History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 62

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 62

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" In what manner those Gentlemen who chose the " Committee at the Plains proceeded, we cannot posi- " tively say : But this we can deelare with truth, that " we do not believe they can prodnee to the publie " the names of an hundred and fifty persons who " voted for a Committee that day, and we are verily " persuaded that they did their ntmost to make their "party as numerons as possible. How then can they "justify their choice of a Committee? Or how can " they presnme to impose upon the world, and to " insult the loyal county of Westchester, in so bare- " faced a manner ?

" It is well-known here, that two-thirds at least of " the inhabitants of this connty, are friends to order " and government, and opposed to Committees and all " unlawful combinations 1 ; and it will be made ap- " parent to the world, that they are so, as soon as " certain resolves now signing freely by the people, " shall be ready for publication .- And one principal " reason why the friends to government did not assem- "ble in greater numbers than they did on Tuesday " last, was, that many of them had already, by sign- "ing those resolves, testified their loyalty to the " King, their attachment to the constitution, their " enmity to Committee», and their aeqnieseenee in the "prudent measures taken by their Assembly in the "late session, for accommodating the nnhappy differ- " ences between the mother country and the eolonies ; "and consequently thought they had already done " their dnty.2

" The Committee that was chosen, may, with some " kind of propriety, be said to represent those partic- "ular persons who chose them : But how they ean " be denominated the representatives of the County " of Westehester, who in general abhor Committees " and Committee-men ; and are determined to take "no steps that may have the least tendency to lead " them into Rebellion, we cannot conceive. Certainly "the friends to government who were collected at " Captain Hatfield's, had a better right, from their

" number, to determine that there should be no Com- " mittee, than the opposite party had to appoint one, " and might with much greater propriety be said to "shew the sense of the county, than the few who " acted withont authority, and in direet opposition to "government, and to the determinations of our worthy " Assembly. And we donbt not but the impartial " public will consider the matter in this light, and " not esteem the aet of a few individuals, unlawfully " assembled, as the act (which it most assuredly is " not) of the very respectable, populous and loyal coun- " ty of WESTCHESTER." 3

The promoters of the Meeting were evidently only a minority of those present, at the Courthouse, on that memorable eleventh of April ; and it is equally evident that if those who were opposed to them had pursued a different line of conduct and had joined issne with them, on the main question, the weight of the County would have been emphatically cast on the side of the conservatives, and in opposition to the election of Delegates to the proposed Convention. But the majority, very correctly, considered that were it to assert its undoubted power, within the Meeting, and to participate in the proceedings of that Meeting, no matter for what pnpose, it would be a taeit acknowledgment of the anthority to do so, of those who had called the Meeting ; and it confined itself, therefore, to simply protesting against the en- tire proceedings, as disorderly and revolutionary, without appearing to have remembered that political revolutions never move backward, voluntarily ; and that there was not the slightest reason for supposing that, in that particular instance, in the absence of all restraint, there would be an exception to that general law. Whether the majority, in that instance, acted wisely or unwisely, is a question which the reader must determine for himself : it is not, in the slightest degree, probable, however, that the great movement which was then in progress, and which ended only in the entire separation of the thirteen Colonies from the Mother Country, was either assisted or obstrueted, in the slightest degree, by that peculiar opposition, from the conservative yeomanry of Westchester- eounty.

The Provincial Convention duly assembled at the Exchange, in the City of New York, on the twentieth of April, 1775, the Connties of New York, Albany, Ulster, Orange, Westehester, Duchess, Kings, Suffolk, and two Towns in Queens, being, more or less, repre- sented by Delegates-of the Delegation which had

3 This very important paper was published in Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, No. 105, NEW-York, Thursday, April 20, 1775, and, in Gaine's New- York Gazette : and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1227, NEW-YORK, Mon- day.April 17th, 1775.

The entire paper, including the signatures, as they appear in the text, was very carefully copied from the original publication, in Rirington's New- York Gazetteer, already referred to.

Those who are familiar with the history of Westchester-county will recognize, among the signers to this Protest, members of a great number 1 of the leading families of that ancient County.

