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477
LEISLER'S ADMINISTRATION
1690]
And meanwhile Leisler was spending for the public good a large part of his own fortune.
These statements are corroborated by the accounts kept for Leisler's government, by the warrants he issued in coun- cil for the opening of warehouses, and by other papers show- ing that he respected property rights as far as the exigencies of the time seemed to him to permit. One of these many papers is a careful inventory taken on the king's behalf of a large number of articles, once belonging to a Jesuit missionary, which had been found in the office of the receiver of the king's revenues at Albany, Robert Livingston - articles ranging in value from a priest's surplice and a 'handsome pair of women's hose' to such things as 'two old chisels' and 'one crooked nippers.'
The revolutionary government of Massachusetts, to draw comparisons once more, likewise excited discontent by laying taxes, establishing an excise, forcing open warehouses, and pressing for the public use all sorts of goods, to such an ex- tent, say letters sent to England at the time, that the 'com- mon people' would have been glad to have Governor Andros back again.
REFERENCE NOTES
PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS : Col. Docs., III (398) ; Minutes of the Common Council, I (409) ; Papers Relating to the Adminis- tration of Lieut .- Gov. Leisler (278); Cal. Hist. MSS., English (390) ; Records of Connecticut Colony (125); Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692 (485). - LEISLER'S CORRESPONDENCE : chiefly in Col. Docs., III, and in Papers as above.
LETTER FROM BOSTON: Extracts from letters to Mr. John Usher in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
RANDOLPH TO LORDS OF TRADE: in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
NICHOLSON IN ENGLAND: ibid .; Hutchinson; Hist. of Massachusetts- Bay, I (313).
SMITH (quoted) : his Hist. of New York (420).
CLARKSON : Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
STOLL'S PETITION : in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689- 1692.
SLOUGHTER : Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
LISTS OF COUNCILLORS FOR NEW YORK: ibid.
'TANGIER' SMITH : Thompson, Hist. of Long Island, II, Appendix (291) ; The 'Tangier' Smith Records in N. Y. Genea. and Bio. Record, I (199).
PETITION OF ENGLISH MERCHANTS: in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
PETER REVERDYE TO BISHOP OF LONDON: in Col. Docs., III, and in Ecc. Records, II (167).
LEISLER TO THE KING AND TO BURNET: in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
INTERCEPTED LETTERS : ibid.
BAYARD'S PETITION TO LEISLER : in Papers Relating to . . . Leisler. ANDROS IN ENGLAND : Andros Tracts (56) ; Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692. ALBANY AFFAIRS : see Reference Notes, Chap. XXVI.
SCHENECTADY MASSACRE: Papers Relating to the Invasion of New York, 1690, in Doc. Hist., I (397) ; Tracts Relating to New York in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1869 (214) ; Colden, Hist. of the Five Indian Nations (188); M. Van Rensselaer, Memoir of the French and Indian Expedition . .. 1690 in N. Y. Hist. Soc.
478
479
REFERENCE NOTES
Proceedings, 1846 (215) ; Pearson, Hist. of the Schenectady Patent (461) ; Howell and Munsell, Hist. of the County of Schenectady, New York, 1896. - LETTERS: in Col. Docs., III. - SELYNS (quoted) : in Ecc. Records, II. - SCHUYLER TO BRADSTREET: in Andros Tracts.
LEISLER TO MARYLAND AND BARBADOES : in Papers Relating to . . Leisler.
DONGAN: O'Callaghan, Origin of Legislative Assemblies in New York (60). - DEED FOR SUSQUEHANNA LANDS: in Pennsylvania Archives, I, ed. by S. Hazard, Philadelphia, 1852.
LEISLER'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH CONNECTICUT: in Papers Relating to . . . Leisler.
DEPOSITIONS ABOUT LIVINGSTON : in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
LIVINGSTON TO NICHOLSON : in Col. Docs., III.
BOSTONIANS ABOUT LEISLER: Journal of Benjamin Bullivant and Letter of John Borland in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
LIVINGSTON'S APPEALS TO NEW ENGLAND: in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
LEISLER TO THE KING AND TO BURNET: ibid.
SHERIFF OF ULSTER TO MILBORNE: in Schoonmaker, Hist. of Kings- ton (260).
ASSEMBLY : Papers Relating to . . . Leisler; Colonial Laws of New York, I (272); O'Callaghan, Origin of Legislative Assemblies in New York.
