USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 41
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The Governour of New York, the commissioners of Massachu- setts, and those of Virginia, make their presents to the Iroquois, and next day Clinton speaks to them, and the Onondaga orator answers: the Indians divide the presents, giving a due proportion to the Mackinaws. The next day was spent in dancing the war-dance and singing the song with solemnity, all the Iroquois being painted as for battle. The governour had private interviews with the chiefs, and gave them presents. One of the Mackinaw deputies died of small-pox, and his dying request to the governour was, that the first French scalp that was taken, should be sent to his mother. This, the christian chief magistrate promises, and the savage dies con- tented.
· The Indians, commonly called Esopus, Minisink, Mehecandies and River Indians, perhaps the Mohicans, were now sent for, and the governour went through shorter and slighter ceremonies with them; receiving from them assurance, of joining in the war with him and the Iroquois. Then they had their war-belts, war-dance, and presents.
The Indians being sick and expensive, Clinton dismissed them, ordering Johnson to send out parties from Schenectady, and from his own settlement, near the lower Mohawk castle, to harrass the French of Canada : arms were delivered for that purpose.
On the 5th of September, Captains Skaats and Vromen, brought the Indians of the Susquehanna to Albany. They came march- ing in single file, and saluted by firing as they passed the fort : a salute was returned of cannon. Meeting them on the 5th, the governour repeated his speech to them in form. They in reply, hint, that they have jealousy of the Iroquois , but promise, in the usual form, to join in the war .- The governour threw down a hanger, which the orator took up, and began the war-dance : others joined, and the usual ceremonies. promises, and presents, were made.
A sergeant of Captain Livingston's company, was surprised about this time, and killed by the French Indians, near Albany, and parties were sent out to scour the woods ; the Susquehannas, among the foremost, but no enemy was found. These Indians had
360
FRENCH INTRIGUES.
about sixty warriours in company, with many old men, women, and children. Many fell sick, and the governour dismissed them at their wish. A number of these, and of the Iroquois, died before they reached home. This retarded the war operations, and when Johnson pressed his Mohawks to go as war scouts, one of them answered him, " you seem to think that we are brutes, that we have no sense of the loss of our dearest relations, and some of them the bravest we had in our nation : you must allow us to go home to bewail our misfortunes."
They, however, did send out some scouting parties. The Iro- quois received a message from Crown Point, by an Indian the French had taken, and dismissed for this purpose.
He said that the governour of Canada had called together his Caugnawahgas, and complained that the Iroquois had killed some Frenchmen ; the Caugnawahgas were told to go to them, and say, if they continued hostile, he would punish them, but he sends back an Iroquois, " without eating his flesh," to show his love of their people. He further directs the Caugnawahgas, not to injure the Iro- quois, but to attack the New England men. To this the Caugna- wahgas are said to have answered, that the Iroquois would not bear to be threatened, and if he had such a message to send, he must carry it himself. To this they added, a message to the Iroquois, begging them to tell, if any plot is in agitation by New York against them; and, likewise, that Canada had 1,S00 men at Crown Point, ready to fight New York. They concluded with desiring the Iro- quois not to be angry with them for destroying Saratoga last fall, " Colonel Schuyler dared us to it," and we gratified him. The Iroquois immediately communicated this message to the governour of New York.
In the autumn, a party of Iroquois of thirty, with ten whites, fell upon a French settlement about ten leagues above Montreal, and brought off eight Frenchmen and four scalps. Another party visiting the Caugnawahgas, under pretence of making peace, were introduced to the governour of Montreal, took letters from him to persons at Crown Point, and in returning home, surprised a small French fort, killed five, and brought away one prisoner, and one scalp. The prisoner and letters they brought to the commanding officer at Albany.
In the foregoing transactions, Mr. William Johnson is a promi- nent personage ; and the reader will find him still more so, in the subsequent pages.
