History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 88

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 88

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Another instance of that spirit of persecution was seen in the movement of Egbert Benson, one of those who were controlled more by their haughty and ill- controlled wills than by any enactment of Committee or Congress or by auy requirement of personal or po- litical integrity, for the employment of a local force, in the service and pay of the Colony, for the purpose of " keeping the peace and order and to suppress the " disaffected in Duchess-county."5 The "requisi- "tion," for by that expressive word the call of Benson was then known, was duly referred to the Deputations from Duchess, Westchester, and Ulster-counties, for consideration and report-Gouverneur Morris, Samuel Haviland, Jonathan G. Tompkins, and Lewis Gra- ham, representing Westchester-county ; 6 and, on the following day, that Committee recommended the employment of one hundred men in Duchess-county and fifty men in Westchester-county, "the said men " to be raised in the said Counties respectively, and "confined to the service of those Counties, and to "continue in pay until the first day of November "next, unless sooner discharged by this or a future " Congress." 7

There appears to have been a serious opposition to the adoption of the Report, New York City and Coun- ty leading in the opposition, but it was, nevertheless, adopted; 8 and, two days afterwards, [June 22, 1776,]

3 General Patnam to the Provincial Congress, " HEAD-QUARTERS, NEW- "YORK, June 3, 1776."

4 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Luna, 4 ho., P.M., Inno 3, " 1776."

5 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Wednesday morning, June 19,

"1776;" and the xcome, " Wednesday afternoon, June 19, 1776."

6 Journal of the Prorincial Congress, "Wednesday afternoon, June 19, "1776."

7 Jourmd of the Provincial Congress, "Thursday morning, June 20, " 1776."

8 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Thursday morning, June 20, "1776."

349

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

after various manipulations, in a second Committee,1 by " one of the Secretaries," 2 and by the Congress it- self,3 the subject was disposed of, in a series of Reso- lutions, which, it is said, "were unanimously ap- ' proved of."

As that entire subject relates to the local history of Westchester-county, at that period, and to the estab- lishment of a military police force, in that County, evidently for the more effectual prosecution of the proposed operations of the recently created "Com- " mittee to detect Conspiracies " among the peaceable conservative residents of that County-as no com- plaint had been made, by any one, of the slightest breach of the peace, in that County, and as its local County Committee had made no application for the establishment of such a military police force, for any purpose, there can be no doubt that, as far as the Company iu Westchester-county was concerned, the project was a creation of the Deputation from that County, and for no other purpose than that of assist- ing the "Committee to Detect Conspiracies," of which Committee two members of that Delegation were also members, in harrying the conservative farmers of the County, in the interest of "the cause of America" and that of the leaders of the Rebellion, in New York- for these reasons, the Resolutions may properly find a place in this narrative. They were in these words:

" WHEREAS, there are sundry disaffected and dan- " gerous persons, in the Counties of Dutchess and " Westchester, who do now greatly disturb the peace " of the said Counties, and will most probably take up " arms, whensoever the enemy shall make a descent " upon this Colony, to the great annoyance of the said "Counties, in particular, and of others the good peo- "ple of this Colony :

" AND WHEREAS, by reason of the several drafts " which have been made in the said Counties, accord- "ing to the late recommendation of the Continental "Congress, the Militia thercof are rendered incapable "of keeping peace and order in the said Counties, "without great inconvenience to themselves and much "injury to and neglect of their private property ; and, "inasmuch as the interest of this Colony may be mna- " terially affected by any dissentions which may pre- "vail in the said Counties, while the Continental " troops are engaged in the defence of those Counties "more immediately exposed to the inroads of the "enemy : therefore

" RESOLVED, That one hundred men, Officers in- " cluded, be raised in Dutchess-county, and that fifty " men, Officers included, be raised in Westchester- "county, and taken into the pay and service of this "Congress, and confined to the service of those Coun- " ties, and to continne in pay until the first day of

" November next, unless sooner discharged by this or " a future Congress of this Colony :