LEISLER'S AUTOGRAPH LETTERS : in Papers Relating to . . . Leisler. INTERCOLONIAL CONVENTION : Papers Relating to . . . Leisler. - ARTICLES OF WAR : ibid., and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692. - SEWALL (quoted) : his Diary (156) and extracts therefrom in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1849. - WALLEY TO HINCKLEY : in Hinckley Papers in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 4th Series, V.
COODE TO SHREWSBURY : in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
PETITION OF MERCHANTS ETC. OF NEW YORK : in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
CLERGYMEN : Ecc. Records, II; Manual of Ref. Church (96) ; Stiles, Hist. of Brooklyn, I (293). - MODEST AND IMPARTIAL NARRATIVE (quoted) : in Col. Docs., III. - LOYALTY VINDICATED (quoted) : in Documents Relating to . . . Leisler (276).
BRADSTREET TO LEISLER : in Papers Relating to . . . Leisler.
EXPEDITION AGAINST ACADIA : Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts- Bay, I ; Parkman, Frontenac (191); histories of New England. MEMORIAL AND OTHER PAPERS INTRUSTED TO BLAGGE : in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
PALMER'S IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF NEW ENGLAND
480
THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
(quoted) : see NEW YORKERS IN BOSTON in Reference Notes, Chap. XXIV.
RANDOLPH TO LORDS OF TRADE: in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692. LEISLER'S WARRANTS AND ACCOUNTS: MSS., State Library, Albany. LIST FOUND IN LIVINGSTON'S OFFICE: in Papers Relating to . . . Leisler.
MASSACHUSETTS TAXES ETC .: Extracts from letters to John Usher in Cal. S. P. Col., 1689-1692.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FALL OF LEISLER
1690, 1691
(JACOB LEISLER, ACTING LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR)
The said Ingoldsby upon his arrival had sent . .. to demand the fort of the said Governor Leisler, showing nevertheless not the slightest order from his Majesty or the Colonel Sloughter, whereupon this was refused by the said Leisler unless they would first show him evidence of the order of the king or at least of the governor appointed. - Affidavit of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer. 1692.
ALTHOUGH Leisler had been empowered by the congress to name the commander of the allied army, the choice, Living- ston wrote to the Connecticut government, ought not to be left in his hands 'upon pretence of sending up most men.' Their soldiers would not easily be commanded by such per- sons as Leisler would nominate; it was doubtful, indeed, whether any of his 'creatures' was capable of holding such a trust. Albany and New England, whose interests were 'in- separable,' ought to manage all their own affairs without consulting New York. It was a pity that they had concerned themselves at all with those who were utterly ignorant how to deal with the Indians. Leisler ought to be made to recall Mil- borne from Albany as the savages never changed their mind about any one whom they disliked.
Late in May Leisler issued to Milborne a commission as commander-in-chief. Connecticut induced Massachusetts to support its protest. Milborne, John Allyn explained on behalf of his colony, was 'short in parentage and most gener- ous respects' whereas the 'surviving Winthrops,' on their
VOL. II. - 21 481
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[1690-
ancestors' as well as on their own account, had been and were expected to be 'beloved and famous and also successful in New England and all America'; for years Fitz-John Winthrop had commanded the militia of Connecticut; in every way he was the fittest person for the post in question; but, as the Con- necticut soldiers had a 'disgust' for Milborne, if Leisler would not appoint Winthrop then let it be some other person, 'the most considerable you have.' Leisler answered politely and consented to the change, protesting only that Allyn's 'par- ticular disgust' for Milborne was a matter of no moment, every one in New York knowing Milborne as a 'fore-seeing, prudent, and courageous person' who would have drawn the love of the soldiers. Governor Treat then gave Winthrop a com- mission as commander.
Upon pain of prosecution for breaking his trust as receiver of the king's revenue Livingston had been summoned to Albany to explain why no registers or excise books of recent date had been found among his papers. Because he refused, he wrote to Nicholson who was now installed in Virginia, his estate had been seized; 'forced to abscond ' like 'Brother Cort- landt ' and many other gentlemen, he had stayed at Hartford and had not seen his family for three months; contrary to expectation Colonel Winthrop had consented to take com- mand of the army; it was feared that 'our tyrant ' meant to make his escape as soon as he had collected the taxes laid by his 'pretended assembly,' sailing for Guinea or the South Sea on one of the vessels fitted out ostensibly to go against the French. Livingston hoped this might be prevented. Shortly before, he had complained that the people of Albany were being impoverished by feeding two hundred and twenty men whom Leisler had sent up from Manhattan without provisions. Now he implied that the men were not so numerous. If a governor did not speedily come, he said, the whole country might be lost, for
. . . all goes to confusion, all the eastern parts lost and destroyed, no ships ready to make an assault on Quebec as was proposed, no army by land; the few sorry and despicable fellows that Leisler sent
483
THE FALL OF LEISLER
1691]
up as soldiers to Albany, most of them being boys, die like rotten sheep of the bloody flux by the fishy pork that Leisler robbed of the merchants, upon pretence to press it for the king's service. . .. O brave doings when all New England must come like servants to truckle to such an usurping tyrant !
