revered Congress, stick close to the non-con- " sumption agreement, and lay aside those unneces- " sary diversions, which but too often end in the de- " struction of both soul and body. If it should seem " grievous for the present, we have this for our con- " solation, that as good men as you and I, have been " afflicted: The devil was permitted to afflict Job " worse than wicked Ministers, or Counsellors of " state can you and me ; and let us take patern by " his stability, when his friends came and clamoured " against him, as bad as our Farmer doth in this day, " against the best men we have among us; and when " his wife advised him to curse God and die, what was " the effect ? why nothing at all, for it was full conso- " lation for him to say, I know that my redeemer liv- " eth; and in another place, all the days of my ap- " pointed time will I wait, till my change come.

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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 53

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