Governour Clinton had quarreled with his friend and adviser, Chief Justice De Lancey, among whose intimates was Colonel Philip Schuyler, the son of the celebrated Peter. Philip had suc- ceeded his father, as agent for the Iroquois. From this office Clinton removed him ; and gave it to Mr. William Johnson, who
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361
OUTRAGE AND RIOT AT BOSTON.
had emigrated from England, purchased a farm surrounded by the Mo- hawks, and with some property brought to the wilderness, was im- proving his land. He was a nephew of Commodore Warren and the governour, to chagrin De Lancey, and perhaps Schuyler, gave this important agency to Mr. Johnson. He appears to have gained the good will of the Indians, by mingling with them in a very intimate manner ; for, besides his feasting the men, he acknow- ledged some of the half breed as his children.
Cadwallader Colden's History of the Five Nations, was pub- lished in London-he being at that time one of his majesty's council for the Province of New York, and surveyor-general of the same. This, and his other publications, have made him known and honoured more than the circumstance of being Lieutenant- governour of New York. Mr. Colden says of the Iroquois :
" All the nations round them, (the Iroquois,) are and have long been tributary, paying them in wampums, or strings of beads wrought from conch-shells, the white wampum, or muscle-shells, (the purple,) and perforated so as to be strung on leather. Several of these strings united, form a belt, such as they use at their treaties. Every bead is of a known value. Two old men are sent every year to the tributary Indians to receive this tax and emblem of in- feriority."
1747* The discontent of the Americans was heightened by an outrage committed on the people of Boston, during Shirley's administration, under the orders of an English captain of a man-of- war, named Knowles.
The statute of Anne, above mentioned, seems not to have been known or thought of. With that insolence which characterizes the officers of the English army and navy in their intercourse with the provincials, Knowles, who was stationed at Nantasket, having lost men by desertion, sent his boats to Boston with a press-gang, which, landing early in the morning, swept the streets and whiarves, as well as the decks of the vessels in harbour, carrying off landsmen as
+ In this year, Robert R. Livingston, afterwards Chancellor of the State of New York, was born in the City of New York, where he graduated at King's College. in 1764. He was a student of law with William Smith, the historian of New York, in company with his cousin, William Livingston, the revolutionary Governour of New Jersey, and Whitehead Hicks, the Mayor of New York in 1775. Robert R. was a member of the Congress of 1776, from New York, and one of the committre who brought in the Declaration of Independence. This family originated in tus country, from Colonel Robert Livingston, who emigrated in 1678, and purchased the land on the Hudson River, in 16-9. They are by some supposed to derive con- sequence from certain Scotch lords of old time; but were here respected for talents exerted for the people. David Hume, a noble of God's creation, remarks on the value of praise from an " English Earl and a Knight of the Garter, and a secretary of state," that he has observed that the greatest rustics are commonly most affected with such circumstances.
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362
PROJECTED INVASION OF CANADA.
well as sailors. Such treatment is patiently borne in London ; but in America, it never was submitted to. The people of Boston, as soon as this outrage was known, repaired to the province-house, and demanded of Shirley that the English officers belonging to Knowles's squadron, then in town, and at the government-house, should be seized and held until the pressed men were returned. The officers armed themselves and resisted. Bloodshed was prevented by the intervention of some popular citizens, who assured the people of redress. They retired, bearing off in triumph a deputy-sheriff who had commanded peace in his majesty's name; with this king's officer, they were for the present satisfied, as a victim; and, putting him in the stocks, they dispersed. But when evening came, and their fellow-citizens were not restored, the storm raged with redoubled fury. The general court or assembly was in session, and the populace surrounded and assaulted the town-house, de- manding that the English officers should be held as hostages for the impressed men. Shirley in vain addressed them, and was saved probably from insult or violence, by the tidings which reached the rioters that the barge of one of the ships of war was approaching the town. They rushed to meet her ; and on her touching the wharf, she was lifted like a feather from the water, and borne to the front of the governour's house, where the blaze and crackling of the tarry timbers gave indication of the resistless fury of an insulted people.
