History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 85

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 85

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1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A.M., " March 13, 1776."

2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Jovis, 4 ho., P.M., March 14, " 1776."

337

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

Besides that almost unintelligible entry in the Jour- nals of the Provincial Congress, no mention appears to have been made on the subject, if any thing further was done with it. It is probable, however, that an Election was ordered to be made for Deputies, on the third Tuesday, which was the sixteenth day, of April; 1 and that the fourteenth day of May was designated for the meeting of the new Provincial Congress.2

The Provincial Congress itself appears to have been disbanded, informally-its Journal makes no mention of a formal adjournment-on the afternoon of Mon- day, the thirteenth of May, 1776; 3 and, thus the second Provincial Congress of the Colony of New York and its doings, for evil or for good, became sub- jects for the pens of those who should thenceforth assume the grave and responsible duties of historians.

We mentioned, in another part of this narrative,4 the election of " a Committee for the County of West- " chester," on the eighth of May, 1775, and the ap- pointment of Gilbert Drake for its Chairman, and Micah Townsend for its Clerk. It appears that, either by pre-determincd limitation or otherwise, the term of service of that County Committee expired in May, 1776; and, in order that the succession of that body might be continued, notice to that effect having been given, on the sixteenth of April, 1776, "a Number " of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Westchester- " county appeared at the Court House," and " chose "the Persons hereafter named to serve as a Committee " for the said County from the 2nd Monday in May, " 1776, to the 2nd Monday in May, 1777-any twenty " whereof to be a Quorun, vizt :

"For Morrissania.

" LEWIS MORRIS, JUN'. -1. "For Westchester.

" THOMAS HUNT,

" ABRAHAM LEGGETT,

" ISRAEL HONEYWELL,

" JOHN OAKLEY,

"GILBERT OAKLEY,

" DANIEL WHITE,

" JOHN SMITH-7. " For Yonkers. " WILLIAM HADLEY,

" WILLIAM BETTS,

" THOMAS EMMONS,

" JOHN CRAWFORD,

"FRED. V. CORTLANDT -5.

For Eastchester.

STEPHEN SNEDEN, EDWARD BRIGGS, DANIEL SEBRING-3.

For New Rochelle and Pelham.

burned, here.] [ The original Ms.

MYERS, GUION, WILLIS, LIP WELL, JUNT .- 4.

For Mamaroneck.

GIL BUDD HORTON-1.

1 The elections in the Counties of New York, Westchester. Duchess, Kings, Queens, Tryon, Ulster, and Orange were held on that day ; while Albany-county appears to have elected her Deputies on the 25th ; Suf- folk, on the 18th ; Richmond-county, on the 23rd ; aud Charlotte-county, ou the 1st May.

2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A.M., May " 14, 1776."

$ Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Luna, 3 ho., P.M., May 13 " 1776."

+ Vide pages 258, 259, 267, ante.

"For Philipsburg.

" ISRAEL HONEYWELL, JUNE.

" ABRAHAM STORM,

" PETER VAN TASSELL,

"GLODE REQUEAU,

"ABRM LEDEW,

" JAMES HAMMOND,

" JOSEPH YOUNGS,

"GERSHOM SHERWOOD, JOHN WOOLSEY,

" JAMES REQUEAU,

TITUS MILLER,

ISRAEL LYON-4.

" THOMAS CHAMPENOIS, -10. "For W. Plains.

" BENJAMIN LYON,

" JOSHUA HATFIELD-2. " For Scarsdale.

"SAMUEL CRAWFORD -- 1. "For H. Precinct.

" THOMAS THOMAS,

" Wm. MILLER,

"ISAIAH MAYNARD-3. " For North Castle.

" MICHAEL HAYS,

" PETER LYON,

" JACOB PURDY,

" ANDREW SNIFFIN,

" GILBERT PALMER,

"CALEB MERRITT, JUNE.

" CALEB CARPENTER-7.

NATHANIEL HYATT, JOSEPH LEE, EBENEZER PURDY, ISAAC NORTON,

HALSEY WOOD-9. For Rycks Patent.

HERCULES LENT, 1 - Total 66." 5

Of this second County Committee, John Thomas, Junior, of Rye, was made the Chairman, aud Edward Thomas was appointed its Clerk.

