History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 90

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 90

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On the tenth of May, 1776, the Continental Con - gress, after a very severe and very protracted consid- eration of the subject, had adopted a Resolution ; 4 and on the fifteenth of the same month, it had pre-

1 Journal of the Continental Congress, "Wednesday, June 5, 1776." 2 " According to the noble Lord's explanation, Lord Howe and his " brother are to be sent as Spies, not as Commissioners ; that if they can- " not go on shore, they are to sound upon the coast."-(Speech of Charles James Fox, on the Motion for Lord Howe's Instructions, " HOUSE OF COM- " MONS, Wednesday, May 22, 1776.")

3 See, in the Address to the King, by the same Continental Congress and signed by each of its members, individually, (Journal of the Continental Congress, "Saturday, July 8, 1775,") what, at the date of these Resolu- tions, contained, unaltered, all which had been said, formally, of the disposition, toward the King, of either the Congress or of its individual members.

4 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Friday, May 10, 1776."

357

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

fixed to that Resolution, a Preamble,1 which, together, were in these words :

"WHEREAS his Britannic Majesty, in conjunction " with the Lords and Commons of Great Britain, has, " by a late Act of Parliament, excluded the inhabi- " tants of these United Colonies from the protection " of his Crown;

" AND WHEREAS no answer whatever to the humble " Petition of the Colonies, for redress of grievances and " reconciliation with Great Britain, has been or is " likely to be given, but the whole foree of that King- "dom, aided by foreign mereenaries, is to be exerted " for the destruction of the good people of these Col- "onies ;

" AND WHEREAS it appears absolutely irreconcilable " to reason and good conscience for the people of these " Colonies, now, to take the Oaths and Affirmations " necessary for the support of any Government under " the Crown of Great Britain, and it is necessary that " the exercise of every kind of anthority under the " said Crown should be totally suppressed, and all the "powers of Government exerted under the authority "of the people of the Colonies, for the preservation of " internal peace, virtue, and good order, as well as for " the defence of their lives, liberties, and properties, "against the hostile invasions and cruel depredations "oftheir enemies, therefore

" RESOLVED, That it be recommended to the re- " speetive Assemblies and Conventions of the United "Colonies, where no Government sufficient to the " exigencies of their affairs hath been hitherto estab- " lished, to adopt such Government as shall, in the "opinion of the representatives of the people, best " conduce to the happiness and safety of their constit- "uents, in particular, and America, in general."

The earefnl reader of that Preamble and Resolution will not fail to see, in every portion of them, only In- dependence very thinly disguised ; 2 and he will not be surprised to learn that those, within the Conti- mental Congress, who were most desirous of effeeting a Reconciliation with the Mother Country, were most resolute in opposing the adoption of them ; 3 nor

1 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Wednesday, May 15, 1776."

2 " Great Britain has at last driven America to the last step : a com- " plete separation from her, a total, absolute Independence, not only " of her Parliament, but of her Crown, for such is the amount of the " Resolvo of the 15th. Confederation among ourselves or Alliances " with foreign nations are not necessary to a perfect separation from " Britain ; that is effected by extinguishing all authority under the " Crown, Parliament, and Nation, as the Resolution for instituting " Governments has done, to all intents aud purposes. Coufederation " will be necessary for our internal concord, and Alliances way he " so for our external defensc."-(John Adams to Mrs. Adams, " PRILA- " DELPHIA, May 17, 1776.")

As the writer of this paragraph was the Chairman of the Committee who framed the Preamble, and as he probably wrote it, there need be no better authority concerning the intent of him who framed it, as well as concerning his understanding of the meaning and of the consequences of it.

See, also, Nephen Hopkins to Governor Cooke, of Rhode Island, " PHILA- " DELPHIA, May 15, 1776."