The next morning the militia of the province were called out, but they refused to obey. The people, meantime, had seized the officers who were in town, and Shirley took refuge in the castle on an island in the harbour, from whence he wrote to Knowles, and urged the necessity of returning the impressed men. Knowles refused, unless his officers were released, and threatened to bombard the town. The assembly, after some debate, concluded to support the laws, and ordered the civil and military force to put down the riot. The militia turned out and escorted the governour from his place of refuge to his own house. A regular town meeting was held, which, while by its resolutions it expressed the utmost indigna- tion at the conduct of Knowles, condemned the lawless violence of the rioters. The next day, the quiet of the town was restored. The naval officers were liberated, and the impressed men restored to their ships and homes. Knowles departed with his squadron from the coast, after having impressed upon the colonists another lesson, subsequently to be remembered, teaching the incompati- bility of a foreign government with the rights of the people governed.
The capture of Cape Breton stimulated France to exertions against the Colonies of America, and a fleet was destined to capture New York and ravage all the sea-coast. Great Britain, meanwhile, con- templated the reduction of Canada and Nova Scotia. Her fleets were to rendezvous at Louisburg, and, with the combined forces of New England, proceed up the St. Lawrence ; while the troops of
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363
EDUCATION IN NEW YORK.
New York and New Jersey penetrated to Crown Point and Mon- treal. The colonies raised an army of 8,500 men, thus propor- tioned : New Hampshire, 500 ; Massachusetts, 3,500; Rhode Island, 300; Connecticut, 1,000 ; New York, 1,600 ; New Jersey, 500 ; Virginia, 100; Maryland, 300; and Pennsylvania, 400. But all the hopes of the colonists were disappointed. Great Britain sent no fleet or army. The summer passed, and the colonial governours determined to act without aid. Governour Clinton, of New York, with aid from New England, was to attack Crown Point, with the aid of the Iroquois. The New England men were to reduce Nova Scotia. But, tidings arrived of the arrival from France of a fleet and army, at Chebuild Bay, of 11 ships of the line, 30 transports, and 3,000 disciplined soldiers. To this force, were added 1,700 men from Canada, and more were anticipated to be raised in Nova Scotia.
The New England men armed by thousands, and raised forts to repel the enemy. They still hoped for succour from England; but they hoped in vain. But the wind and waves protected them ; the French fleet, after various disasters, returned shattered and dimin- ished to France. The government of England made no effort to protect the colonies ; but sent a force to guard Louisburg, leaving those - who had added it to the dominion of Britain to guard themselves.
Colonel Philip Schuyler, who se brother had been killed at the attack and destruction of Saratoga, demanded of the legislature that forces should be sent, and the fort rebuilt, for the safeguard of that part of the country ; and with difficulty provision was made for the defence of Oswego, the building of block-houses and other mea- sures for the protection of the frontiers, until the promises of aid from Great Britain produced the effect, mentioned above, of stren- uous exertions, with the aid of New England, for the subjugation of Canada.
About this time, the inhabitants of New York, were aroused to make some exertion for the cause of literature. It was re- solved to raise £2,250 by lottery, for the foundation of a college. New Haven commenced Yale College within six years of the time, when the purchase of the soil, on which the town stands, (then called Quinipiack) was made from the Indians. To England, or to Yale, such persons as had education above the grammar school, were sent. James De Lancey graduated at Cambridge, England ; Philip Livingston, the second proprietor of the manor, was educated at Yale. Now, 120 years from Hudson's time, the first law was passed, for founding a college. Smith says,* he does not recollect
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* The persons alluded to, were : Messrs. Peter Van Brugh Livingston, John Li- vingston, Philip Livingston, William Livingston, William Nichol, Benjamin Nichol,
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PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.
above thirteen at this time, in the province of New York, who had received the benefit of a college education.'
Shirley, who had originated the plan for taking Cape Breton, like- wise prompted the attempt upon Canada. A squadron from Eng- land was to have united with the New England force at Louis- burg, and thence proceed to Quebec ; while the army raised by New York and the southern colonies, penetrated by the old route to Montreal. The provincials waited impatiently for the promised ships, troops, and general, from home-none came-and all the expense, labour, and loss of life, sustained by the colonies, went for nothing, in the European account.
After the governour's quarrel with the Chief Justice, James De Lancey, Dr. Cadwallader Colden seems to have been Clinton's main support. De Lancey now was on the popular part : and his coadjutors were Clarkson, Jones, Van Horne, Richards, Cruger, Phillipse, Morris, and Nichols-the consequen- ces were, crimination and re-crimination, between the governour and the house of assembly.
