USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 26
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summons a
Suffolk. Ul-
At the appointed day, Leisler's Convention met at the º6 June.
" Col. Doc., ill., 596, 598, 602, 003, 604, 60S, 602, C17, 641, 642, 661, 668, 671, 672; Doc. Ilist., il., 245, 246; Sylvius, xxvii., 29; ante, 539, 547.
t Col. Doc., ill., 537, 617; Wood's Long Island, 105, 106, 110; Thompson, i., 164: Smith, 1., 42, 63, 95. The towns in Suffolk county sent s " representation" to Connecticut at this time, of which Smith speaks with personal knowledge. I have endeavored to recover it, but neither Mr. Trumbull por Mr. Hoadley, of Connecticut, to whom I applied, have been able to find a copy. Compare N. Y. H. S. Coll. (156 ), 241-243.
571
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
wa xt. fort in New York. It had not, and could not have, any
proper authority. The Connecticut agents, Gold and Fitch,
16-9. in a pompous letter, offered their advice, and promised that the government at Hartford would assist Leisler and his friends, if necessary. Two of the delegates, of "a clearer discerning than the rest, perceiving that the main drift was to set up Leisler and make him commander in chief," with- drew after the first meeting. The remaining ten, Richard Denton, Teunis Roelofse, Jean de Marest, Daniel de Klercke, Johannes Vermilye, Samuel Edsall, Peter de Lanoy, Mathias 97 Junc. Cominit- Harvey, Thomas Williams, and William Lawrence, formed tre :- Con- themselves into a " Committee of Safety." Abraham Gou- verneur its clerk. verneur was chosen to be its clerk, and a record of its pro- 25 June. L isler cap- tuin of the fort. ccedings was begun. The next day the ten members of the committee signed a commission appointing Leisler to be "Captain of the Fort at New York 'till orders shall come from their Majestics, and that the said Captain Jacob Leis- ler shall have all aid and assistance, if need be and demand- ed by him, from city and county, to suppress any foreign enemy and prevent all disorders which evidently may ap- pear."
The parentage of this document is obvious. It is said to have been signed under a threat of Leisler that, "unless they had made him soo, he would have departed the place in one of his vessels, and turned privateering." Yet it served as a pretext for the fraudulent authority which Leis- ler now usurped. He cleared vessels as "Captain of the tlerity. Fort." He seized the public money and organized a com- pany of soldiers, of which he made Churcher lieutenant, and Stoll, the "Dram-man," ensign and commissary. To this band Connecticut contributed ten men; and she also sent two cannon from New Haven to strengthen the fort at New York. A new semicircular battery, for some time Half Mon, known as " Leisler's Half Moon," was soon afterward built " behind the Fort, upon the flat rock to the westward."*
Thus passed away a summer's month in tolerable quiet at New York. The city was now under a military despot- ism, " the people being overawed by the strength of the
* Col. Doc., ill., 580, 300, 5. 6-509, 604, 603, 660, 615, 617, 620, 630, 643, 614, 650; iv., 621; Dne. Ilist., ii, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 13, 230, 916 ; C. Rec, Conn., iii., 955, 467, 469; Coun. Min- utex, ix., 171, 174; Wood. 105, 103, 110; Thompson, i .. 164; Smith, i., 42, 63, 95; Miller's Map, 1605; Riker's Newtown, 117; N. Y. II. S. Coll. (1505), 293, 254.
575
JACOB LEISLER, ACTING COMMANDER.