3 The Delegation from l'ennsylvania, subsequently such determined

that, after they had been adopted, those of the Dele- gation from the Colony of New York who had been among those who had opposed that favorable action, very soon retired from their seats in the Continental Congress and occupied seats in the Provincial Con- gress of New York,' where, by means of a similar line of action, adverse to the adoption of a new form of local Government and to the evidently approaching question of Independence, both those radical mcas- ures might be successfully opposed, at least until the Royal Commissioners whom the Home Government had sent to effect a Reconciliation, should have arrived and presented their proposals, and until those who were anxious to figure, in New York and at London, as diplomatists and as peace-makers, rather than as friends or promoters of Independenee, should have had an opportunity to dispense with Independence ; to restore the old order of the Colonial Government, with here and there a revision which would be favor- able to themselves or to their faction ; and to establish for themselves, at least, such a substantial claim on the gratitude of the Crown and of the Nation, as would ensure to them the control of the restored Col- onial Governments, at home, if not something more acceptable, abroad.5

opponents of Independence, were resolute opposers of this Preamble and Resolution, and declined to vote on it, "as far as was in their "power, withdrawing the Province from this uuion of the Colonies, " both in council and action."-(The Philadelphia Committee to the Com- mittees of the rural Counties of Pennsylvania, " PHILADELPHIA, May 21, "1776.") The majority of the Delegates from New York subsequently repeated their opposition to the measure, in the Provincial Congress of that Colony, where, also, their opposition to the Resolution of Independence was so peculiarly conspicuous. Although we have found no record of the action of the Delegations from New Jersey and Mary- land, on that particular question, the subsequent action of the local revolutionary hodies, in those Colouies, concerning those Delegations, leaves no room for doubt concerning what the action of their respective Delegations had been.

+ John Alsop and Francis Lewis took seats in the Provincial Congress, on the twentieth of May ; Johu Jay appeared on the twenty-fifth of that month ; James Duane, who had somo other place in the Conti- nental service, showed himself on the second of June; and Philip Livingston lingered until the eighth of June-all of them were there in season to accomplish, as far as the Provincial Congress of New York could be employed in such a work, all they had set out to do, in the work of procrastination, of reconciliation with the Mother Country, and of continued Colonial depcudcuce.

5 " Things have come to such a pass, now, as to convince us that we " have nothing more to expect from the justice of Great Britain ; also, " that she is capable of the most delusive arts; for I am satisfied that " no Commissioners ever were designed, except Hessians and other " foreiguers ; and that the idea was only to deceive and throw us off

" our guard. The first has been too effectually accomplished, as many " members of Congress, in short, the representation of whole Provinces, " are still feeding themselves upon the dainty food of reconciliation ; "and, though they will not allow that the expectation of it has any " influence npon their judgment with respect to their preparations for "defence, it is but too ohvions that it has an operation upon every part " of their conduct, and is a clog to their proceedings. It is not in " the nature of things to be otherwise; for no man that entertains "a hope of seeing this dispute spcedily and equitably adjusted by " Commissioners will go to the same expense and run the same hazards " to prepare for the worst event, as he who believes that he must " conqner, or submit to unconditional terms and the like concomitante, " such as confiscation, hanging, and the like." (General Washington to his brother, Augustine Washington, "PHILADELPHIA, 31 May, 1776.")

358

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Although an official copy of that Preamble and Resolution was evidently sent to the Provincial Con- gress of New York, no mention was made of the re- ceipt of it, on the Journals of that body ; but, on the twenty-fourth of May, " the order of the day being " read, the Congress proceeded to take into considera- "tion " the Resolution and the general subject to which it particularly related.1

* * * * *

The Provincial Congress having "considered " the Report, it also adopted it, evidently without debate or a division of the house,-Westchester-county was unrepresented in that exceedingly important vote, owing to the absence of a quorum of its Deputation ; -- and, after the Congress had ordered the Resolutions to be published in all the newspapers in the Colony and in handbills, the latter for distribution in the rural Counties,2 it appears to have dismissed the entire subject from its further attention.

