History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 82

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 82

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This was only a moderate specimen of what constituted the greater portion of the "patriotismn " of the Westchester-county revolutionists, At that period.

6 Stephen Ward to the Provincial Congress, "March 5, 1776."" 6 Ibid.

; Journal of the Prormcial Congress, "Die Mercurii, + ho , P. M., March "6, 1776."

ings per week ; and, of course, Barclay was superseded and the coveted job was given to the last comer.8 Very reasonably, Barclay complained to the Congress, and made a counter-offer which was more favorable than the offer on which Allen had been employed; and, of course, the latter was ousted, leaving him in possession 9-an illustration of what material the new- created controlling power, ("the Riug," if the reader pleases,) in Westchester-county, in 1776, was com- posed; and in what the "patriotism" of that con- trolling power consisted.

In the latter part of January, 1776, burning with anxiety to be at the head of a separate command, away from General Washington, and availing himself of the rumor that a heavy military force had been sent from Boston, probably to New York,10 the infamous Charles Lee, who was, then, second in command of the Continental Army and in the zenith of his evan- escent fame, induced the Commander-in-chief11 to de- spatch him, from Boston, to the latter City, "with " such volunteers as he " [could ] "quickly assemble, " on his march, in order to put the City of New York " in the best posture of defense the season and circum- " stances will admit of." 12

In the prosecution of the duties to which General Lee had been thus assigned-in his enlistment of men into the service of the Continent ; in his appoint- ment of the ruffian, Isaac Sears, to a high military office ; in the barbarities inflicted on the inhabitants of Queens-county, by his authorized representative, Sears; iu his haughty disregard of the local authori- ties, legal or revolutionary, in New York ; and in his personal and official intercourse with those authori- ties and with the inhabitants of the City-the Instructions which General Washington had given to him, as well as the superior euactments of the Con- tinental Congress and his own knowledge of the proprieties of intercourse between individuals and of the character of obligations in business relations, were entirely disregarded ; and he permitted himself to be controlled, instead, by his own vile and ill- controlled passions and by the promptings of those, as ill-constituted as himself, who were gathered around him and who pandered to his vanity and his malignaucy, for the promotion of their own evil purposes. It is not within the purposes of this pub- lication, however, to take more than a passing notice

8 Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Luna, 4 ho., P.M., March "18, 1776 ;" and the same, "Die Martis, + ho., P.M., March 19, 1776." 9 Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Sabbati, A. M., March 23, " 1776."

10 General Washington to the President of Congress, " CAMBRIDGE, 4 Janu- "ary, 1776 ;" the same, "Cambridge, 11 January, 1776;" General Wash- inglou's Instructions to General Lee, " HEAD-QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, 8 Jan- " uary, 1776."

11 General Washington's letter to John Adams, " CAMBRIDGE, 7 Janu- "ary. 1776," clearly indicated that General Lee operated on the Com- mander-in-chief through John Adams, who was, then, in Massachusetts. 12 General Washington to the Committee of Safely, " CAMBRIDGE, Janu- "ary 8, 1776."

Fee, also, General Washington's Instructions to General Lee, "HEND " QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, S January, 1776."

325

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

of any of these transactions of that early military power, in Queens-county or in the City of New York ; but those outrages which were inflicted by his authority, on the farmers of Westchester-county, while he was marching through the County, on his way to New York, may be noticed, in its pages-in his progress over the well-known Post-road, between the Byram-river and Kingsbridge, the same line of march which had been traversed by Sears and his banditti, a few weeks previously, he appears to have regarded himself as the legitimate possessor of despotie powers, while those among whom he was, were considered as only base creatures who were absolutely subject to his unbridled caprices and to the most extravagant exactions of those who sur- rounded him. Notwithstanding, within the pre- ceding six or seven weeks, the farmers who lived along or near the line of the Post-road had been visited by Sears and his gang of Connecticut banditti, both on their way to the City of New York and on their return, thence, to Connecticut, by whom, on each occasion, they had been ruthlessly plundered,1 they were again visited, during that march of Con- necticut-men, under General Lee, by that new detach- ment of New England freebooters, and robbed, to the full extent of the hungry desires of their brutal visitors. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent visita- tion of his ruffianly countrymen to each of these peaceful families and the reckless depredations of those cowardly banditti, Colonel Waterbury, who commanded the Regiment whom General Lee had mustered into the Continental service-himself, as was subsequently seen and heard, in the City of New York, as fine a specimen of the same class as was needed to perpetuate it2-under the direct sanction of the General and with his orders, but without the slightest authority, legal or revolutionary, of either the local or the general Committees or of either of the Congresses, forced his way into every house he reached, ransacked them, and carried away, without even a memorandum of the names of those from whom they were taken, everything which bore the semblance of Arms,3 leaving his victims, as far as he could possibly do so, entirely without the means of defense, easy prey for whomsoever might next appear, on an errand of similar pillage and outrage.