Fort." An actual dictator, Leisler sent out his Sergeant CHAP. XI. Stoll " to disarm the papists;" and all were counted as " Pa- pists" who would not recognize the German captain. Fear -- 1689. ing that the populace " would hale the magistrates by the leggs from the Town Hall," the Mayor's Court of New York adjourned for a month. Bayard had already retired 2 July. to Albany, and his two colleagues, Phillipse and Van Cort- despotism. Leisler's landt, could do no more as royal counselors than to write 5 August. to Blathwayte, the secretary of the Plantation Committee, that "all is in a confusion." As none of the city magis- trates would administer the oaths of allegiance in the fort, Leisler was obliged to send for Gerardus Beekman, a Long Island justice, to performa that service. Word now came that Andros had escaped from his prison at Boston to Rhode ? AAugust. Island, and that Dongan had landed at New London to join him there, " with a design to sell Martin's Vineyard." This made Leisler jealous of "a bad design," and MacGregorie, who had just returned to New York, " to requite Dongan for his favors," offered to go with a guard and bring him a prisoner to the fort. Andros, however, was soon retaken, and carried back to his prison near Boston. Meanwhile four Cambridge " scholars" came with Perry, the postman, across the Brooklyn ferry, and knowing only Brockholls and Lockhart, who had served in Maine, Leisler chose to sus- pect them as " Papists." They were accordingly arrested ; 10 August. their letters were seized and examined ; the drums beat an "scholars" Boston alarm, and in a short time over four hundred of Leisler's arrested. adherents appeared " courageously in arms." Several prom- inent citizens, disaffected toward Leisler, were arrested and imprisoned without warrant; but the traveling students from Boston, being soon found to be " honest men," were re- leased, and the train-bands were dismissed. The ten incm- bers of Leisler's " Committee of Safety," under his inspira- tion, seized the opportunity to take a bold step. They sign- 16.August. ed and sealed a commission declaring that, " it being un- commis- Leisler certain whether the orders shall come from their Majesties, mander-in- sionedcom- that Captain Jacob Leisler is hereby appointed to exercise tools. chief by his and use the power and authority of a Commander in Chief of the said Province, to administer such oaths to the peo- ple. to issue out such warrants, and order such matters as shall be necessary and requisite to be done for the preser-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Caar At. vation and protection of the peace of the inhabitants, tak. ing always seasonable advice with militia and civil author- 1050. ity, as occasion shall require.""
21 August. l eisler writes to Williani.
A more impudent document it would be difficult to find in the colonial annals of North America. By ten persons, assuming to represent a few of the towns near the metroj- olis, Leisler was invested with dictatorial power over the province of New York. This appointment has been pro- nounced to be " in its form open to censure." It was much more : it was totally unjustifiable. No adequate power had given authority to Leisler's "Committee of Safety," which assumed to make him the military dictator of New York. But Leisler now wrote his own story of affairs to the king and queen, which, while stating that he had been chosen in June to be " Captain of the Fort" in the metropolis, avoid- ed any allusion to his absurd commission as "Commander in Chief" of the whole province of New York. This letter, with other papers, was sent to London by Leisler's dram- shop ensign, Stoll, whom Matthew Clarkson, a brother-in- law of the German demagogue's former colleague, Captain Lodwyck, accompanied thither.t
25 August. A few days afterward Jacob Milborne returned to Man- hattan from Holland, where he had been recently staying. Milborne had already been notorious in New York affairs, and in 1687 he had become a partner with the Catholic Brockbolls in commercial ventures, which had obliged him to go back again to Europe. Milborne's elder brother, Wil- liam, was a noisy Anabaptist minister in Boston, who had taken an active part in overthrowing the government of Andros. Milborne had an " affected, ambiguous way of ex- pressing himself," and seeing that his old friend Leisler was now at the head of affairs in New York, Milborne at once Millorne's entered cordially into his views. The English Revolution, bad advice. Milborne suggested, was a full justification of all that had been done in New York. To all objectors it was now answered, " By what law, warrant or commission, did the Prince of Orange go into England, and act as he hath done ?
* Col. Doc., ill., 506, 608-610, 613-618, 620, 679, 670, 764; iv., 213, 214; Doc. Ilist., ii., 6. 14, 15, 16, 19; Ilutch., i., 392, 393 ; Barry, i., 519 ; Bancroft, ill., 52 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll. (15%5), 225, 290.