" That the one hundred men to be raised in Dutch- "ess-connty be divided into two Companies, each "Company to consist of oue Captain, one Lieutenant " three Sergeants, three Corporals, one Fifer, ouc " Drummer, and forty Privates ; and that the fifty " men to be raised in Westchester-county consist of " one Captain, one Lieutenant, three Sergeants, three " Corporals, one Fifer, one Drummer, and forty Pri- "vates; that the pay of those three Companies be " the same as the pay of the Continental troops; that " the Captains be allowed eighteen shillings each, "per week ; the Lieutenants be allowed twelve shil- " lings each, per week ; and the Sergeants, Corporals, " Fifers, Drummers, and Privates, eight shillings " each, per week, in lieu of all rations and subsistence : " That Melaucton Smith be appointed Captain of "one of the said Companies to be raised in Dutchess- "county ; and that John Durlin be appointed Cap- "tain of the other; and that Micah Townsend be "appointed Captain of the said Company to be raised " in Westchester-county :

" That the General Committees of the said Coun- " ties be authorized to nominate and appoint the "Subaltern Officers to the said Companies, in their " Counties, respectively :

" That the said three Companies be deemed one "Corps; and that Melancton Smith be Captain Com- " mandant ; that Micah Townsend be the second "Captain in rank; and that John Durlin be the " third Captain in rank, in the said Corps:

" That the General Committees of the said Coun- " ties be authorized and requested to appoint a MIns- " ter-master in their respective Counties, to muster "the said Companies; and that they transmit the " names of such Muster-masters to the Committee " appointed to audit the accounts of this Congress, " without delay :

" That the said three Companies be subject to the "order and direction of the General Committee of " their respective Counties or such other person or " persons as this or a future Congress of this Colony " shall direct.

" ORDERED, That a certified copy of the aforesaid " Resolutions be transmitted to the General Commit- " tees of Dutchess and Westchester-counties. And "ORDERED, That Commissions be immediately "issued to the Captains, and that blank Commissions " be sent to the said Committees, to be by them issued " to the Lieutenants."

It will be seen that no provisions were made by the Provincial Congress for either the recruiting, or the equipment, or the quarters, or the transportation of these men; and there will be some among the readers of this narrative who will say that if fifty un- armed, scattered men, on foot, conld surely ensure the peace of so large and so widely extended a community as Colonial Westchester-county-and if those men

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Friday afternoon, June 21, 1776." 2 Ibid.

3 Jourmud of the Provincial Congress, "Saturday morning, June 22, " 1776."

350

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

could not surely preserve that peace, their appointment were useless-the inhabitants of that County eould not Have been as " dangerous " and its peace could not have been as "greatly disturbed " as the authors and pro- moters of these Resolutions had falsely pretended, among the recitals of their Preamble: others will suspect, not without reason, that the entire movement was a purely political job, gotten up for the purpose of affording politieal sop, at the expense of the Col- ony, for hungry adherents of the Bensons and the Morrise-suspicions which would be well-founded, sinee neither of the Duchess-county Companies were subsequently known in history, exceptthrough the re- quisition on the Treasurer of the Colony, for their Pay and Subsistence; 1 while the Westehester-county Com. pany, without having become known to history, in its capacity of an armed police, is known, in the military annals of the State,2 for having done nothing else than changed its Lieutenant,3 for asking for greater Pay,4

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Veneris, Novr. 1, 1776, 4 "o'clock, P.M."

2 The only allusion to military anty discharged by this Company, which we have found, is that Order of the Provincial Congress, on the twenty-fifth of July, " that Captain Townsend of Westchester-county "return to duty, with his Company, at the mouth of Proton river and " such places adjacent as the Officer or Officers commanding the Ameri " can troops or Militia, there, shall direct, " (Journal of the Provincial Con- gress, " Thursday morning, July 25, 1776 ; ") which was certainly be- yond tho line of duties for which it had been specifically raised.

3 The County Committee, agreeably to the Resolutions of the Provin- cial Congress, presented in the text, nppointed Sammel Townsend to the Lientenantcy of this Company. Subsequently, Lieutenant Townsend was promoted to the command of another Company ; and, on the sixteenth of August, Zephania Miller was appointed to the vacant. Lientenantcy, (The General Committee of Westchester-county to the Convention of the State, " Angust 16, 1776;" Journal of the Provincial Convention, "Die Veneris, "9 ho., A.M., August 16, 1776.")

4 Tho following, copied from the original manuscript, (Historical Man uscripts, etc .: Petitions, xxxiii., 103, 104,) will bo interesting to our readers, in this connection :

" TO THE HONORABLE THE CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF NEW- YORK.