Livingston was not alone in fancying that Leisler meant to run away to escape a punishment that he knew he deserved. He was going, wrote one Thomas Newton at Boston, with a pirate whose ship he was holding in the harbor of New York. It could hardly be doubted, Fitz-John Winthrop informed his brother Wait in June, that Leisler would soon 'give the bag,' which would 'reproach the correspondence with him and occasion many inconveniences '; he wondered how those concerned in the government of the several colonies could be 'so blind and deluded with such an one'; it was 'a great dishonor and besides a mischief to the management of affairs at this juncture.' Of course Leisler had no faintest idea of absconding. Everything that he wrote shows his firm belief that everything he was doing would find favor in the eyes of the king. With perfect confidence he reported to the authori- ties in England all his acts and intentions, and as confidently gave his reasons for them. He was sure that he could not better please the governing powers than by pressing the war against Canada; and his willingness to put a New Englander in the place for which he had selected his favorite Milborne is one among the many proofs of his sincere desire to insure success. 'But to all this the Connecticut men were blinded by the impertinence of Milborne's pen and by the true and the false accusations of Livingston and of Van Cort- landt whom Governor Treat received under his own roof at Hartford.
On June 20 Leisler informed Treat that, according to the power conferred by the congress, he had sent to Albany a blank commission for 'that excellent person Major-General Winthrop.', Ten days later he wrote that his prisoner, the Chevalier D'Eau, had told him that the French and English
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[1690-
were of one mind - the whole country must belong to the one or the other; the French expected ten or twelve men-of-war; they might already have arrived; if they came it would cer- tainly be before August, and as certainly they would give the English 'much work.' 'We are ready for them,' Leisler added, 'and hope at Albany they will behave themselves like men and let not one escape.' Both he and D'Eau, he in- formed his commissioners at Albany, wished it were possible to prevent the cruelties of the Iroquois 'against the French women and children '; French ships were expected; 'the news of Colonel Sloughter is quite vanished.'
French privateers raided Block Island at this time, threat- ened the shores of Connecticut, and captured two New York vessels. All others, says one of Leisler's commissions, were afraid to 'budge.' It was even believed that a party of armed Frenchmen had been seen on Shooter's Island in New York harbor. Both the shipping and the ammunition of Connecticut had been sent away, wrote Governor Treat on July 22; if in this 'time of great need ' Leisler would sell his colony some powder and would send 'vessels of force' to expel the enemy, it would be a service to God, king, and country that should never be forgotten. Leisler had then already sent a mounted party to the east end of Long Island for news, ordered the militia of the island to be on the alert, and commissioned four vessels which soon cleared the coast of the privateers.
The journal of a certain Cuthbert Potter who made at this time an overland journey from Virginia to New England says that in July he saw most of the 'honest gentlemen' of New York, who were longing for Governor Sloughter's arrival, and that Leisler had called upon all the people to join in the common defence and they had 'responded.'
On July 14 Winthrop had started from Hartford to take command of the allied army. The troops he brought with him raised the Connecticut contingent to 200 white men and 40 Indians. Mayor Schuyler, he found, was at Saratoga trying to get more Indians and the canoes needed for crossing
485
THE FALL OF LEISLER
1691]
Lake Champlain. Everything was in confusion, he reported to Treat, 'the design against Canada poorly contrived and little prosecuted' and further embarrassed by the 'misunderstanding' between Leisler's commissioners and the 'principal inhabitants.' The designs of Connecticut and New York were different; the New Yorkers had led Connecticut ' too cunningly into an associa- tion just to serve their extremity ' and now would hardly confess that they were under obligations for its generous assistance. Moreover,
. . . your army is much disabled with sickness; the smallpox, the fever and flux is very mortal. . . . I cannot depend upon above 130 soldiers fit for service. . The disadvantage of doing with unreasonable men wholly tied up to their own interest is cruel; and such you have to do with and 'tis not worth your while to flatter yourselves otherwise. The snake never hurts more than when it lies under a secure shade. Such has been your favor to shadow the worst of vipers. ... It looks almost impossible to the soldiers; however, that no defect may be at your door I have given orders to march on the 30th instant.