+ Col. Doc., iii., 600-618, 629, 030 ; iv., 213, 214; Doc. Ilist., il., 16, 200; Smith, 1., 93; Chalmers's Rev. Col., i., 213; Bancroft, iii., 32; N. Y. H. S. Coll. (150S), 207, 208.
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577
JACOB LEISLER, ACTING COMMANDER.
And how do you think King William can take that amiss CHAP. XL. in us, who have only followed his example ?" Abraham Gouverneur, the youthful clerk of the Committee of Safe- 1689. ty, not to be outdone, declared that " Leisler had carried the Government of New York by the Sword, and had the same right to it as King William had to the Crown."*
If New York had then been an independent sovereignty, as England was, the comparison would have been fair. But colonial New York did not resemble sovereign England ; nor was the German captain, Jacob Leisler, the counterpart Fallacy of of the Dutch William of Orange. Orders from England, Leisler. which had been sent to, but withheld from, Andros at Bos- ton, were anxiously expected in New York; and the ab- sence of those orders gave a rare opportunity to a political mountebank, of which Heisler did not fail to take advan- tage.
Under the inspiration of Milborne-and ignorant that William had confirmed "all" colonial officials, Protestant or Catholic, in their places-Leisler now ordered the sever- September. al counties in the province to elect civil and military ofli- cers. "Some counties accordingly did, by the appearance of small numbers, turn out the Justices of the Peace, and military officers, and chose new ; a method never formerly allowed of." Most of the counties disregarded Leisler's order; and in those in which elections were held, none but his own partisans were chosen. A faction was thus repre- sented -- not the people of New York. It was indispensa- ble to Leisler's success that the metropolitan city should be under his control. Dongan's charter had appointed the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, or Michael-mas, as the time to choose its aldermer and Common Council. On that day the city wards all voted, and Leisler succeeded, 29 Sept. "right or wrong," in returning his son-in-law, Robert Wal- mas in Michael- ters, as an alderman. The charter, however, required that New York. the mayor and sheriff of the city should be annually ap- pointed by the governor and council, and the clerk by the governor, and that they were to remain in office until oth- ers should be duly appointed in their places. The Com-
* Col. MSS., XXXV., 170.190-907 : xxxVI., 29 ; Col. Doc., iii. 301, 592, 621, 674, 680, 727, 755; iv .. 621 : Doc. Hist., ii., 42 ; if., 526-500; Dunlap, i., 153; un'e, 196, note, 300, 321, 336. Mil- borne was not at this time " Leisler's son-in-law." He was not married to Mary Leisler antil 3 February, 1621 : Pass Dook, iv., 11; post, C2b, note.
II .- Oo
0
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cmar. Xl. mittee of Safety, however, ordered " all the Protestant free- holders" in the city to elect these officers. An election was 14-3. accordingly held, at which " none but about 70 or 80" per- sons voted; and Peter de la Noy was returned as mayor, election in Johannes Johnson sheriff, and Abraham Gouverneur clerk New York. --- all devoted to Leisler. If the franchise had not been re- stricted to " Protestant frecholders," this election by a very small minority might be said to have been the first choice of a mayor of the city of New York by its people. But 14 October. Leisler's farce was not a popular election. On the birth :- day of James the Second, as required by Dongan's charter, Leisler issued a proclamation confirming the persons so elected in their several offices. It was a curious inconsis- tency that he should thus have scrupulously observed that charter in regard to its two marked days-the Catholic feast of Michaelmas and the birthday of James the Sec- ond-while he violated it otherwise. But Leisler's logic was very peculiar. His object was to gain power by any means. Accordingly, he endeavored to imprison Mayor 16 October. Van Cortlandt, who was obliged to fly privately out of the city, while his wife, "the Mayoress," was insulted in her own house by Leisler's rude followers, who came to demand the municipal records and scal .*
Feeling himself secure in the metropolis, where he had strengthened Fort William with supplies of powder from Burlington and Philadelphia, Leisler burned to extend his sway over the other counties which had refused to recog- Leialer et- nize his assumed authority. Albany, the only other city in the province, and its neighborhood, had long been controlled by a few prominent persons who now held office under Don- gan's charter of 1686. Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, and his brother-in-law, Livingston, its clerk, and Wessels, its re- corder, were appointed by the governor; while its alder- men, Wendell, Bleecker, Van Schaick, and others, were elect- ed by the citizens, as in New York. Most of the Albany officers were Hollanders; Livingston, the clerk, was a Scotchman, and Pretty, the sheriff, an Englishman. They were all Protestants, and most of them were members of
* Col. Dec., ill., 620. 645, 655. 637, 671, 635, 634 ; Doc. Hist., ii., 21; Minutes of N. Y. Com- mon Council, i., 336, 244-347; Vol. Man., 1850, 201, 230, 486 ; 1538, 19, 20; Dunlap, i., 156, 157; ant:, 438, 540. Cornelius W. Lawrence was the first citizen who was elected mayor of the metropolis by its people in 1:31.