The Resolutions which were thus adopted and pub- lished, form the foundation of the entire structure of the Constitution of the State of New York, in all its varied forms; and, for that reason, we have not hesitated to find places, in this narrative, for all which concerned them. We are not insensible of the fact, however, that the fair words which they contain were deceptive; that the voice and the votes to which the election of the proposed founders of a State was thus referred, were not those of "the Inhabitants" who had figured so largely in the preliminary Report, but only those of the Freeholders and those of the tenantry who were of the wealthier class, to the ex- elusion of the tenantry of small properties and of the Mechanics and Working-men of the Colony, and certainly to the exclusion of those who had been offi- cially proscribed and officially outraged, and for whom, under subsequent action of the Congress, yet more atrocious proscription and persecution and outrage were held in reserve. We are not insensible, also, that, notwithstanding the seeming eagerness of its authors, at that time, to remove the "many and great "inconveniences," as well as that power of despotic oppression and tyranny which "attended the mode of "Government by Congress and Committees," of some of which "inconveniences " and despotism the reader has been already made acquainted, they were not subsequently so eager-they certainly loitered over their work until after the Royal Commissioners had exhausted their ingenuity as well as their authority in fruitless efforts to effect a Reconciliation and to restore harmony between the Colonies and the Mother Country ; and, even at that later day, John Morin Scott and Alexander MeDougal and others of the same class having, meantime, obtained other places

which filled their expectations, the puny thing which was created and entitled The Constitution of the State of New York, was introduced to the world, and fostered by political midwives and wetnurses who cared noth- ing for it beyoud what they could severally make from it. Most of all, we are not insensible of the fact that, notwithstanding all the fine words, concern- ing the "People" and the "Inhabitants" and their unquestionable political authority, which were in - cluded in the Resolutions, the oligarchic authors of those Resolutions carefully reserved to themselves, the sole authority to determine whether a Constitution should or should not be created; and to determine, also, if they should consider a Coustitution were necessary and proper, in what words and with what provisions that Constitution should be composed; without the slightest recognition of any existing Right or author- ity, in the constituent "People" or "Inhabitants," to consider all such action of those who pretended to be the "representatives" of that "People" or of those " Inhabitants," and to ratify and approve or to dis- allow and reject the same, or any portion thereof, at its or their pleasure, as might be done by the recog- nized sovereign power; and as, in this instance, it eer- tainly should have been done.3 It will be seen, here- after, in what manner the "oligarchy " who was seated in the Provincial Congress, controlling the affairs of the Colony in their own interest, and who intended to be re-elected, betrayed both the "Inhabitants" and the "People," in imposing upon both, a uew form of Government, without their consent, but not until their own purposes to secure their own ends through the older Colonial form, had become unsuccessful.

The subject of a new form of Government was scarcely disposed of, when, on the fourth of June, the same "Society of Mechanics in Union," so called, whom the master-spirits of the Committee of Fifty- one had deceived and betrayed-the same who was composed of the fragments of that phantom which had been known by the general title of "The Sons of

3 This peculiarity of the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress did not escape the vigilant attention of the Working men and tenants of only small properties, within the City of New-York-of those very "poor "reptiles" of whom Gouverneur Morris had written to Mr. Penn, in May, 1774, (vide page 188, ante)-and only with whose very acceptable help, the Delegation to the Continental Congress of 1774 had managed to secure their seats in that body. Whatever may have heen their stand- ing in the social scale of aristocracy, but for the co-operation of those who constituted the so called, "Society of Mechanics in Union," there would have been no place for either James Duane or John Jay in tbe Continental Congress of 1774 or in that similar Cougress wbich succeeded it ; and witbout their assent and approval, corruptly secured, in every in- stance except one, the members of the Delegation to the first-named of tbose Congresses, if not those to both, had lived in fretful obscurity, and have died as their respective ancestors had died, "nuwept, unhonored, and "unsung." Tbere was a fitness, therefore, in the alarm of tbcse Working- men of the City of New York, because of the contemptnous disregard of their political Rights, hy those, of the Provincial Congress, who were only the creatures of their plebeian will and tbe administrators of their inherent authority. The Address of the Society, which those working- men subsequently presented to the Provincial Cougress, on that subject, a master-piece of political reasoning, has been preserved iu the archives of the State, and will he referred to hereafter.

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Veneris, 9 ho., A.M., May " 24, 1776."

2 Journal of the Provincial Congress " Die Veneris, 4 ho., P. M., May "31, 1776."

359

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

"Liberty," and from whom has proceeded that excel- lent body, still existing, which is distinguished by the title of "The General Society of Mechanics and "Tradesmen of the City of New York "-presented an Address to the Provincial Congress, on the subject of Independence.