" The Petition of the Lieutenant non-commissioned officers & Privates "belonging to Capt" Micah Townsend's company raised to be under the " Direction of the Committee of Westebester County, Humbly Sheweth, " That the Honorable the Provincial Congress of this Colony when " they gave lustructions for raising Captn Townsond's Company allowed " the Lieutenant 12s, per week, and the non commissioned officers nud " privates 88. per week in lien of Rations and Subsistance.

"That at and near the White Plains (which is the head Quarters of "the Company) the allowance for their subsistance does not amount to " near enough to support them, they being unable to get victuals for "less than Is. per Meal, or to hire their Board at any tolerable rate but " by the week ; that your Petitioners entered the Company & Did duty " in the most busy season of the year before & during Harvest time & "havo had a barder share of duty than the Troops who were allowed by "your honorable Honse 20 Dollars Bounty & who have generally "received near 40 Dollars.

" Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honorable Honse " will be pleased to increase the Pay for their Subsistance so far as to " enable them when they hve with Frugality to support themselves by it "in the part of the County where they may reside, or be ordered. And "your Petitioners as in duty bonnd shull ever pray, &c.

" Zephanish Miller, Lientenant, William Fredenborongb,

" Jacob Travis, Serjent, Jonathan Ferris,

" William Martin,* Serjent,

Robert Bloomer, Jun,

* The Deposition of Jobn Martine, " of the Manor of Philipsburg near " the White Plains," ( Historical Manuscripts, etc. ; Miscellaneous Papers, xxxv., 273,) shows that this was William Martino, bis son.

and for drawing the Pay which was legitimately due to it.5

Another instanee of the spirit of partisan bitter- ness which prevailed, at that time, in Westehester- county, and of the unholy zeal with which the Town Committees urged forward the work of persecution and plunder, among their conservative neighbors, may be seen in the following note which was addressed by the Chairman of the Committee of the Town of Salem, in that County-that Committee which, a short time previously, had laid an embargo on Cattle intended for the supply of the inhabitants of the City of New York 6-to the Provincial Congress :

"TO THE HONBLE. THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, " NEW YORK :

" The Committee of Salem, in Westehester-eounty, " have the unhappiness of having a large number of " the inhabitants very much opposed to the measures " of the United Colonies, and numbers of them are "determined not to comply nor adopt the doings of "the Congress, which makes a great deal of trouble " for said Committee. Said Committee has adver- " tised some, obliged others to give bonds, some of "one or two hundred pounds, some of which have "forfeited their bonds and run off, and have made " considerable eosts, one in particular, in sending "after hin. We desire to know what shall be done " with the forfeitures, and likewise how to proceed in " taking of it, and how to turn it into money if taken " in stock or whatever else, or whether or no the Con- "gress wont take the forfeitures and pay the eost; " we desire you would give us some rules and diree-

" tions how to proceed. And likewise, those men " that still behave inimieal, and put the Committees "to so much trouble, whether or no we might not "take eost of them to pay us what is reasonable for

" Joshua Mead, Serjent,

Samnel Howell,

" Reuben Bloomer, Corp1, Uriah Travis, Jn.,

" Thomas Brooks, Corp!, Jonathan Finch,

" James Strobdy, Corp1,

Jobın Travis,

" Anthony Miller, Fifar, James Miller, Jun,

" James Carpenter,

Zecheas Dible,

" William Williamson,

Absolini Intching,

" Elven Hyot,

Daniel Dean,

" William Sniffon,

Jeremiah Rozelle,

" Moses Higons,

John Mills,

" John Beaks,

Jeredial Owen,

" William Seaman,

Benjamin fretenborough,

" Elijah Millor, Jun,

Thomas Ramond,

"Natban Holmes,

Jobn Broadstreet,

"Samuel Lyon, Jnnī,

Samnel Miller,

"Stephen Munday,

Robert Merritt.

" Frederick Datin,

" IN COMMITTEE OF SAFETY FOR THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER

" AT THE WHITE PLAINS, Septr 2nd 1776. 3

" RESOLVED, that this Committee recommend to the houble the Con- " vention of this State the rensonableness of increasing the Subsistance " Money for Capto Townsend's Company as they are of opinion that 88 " per week per Man is not a sufficient provision for them.

" By order of the Committee,

"Jony THOMAS, JUNE, Chairman."