An amusing instance of the consequential airs as- sumed by the petty local Town-committees, in West- chester-county, in whom had been vested such extra- ordinary powers over the persons and properties of those who lived within the several Towns in which

those Committees were respectively located, was seen in the action of "the Committee of Observation for "the united Town of Bedford and Precinet of Pound- "ridge and Salem, in Westchester," on the tenth of January, 1776, in which that pompous body, "con- " ceiving that bad consequences do arise to this dis- "tressed country from supplying the markets, at New "York, on supposition that the common enemy may, " by that means, be furnished with Provisions," for the purpose of regulating that grave irregularity, as its narrow and bigoted understanding presented the subject to its official censorship, bravely, "RESOLVED, "That from and after the date hereof, the said Com- "mittec do hereby strictly forbid any of the inhabit- "ants of the said Town and Precincts, directly or, "indirectly, to carry or cause to be carried, by land "or water, provision of any kind to the said markets ; "and do hereby direct the Minute-men and all others " that are friends to their country, to do their utmost " to stop all drovers of fat Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, Poul- "try, or any other Provisions whatsoever, and from " being drove or carried through either said Town or " Precincts, for the purpose aforesaid, without leave "of the said Committee," on the penalty of being deemed enemies to their country.4

In obedience to that local law, it appears that Jonathan Booth, a drover, while on his way to New York with a drove of Cattle, was detained at Bed- ford, by the Committee of that Town; but, person- ally, he evidently pushed forward to the City of New York; and, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1776, he laid the subject before the Committee of Safety, which was then in session, and solicited its more powerful interposition. Very promptly, that body took the subject into consideration; and, without much, if any, discussion, the Committee "came to a "Resolution," which was delivered to the anxious drover, for his comfort and relief-the Committee of Safety was not inclined to concur in the questionable theory of " patriotic" economy which was maintained by its subordinate Committee in Bedford; and, after having recited, in a Preamble, the facts and the Resolution which have been already presented, to- gether with the additional declaration that "this "Committee, not doubting the good intentions of the " said Committee met at Poundridge, do nevertheless "conceive that the said Resolve has a manifest ten- "deney to distress, in the article of Provisions, the " inhabitants of this City and other friends to Liberty " whose business may call them thither," it therefore "RESOLVED, That it is the opinion of this Commit- "tee, that no Committee of any City, Borough, Town, "or Precinct in this Colony ought to prevent any "such supplies of Provisions to this City as aforesaid, "unless they shall have due proof that such supplies " are intended to be furnished to persons engaged in

1 Vide pagos 305, 308, ante.

? The associations and conduct of Colonel Waterbury, while he was in the City of New York, to say nothing of his acknowledged thefts in Westchester county, afford ample ovidence of his ruffianly personal character.

3 Vido page 322, ante.

See, also, Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Dio Sabbati, 10 ho.,

"A. M., Feb. 17, 1776;" and the same, " Dio Veneris, 10 ho., A. M., " Febry. 23, 1776."

4 Holt's New- York Journal, No. 1725, NEW YORK, Thursday, January 25, 1776 ; Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Dio Jovis, 10 ho., A.M. " Jany. 25, 1776."