The day after the dissolution of the second Provins cial Congress, [May 14, 1776,] was the day which had been appointed for the organization of the third of that series of Congresses." There was, however, on that day and on the four succeeding days, an insuffi- cient number of members of the several Deputations to forni a quorum of the Counties; but, on the fifth day, [May 18, 1776,] the Counties of New York, Richmond, Suffolk, Westchester, Kings, Charlotte, and Tryon-those of Albany, Queens, Ulster, Glou- cester, Cumberland, Duchess, and Orange were either entirely unrepresented or were without the requisite numbers to make their several Deputations complete- assumed the consistent, counter-revolutionary respon- sibility of organizing the Congress and of proceeding to transact business.7 It contintted in session, without tak-

5 Members of a Committee for Westchester-county-Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Miscellaneous Papers, xxxviii., 309.

6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A.M., May " 14, 1776."

7 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Sal bati, 10 ho., A. M., May " 18, 1776.""

Ulster, Gloucester, and Cumberland-counties were entirely unrepre- seuted ; instead of the requisite three, only Messrs. Cuyler and Glenn appeared from Albany-county ; instead of the requisite three, only Messrs. Blackwell and Lawrence appeared from Queens-county ; instead

For Rye.

SAMUEL TOWNSEND, ISRAEL SEAMAN, FRED. SAY,

SAMUEL LYON, GILBERT LYON, JOHN THOMAS, JUN' -- 6. For Bedford.

ELIJAH HUNTER,

For Poundridge.

JOSH LOCKWOOD-1 For Salem.

ABIJAH GILBERT-1. For Cortlandts Manor.

JOSEPH TRAVIS, DANIEL BIRDSALL,

SAMUEL DRAKE, ABRAHAM PURDY,

338

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ing any recess, until the thirtieth of June, when, be- cause of supposed danger, in the City of New York, it adjourned to meet at the White Plains, on the fol- lowing Tuesday, [July 2, 1776]; 1 but the Journals very clearly indicate that no such adjourned meeting was attempted-the Deputies had more important business requiring their personal attention ; and the third Congress was permitted to pass away, without further ceremony.

The third Provincial Congress was distinguished by the entrance into it, among the Deputies from the City and County of New York, of John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, and Francis Lewis, notwithstanding all of them were, also, Dele- gates from the Colony to the Continental Congress, then in session, in Philadelphia; and because three of those five are now known to have resisted the ear- lier movements toward Independence, in that Con- gress,2 and to have, also, resisted the later movements in that direction, in the Provincial Congress, it is a reasonable conclusion that the hegira of those three, if not that of the whole number, had been made for the purpose of obstructing the adoption of that in- creasingly popular measure, as well as that of the es- tablishment of a new form of government, through

of the requisite three, only Mr. Schenck appeared from Duchess-county ; and of the requisite tiro from Orauge-county, only Mr. Little appeared. 1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Sunday morning, Juue 30, " 1776."

Mr. Bolton, (History of Westchester-county, original edition, ii., 359 ; the same, second edition, ii., 564,)said of the imaginary journey of the Deputies, from the City of New York to the White Plains, between the adjournment of the Congress and the day on which it was to be re-as- sembled, " The journey between New York and the Plains was per- " formed by the members on horseback, l'ierre van Cortlandt, the Presi- " dent. riding at their head. As expresses overtook them from General " Washington, the llouse was called to order, on horseback, and several " Resolutions passed."

As has been already stated, there was uot the slightest attempt made to keep up the organization ot the Congress, after its hurried and in- formal dissolution, on that eventful Sunday ; that there was, therefore, no such funereal procession as Mr. Bolton has described, nor any such official acts, on horseback or on foot, as he has imagined ; and that there was no such meeting of the Provincial Congress, at the White Plains, on Tuesday, the second of July, as he has left his readers to suppose.

As Mr. Bolton has not named any authority for his statement, although he was not the first to print it, he must be regarded as authorially responsible for it ; and, therefore, it may be proper to say, furtber, that Pierre Van Cortlandt was not the President of the Congress, nor had ho been such, at any time, General Woodhull having been elected its President, and John Ilaring, of Orange-county, occupied the Chair, as President pro tem., on the last day of its session. In the same counection, it may be said that, although Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt was elected as one of the Deputies from Westchester-county to the third Provincial Congress, that under notice, he never occupied a seat in it, even for a single day.