1 Vide pages 40, 42, ante.

2 The " RESOLVES," referred to in the text, are undoubtedly those which were re-produced on page 43, ante. They originated in Duchess-county, which, at that time, extended, southward, to West- chester-county ; and it is understood that they were widely circulated throughout the former County, and, to a considerable extent, through- out Westchester county.

251

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

been elected by the Meeting at the White Plains, all were present, except Colonel James Holmes and Jonathan Platt.

After spending nearly two days in the adjustment of its, sometimes, very questionable membership,1 Isaac Low and John Haring, who had been members of the preceding Congress, having declined re-elee- tions, the Convention adopted a Resolution re-eleet- ing Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Jay, and John Alsop, all of the City of New York ; Simon Boerum, of Kings-county; William Floyd, of Suffolk; and Henry Wisner, of Orange-county; all of whom had been Members of that Congress; and added to them, Colonel Philip Schuyler, of Albany-county ; George Clinton, of Ulster-county; Colonel Lewis Mor- ris, of Westchester-county; Robert R. Livingston, Junior, of Duchess county ; and Francis Lewis, of the City of New York ; as Delegates from the Colony of New York to the sceond Congress of the Continent ; and, on Saturday, the twenty-seeond of April, after the Credentials of the Delegates-elect had been signed by every member of the Convention,2 that body hav- ing been called for the single purpose of electing Delegates to the Congress, it was adjourned, sine die.3

The movement of the Royal troops from Boston to Concord; the reckless slaughter of unresisting Colo- nists who had assembled on the Green, at Lexington,

1 Among the very paltry Credentials which were generally presented by thoso who aspired to seats in that Convention, those which were pre- sented by Robert R. Livingston, Juruior, Egbert Benson, aud Morris Graham-the latter a kinsman of the Morrises of Morrisania-were de- cidedly the shabbiest. Through them, however, a Livingston and a Benson crept into place and anthority.

" The peculiar words with which those ('redentials closed, very clearly indicate the political status of the Colony, at the date of that Convention. They were these . . . "were unanimously elected Delegates to represent " this Colony at such Congress, with full power to them or any five of "them, to meet the Delegates from the other Colonies and to concert "and determine npon such measures as shall be judged most effectual "for the preservation and re-establishment of American Rights and "Privileges, and for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain "and the Colouies."- (Journal of the Convention, "Die Sabatti, 11 hora "a. m. April, 22nd, 1775.")

3 The Journal of this, the first, Provincial Convention of the Colony, was " printed in pursuance of a Resolution of the Legislature," in 1842 ; and it has been our authority, in whatever has been stated, in the text, concerning that body.

See, also, deLanceys' Notes to Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 486, 487 ; Pitkin's History of the I united States, i., 325; Hildreth's History of the l'aited Studer, First Series, iii., 72 ; etc.

Judge Jones, ( History of New York, i., 38, 39,, strangely supposed the Members to the Cougress were elected by the several Counties-those from the City of New York, at that promiscuous mass Meeting, at the Exchange, of which an account has been already presented. Bancroft, with all the authorities before him. (History of the United States, original edition, vi., 283 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 513, ) mude all " the ru- " ral Counties," withont exception, "co-operate with the City," in elect- ing the Deputies, although Richmond, all of Queens except two Towns, Tyron, Cumberland and Charlotte-counties, made no preteusion so send Deputies. lle said, also, that all the members of the former Congress, "except the luke-warm Isaac Low," were re-elected : both Isaac 1.0w and John Ilaring, both of them members of that Cougress, declined re- elections, notwithstanding the Convention desired to return them. Lossing, ( Field-Book of the Revolution, ) appears to have regardled the action of New York, concerning the second Congress, ns too insignificant to be worthy of even a passing allusiou.

and of those who were retiring from that place ; " the destruction of the Provincial stores, at Coneord; the collision of the raiders with the exeited Colonists, while on their retreat, from Concord to Boston ; the disastrous result of that retreat; the intense excite- ment into which the entire Continent was consequent- ly plunged ; the entire disregard of the Royal author- ity, in the City of New York, which immediately followed ; the temporary fortification of the pass, at Kingsbridge ; and the control, within the City, which the Committee of Inspection necessarily assumed, arc, all of them, matters of history, known to all intelli- gent persons, and need not be repeated, in this place.