Winthrop's dislike for Leisler and his reluctance to have any dealings with him accentuate the fact that he would never have engaged in the war had he really believed that it merely 'served the extremity' of New York. He had said that the interests of Albany and Connecticut were identical; and he had written his brother that one man in five in Connecticut ought to go to the front, as he himself was going, 'to save our coun- try and so our interest which else with others' is lost forever.' Moreover, the New Englanders, like the Leislerians, thought to win the approbation of the crown by a vigorous defence of its interests. They also hoped to gain control of the western fur trade. And no more than Leisler did they dare to wait for any aid that England might eventually be induced to give : their borders and coasts were too seriously threatened, reports of the advent of a French fleet seemed too credible, and the Iroquois had too plainly shown that they would resent a policy of inaction. It is easy to fancy what the Connecticut men would have called Leisler if he had said, as Livingston said,
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THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
[1690-
that Albany and New England ought to manage their own affairs without consulting him.
Under Winthrop's wing Livingston had ventured to return to Albany. The Leislerians did not trouble him, and at his house Winthrop fixed his headquarters. This was hardly a step toward concord and good feeling. Moreover, if Leisler may be believed, Winthrop lost no chance to ignore or to insult the Leislerian commissioners. On the 31st, however, Winthrop accepted his commission as issued by Lieutenant- Governor Leisler, and signed with his representatives a set of articles for the conduct of the war, very much the same as those that the congress had drawn up.
The force under his command was not nearly as large as the congress had promised, yet it could fairly be called an American army. It was drawn from only three colonies, New York, Connecticut, and Maryland; but these three represented the three groups of colonies, middle, northern, and southern, that were to achieve a common independence by the War of the Revolution. Virginia had explained, when invited to the congress, that it could do nothing until a governor should come and the assembly meet. Leisler must have lost all hope that it would do anything when he learned that its new governor was Francis Nicholson.
It may seem that even a much stronger army would have had little chance of success under leaders who hated and dis- trusted an ally as Winthrop and the Albany men hated and distrusted Leisler. But in spite of their fears and their feuds all did their best. The difficulties that conquered them are clearly described by Winthrop in his official letters and a fragmentary Journal of the Expedition to Canada.
At Albany he had expected to find 400 soldiers from Man- hattan well equipped and provided, but found only 150 besides 'the principal gentlemen, burghers, and boors vol- unteers' of Albany County who had generously offered to serve their king, 'most of them upon their own charge,' and were already assembling at Wood's Creek near the head of
487
THE FALL OF LEISLER
1691]
Lake Champlain. Here Winthrop ordered the Connecticut men to join them and the whole army to encamp. New York, it may be noted, had furnished its full contingent. It was not Manhattan, it was the province at large, that was pledged to send 400 men.
On August 4 it was decided to march forward from the upper Hudson where it was fordable. The provisions of the Connecticut men were then divided - about thirty-five cakes of bread for each soldier 'besides pork which was scarcely eat- able.' On the 5th, having no canoes, they marched on horse- back to the 'great carrying place' where they overtook the Dutch companies
. carrying their canoes and provision over this carrying place on their backs about twelve English miles, very bad and difficult pass- ing. This hardship the Dutch soldiers performed vigorously and without one repining, which made me think nothing would be diffi- cult for them to perform. Our way this day a continued swamp abounding with exceeding tall white pine fit to mast any ship; no grass for our horses.
On the 6th the horses could go no farther. Smallpox broke out, supplies ran short, and the Iroquois failed to support the enterprise they had been the first to propose. The Mohawks and Oneidas, who had promised to send 300 warriors and the needful canoes, sent only 70 warriors and not canoes enough to carry half the white men, while the more westerly nations, who had promised a thousand braves, sent none at all, giving smallpox as the excuse. It was a 'deceit so great' on the part of the Iroquois, said Winthrop, that it could not 'be interpreted by the most skilful of the burghers and those of most ancient and intimate friendship with them.' The council of war soon saw that the white men by themselves were not strong enough to enter Canada and had not food enough to wait until the fleet that was to sail from Boston might reasonably be expected in the St. Lawrence. ' The 'burghers and boors volunteers,' says Winthrop, who made 'near half the army,' and the men from Manhattan were of
488
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[1690-
the same opinion. On August 15 it was decided to return to Albany.