" The Resolution of July 2, 1776, separating the Colonies from the Motber Country, was uot the carliest declaration of Independence, in the Colo- nies, by any means. The correspondence of John Adams is well filled with evidence of his correet judgment of the real character of the earlier enactments of the Continental Congress ; but the Resolution which was introduced into that Congress, early in May, 1776, and adopted on the tenth of that month, and the Preamble to that Resolution, which was adopted on the fifteenth, recommending the adoption of new forms of Goverment, in the several Colonies, was, assuredly, nothing else than a Resolution of Iudependeuce, thiuly disguised by the prefix of another name.

the Provincial Congress of New York, at least long enough to enable the Royal Commissioners for effect- ing a reconciliation with the Colonies, who were then approaching New York, to exhibit their powers aud their inclinations, in that better desired measure. How successfully the scheme was carried out, in the latter body, will be seen, hereafter.

* *

The deputation from Westchester-county to that third Provincial Congress, said to have been " duly "elected to represent the said County in Provincial " Congress for twelve months, with such powers and "authority as was recommended in the Resolutions " of the late Provincial Congress to be given them, "any three of whom to be a quorum," were Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, Colonel Lewis Graham, Colo- nel Gilbert Drake, Major Ebenezer Lockwood, Gouv- erneur Morris, William Paulding, Jonathan G. Tomp- kins, Samuel Haviland, and Peter Fleming.3

During the less than two months which intervened between the organization and the untimely dissolution of that third Provincial Congress, [May 18 to June 30, 1776,] the Northern Army was effectually driven from Canada ; and all which had been promised and hoped for, iu that very well planned, but premature and expensive, expedition, produced uothing else than disappointment and disaster, the latter as serious to those of the resident Canadians who had favored the invading Colonists, as it was to the latter. In South Carolina, the superior bravery of Colonel Moultrie and his handful of Carolinians, even when hampered by the superior authority but inferior prac- tical knowledge of General Lee, had secured lasting honor to himself and to his gallant command and re- newed safety to his own country; and "though not " of much magnitude, in itself, it was, like many "other successes attending the American Arms, in " the commencement of the War, of great importance "in its consequences : by impressing on the Colonists "a conviction of their ability to maintain the con- " test, it increased the number of those who resolved "to resist British authority and assisted in paving " the way to a declaration of Independence." The Continental Congress had yielded to the teachings of its experience, and directed cnlistments to be made for three years, instead of for six months; but "that " zeal for the service which was manifested in the " first moments of the War, had long begun to abate; " and though the determination to resist became more " general, that enthusiasm which prompts individuals, " voluntarily, to expose themselves to more than " equal shares of the danger and hardships to be en- " countered for the attainment of a common good "was sensibly declining"-in other words, there were more of those who were willing that somebody

3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabbati, 10 bo., A.M., May "18. 1776."

339

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

else than themselves should do whatever fighting might become necessary; but, on the other hand, those who were expected to do the fatigue duty and to hazard their lives, had begun to see that the offices and the benefits to be derived from their expected labor and exposure were to be couverted mainly to tlie benefit of others ; and their enthusiasm for " the " Rights of Man and of Englishmen," which was formerly proclaimed by multitudes of earnest meu, with scarcely one holding back, was, also, "sensibly " declining," as Marshall has aptly said-indeed, en- listments were made only among those who were desperately poor or among those whose moral eharac- ters were not unstained; and even these had to be bribed by bounties, that certain indication that some- thing else than simple, unadulterated patriotism in - spired the act. General Washington was at New York, with the main body of the Continental Army, strengthening the defenees and seeking means to prevent the passage of ships of war up the Hudson - river or, through the East-river, into the Sound ; urg- ing the increase of his Army on those who did no more than call ou others, as unwilling as themselves, to enter the ranks ; and begging for Arms and muni- tions of War, of which he was almost destitute, frou those who had neither Arms uor munitions of War to bestow on him uor on any other. A large body of Militia, as will be seen, hereafter, was ordered into the field, for the support of the Army, to be mustered in until the close of the year; a " Flying Camp," so called, was ordered to be composed of ten thousand men from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland ; and, on every hand, were seen the active prepara- tions, by an unwilling and bounty-bought or poverty- driven Army, to settle the dispute in which it pos- sessed no direct, if any, interest, by the arbitrament of Arms. .