5 Journal of the Committee of Sufety, "4 bo., P. M., Decr. 7, 1776." 6 Vide pages 149, 150, ante.

351

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

"our time, for we grow weary of being called together "to deal with tories. That has been our whole busi- " ness ever since we have been formed as a Commit- " tee ; it has cost me, in particular, not less than six " hundred miles riding, and I believe, at a moderate " guess, twenty or thirty dollars in cash, and I never "yet expected pay ; but I find I cant live so, and if " the tories make all the trouble, why ought they not " to pay all the cost. Gentlemen, we only want or- " ders from you to take it. We have sent Mr. Ben. " Chapman to you, praying of you to send us some di- " reetions on this important affair, one of the mem- " bers of this Committee.

"By order of the Committee, " EZEKIEL HAWLEY,' Chairman. " June 5th, 1776."

That letter was laid before the Provincial Con- gress, on Saturday evening, the eighth of June ; and the Journal of that body states that it was " read and " filed,"2 the Congress itself, as will be seen in its subsequent proceedings in the matter, hesitating, in view of its atrocious propositions, to give the authority which its writer had so unblushingly solicited.

With the fact before him, that the "large number "of the inhabitants" of the Town of Salem which was referred to, in that letter, was composed of farmers, neighbors of the writer of it, and peacefully and industriously pursuing their usual vocations; and, with the additional fact before him, that none of these were even pretended to have committed any other offense, against either the King or the Congress, than the entertainment of political opinions which were different from those entertained by Ezekiel Hawley and his handful of " patriotie" confederates, thereader will be enabled to judge, with some de- gree of accuracy, concerning the really diabolical character of the letter and that of him who had written it.

The number of those who were thus proscribed and whose properties were so eagerly hankered for, was said to have been " large ;" the proposed victims were "inhabitants " of Salem, and neighbors of Hawley and his confederates ; they were quietly pursuing their usual rural occupations, doing no harm to any one, and violating no law, although their opinions, on

partisan political questions, were not in accord with those which the latter professed to hold; both, at the same time, concurring, however, in the recognition of the King of Great Britain as their legitimate Sove- reign; both professing to be equally and entirely good and loyal subjeets of that reigning Monarch ; both owing obedience to the Laws of the Land; and both, alike, recognizing the duty of that obedience,3 although only one of the two discharged that duty, in its every day practice. Against those unoffending farmers-as their aceusers have shown, they were nothing else-with a malignant zeal which betrayed its selfish, puritanic origin, the writer of that letter prayed that they should be arrested; that their prop- erties, real and personal, should be seized, and es- cheated, and confiscated; that " costs " should be paid, therefrom, into the willing hands of those who shoukl have thus invaded their individual Rights-Rights which had been guaranteed to each of them, by the Con- stitution and the Laws of the land-that their homes should be violated and destroyed ; that their families should be made beggars, and be cast penniless on the world; and that, except among those who thus sought warrants to become local despots, nothing else than individual and domestic misery and general devas- tation and ruin should be aimed at and obtained. Can anything more atrocious be conceived ? Can those who could calmly and deliberately devise such outrages, to be inflieted on a peaceful community, and that community their own immediate neighbors and townsmen, be regarded as anything else than monstrosities, in human form, in which only the baser and most brutal passions had found places ? But, after all, these-the letter and the passions which had inspired it and the hand which had written it -- were only the legitimate outcome of the barbarous propositions which John Jay and Gouverneur Morris and their partisan associates, taking advantage of a short period of peculiar anxiety and of labors of more than usual variety and importance, had led the jaded and almost exhausted Provincial Congress, it may

3 " To do justice even to rebels, let it here be mentioned that * * * Nay, " so far were they from interfering with the law, that the Magistrates "continned in full possession of the Civil powers and the Courts of Jus- "tice were open in the usual manner until the Declaration of Indepen- >>dence. In April Term, 1776, several rebel soldiers were indicted for "some Petty Larcenies, tried, convicted, and punished by order of the "Conrt without any interference of the Military ; their Officers nt- " tended the trials, heard the evidence, and upon their conviction de- "clared that ample justice was done them, and thanked the Judge for " his candor and impartiality, during the course of the trials."-Jones's History of New York during the Rerolutionary Wer, i., 137.