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"service against the Liberties of America; nor in "such case any longer than until such Committees "respectively shall, in cases where such proof shall " have been made, have duly certified this Committee " or the Provincial Congress thereof, and until order "shall have been made thereon, by this Committee " or the Provincial Congress." 1

The Committee of Bedford was undoubtedly served with a copy of this enactment by the Committee of Safety; and Jonathan Booth and his drove of fat Cattle were surely permitted to pass through that Town and to New York, without further molestation ; but that very zealous Committee did uot appear to have become entirely reconciled to the abridgement of its pretensions, made more reasonable by recent action of the Committee of Safety, when, a short time afterwards, it stopped another drove of Cattle, be- longing to Joseph Booth, of Newtown, in Connecticut, while, like that which had been previously stopped, by the same Committee, it was on its way to the New York market.

In the latter instance, the obstructed drover re- turned to Newtown ; procured a Certificate from the Committee of that Town, declaring that he "had " lately served his country as a faithful friend and "soldier in the northern Army, under General Schuy- "ler; that he had suffered by the stoppage of his "Cattle, at Bedford, on the way to the New-York "market; that he is the owner of the said Cattle; " and that the said Committee take pleasure in recom- " mending him as a friend of his country;" and, with that Certificate, he proceedcd to the City of New York, and presented the case to the Provincial Con- gress, which was then in session. It is said "the "Congress took the same into consideration, and " came to the following determination, to wit :

" Whereas a large supply of fresh Provisions will " be required for the Continental Army, in and near " the City of New-York :

" RESOLVED AND ORDERED, That no obstruction " whatsoever be given to any person or persons in " passing and re-passing through any of the Counties " in this Colony, with fat Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, or any " kind of Provisions, for the purpose of supplying the " inhabitants of the said City of New-York or the " Continental Army, in and near the said City, unless " such person or persons shall have been adjudged to " be, or held up, as inimical to this country."

In addition to that gencral action of the Provincial Congress, which coutrolled or assumed to control every other revolutionary body within the Colony, the Congress also gave to the complaining drover, a copy of the following ORDER: "That the bearer " hercof, Joseph Booth, be permitted to pass, with "his drove of Cattle, to the City of New-York ; " 2

and he evidently returned to Bedford, a happier man than when he had left that Town, a few days pre- viously.

In the same connection, it may be proper for us to remind the reader that, about a fortnight before the Committee of Bedford made its second attempt to lay a local embargo on what was intended for the New York market, the Committee of Safety itself had in- terfered with the disposition of the surplus of the products of the farms in Westchester-county to resi- dents of the neighboring Colony of Connecticut, in which, very probably, Bedford, one of the border- towns of the County, had materially suffered. The facts are thus related in the official records of the Committee of Safety ; 3 and the reader may judge therefrom, something concerning the animus of the Committee of Bedford, when, ou the second occasion, it interfercd with the disposition of the products of Connecticut, within the Colony of New York, while the disposition of the products of farms in Bedford and its vicinity, in Connecticut, was interfered with and stopped, summarily, by a higher authority.

"Col. Gil. Drake informed the Committee that " sundry persons from Connecticut are purchasing "up " [for speculative purposes ?] " the barrelled Beef " and Pork in Westchester. Thereupon the Commit- " tee came to the following Resolution, to wit :

""'WHEREAS the Continental Congress, by their "'Resolution of the first day of November last, have "'resolved that no produce of the United Colonies "'be exported, except from Colony to Colony under "'the directions of the Committees of Inspection and "' Observation, and except from one part to the other "'of the same Colony, before the first day of March "'next, without the permission or order of the Con- "'tinental Congress ;

"' AND WHEREAS this Committee of Safety for the "'Colony of New York conceives that it is necessary "'to prevent the sale of all the barrelled Beef and "' Pork in the County of Westchester, and to retain "' the same for the Continental service iu this Col- "'ony, as such Provisions may be necessary for the "'Continental Army in this Colony :

"' RESOLVED, That the Committee of the County "'of Westchester be requested to take effectual "'means to prevent the sale and transportation of "'any barrelled Beef or Pork out of Westchester- ""'county, to any person or persons residing out of ""'this Colony, until the further order of the Provin- "'cial Congress or of the Committee of Safety of this "' Colony.'