By the advice of the savages, although he himself does not so say, Winthrop then ordered Johannes Schuyler, a brother of the mayor, to take a band of Indians and some forty Dutch volunteers, these being the 'most acceptable' of the whites to their red allies, and to push northward to the fortified French settlement at La Prairie de Madeleine, about ten leagues beyond the end of the lake. The eagerness of the Indians as they approached their goal destroyed all hope of a successful attack upon the fort, but the raiders killed twelve or more of the people whom they found at work in the fields, took a number of prisoners, and destroyed hay crops, barns, and cattle. It was a daring raid, for La Prairie lay just opposite Montreal; and Schuyler managed it skilfully, bringing off his party with the loss of only one white man and half a dozen Indians. It was at least a partial revenge for the Schenectady massacre. But it was all that the long-considered and costly expedition accomplished. When Schuyler's party reached Albany on August 30 Winthrop was already there with the rest of the army, many of his soldiers sick and lame.
For the fatal defection of the Iroquois the white men were not to blame except in so far as their dissensions and re- criminations had weakened their influence. Each faction had tried to encourage the savages, and Leisler had sent them all the arms he had to give. Nor does any one seem to have been to blame for failing in the difficult, unaccustomed work of feeding an army on a march through a wilderness. In all the northern colonies provisions were at the moment scarce, muni- tions of war still scarcer. Leisler did all that persuasion or force could effect to send supplies of both kinds to Albany where Milborne had charge of the New York commissariat. At Albany, so the local authorities had written to Livingston, there was no meat to be had - only bread and pease. Nor could the white men make, as they thought of doing, the canoes that the savages failed to supply; at that season of the year the bark would not peel. Even Winthrop seems not
489
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1691]
to have blamed Leisler for the common calamity, but in dis- tant Virginia Nicholson thought himself competent to write to the Lords of Trade that the attack on Canada had failed because Leisler had not supplied Winthrop with canoes and provisions as he had promised.
If, however, Nicholson slandered Leisler, more loudly Leis- ler slandered Winthrop. Up to the moment of defeat, of bitter disappointment, he had shown toward his Connecticut allies a better spirit than their own. Now he lost all sense of reason and justice - whether before or after he met Jacob Milborne at Albany may be guessed but not affirmed. To Albany he hastened as soon as he heard of the return of the troops. Laying the blame of the failure upon Winthrop and the commissary of Connecticut he ordered them under arrest. The Indians understood as well as the army itself why it had retreated, and as imperatively as the Connecticut troops they demanded Winthrop's release. As a favor to the Iroquois, Leisler explained, he set the two prisoners free, requiring that Winthrop should come to New York for examination.
When the arrest was known at Hartford, Treat and his colleagues, writing to urge the prisoners' 'timely and honor- able release,' reminded Leisler that the articles for the con- duct of the campaign had promised that there should be no attempt to overrule the decisions of the commander and the council of war. Furthermore, they said,
. .. the army being confederate, if you be so concerned, so are we and the rest, and that you alone should judge upon the general's and council of war's actions will infringe our liberty, but that which is worst in event is, that such actions will render our friendly corre- spondence too weak to join in future attempts which we may have but too much occasion for, for if sending our best friends to join with you prove a pitfall for them, it will necessitate our future forbearance whatever the consequence is. And Sir, you necessitate us to tell you that a prison is not a catholicon for all State maladies, though so much used by you . .. nor could you in any one action have more disobliged all New England.
This temperate and reasonable letter Leisler answered with
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one of Milborne's most offensive productions, but not until nearly a month later when he and Milborne were again at New York. From the first, the letter said, Winthrop had be- haved in an 'unaccountable and unchristian manner '; he had discouraged the soldiers and 'peremptorily' forbidden that any should go forward except Johannes Schuyler's party of raiders who had certified that if they had been four times as numerous they could have taken Montreal itself; he had not lived up to the high character given him but, as the New Yorkers had been told to their sorrow, was 'one who lives in open adulteries in despite of your laws' and who had com- mitted other crimes 'which are the ruin of civil government without the least mark or sign of repentance.' And there had been 'more than ordinary juggling' by others than Win- throp: the Connecticut government had ordered him not to proceed without the Indians, Livingston had induced the Indians to hold aloof, and Winthrop had 'answered the plot.' Doubtless he would not keep his promise to come to New York for examination; but this was to be expected when the 'dictators' of Connecticut had heaped 'indignities and shams' upon the government of New York and 'spit in our faces within our jurisdiction.' Such actions would one day 'sadly reflect' upon a people who professed Christianity ' so eminently beyond others.' It behooved those who had not 'struck hands ' with the offenders to arise and show that they did not partake of their 'abominations.' .
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