The signers of that Address, the first movement concerning Independence in the Provincial Congress, stated that they were devoted friends to their bleed- ing country ; that they were afflicted by beholding her struggling under heavy loads of oppression and tyranny, and the more so, when they viewed the iron hand lifted up against her; that their Prince was deaf to Petitions for interposing his Royal author- ity for redressing their grievances; that one year had not sufficed to satisfy the rage of a cruel Ministry, in their bloody pursuits designed to reduce them to be slaves taxed by them, without their consent; that, therefore, they rather wished to separate from, than to coutinue connected with, such oppressors; aud they declared that if the Provincial Congress should think proper to instruct their Delegates in the Con- tinental Congress to use their utmost endeavors, in that august assembly, to cause these United Colonies to become iudependent of Great Britain, it would give them the highest satisfaction ; and they sincerely promised to support the same with their lives and fortuues.1

A snow-storm in Summer would not have been more unwelcome to the cultivators of the soil, than that Address was to the Provincial Congress, since Independence and the much coveted Reconciliation with Great Britain were wholly irreconcilable ; and, without even the usual courtesy of a consideration of either the Address or the very important subject to which it related, by a Committee of the Cougress- why should "the poor reptiles" who had written and preseuted such an Address receive such attention and enjoy such consideration as a reference of their Address and of their plea to a Committee of the Congress, would have indicated, although such a reference was usual and nothing more than respectful in matters of so much importance ?- an Answer was made by the President of the Congress, orally ; and a copy of it was evidently given to Lewis Thibou [Louis Tiebout, ?] by whom the Address had been read, at the head of "a number of citizens who style "themselves a 'Committee of Mechanics,'" before the Provincial Congress itself.

As the "oligarchy" which constituted that Con- gress had resorted to the extraordinary precaution of requiring the proposed Address to be delivered to it, for its "inspectiou," iu order that that aristocratic body should " discover whether it is proper for this "Congress to receive the same"-the bearers of it, meanwhile, dancing an attendance, outside, before a

closed door-before it would permit the Mechanics to enter the Chamber in which it was sitting, to present their Address and to read it, there had been ample time to prepare the Answer, in season for the oral delivery of it, from the Chair; and there was one Deputy present, and only one, who was capable of writing that Answer, in the terms in which it was constituted.2

That Answer was in these remarkable words :

" IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, June 4, 1776. "SIR :

" We consider the Mechanics in Union as a volun- "tary Association of a number of the inhabitants of "this City, who are warinly attached to the cause of "Liberty. We flatter ourselves, however, that neither "that Association nor their Committee will claim any "authority, whatsoever, in the publie transactions of "the preseut times ; but that, on the contrary, they "will ever be ready to submit to that constitutional "authority which, by a free election, has been vested "in Congress and Committees.

"This Congress is, at all times, ready and willing "to attend to every request of their constituents, or "of any part of them: we are of opinion that the "Continental Congress, alone, have that enlarged "view of our political circumstances which will ena- "ble them to decide upon those measures which are "necessary for the general welfare: we cannot pre- "sume, by any instructions, to make or declare any " Resolutions or Declarations, upon a so general and "momentous concern ; but are determined patiently "to await and firmly to abide by whatever a majority "of that august body shall think needful. We, there- "fore, cannot presume to instruct the Delegates of "this Colony, upon the momentous question to which "your Address refers, until we are informed that it is "brought before the Continental Congress and the "sense of this Colony be required through this Con- "gress." 3

To that contemptuous Answer, the Mechanics in Union, ten days afterwards, [June 14, 1776,] sent a second Address, in reply, in which, uuder cover of an inquiry concerning one of the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress relating to a proposed establislı-

2 Johu Jay was not in his seat, in the Provincial Congress, during that entire day ; and, therefore, he had no hand in it. John Morin Scott was present ; but no one will pretend that such a sturdy sycophant of the popular element as he, would have ventured to have written such a paper, so contemptuously disrespectful of that great class of generally unfran- chised Working-tien. The President of the Congress, General Woodhull, of Suffolk, was not handy with the pen; and he possessed no such ani- mosity against " the lower classes, " as is seen in this Anstrer. It remained, therefore, to the high toned, "well buru" Deputy from Westchester- county, Gouverneur Morris -the same who had stood in the window of the Coffee-house, on the nineteenth of May, 1774, and, thence, had stud- ied the rising power of the democracy, whom he loathed *- to write the Answer of the Congress ; and it was, unquestionably, he who did it.

