History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 67

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 67

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The City and County of New York, of course, was represented in the Provincial Congress by the ex- tremes of both conservatism and of radicalism, with a generous sprinkling of those who favored that po- litieal association which promised the greater pecu- niary profits ; and the several Delegations from Al- bany and Queens and Westchester and Duchess-eoun- ties, respectively contained, also, more or less of mixed memberships. From the remaining nine Counties, the Delegations were generally smaller in number; and, very largely, especially in the earlier days of the existence of the Congress, they were composed of those who had honestly come for the purpose of pro- teeting the Colony from the wrongs to which the

Home Goverment was said to have subjected it; but, at the same time, their inclinations were peace- ful; and they preferred a reconciliation with Great Britain, instead of a Civil War, which had been al- ready commeneed; and, because they had not yet been corrupted by the social influences of life in the City nor by the allurements of official plunder, they were ready to join with all or with any, regardless of their factional affiliations, who entertained similar views, in the practical establishment of those funda- mental principles. The individual members of the first Provincial Congress of New York, at the opening and during the earlier period of the existence of that body, may, therefore, be classed as, first, the avowed Conservatives, who were led by such as John De Lancey and Benjamin Kissam and Abraham Walton and Richard Yates and George Folliot and Walter Franklin; as, second, the "Corporal's Guard" of avowed Revolutionists, who were led by John Morin Seott and Alexander McDougal and Abraham Bra- sier; as, third, a larger number, those who, under the guise of patriotism, were aiming at nothing else than at places and at the influences and emoluments to be produced by those places, who were led by the Living- stons and the Van Cortlandts, by Gouverneur Morris and John Thomas and Melanthon Smith and Abra- ham Ten Broeck and Egbert Dumond and Nathaniel Woodhull and John Sloss Hobart; and as, last, out- numbering all others, those who had left their sev- eral rural homes and eome to the City of New York, for the purpose of serving their country, without hay- ing had, at that time, any other aim.

As the several Delegations voted as units, the votes of the several Counties having been east in accord- anec with the determination of the majority of the Delegates of each who were then present, the votes of individual Delegates, unless in instances of formal dissent, are not recorded ; but the conservatism of the organized Congress, as an aggregate, was seen, im- mediately after the organization of that body and the adoption of its necessary Rules of Order, on the first day of the Session, when Isaae Low, of the City of New York, who is already so well known to the reader, had commenced the work of centralizing all of political authority and power which were within the Colony, except those of the local police, in the Continental Congress, a work which has been per- sistently continued until this day, by men of the same classes of society and politics, and for the same pur- poses; and when, very promptly and very aptly, Gony- erneur Morris, of the County of Westchester, who was already conspicuously notorious for his contemptuous disregard of the personal and political rights of the unfranchised masses of the Colonists, who were only " poor reptiles" in his aristocratic vocabulary,2 had seconded the motion. The Resolution which Isaac Low had thus offered, was in these words :

2 See his letter to Mr. Penn, pages 187, 188, ante.

1 Vide page 267, ante.

269

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

"RESOLVED, As the opinion of this Congress, that im- " plicit obedience ought to be paid to every recom- "mendation of the Continental Congress, for the gen- " eral regulation of the associated Colonies ; but this "Congress is competent to and onght, freely, to de- " liberate and determine on all matters relative to the " internal police of this Colony." 1

Such a Resolution, so evidently in the interest of the master-spirits of the revolt and in that of the most ultra of the aristocracy of the Colony, at the same time so radically subversive of those fundamen- tal principles of government which were professed to have been the basis of the existing Rebellion against the Mother Country, very reasonably excited imme- diate alarm; and, notwithstanding the Delegates were scarcely warm in their seats, the two ill-concealed monarchists who were temporarily masquerading, within the Provincial Congress, as republicans, and those, of the same class, elsewhere, in whose behalf the Resolution had been offered, were very effectually snubbed-on a motion of John Morin Scott, the very able leader of the handful of ultra-revolutionists, sce- onded by David Clarkson, both of the City of New York, the Resolution was defeated, only Richmond- county having voted in favor of it,2 neither the mover nor the seconder of it having received the support of the County of which he professed to have been a proper representative.3