The intelligence of that commencement of military operations, in the field, was received in the City of New York, on Sunday, the twenty-third of April ; 5 and, at a Meeting of the Committee of Inspection, on the following Wednesday, that body, among other proceedings, resolved that "this Committee is further " unanimously of opinion, that, at the present alarm- "ing juncture, it is highly advisable that a Provincial "Congress be immediately summoned ; and that it be " recommended to the Freeholders and Frcemen of "this City and County, to choose, at the same time "that they vote for the new Committee aforesaid,6 "twenty Deputies to represent them at the said Con- "gress; and that a Letter be forthwith prepared and " despatched to all the Counties, requesting them to "unite with us in forming a Provincial Congress, and " to appoint their Deputies without delay, to meet at " New York, on Monday, the twenty-second of May "next." 7

+ Notwithstanding the unaccountable display of armed men, on tho Green, no attempt whatever was made, by any of them, to oppose the march of the Royal Troops; and when they were ordered to disperse, they did disperse, all of them seeking safety in running away, as fast as they could go. While they were thus running away, the Royal troops opened a fire on them, with the result which is known to the werld. It is positively and authoritatively stated, that, with the ex- ception, the only exception, of one, who, when "he was at some " distance "-ont of harm's way-turned and "gave them the guts "of his gun," not a single gun was fired by the Colonists. Those curious to learn more on that subject-that " Battle " in which one of the parties did ALL the firing, and the other all the RUNNING-may find the testimony in Dawson's Battles of the l'uited States by Sca and Land, Article "LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ; " Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, ii., 489-501 ; etc.

5 The most graphic account of the proceedings, in the City of New- York, on that memorable Sunday, as far as we have knowledge of the subject, is that presented by Judge Jones, in his History of New York during the Revolutionary War, (i., 39-41.)

" The Committee of Inspection had recommended the dissolution of that Committee, because it was invested with powers respecting only the " Association " of the Continental Congress ; and it had also recom- mended the election of a new Committee of one hundred persons, thirty- three of whom should be a quorum, all of whom should retire and the Committee be " dissolved within a fortnight next after the end of the "next Session of the Continental Congress."

The "Committee of One hundred," which was thus called, subse- quently became the local Committeo of the Revolutionary element, in the City of New York, and well known to every student of the history of that period.

¡ Minutes of the Committee of Inspection, "Wednesday, April 26. " 1775.""

252

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Inasmuch as the City and, to a considerable extent, the Colony were practically in a state of anarchy, the Colonial Government being confessedly unable to do anything, even for the maintenance of a shadow of its official dignity aud authority,1 the calmness and ability with which the Committee controlled the ex- citable masses, within the City-those who had been schooled, for many years, in acts of lawless violence and destruction, and whose organization and leader- ship had not been disturbed,-were peculiarly note- worthy and entitled to the highest praise; and, under the circumstances which then existed, which clearly indicated that the Colonial General Assembly would not re-assemble on the third of May, to which day it had adjourned, there was an existing necessity that some other body, possessing a general influence, should be assembled, in its stead, for the control of the excited revolutionary elements, if not to lead them ; and the call for a Provincial Congress, thus published, was, therefore, under the existing circum- stances, both prudent aud praiseworthy.