tempts Al- bany.
579
JACOB LEISLER, ACTING COMMANDER.
the Reformed Dutch Church, of which Schaats and Del- CHAP. XI. lius were the collegiate domines. None of them were at all " popishly inclined." When the news of the landing April. 1689. of the Prince of Orange reached Albany, the inhabitants, being generally Dutch, were overjoyed at the prospect of his becoming king. But Livingston, who owed much of his estate to official emoluments, dreaded the idea of a change, and, like Nicholson at New York, openly declared that the prince was at the head of "a parcell of rebells," and would " come to the same end as Monmouth did."*
Connecticut now sent Captain Jonathan Bull, of Hart- 19 May. ford, " to enquire how matters stand between them of Al- Connecti- Bull, of bany and the Indians." Bull was invited to meet the offi- cut. cers and magistrates, who were all " inquisitive for news ;" but as he did not wish to speak freely before Baxter, the commandant of the fort, who was an avowed papist, he showed his "printed papers," containing the prince's dec- larations, first to Captain Bleecker, who did not agree with Meecker Mayor Schuyler in keeping " all intelligence from the peo- ler. ple." The next day being Sunday, the news was generally 19 May. known, and Baxter went down to New York, leaving the fort in charge of the Albany city officers. Bull then visit- ed Schenectady, where the people were "much rejoiced with the news." A few days afterward he was present in 24 May. the Albany Court-house, at a conference with the Mohawks, who renewed the old covenant chain, and, on hearing the news of the revolution in England. promised "neither to speak with the French, nor hear the French speak to them." At the same time, they showed their preference for the Dutch over the English. Addressing the Albany officers, they said, "We hear a Dutch prince reigns now in En- gland ; why do you suffer the English soldiers to remain in the Fort ? Put all the English out of the town. When the Dutch held this country long ago, we lay in their houres ; but the English have always made us lie without doors." The next month the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and 27 Janes Oncidas came to Albany and renewed the "old covenant" which was first made many years ago with Jaques Eelkens, " who came with a ship into their river. Then we first be-
· Dọc. IHat., if., 23, 35, 114, 115. 116; Col. Doc., HI , 747; Mansell, li., 72, 92, 100; N. Y. H. S. Proc., 1846, 104; Dunlap, i., 164; ante, 510.
and Schuy.
olo?[ oils
£
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
XI came Brethren," they said, " and continued so 'till last fall, that Sir Edmund Andros came and made a new chain, by 16-9. calling us Children. But let us stick to the old chain, which has continued from the first time it was made, by natt" with which we became Brethren, and have ever since always be- the Irv- haved as such. Virginia, Maryland, and New England have been taken into this silver chain, with which our friendship is locked fast. We are now come to make the chain elcar and bright."*
The city of Albany.