The signal rebuke which the not yet corrupted "country gentlemen," members of the Provincial Congress of New York, had thus given to those who had proposed to make the Colony of New York and all which it possessed subject, in all its relations, ex- cept in the local power of police, to a foreign body over whom neither the individual Colonists nor the aggregated Colony could possibly have exercised the slightest control, and by whom both the individual Colonists and the Colony in its entirety wonkl have been subjected to an absolutely despotie control by those, of other Colonies, who already envied the ris- ing greatness of New York, appears to have been effective, in that direction ; but, two days afterwards, the little ultra-revolutionary clique, within the Con- gress, taking courage from the evidently independent spirit which had been manifested by the rural Dele-

1 Jourunt of the Provincial Congress, "5 ho., P.M., May 23d."

2 The vote of Richmond-county, in this carly instance, is very remark- able, especially when it is considered in connection with the later in- stances of that County's want of sympathy with both the Continental Congress and those who engineered that notable body.

This vote niso affords a lesson of the greatest significance, illustrative of the effects of that ill-considered policy of uniformity in political opin- ions, enforced by a military power, which the Provincial Congress, in its later and more corrupt days, adopted and enforced by the adoption and enforcement of such an extremely violent policy, instead of one in which conciliation and local peace might have been the more prominent fea- tures, the inhabitants of Richmond county were violently repelled, by the ultra-revolutionists, as others like-situated were similarly repelled, com- pelling them to seek tirst, protection, and, next, fellowship, among those with whom they had, previously, had no sympathy.

3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " 5 lio., P.M., May 23rd. ""

gations, in the former vote, and hoping that the same spirit of antagonism to the monarchical inclinations, which those "country gentlemen" had then pre- sented, would rest, peacefully and usefully, on an in- clination in the opposite direction, made a movement, within the Congress, in behalf of Revolution and Re- bellion and a Civil War.

As the Colony of New York had not yet given that public testimony of its entire and cordial accession to the confederacy of the revolted Colonies which had been given to it by the other Colonies, in the express approbation, by each, of the proceedings of the Con- tinental Congress of 1774, of which proceedings de- tailed mention has been made in other portions of this narrative, an attempt was made, in the Provincial Congress, on the twenty-fifth of May, to supply that previously omitted ratification and approval of the proceedings of that already notable Congress, and, by that ratification and approval, to carry the Colony of New York within the circle of the confederacy of the revolt, and to make her subject to influences and ob- ligations from which she had previously been frec. For those purposes, and for others which were not less important although they were less visible, John Morin Scott, the leader of the revolutionary clique, moved "in the words following, to wit :

" As this Colony has not as yet given that public " testimony of their entire and cordial accession to "the confederacy of the Colonies on this Continent "which has been given by the other Colonies, in their " express approbation of the proceedings of the last "Continental Congress, I move that it be

" RESOLVED, That this Congress do fully approve " of the proceedings of the said Congress."

This Resolution was promptly seconded by Thomas Smith, a brother of William and of Joshua Hett Smith who subsequently became more widely known than they were, at that time ; and it is evident that a defeat of that well-devised plan, also, had not been considered as cveu probable, by those who had do- vised it. But, as we are informed, " debates arose on " the said motion "-there were grave questions, at that time, concerning the propriety of such an appro- val of all the proceedings of that first Congress, as was proposed by the leaders of the ultra-revolution- ists-and the rural Delegations again determined on the side of peace and reconciliation and Colonial in- dependence from all foreign influences, by postponing the further consideration of the proposition, without day,4 where it has remained, from that day until the present ..

It is more than possible that the avowed Conserva- tive elements within the Provincial Congress had been largely instrumental in securing both these votes, in opposition to the discordant efforts, succes- sively, of the ultra-aristocracy, represented by Isaac Low and Gouverneur Morris, and of the ultra-revolu-

4 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "5 ho., P. M., May 25th.""