During that brief period, also, the movements of some of those who had assumed to be the leaders of the masses, throughout the several Colonies, were more frequent and more decided in their tone, in favor of Independence-movements, however, both within and without the Congress of the Continent, and more especially from the Delegations from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, which encountered the most determined and vigilant oppositiou. It were useless to pretend, with any respect for the truth, that the great body of the inhabitants of the Colonies was favorably inclined to or particularly interested in, a change in those who ruled them or in the manner of that rule, since it was perfectly evident that they would not be per- mitted to exercise any greater political authority nor to have their labors lessened nor their wants better supplied, under one than under the other form of Government; or, in New York, under the administra- tion of the Livingston régime instead of that of the De Laneey, under the last of which they had hitherto lived ; but the leaders of the Rebellion, elsewhere

than in New York, seeing before them a semblance of greater consequence to themselves, in the proposi- tion for Independence, were rapidly concentrating their efforts to accomplish that end. The desire for such a change was, also, sometimes promoted by the consciousness, among those whose eonsciences had not become charred by their haukering for offices, of that evident hypocrisy in pretending to an earnest loyalty toward a monarch against whom they were waging an open and recognized publie War, with which the Committees and the Congresses of the Re- bellion had continued to affront the common sense and the morality of Christendom ; and that moral in- clination to Independence, and those other inelina- tions, in the same direction, which were prompted by less holy influences, were all strengthened by the alarm which was produced by information that the Colonies had been formally dcelared to be in rebel- lion; that mercenaries had been employed to assist in reducing them to subjection, in which all classes would be subjected to a common ruin-a repetition, on a larger seale, but on the other side, of what had been done, already, by the leaders of the Rebellion, in New York, against the peaceful, agricultural inhabitants of Westchester and Duchess and Queens and Richmond-counties ; that the Indians were to be employed by the Home-Government, for the pur- pose of harassing the frontiers and threatening the inland settlements and villages; and that the Slaves were to be withdrawn from their masters, as far as possible, and armed iu the service of the King. All these influences had culminated in the submission to the Continental Congress of a Resolution, "That " these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, " free and iudependent States, that they are absolved " from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that " all political connection between them and the State " of Great Britain is, aud ought to be, totally dis- " solved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the " most effectual measures for forming foreign Al- " liances. That a plan of Confederation be prepared " and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their " consideration aud approbation." It encountered, however, the most serious opposition, among which the Livingstons and their supporters, Delegates from New York, were peculiarly conspicuous ; aud, when the third Provincial Congress came to its un- timely end, it was still pending, that Delegation, as far as the paucity of its numbers went, appearing couspieuously among those who were not its sup- porters

While these various important matters were oc- cupying the attention of the Colonists, General Howe came into the harbor of New York, and occupied Staten-island with his entire command; and the inhabitants of Richmond-county, as that beautiful island was then called, politieally, and as it is still called, as might have been reasonably expected, since they were still smartiug under the sen-

340

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

tence of outlawry and the consequent outrages to which they had been recently subjected by the Pro- vincial Congress and its Committee of Safety, received the new-comers, it is said, "with great de- "monstrations of joy, took the Oaths of Allegiance to " the British Crown ; and embodied themselves, under " the authority of the " [Colonial] "Governor, Tryon, " for the defense of the Island. Strong assurances were " also received from Long Island and the neighboring " parts of New Jersey, of the favorable disposition of "the people to the Royal Cause," it was said; and those who had been harried from their homes, and who had sought refuge in the swamps and thickets of the country, victims of the rapine and outrages of lawless and ruthless "patriots," their own country- men, quite reasonably, hastened to seek the protection of those by whom, under a more judicious policy, they would be enabled to occupy their own homes and to pursue the ordinary routine of their peaceful lives, in quietude and safety. A large and well-pro- vided force, for the reinforcement of General Howe's command, was known to be on the ocean and not distant, convoyed by a strong naval force, under the command of Admiral Howe-the latter a brother of the General and, with him, a half brother of the King-and it was already known that, thenceforth, New York would be the base of all the military and naval operations, on the Atlantic seaboard, in the next campaign.

On the day after the King's forces came into the harbor, [June 30, 1776,] after it had provided for the removal " of all and singular the public papers and "money" which were then in the possession of its Secretary and its Treasurer, to the White Plains, the Provincial Congress was hastily adjourned to that place, as has been already stated, in order that it might escape from the possibly sudden attack on the City, by the Royal forces-an attack by them, on the scat of the local Government of the Rebellion in the Colony of New York, and that at an carly day, having evidently becn a feature in the pre-constructed plans of General Howe. The anxious Provincial Congress , resolved, however, that it would re-assemble at the Court-house, at the White Plains, on the following Tuesday, the second of July, to resume its official business, which was thus interrupted by the appear- ance, in the distance, of danger ; and it resolved, also, that the next Provincial Congress should meet at the same place, on the succeeding Monday, the eighth of July.