3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Martis, 9 ho., A. M., June 4, "1776."

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 9 ho., A.M., June 4, " 1776."

* Vide page 12, aute.

360

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ment of a new form of Government, but in words and in terms which entitled the Artisan-author of it to the highest honors, the generally unfranchised Working- men of the City of New York manfully declared their Rights, as a portion of that body of the People, throughout the Colony, in whom, they considered, were vested the original power and the source of all political authority, within the Colony ; denounced the assumption, by either of the Congresses or any of the Committees, of an authority over and beyond that which had been delegated to them, as illegal and de- structive of the ends sought to be secured by the creation of those several bodies; and warning the Provincial Congress of the necessary consequences of such an usurpation. That Reply, most respectful in its tone while it was most overwhelming in its facts and in its argument, was evidently not permitted to be presented to the Provincial Congress; and, without the slightest notice on the official Journal of that body-probably, without the slightest official action by the Congress-it was buried in the files of that "oligarchic" body, to await a resurrection in these later days.1

On the following day, [June 5, 1776,] the Provincial Congress was pestered, again, with that obnoxious subject of Independence; but, on that occasion, the aristocratic Colouial Convention of Virginia was the unwelcome claimant ou its attention; and, con- sequently, it was constrained to be more civil in its words and more respectful in its demeanor than it had becn, on the day before, when the plebeian Working- men of the City in which it was seated had addressed it, respectfully, on the same subject.

The message which the letter of Edmund Peudleton had conveyed to the Provincial Congress was the celebrated and well-known Resolutions of that Con- vention, adopted on the fifteenth of May preceding, through which the Delegation from Virginia, in the Continental Congress, was instructed "to declare the " United Colonies free and independent States, ab- " solved from all allegiance to or dependence upon " the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; and " that it give the assent of this Colony to such Decla- " ration, and to whatever measures may be thought " proper and necessary, by the Congress, for forming " foreign alliances and a Confederation of the Colonics, " at such time and in the manner as to them shall seem " best ; PROVIDED, That the power of forming Govern- " ment for and the regulation of the internal concerns "of each Colony be left to the respective Colonial "Legislatures ; "2 aud the Provincial Congress ordered

1 This admirable Reply to the Answer of the Provincial Congress, which was more especially devoted to the proposal of that hody to impose a uew form of Government on the Colony or State, without having submitted it to the hody of the People, for ratification or rejection, was in these words :

* *

* * *

2 Journal of a Convention of Delegates from the Counties and Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburgh, " Wednesday May 15, 1776."

"that John Jay and Gouverneur Morris be a Commit- "tee to prepare a draft of an answer to it, and to "report the same " 3-without the usual injunction, " with all convenient speed," however, since the Pro- vincial Congress was not in a hurry to consider the subject of Independence ; and it would not be so, at least until what it evidently preferred, the question of Reconciliation, should have been met and finally dis- posed of.

On the afternoon of the day succeeding that on which the Resolutions from Virginia had been re- ceived, [June 6, 1776,] the Committee to whom those Resolutions had been referred, reported an answer to the letter of Edmund Pendleton which had covered them - an answer which was just as icy cold and for- mal as the Answer to "the Mechanics in Union," two days before, had been; and which told, as distinctly as the other had told, how entirely obnoxious to the aristocratic leaders of the Rebellion, in New York, the proposition for Independence from Great Britain had been. It simply acknowledged the receipt of the Resolutions and that of the letter which had covered them, saying, also, that they had been communicated to the Provincial Congress, by whom "they would be " considered with all the deliberatiou due to the im- " portance of the subject ; " that the Congress thanked the Convention of Virginia for its attention ; and that the latter was "assured that the Congress of this Col- "ony will invariably adopt aud pursue every measure "which may tend to promote the uuion and secure " the rights and happiness of the United Colonies." 4

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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 90

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