270

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

tionary faetion, represented by John Morin Seott and Thomas Smith ; but, whatever may have led to the practical rejection of those two propositions, cach of which tended toward the centralization of the entire authority and all the power of the several Colonies, in the Congress of the Continent, thereby destroying the autonomy of each of the Colonies, without sub- jeeting that Congress, in its exercise of that authority and that power, to any other limitation than the un- bridled will of a majority of the Delegations compos- ing it, this is clearly evident : the Provincial Con- gress intended, by those two adverse votes, to deelare that, though a purely local body, it was, nevertheless, determined not to divest itself, even by implication. of that unquestioned governmental supremacy, within the Colony of New York, which it had already ac- quired, no matter how ; that, on the contrary, it had determined to retain, within itself, and to continue to exercise, unhampered by the interference of any other body, the several legislative, and judicial, and executive authorities, within the Colony, which it al- ready held, no matter by what warrant ; that it would yield to the Continental Congress, if it yielded any- thing to that foreign body, nothing else than a volun- tary acquiescence; that it would promulgate the Or- ders and Resolutions and " recommendations " of that other Congress, if it promulgated them at all, not as original and supreme rules of action of all who were or who might be within the Colony of New York, but as the bases of its own local enaetments, to the latter of which, per se, and not to the former, it re- quired the implicit obedience of all those within or to come within the Colony, whose supreme political ruler it assumed to be and to remain. In short, from the beginning, the Provincial Congress of New York recognized no superior, controlling power, except that of its own actual constituents ; and, at no subse- quent period-not even when the Governor of New York declined the release of Alexander McLeod, though demanded by both the Government of Great Britain and the President of the United States-has there been any more resolute supporter of the Sover- eignty of the several States, any more determined op- ponent of a transfer to any other body, from the People-which latter word is only an equivalent term for the State, and, in New York, if not else- where, is used, officially, to designate the State, it- self-of the original authority, the Sovereignty of those several Peoples, than was that revolutionary Congress of the Colony of New York, in its opposi- tion, on the one hand, to its ultra-aristocratie master- spirits, and, on the other, to the ultra-revolutionists among its members, early in the year 1775.

As a portion of the history f those times, reference may be made, in this place, to an ineident which oceurred in the Provincial Congress, soon after that body had rejected the Resolution which Isaae Low and Gouverneur Morris had offered, of which men- tion has been made. On the same day, the first day

of the Session of that revolutionary body, during the same afternoon, a motion was made by Alexander McDougal, a Presbyterian, providing for the appoint- ment of a Committee of two, to apply to all the Ministers in the City who could pray in English, "to "make such an arrangement among themselves as "would enable them alternately to open the Congress, "every morning, with prayer;" but Gouverneur Mor- ris, Lewis Graham, Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, Colonel James Holmes, Stephen Ward, and John Thomas, Junior, six of the nine members of the Con- gress who were from Westehester-county, probably recognizing the evident impropriety of spreading their politically dirty hands before Him who giveth no favor to those who loveth and maketh a lie, dis- sented from a majority of the Congress, and caused their dissent to be entered on the Journal of that body.1

On Friday, the twenty-sixth of May, the Prov- ineial Congress adopted, unanimously, a Resolu- tion, offered by Gilbert Livingston of Duchess- county and seconded by John De Lancey of New York City, providing for the appointment of a Committee of one from cach County, "to draw "up and report a proper Resolve of this Con- " gress, recommending to the different Counties "in this Colony, to form themselves into County " Committees, and also into Sub-committees for their "respective Townships and Distriets, and recommend- "ing the signing of the General Association ; and also " to prepare and report to this Congress a draft of a "letter to be sent to the Committees and other per- " sons in the several Counties, for the above purposes, " and with copies of such Resolution." In that Com- mittee of one from each County, Major Philip Van Cortlandt represented Westchester-county ; 2 and, on the following day, [May 27, 1775] it made a Report, in due form.3

The Resolution which was thus reported, was in these words : " RESOLVED: That it be recommended, " and it is hereby accordingly recommended, to all the " Counties in this Colony, (who have not already done "it,) to appoint County Committees, and also Sub- "committees for their respective Townships, Pre- " cinets, and Districts, without delay, in order to carry "into execution the Resolutions of the Continental " and this Provincial Congress.