At this time the city of Albany was not much more than a large stockaded village, of which the two chief streets crossed each other at right angles. The one, "Handelaer's Straat," or Market Street, ran nearly north and south, skirt- ing the river, proverbially apt to coverflow its banks in times of great flood. The other, running about east and west, a little way up a steep hill, was called "Yonkheer's Straat," now known as State Street. About half way up the hill stood the fort, just outside one of the city gates, of which there were six. Albany had no large foreign commerce like New York, but she was the centre of the great internal traffic of the province with the native savages: Her im- portance was only second to that of the metropolis, and her magistrates always maintained their official dignity. As soon as they received from New York a copy of the proe- lamation, they formed the citizens in a procession and marched up to the fort, where William and Mary "were proclaimed in solemn manner in English and Dutch," and the guns were joyfully fired. The ceremony was repeated at the City Hall, and " the night concluded with the ring- ing of the bell, bon fires, fire works, and all other demon- strations of joy."+
1 July.
5 Juls.
Bayard at
Albany.
A few days afterward Bayard arrived at Albany, and " found most part of the inhabitants inclined to peace and quietness, and to maintain their civil government 'till or- ders do arrive from their Majesties." Leisler had endeav- ored to gain over the people of Albany and Ulster, and threatened to bring some of their magistrates prisoners to
* Col. Doc., ilf., 550, 500, 502, 503, 509, 645, GT5; iv., 902; Colden, 1 .. 100, 101, 105, 152 : Col. Rec. Conn., Hf., 400-103; Munsell, it , 106, 107; ante, vol. i., 18, 42, 55, 67, $1, 88. 116, 152. 229-231, 243 ; vol. il., 518, 562. Colden, being an inveterate Scotchman, could never get rid of serimony when speaking of the Albany Dutch.
t Doc. Hist., ii., 5; Munsell, 11., 53, 108; iii., 39; iv., 200.
581
JACOB LEISLER, ACTING COMMANDER.
New York. But those counties disapproved of the "mu- CHAP. XI. tinous proceedings" at New York, and agreed to remain steady, and maintain their local governments pursuant to 1689. the king's proclamation of 14 February. The Albany mag- istrates declared " that they were not in any wise subordi- nate to the city of New York, nor the power then exercised therein."*
A. convention of civil and military officers was now held 1 August. at Albany, at which it was " Resolved that all public affairs Conven- Albany for the preservation of their Majesties interest in this city tion. be managed by the Mayor, Aldermen, Justices of the Peace, Commission Officers and Assistants of this city and county, until orders shall come from their most Sacred Majesties." In taking this position, Albany, under her regular officers, was surely as justifiable as was the metropolis under Leis- ler. It was also resolved that, as there was news of a war between England and France, " the gentlemen now met at this Convention do each bring a gun, with half a pound of powder, and ball equivalent, to be hung up in the Church, in the space of three days; and that the traders and other inhabitants be persuaded to do the same, to make up the number of Fifty, to be made use of upon occasion." As some of the citizens, alarmed at the rumor of a French at- tack, were preparing to leave Albany, by which " bad ex- ample of such timorous and cowardly people, others will be discouraged to stay and defend their Majesties interests in this frontier part of the Province, and forasmuch as there is no settled government for the present in this Province," the Convention ordered that no able - bodied inhabitant 7 August. should leave the county for the next three months without a pass from a justice of the peace. News of what the French and Indians had just done in Pemaquid was now published, so that all might " be upon their guard." The 21 August. Onondagas having sent an ambassador with an account of soothed. what had lately happened in Canada, the Convention ad- vised their " Brethren" not to be " imposed on by the idle es August. and nonsensical speeches of the Governor of Canada," and desired them to send to Albany some Iroquois sachems and warriors, " whose feet shall be well greased."t
Onondagas
* Col. Doc., iii., 596, 505. 509, 604, 020, CAD, TIS; Doc. Hist., ii., 59.
t Doc. Hist., ii., 11-13, 40-30; Dunlap, i., 153; Mansell, ii., 108, 102.
£
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1099.
The Ahe- naquis and New York Julians.
Sympa- thies of the Iroquois.