The expedition against Canada being frustrated by England, the New England provinces wisely proposed, that New York should combine with them, in the reduction of Crown Point. Commis- sioners appointed by New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, agreed on a plan ; but the province of Massachusetts raised objec- tions, and nothing was done. New York retained S00 men 174S for the defence of her frontiers. In the month of October, definitive articles of peace were signed at Aix-la-Chapelle -Cape Breton, won by Americans, was given up by England, and this country left to help herself as she could. Great Britain, how- ever, assumed to herself the expense of keeping the Iroquois in good humour, by presents, and the governour of New York had the pleasure of strengthening the hands, and increasing the fortune of his friend, Mr. Johnson, the agent. The assembly appointed Robert Charles, as their agent in England, and he held the appoint- ment until 1770.
Hendrick Hanson, William Peartree Smith, Caleb Smith, Benjamin Woolsey, Wil- liam Smith, jun., John McEvers, and John Van Horne.
These being then in the morning of life, there was no academick but Mr. De Lancey on the bench, or in either of the three branches of the legislature ; and Mr. Smith was the only one at the bar. Commerce engrossed the attention of the principal families, and their sons were usually sent from the writing school to the counting-house, and thence to the West India islands -- a practice introduced by ' the persecuted refugees from France, who brought money, arts, and manners, and figured as the chief men in it-almost the only merchants in it, from the com- mencement of this century, until the distinction between them and others, was lost by death, and the inter-communion of their posterity, by marriage, with the children of the first Dutch stock, and the new emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland. The French church of New York contained, before their divisions, in 1724, nearly all the French merchants of the capital .- Smith's Hist. of N. Y.
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DISSENTIONS BETWEEN CLINTON AND THE ASSEMBLY. 365
1749 The subject of a permanent support bill was renewed by Clinton, backed by the power of the lords of trade, the English ministry, and the crown. The governour told the house of assembly, that he had the king's instructions to demand appro- priations for the support of government for five years ; i. e. to ren- der him independent of the people, or the representatives, for that time at least. The delegates replied, that they would never recede from the method of annual support. The governour denied their authority to act, except by royal commissions and in- structions ; alterable at the king's pleasure, and subject to his limitations. He threatened them with punishment if they mis- behaved. He told them, that the giver of authority, by which they acted, had, or could put bounds or limitations, upon their rights and privileges, and alter them at pleasure. The assembly declared the governour's conduct to be arbitrary, illegal, and a violation of their privileges .*
Here was a spirit to resist illegal power ! Here was a sense of right and courage, to resist power, equal to any thing on record. Yet these people might be said to depend for protection, from the French and Indians, upon that power which they defied. Still they shrunk not; they repelled the aggressions of both secret and open usurpation with valour and wisdom : they sustained injuries from both, but they never swerved from determined opposition to the hostilities of France, and the encroachments of England. They knew that the frontiers of the colony depended for defence on the Iroquois, now become the vicious and degraded dependants upon England, who passed through Clinton's hands their payment, in the shape of pre- sents, which he transmitted to Johnson, each retaining a share. . Clinton likewise commanded the independent companies, and threatened to withdraw those from Albany, which were placed there to secure the place. The assembly were firm, denied his assumed power, and remonstrated. The insolent tool of kingly authority, forbade Parker, the printer, to publish the remonstrances. I fear that it will be found, that New York, in 1775, did not act with as proper a spirit as the men of 1749. In 1712, Governour Hunter set up the same pretensions, and was similarly resisted.
From these subjects, I turn with pleasure to one of a very dif- ferent character. David Brainard, a man of feeble constitution, but undaunted perseverance in well doing, had seen with pity the helpless condition of some of the aborigines, and the ferocious vices of others : all oppressed by the whites, whether feeble and destitute, as on the sea-board, or rum-fed and stimulated to violence, as in the in- teriour. Brainard died in the arms of Jonathan Edwards, at North- ampton, on the 9th of October, 1747, aged thirty years. Mr. Edwards,
" See Kent, Smith, Colony Journals.