Judge Jones, the writer of the above paragraph, was, at that time, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Colony, and personally acquainted with the facts stated. His practice wus, in matters in which he was personally concerned, to mention no name ; and the context cer- taiuly seems to indicate that the Trial was in the City of New York ; but the learned Klitor of that remarkable work, has stated, in the luder, (ii., 691.) undoubtedly on competent authority, that the Court referred to was held at the White Plains, in Westchester-county ; and that the pre- siding Judge of that Court was Thomas Jones, the writer of the work from which this paragraph was taken.

1 Mr. Bolton said this Hawley was a grandson of Rev. Thomas Ilaw- ley, l'astor of the Congregational-church at Ridgefiekl, Connecticut ; that ho was one of the proprietors of the Oblong ; that he held a Commission in the Continental Army ; and that he was taken off by death, suddenly, in 1788. (History of Weschester county, original edition, i., 174 ; the same, second edition, i., 738.)

The "Continental " Commission referred to, by Mr. Holton, was nothing else than that of First Lieutenant in Captain Truesdale's Com_ pany of Colonial Militia, " for the North End of Salem"-a local Com- pany of notoriously very little account, ( Returns of Election of Officers, December 18, 1775, in the Historical Maunaripts, etc. : Military Returns, xxvii., 245.)

" Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabbati, 6 ho., P.MI , June 8, "1776."

352

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

have been unwittingly, to establish as the formal enactments of that revolutionary body.1

As we have said, the letter which Ezekiel Hawley, in behalf of the Committee of the Town of Salem, wrote to the Provincial Congress, was laid before that body, on Saturday evening, the eightli of June ; when it was read and filed.2 On the following morning, [ Sunday, June 9, 1775,] the Congress directed the fol- lowing answer to be made to that remarkable letter :

" IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, "NEW-YORK, June 9, 1776.

“ SIR :

" Your letter by Mr. Chapman, of the 5th inst., was " laid before the Congress, who are of opinion that " the contents require the most serious consideration, " and have directed me to acquaint you that whenever " several matters of importance for the general defense " and preservation of the Colony, now under consider- "ation, are despatched, the Committee of Salem may " be assured a proper attention will be made on their " application, the Congress not doubting that Commit- "tee will still persevere, with zeal in the cause of " their country.

" By order, " NATHANIEL WOODHULL, President. " To EZEKIEL HAWLEY, ESQR., Chairman " of the Committee of Salem, Westchester." 3

Had Gouverneur Morris or Johu Jay been present, when the Provincial Cougress received or when it answered that letter, the answer would probably have

1 Tho question of tho extent to which the several Provincial Con- gresses, uninthuenced by the outside pressure of homemade partisan demonstrations or by the inside domination of those who assumed to social or intellectual superiority, wonkl have given their authority for the cnactment and execution of such violent measures, against those of their fellow Colonists who did not concur in all which was dono by the Conti- nental Congress of 1774, as we have noticed, is worthy of the examina- tion which it will some day receive at the hands of an intelligent, indus- trious, and fearless student.

If we do not mistake, and we incline to the belief that wo do not, when that examination shall have been made, very much of the responsibility for the multitude of atrocions acts which were done in behalf of " the cause of America " and of " the Liberties of America," will bo shifted from tho shoulders of sensible, but modest and less ener- getic, men, where it now rests, to those of men who aro now represented as having been incapable of such enormities.

History tells of more than one instance in which a mere handful of enthusiasts, more or less honest in their professions, has fastened itself on a great political party which entertained none of those enthusiastic dogmas which the others assumed to believe and maintain, and which, having thus fastened itself on the larger body, taking advantage of favorable opportunities, artfully adapting itself to existing tempwers and circumstances, and persistently-sometimes, impudently-thrusting il self into every seat of infhienco and authority to which it could possibly gain access, has succeeded in re-moulding the policy of the party which it has invaded ; and made it appear to be what, originally, it was not ; to maintain opinions which, originally, it disclaimed and opposed ; and to do, or permut to be done, in its name, what, originally, it would have honestly shrunk from, as improper and unjust. Such an instance, if we do not mistake, occurred in this Colony, in 1775 and 1776 : we were per- sonally acquainted with a similar instance, vastly more important in its consequences than the other, which occurred within the United States, at a comparatively recent date.

2 Vide page 351, ante.

3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Sunday morning, June 9, 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 88

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