" A draft of a letter to the Committee of West- " chester-county was read and approved of, and is in " the words following, to wit :

"'GENTLEMEN :

"'Wc have been informed by a Gentleman "' from your County, that some of the inhabitants of

1 Journal of Committee of Sufety, "Die Jovis, 10 ho., A.M., Jany. 25, " 1776."

" Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 4 ho., P.M., Feb. 29, "1776."

3 Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Sabbati, 4 ho., P.M., Febru- "'ary 10, 1776."

327

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

"'your County are disposing of their barrelled Beef "'and Pork, to persons out of the Colony. We ap- "'prehend that such Provisions will be wanted for ""' the use of the Continental Army in this Colony, "'and that the service may possibly suffer if all the " ' barrelled Provisions are taken out of the Colony. "' We therefore request you to take the most effectual ""' measures to carry the enclosed Resolution into exe- "' cution.

"' We are, respectfully, Gentlemen, "' Your very humble servts.,

"'By order of the Committee of Safety. "' To the Committee of the County of Westchester.' "

It will be scen that the farmers of Westchester- county, at the time of which we write, were prohib- ited from finding a market for the surplus of their products, beyond the limits of the Colony or, at their own doors, to those who were not of New York, and that, in consequence of that prohibition, they were limited to those local purchasers, forestallers, or specu- lators, who should incline to purchase, and at priccs which were not regulated by competition. At the same time, as has been seen, the surplus products of the farms in Connecticut were brought into the Col- ony, in open disregard of the provisions of that Re- solution of the Continental Congress which was used as the warrant for the prohibition of the reciprocal trade of Westchester-county with Connecticut ; and the mar- ket of New York, for nothing else than the products of the Colony of New York, which the Resolution would have guaranteed, if it had been impartially enforced, was recklessly destroyed, in favor of the greed of New England. Need there be any wonder that the Com- mittee of Bedford objected, and embargocd those who had come into the Colony, from Connecticut, in vio- lation of the Resolution of the Continental Congress and in derogation of the interests, if not of the Rights, of the farmers of that Town ? Need there be any surprise, when doubts are raised against the integrity of those who had thus hampered the farmers of Westchester- county, when the latter had sought a market for their surplus products, compelling them to either accept a purely local market and a depreciated price or to hold, indefinitely, what they had for sale? Can any one say, honestly, that those who made those enact- ments, purely in the interest of the farmers of Con- necticut, at the expense of those of Westchester- county, notwithstanding they were unquestionably " patriotic," were anything else than corrupt legisla- tors and roguish, dishonest men ? Will not those who know the character of Gilbert Drake, before and during and after the War, entirely understand that his motive, in moving and sccuring the embargo on the products of Westchester-county, without imposing a similar embargo on the products of Connecticut, was corrupt and roguish ?

In the same connection, and with the same results, a few weeks subscquently, the Committee of the County of Westchester, of which the same Gilbert

Drake was the Chairman and the master-spirit, under- took to prevent Abraham Livingston, the Contractor for supplying the Continental Army with Provisions, from taking any Pork from that County, the Com- mittee of the County of Duchess, of which Egbert Benson was the Chairman, having published a similar manifesto, to control the market after a fashion of its own creation, in that County.

The Contractor encountered so much of trouble from these interfering causes, that he was constrained to seek the interposition of the Committee of Safety ; and, on the twentieth of March, that Committee, re- sponsive to the Contractor's complaint, ordered "that " the respective Committecs of the Counties of West- " chester and Duchess permit Mr. Abraham Living- "ston to export Provisions of any kind whatsoever, " from either of those Countics to New-York, on his "giving, or any other such proper person as is em- "ployed on his behalf giving, such security as the " Committecs approve of, to land and store such Pro- " visions in New- York or Kings-county." I

The facts that the Contractor for supplying tlie Continental Army with Provisions was subjected to the hindrances invented by these local Committees, and that the farmers within those Counties were thereby prevented from selling their surplus supply of Pro- visions, even for the known use of the Continental Army, like those similar prohibitions of trade, by similarly arbitrary authority, already noticed, at once so remarkable and so unaccountable, would have be- come stumbling-blocks in the way of the careful stu- dent of the history of the mncn of that period and of their doings, had not time and the opening of pre- viously concealed records revealed the explanation of this, among others of the mysteries of the politics of the American Revolution. That explanation of the restrictions of trade, in this instance, will be noticed hereafter.