" And that it is also recommended to every Inhabitant "of this Colony, who has hitherto neglected to sub- " seribe the General Association, to do it with all eon- "venient speed. And for these purposes that the "Committees in the respective Counties in which "Committees have been formed, do tender the said " Association to every Inhabitant within the several " Distriets in each County. And that such persons,

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress "5 ho., P.M., May 23d." 2 Journal of the Congress, " 4 ho., P.M., May 26th, 1775."

3 Journal of the Congress, "Die Saturnii, 9 ho., A.M .. May 27th, 1775."

271

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" in those Counties or Districts who have not appoint- "ed Committees, as shall be appointed by the mem- " bers of this Congress representing such Counties and " Districts respectively, ' do make such tender as afore- "said in such Counties and Districts respectively ; "and that the said Committees and persons respee- "tively do return the said Association and the names " of those who shall neglect or refuse to sign the same, " to this Congress, by the fifteenth day of July next, " or sooner, if possible."

The letter which was reported, as a companion to this Resolution, was in the following words :

" NEW-YORK, May 29, 1775.

" GENTLEMEN :

" You will see by the enclosed Resolution of " this Congress, that it is recommended to such of " the Counties as have not already formed Commit- " tees, to do it without delay, and that such of the In- " habitants of this Colony as have hitherto neglected " to subscribe the General _Association, do it, so as to " enable you to make a return within the time limited " in the Resolution.

" As the execution of this Resolve is committed to " your care, we request you to use your best endeavours " to see that this recommendation be complied with. " It may, nevertheless, be proper to inform you that it " is the sense of this Congress that no coercive steps " ought to be used to induce any person to sign the " Ixsociation. The propriety of the measure, the " example of the other Counties, and the necessity of " maintaining a perfect union in every part of this " Colony, it is presumed, are sufficient reasons to " induee the Inhabitants of your County to comply " with this requisition."

The Resolution and letter which were thus reported to the Provincial Congress, were taken up, for con- sideration, on the twenty-ninth of May ; and, after some amendments had been made therein, they were " approved, agreed to, and resolved; " and five hun- dred copies were ordered to be printed ; and as many copies of the letter as should be necessary were ordered to be signed by the President and delivered to the members of the Congress, "to be by them " (lireeted." 2

As the County of Westehester had already been favored with the appointment of a County-committee, or what purported to have been such a Committee,3 it is probable that it was not considered necessary, in that instance, to interfere with that former appoint-

ment ; and there is very little evidence, as far as we have been able to find any, which indicates that the several Towns throughout the County paid any atten- tion to the recommendation of the Congress, for the appointment of Town-committees; ' and there is no evidence whatever, that any attempt was made, in any of those Towns, to obtain the signatures of the body of the inhabitants of the County, to the General Association which had been enacted by the Con- tinental Congress of 1774, nor to any other such Associations-the Provincial Congress had done no more than, nominally, to "recommend" to the inhabitants to sign the Association ; " it not only did not authorize the employment of force in order to obtain signatures thereto, but it expressly disclaimed, in advance, the entertainment of any such idea ; 7 the Congress itself, by a formal vote, had post- poned a formal approval of that General Association as well as all of the other doings of the Continental Congress, who had enacted it ; 8 and, for these reasons, as well as for others with which the reader is already familiar, the conservative yeomanry of Westchester- county was not in a hurry to either recognize or sign it.

The Committee of the Provincial Congress who had been appointed to consider the very important subject of the Currency, for the support of the Rebel- lion, made a very clear and able Report, on the thir- tieth of May, in which some of the commercial troubles produced or likely to be produced by the Rebellion were very graphically presented; and an issue

4 There were Committees in a small number of the Towns, at a later period ; but there is no evidence, as far as we have knowledge, that they originated in the recommendation of the Provincial Congress, nor as early as in 1775.