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DAVID BRAINARD.
at this time, published an account of the life of Brainard, a life devoted to the instruction of such as would listen to him, and successfully employed as pastor of a church of christian Indians, in New Jersey, a portion of New Netherland. He appears to have been a most pious and sincere christain from his youth, and to have succeeded very far in making christians of the suffering people to whom he devoted himself. Certainly he made many of them better and happier than they were. At Crossweeksung, in New Jersey, he ga- thered about him an attentive congregation-lived among them in a house, built by himself-and acquired great influence, to the evident improvement and happiness of many. If there are now no re- mains of this improvement, at least I rejoice that the subjects of it were made better. It is said, that besides his influence over the Raritans, he persuaded some of the haughty and blood thirsty Iroquois to renounce their idol-rum. But in many (indeed most) instances, even his wishes could not deceive him, and he saw those who listened to him, departing to their feasts and dances, which he calls idolatrous, and devil worshipping.
The principal success of this good man, appears to have been at Crosswicks and Cranbury. In one of his journeys to the Susque- hannah, he took six of the christian Indians with him, but he could only make the Indians listen, was annoyed by ungodly whites, and on a visit to a sick trader, found him " as ignorant as any Indian."
At Cranbury, he had a school for his flock, but his health con- tinued waning-he died-and no traces of improvement from his labours, (or even of their existence) can be found among Indians. Mr. Edwards's book was published by subscription, in 1749, and sold at Cornhill, Boston .*
Among the many causes which produced that resistance, in 1775, to which we owe so many blessings, was one which perhaps has not been sufficiently noticed by our writers. But when the cup is full, a drop more causes overflowing.
As Colonel Rickets, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was return- ing from New York, in his own boat, with his wife and family, and some friends, they unfortunately, (says the newspaper,) left the little flag flying at their mast-head ; and on coming abreast his majesty's ship, the Greyhound, then lying in the North River, a gun was fired from her; but the company, not supposing they were concerned, took no notice ; on which a second directly followed, and the shot passing through the mainsail, struck a young woman, nurse to Mr. Rickets, who had a child in her arms, in the head, and instantly
* It is remarkable that although Mr. Brainard was in New York, at times, in 1741, 1742, and 1743, his journal has no note of the Negro plot.
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OUTRAGE IN THE HARBOUR OF NEW YORK.
killed her. The boat put back, the party landed, a coroner's inquest was called, who brought in a verdict of " wilful murder." Captain Roddam, who commanded the Greyhound, was not on board at the time. The irritation of the people, at feeling that they were not only subjected to the humiliation of making a signal of servitude whenever one of their boats passed an English ship of war in their own harbour, in sight of their own houses; but that, if by accident, the signal of submission should be omitted for a mo- mentary space of time, the limits to be judged of by a haughty foreign officer, or, perchance, a brutal or drunken sailor, they were obnoxious to a violent death. Their irritation under the feelings excited by this proof of their servile subjection rose for a time to madness. But there was no redress. It was only to say, "I obeyed orders ; his majesty's flag must be respected-the death was accidental," and all must be silent.
The governour, in consequence of this murder, issued a procla- mation, with an extract from his commission, containing a proviso disabling him from all jurisdiction over any action committed on the high seas, or in any haven, river, creek, &c. by any person in actual service and pay on board his majesty's ships of war ; but, that any offender shall be proceeded against by commission, under the great seal of Great Britain, as directed by statute of Henry VIII.
This effectually screened any offender, if protected by a captain of a man-of-war, from punishment, if the offence was committed on the water.
If the abolishing this badge of servitude, was the only good achieved by the revolution, it was a gain worth all the blood shed in accomplishing it. The exaction of this signal from the boats in the harbours of our cities, was a memento of inferiority-a cause of constant irritation-and aided with other causes to produce that feeling which burst forth in a few years from this time.
The lords of trade, as may be supposed, supported the cause of the governour, who cultivated the friendship of Robert Hunter Morris, who, shortly after, went to England; and, in opposition to the views of both Colden and De Lancey, solicited, with Clinton's support, the office of lieutenant-governour of the province. This lost Mr. Clinton the support of Colden ; and Mr. Alexander took his place as the adviser of the Admiral.
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