It is proper, however, that notice should be taken, in this connection, of the fact that, during the entire period preceding the publication of that call for a Provincial Congress, there had been a wholesome fear, among all classes, uuless the most radical and reck- less, that such a body, called and organized without warrant in law and liable to become controlled by those who would be inclined to resort to the most violent measures, notwithstanding the preteusions and professions of those who promoted the call for such a body, would soon become more oppressive than the Colonial Government, administered agreeably to law, by the legally constituted officers, had ever been or could thenceforth become. They referred, especially, in support of their fears, to the Colony of South Carolina, where such a Congress had superseded the Colonial Legislature ; and they called attention to the

fact that, there, the entire machinery of the Colonial Government had been stopped; the Courts had been closed; and decrees of the most oppressive character had been enacted; and these, not by the Colonial Government nor by those who were peculiarly sup- porters of the authority of the King, but by those who had assumed to lead the popular movement, who had utilized the project of a Provincial Convention or Congress as a more powerful instrumentality for the acquirement of authority which they had not previ- ously possessed, for the establishment of systems of government which were neither practical nor useful, and for the gratification of malice and revenge, be- tween individuals and communities, all of them done, too, in the name of "Liberty " and the " Rights of the "Colonies," with violent denunciations of tyranny and official oppression, per se, and with solemn appeals to Heaven, as guaranties of the self-assumed righteous- ness and of the good intentions of the self-constituted and lawless oppressors.2 Reference was also made to other instances, in other Colonies, in which the rev- olutionary elements, regardless of all law, human or divinc, and goverued only by their own unbridled wills and for their own individual purposes, had be- come more oppressive than those Colonial Govern- ments had been, against whom the full force of the revolutionary opposition had been so noisily hurled ; and it was peculiarly noticeable, in the greater number, if not in all, such instances, that the most violent and lawless of those who were most reckless of the rights of individuals, were those demagogues who, previously to the uprising, had been most unmindful of the com- plaiuts of the masses-those of the "poor reptiles " of their estimates-and most sycophantic in their zeal for the promotion of the pretensions of the Colonial and Home Governments.

That serious distrust, among thoughtful men, to

2 Judge Jones, who was on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the Colony, said that a meeting of His Majesty's Council was held at Lieu- tenant-governor Colden's house, on the afternoon of that Sunday which lias been made memorable, in history ; and that the Judges of the Su- preme Court of the Colony, the Attorney-general of the Colony, the Mayor and Recorder of the City, and the Field-officers of the City Militia, were present, on invitation. "The Governor desired their advice in the " then critical situation of affairs. Several things were mentioned, pro- " posed, agitated, and talked of, but to little purpose. A Judge of the " Supreme Court," [ Thomas Jones, who wrote this statement,] " tlien " present, boldly proposed that the Militia should be called out, the " Riot Act read, and if the mob did not thereupon disperse, to apprehend "and imprison the ringleaders, and by such coercive means to secure " the peace of the City. This proposal was instantly opposed by William " Smith, one of his Majesty's Council, who openly declared ' that the ' ' ' ferment which then ragcd in the ('ity was general and not confined to " 'a few ; that it was owing to a design in the British Ministry to cn- " ' slave the Colonies, and to carry such design into execution by dint of " 'a military force ; that the Battle of Lexington was looked upon as " 'a prelude to such intention ; and that the spirit then prevailing in " ' the Town (which he represented as universal) would subside as soon " ' as the grievances of the people were redressed ; and advised to let " ' the populace act as they pleased'-Nobody replied, the times were " critical, a declaration of one's sentiments might be dangerous, the " Council broke up, and nothing was done."-(History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i. 41.)

1 The Provincial Congress of South Carolina assembled at Charleston, on Wednesday, the eleventh of January, 1775, and adjourned on Tues- day, the seventeenth of the same month. Besides approving the doings of the Continental Congress, it forbade the commencement of any Action for Debt, and the prosecution of any such Action as had heen commenced since the preceding September, unless with the consent of the Committee of the Parish in which the Defendant resided ; "that " Seizures and Sales upon Mortgages should be considered on the same " footing as Actions for Debts ; " " that no Summons should be issued " by any Magistrate, in small and mean Causes, without the like con- " sent of the Parish Committee ; " that " compensation should be made " by those who raise articles which may be exported " [which, agreeably to the Association of the Continental Congress, was only Rice] " to those " who cannot raise such articles, for the losses which they may sustain "by not exporting the commodities they raise," " that if the Exportation " of Ricc should be continued " [under the exception, in its faror, which the Continental Congress had made] "one-third of the Rice made in the " Colony should be deposited in the hands of Committees " appointed to receive it, for the public use, at prices uamed by the Congress, and pay- able in the paper currency of the Colony , which was depreciated to seven for one of specie ; and other decrees of the most oppressive characters.