Millet an Quella sa- cl.ctu.
The news from New England and Canada was, indred. startling enough. Instigated by Denonville, the Abena- quis, or Onoganques, and the Panococks, or Ouragees, had surprised Dover, in New Hampshire, and afterward Pemna- quid, in Maine, whence the garrisons established by the mil- itary prudence of Andros had been withdrawn by the self- ish jealousy of Massachusetts insurgents. The New En- gland colonies were filled with apprehension, which was in- creased when they learned that the Abenaquis had tried to persuade the New York Iroquois and Schagtacooks to "take up the axe with them against all the Christians on this Con- tinent." It was the unconquerable desire of the native red American to avenge the injustice of white European in- vaders of his territory. Of this injustice New England was peculiarly guilty. New York had always treated her abo- rigines kindly. The Iroquois naturally swung toward their genial friends. By the same impulse they became the bit- ter enemies of the French Canadians, whose governor had sent some of their most stalwart warriors in chains to row with felons and long-suffering Huguenots in the galleys of Marseilles. And so they besieged. Fort Frontenac, where Denonville had treacherously seized their countrymen. Fa- ther Millet, who had been recalled from Niagara, was chap- lain of the French post. Lured outside of its walls, he was taken prisoner and carried to Oneida, where he had former- ly ministered. Saved from death by a Christian squaw, he was named Genherontatic, or " the dead who walks," and adopted as a brother by Gannasatrion, or Tareha. Soon afterward Millet was naturalized as an Oneida Iroquois, and made a sachem in place of their deceased Otasseté .*
These events were followed by the severest blow that Canada had yet felt. During the spring and summer De- nonville had remained ignorant of the purposes of the Iro- quois, as well as of those of his king. Callières was in France, and there was a general want of vigilance and sub- ordination among the Canadians. Unconscious of dan- ger, Denonville had gone, with his wife, from Quebec to Montreal. In the gray of a summer morning, after a tem-
* Ccl. Doc., ill., 610, 611, 621, 714, 724, 793 : iv., 849 ; ix., 3ST, 440, 665; Charlevoix, ii., 345, 415-419; Hutch .. i., 306; Belknap, 1., 198-206; I.a Potherie, ill., 249 ; Colden, i., 60, 101, 110. 113, 1SS: Shes's Missions, 277, 319, 325; Garneau, i., 305; Bell, i., 322 ; Williamson, 1., 500- 525; Millet's letter of 6 July, 1091, 9-42; an/2, 491, 442.
583
JACOB LEISLER, ACTING COMMANDER.
pest of hail and rain, fifteen hundred Iroquois warriors, who CHAP. XI. had quietly traversed Lake Saint Francis, suddenly landed from their canoes at Lachine, the upper end of Montreal 1689. 26 July. Island. Most of the inhabitants were asleep; the inen 5 August. The Iro- were killed at once, the women and children with greater quois rav. deliberation and cruelty. In an hour two hundred French chine. age La- colonists perished, and all the houses in Lachine were burn- ed. Montreal, only three leagues off, in consternation await- ed an attack. French parties were sent out, and defeated or captured. At length the Iroquois retired, after losing only thirteen warriors, and ravaging nearly all the island of Montreal, and killing a thousand French Canadians."
Denonville was almost stupefied by this terrible calami- ty. Most of the " praying Iroquois" at the Falls of Saint Louis and the Prairie de la Madeleine retreated to Mon- treal. The victorious warriors sent " very insolent proposi- tions" to Denonville for the demolition of Fort Frontenac, and he accordingly ordered it to be evacuated and blown Denonville up. The order was obeyed; a slow match was put in a Frontenac orders Fort mine under the bastions ; three French barks on Lake On- molished. to be de- tario were burned; and Valrennes, with his garrison, went down the rapids of the Saint Lawrence to Montreal. But the match in the mine went out, and the Iroquois soon took possession of the deserted fort, where they found a great quantity of powder and other French property worth twen- ty thousand crowns. i.
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