Early in January, 1776, while the conservatism of the inhabitants of Queens-county was occupying the attention of the leaders of the Rebellion; while the inhabitants of that County, because of their decided and outspoken opposition to the Rebellion and to the various Committees and Congresses which the Rebellion had called into existence, were subjected, by the Provincial Congress, to a sentence of out- lawry ; 2 and while, in consequence of that savage enactment and the unaccountable negligence of its duty to do something for their protection, by the naval force which then occupied the harbor of New York and commanded all the neighboring waters, that populous and thickly-settled County was over- run and pillaged and the inhabitants subjected to all classes of barbaritics, by inroads from Connecticut

I Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Mercurii, A M., March 20, " 1776."

2 Journal of the Provinciut Congress, "Die Jovis, 3 ho., P.M., Decemr. " 21, 1775 ; " Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary Wur, i., 107-110.

328

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

and New Jersey, the latter accompanied by amateur banditti from New York City, the leaders of the Re- bellion in Westchester-county, also, were anxious to join in the crusade of "patriotism," against their neighbors on the other side of the Sound-they had had practise in such a service as that, in the work of harrying their conservative neighbors, in Westchester- county ; they knew that it was a profitable occu- pation ; and they were anxious to participate in a similar service, elsewhere, where even greater profits were promised. To secure that much-desidered em- ployment, on the eighth of January, 1776, the Con- mittee of the County addressed the following note to the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York: " WHITE PLAINS, 8th Janry, 1776.

" SIR :

The Committee of West Chester County hav- "ing scen in the public prints that many of the " Inhabitants of Queens County are thrown out of the " Protection of the Provincial Congress ; and having " been informed that they are Arming in their De- " fence, are greatly alarmed at their Conduct, and beg " leave to assure your honorable House, that the " Friends of Liberty in this County are willing stren- " uously to exert themselves to reduce the Enemies to "their Country before they are supported by the "Regular Troops If it shall be thought most advisa- " ble by the Committee of Safety, or the Provincial "or Continental Congress. We are Sir Your most " Humble Servants .

"By Order of ye Committee "WM. MILLER, D. Chairman.

"To Mr. Pierre Van Cortlandt, President of the " Committee of Safety." 1

As the original letter remained among the papers of the Military Committee of the Provincial Coll- gress and has been preserved, to this day, among the multitude of other iuedited and unexplained manu- scripts, in the office of the Secretary of State, at Al- bany, it is very evident that it was duly referred to that Committee; that the unholy desires of the " pat- "riots " of Westchester-county, to join in the spolia- tion of fellow-colonists, in a neighboring County, with- out lawful reason, without any process in law, and in time of Peace, were not reciprocated by the members of that Committee; and that the application was filcd, without having received any other attention whatever. In short, very appropriately, the Committee of West- chester-county was told, by that inattention, either to attend to its own business, at home, or to play the parts of freebooters, if it should continue to hanker after the spoils to be acquired in such an occupation, on its own responsibility.

In February, 1776, a movement was made by the Committee of Westchester-county, to consolidate the several Troops of Horse which were then within that County, evidently several in number and merc phan-

toms in weakness, the aggregate of their strength having been less than forty men; and, on the thir- teenth of that montli, these assembled at Wilsey Du- senberry's, in "Harrison's Precinct," and arranged themselves into a single Troop, electing their Officers, and duly reporting their doings to the Provincial Congress. The following is the official report of the Election of its Officers, made by two members of the County Committee aud transmitted to the Provin- cial Congress :

"On the 13th of February, 1776, The Troops of " Horse in the County of Westchester was Called to- "gether at the House of Willsey Dusinberry in Har- "sons Precinct and There being Present between "Thirty and fourty went into an arrangement for the "Choice of officers under the Inspection of Colnl "Thomas, Samuel Haviland, and William Miller " Three of the Committee where Samuel Tredwell " was Unanimously chose Capt. and Thaddeus Avory " was chose Leut unanimously Likewise Abraham " Hatfield was Chose Corneth by a majority and Uy- " tendall Allair was Chose Quartermaster by a ma- "jority also. Certifyed by us

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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 82

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