5 The . Issociation, duly signed by those who would sigu it and duly noling those who declined to do so, was to be returned to the Secretary of the Provincial Congress, on or before the fifteenth of July, 1775. The tiles of that Congress, which are preserved in the office of the Secretary of State, ut Albany, show, however, that the only Counties or Towns which made any Returns of Associators, in response to this Resolution, were Orange, U'ister, Suffolk, Duchess, one District in Charlotte, three Districts in Cumberland, anda few scattering names, not more than fifty, in Queens ; but there is no such Return from Westchester county ; there is no such Return among the archives of the County, in the otlice of the County-clerk ; and we have failed to find anything resembling such a Return, in the ollices of the Town-clerks, in the several Towus.

The signer of the following, which was sent from Amenia, in Duchess-county, is classed among the "3 Tories " of that " Precinct : ' " June ye Stb, Ad 1775. This may sertyfy all pepel whome 11 may "cornsern that I the Selecriter am willing to do what is best and " wright to secure the priviligs of a mariga both sivel and sacred and to " follow the advise of onr Reverend congres so far as they do the word " of God and the exzample of Jesus Christ and I hope in the grace of God " no moro will be required, as witness my hand,

"Jons GARNSEY. " 6 See the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress, page 270, ante.

" Ser the general Circular Letter of the Congress, on this page, ante. The same declaration, more distinctly uttered, may be seen in the Letter of the Provincial Congress to Christopher Yates and Major Villes Fonda, of Tryou-county ; in that from the same to Colonel James Rogers, at Kent, in Cumberland county; and in that from the same to Jarah Imiby and Colonel Peters, of Gloucester-county-all of them dated "IN PROVI "CIAL CONGRESS, NEW YORK, the 3Ist May, 1775 "

8 Journal of the Proriurundt Congress, " 5 hiv., P. M., May 25th. " pusgps 93, ante.

1 The authority which appears to have Iwen vested in members of the Provincial Congress, to appoint local Committees where the inhabitants had not done so, probably originated in that Congress, in an earlier secret meeting of that body ; but no record of any such action is seen on its published Jourual-like the Suret Journals of the Continental Con- gress, those of the Provincial Congress of New York, could they also be published, would undoubtedly throw different tints of light and color on many a romance, called " history."

Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Luna. I ho., P.M., May 20th, "* 1775 .**

a sve pages 258, 259, ante.

272

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

of that Curreney by the Continental Congress, with specified provisions for the payment of it, was recom- mended 1-the original proposition for the emission of those immense amounts of "Continental-bills," which, subsequently and with the help of friendly legislation in the Continental Congress, afforded so favorable an opportunity for repudiation by the United States, " the faith of the Nation " to the cou- trary notwithstanding.

The Report of the Committee was "fully debated " and considered," by the Provincial Congress, and, by an unanimous vote, it was adopted, with an order transmitting a copy of it to the Delegates of the Col- ony, in the Continental Congress,2

A circumstance occurred, within the Provincial Congress, early in its Session, which requires partic- ular notice in this place.

One week after that body had been originally or- ganized, [May 30, 1775] Benjamin Kissam, of the City of New York, " moved in the words following, " to wit : 'Forasmuch as a reconciliation between " Great Britain and these Colonies, on constitutional " principles, is essential to the well-being of both " countries, and will prevent the horrors of a Civil " War, in which this Continent is now about to be " involved, it is, therefore, the indispensable duty " of this Congress, to communicate to the Delegates " of this Colony, in Continental Congress, their sen- " timents respecting the terms of such reconciliation ; " I, therefore, move that a Committee be appointed " to prepare and state the terms on which such re- " conciliation may be tendered to Great Britain, con- " sistent with the just Liberties and Freedom of the " subject, in America, to the intent that the same, " when approved by this Congress, may be laid before " the said Delegates, as our sense, on this important " subject, to be humbly submitted to their considera- " tion."

A question of such great importance and so dis- tasteful to many of the Deputies, was reasonably dis- cussed with much warmth ; and it is very evident that, had the vote been taken, at that time, the mo- tion would have been adopted by the Provincial Con- gress. It was evidently approved by a majority of the Counties; but, if the vote could be postponed, changes might be effected, by fair means or by foul -there were astute and experienced politicians within and around that Provincial Congress-and three of the Counties who were opposed to the motion re- sorted to the tenth Rule of the Congress,3 not re- sorted to, on any other occasion, during the entire

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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 67

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