In the brief Session which was thus interrupted, and which was not continued, at the White Plains or elsewhere, the third Provincial Congress continued the injudicious and unjust, to say nothing of the barbarous, outragcs inflicted on those who were not inclined to accede to every measure of the Congresses and Committecs, no matter how passive thosc Colonial Non-jurors of America might have been ; and those pains and penalties werc inflicted, directly,

by its own authority ; 1 and indirectly, by the several local Committces;2 the Congress, meanwhile, ac- quicscing in, if not approving, the most barbarous treatment of its prisoners ; 3 winking at the barbarities practised by mobs, on those whom it had proscribed ; 4

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, P.M., May 28, 1776 ;"' the same, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M .. May 30, 1776 ; " the same, " Die Martis, "9 ho., A.M., June 4, 1776 ;" the same, "Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., June "6, 1776 ; " ete.

2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Luna, 4 ho., P.M .. June 3, "1776; " the same, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., June 6, 1776 ;" the same, "Thursday morning, June 20, 1776 ; " the same, "Friday afternoon, "June 21, 1776 ;" etc.

3 Henry Dawkins, accused of counterfeiting, was ironed so heavily, within the prison, that he was reported to have heen " injured by his irons "so that his legs swell ; " and Henry Youngs, accused of the same of- fense, also confined in the Jail, was so much injured by the irons with which he was additionally secured, that it hecame necessary to remove them. (Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Friday morning, 9 ho., A.M., "June, 1776;" the same, " Tuesday morning, New York, June 11, "1776.")

4 About the middle of June, 1776, mobs were raised by John Lasher, John and Josbua Hett Smith, Peter Van Zandt, and other leaders of the extreme revolutionary faction, in the City of New York, hy whom sev- eral citizens who were of the Opposition, hut not of the Rebellion, were seized by these revolutionary "patriots," who placed them on "sharp "rails, " and carried them on men's shoulders, around the City, amidst the huzzas of the mob. The progress of one of these parties was said to have heen stopped by General Putnam ; but not until the victim had sustained serious injuries, (Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 101-103 ; de Laneey's Notes on Jones's History, i., 596-598.)

Peter Elting, a brother-in-law of Richard Varick, wrote of these trans- actions, " We had some Grand Toory Rides in this City this week & in par- "tieular yesterday. Several of them were handeld verry Ronghly Being "Caried trugh the streets on Rails, there Clooths tore from there backs "and there Bodies pritty well mingled with the dust. Amongst them "were C-, Capt. Hardenbrook, Mr. Rapllje, Mr. Queen the Potieary, "and Lessly the barber. There is hardly a toory face to be seen this "morning." (Peter Elting to Captain Richard Varick, "NEW YORK, 13th "June, 1776.")

On the twelfth of June, in the afternoon, Generals Putnamand Mifflin, who had evidently witnessed the ontrages to which Elting alluded, " complained to the Provincial Congress of the riotons and disorderly " condnet of numbers of the inhabitants of this City, which had led this " day to acts of violence towards sonie disaffected persons ; " but what had shoeked Israel Putnam, by reason of its harharism, even while the "complaint" of those two Officers urged the Congress to eondemn the offenders, one of whom was then occupying a seat in the Congress, that body winked at, and, at the same time, it sereened the offenders, and qualified the offense-its words were these : " RESOLVED ; That this Con- " gress by no means approve of the riots that have happened this day ; " they flatter themselves, however, that they have proceeded from a real "regard to Liberty and a detestation of those persons who, by their " language and conduct, have discovered themselves to he inimical to "the cause of America. To urge the warm friends of Liberty to de- " cency and good order, this Congress assures the publie that effectual " measures shall be taken to secure the enemies of American Liberty in " this Colony, and do require the good people of this City and Colony to " desist from all Riots, and leave the offenders against so good a eause to be " dealt with by the constitutional representatives of the Colony "- the subsequently infamons "Committee to detect Conspiracies," then in em bryo, having been, undoubtedly, the " constitutional" agency referred to, (Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Wednesday afternoon, June 12, "' 1776.")

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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 85

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