Descriptions of that Provincial Congress and of its remarkable methods and still more remarkable doings, may be seen in Ramsay's History of the Revolution in South Carolina, i., 23-25; Drayton's Memoirs of the Ameri- can Rerolution as relating to South Carolina, i., 166-180 ; etc.

See, also, Journal of the Congress, re-printed in Force's American Archires, Fourth Series, i., 1109-1118.

253

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

which reference has been made in connection with the call for a Provincial Congress, was greatly strengthened, immediately after the receipt of the in- telligence of the military expeditiou to Concord, and in the midst of the intense excitement which then prevailed throughout the City, by the inroad into the County of Westchester and the City of New York, of a large number of men, from Connecticut, who had come on their own motion, unsolicited by any one in New York or elsewhere ; without the slightest author- ity from the Government of their own Colony ; and, evidently, bent on nothing else than to be present to share in the distribution of the booty which an evi- dently expected general overturning of the homes and the business-offices and warehouses of that City would have placed within their reach. They lived, on their way through Westchester-county as well as while they were withiu the City, entirely on their wits and on the products of their wits, professing to have come only "with a view of aiding and assisting " us in preparing for our defense ;" but their reckless arrogance and audacity, iu their assumption of authority in local affairs as well as in other matters, in which they were evidently sustained by some of the more desperate of the leaders of the revolutionary faction, in the City of New York, which were made matters of record, had they not been only earlier specimens of the peculiarly "New England ideas " which, subsequently, became so common and so well known, would have been regarded, by those of later periods, as unaccountable, if not impossible.2 Thoughtful men, therefore, had abundant reason for reflection ; and meu of property needed to provide for the security of their possessions; aud peaceful men and heads of families did well, when they sought shelter iu distaut parts of the country, while there were so many and such portentous warnings of the ills which were so evidently and so rapidly approach- ing.

The excitement and bitterness of factional strife, not always of a purely political character, with which the City of New York had been unceasingly afflicted, during several years preceding the period now under consideration, had tended to the serious disturbance of the individual and social relations of many of those who lived in that City; and the political annals of that period afford ample testimony to the fact that terrorism, there, one of the reasonable results of the existing excitement, was prevalent, audacious, and unchecked by those in authority. The County of Westchester, in her rural contentment, as has been seen in other portions of this narrative, had contin- ued, during the entire period of that earlier revolu- tionary era, in the City of New York, to enjoy peace and good-will among her inhabitants ; but the Meet- ing at the White Plains, on the eleventh of April,

and the military Expedition to Concord, on the nine- teenth of that month, with their respective trains of discord and malevolence, appear to have rapidly dis- turbed that quiet and neighborly fecling which had previously prevailed, and to have originated that reign of terror, throughout that County, which, sub- sequently, distinguished it so highly in the annals of partisan strifc. History has recorded two notable instances of that rapidly developed, so called, “ pub- "lic opinion," among the new-born and, consequently, unnaturally zealous " fire-eaters " of that ancient and orderly County ; and they may properly find atten- tion, at this time, not only as portions of the history of Westchester-county, during the era of the Ameri- can Revolution, but as instances of the dangers which attend an unchecked zeal, even when exercised in behalf of what may be regarded as purely commend- able purposes.

The first of these acts of terrorism, exercised by the rampant revolutionary elements in Westchester- county, was that in the case of Jonathan Fowler and George Cornwell, two respectable residents of the Couuty, both of whom had signed the Declaration and Protest, at the White Plains, on the eleventh of April, as well as the Resolves which were referred to, in that Declaration and Protest, both of whom were compelled by that, so called, " public opinion," to pub- lish a recantation of their evidently well-considered political opinions, which was done in the following words, carefully copied from the original publication, in Gaine's New- York Gazette : and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1229, NEW-YORK, Monday, May 1, 1775 :

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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 62

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