USA > New York > Organization of the Revolutionary movement in New York State, 1775-77 > Part 4
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1. See Becker, op. cit., p. 193 and n. 3; Sabine, op. cit., pp. 205-06; Cal. Council Min., p. 503.
2. Sabine, op, cit., pp. 212-13.
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When Tryon resumed the reins of government in June, 1775, he perceived he could do little directly to re-establish British authority. As he disclosed to the Colonial Secretary, "to attempt coercive measures by the civil aid would hold up government to additional contempt by the exposure of the weakness of the executive and civil branches .... " More- over, be added, even the legislature would not accept the parliamentary
measure for conciliation. 1 By October the governor seems to have re- linquished hope that Tory sentiment could ever again command a majority in New York, since he read and approved a letter from William Smith to General Frederick Haldimand which quite frankly outlined the political atmosphere :
There is no more Hope from Intrigue & Diversity of Sentiment, no further Dependance upon antient Prejudice and Habits. The Americans are voluntary Subjects to Congresses and Armies of their own forming, who are systematically supporting a Principle, which no man dare any longer to controvert on this Side of the Water. 2
1. Tryon to Dartmouth, 4, 7 July 1775, NYCD. VIII, 589. 593; same to same, 7 December 1775, Hist. Mes. Com. p. 402.
The fact that the governor with council concurrence refused to let the assembly meet during 1775 implies admission of the government's minority position.
2. Smith, Memoirs, V, 6 October 1775, NYPL. Smith declined a seat on the bench in December, 1775 because he considered the administration "a falling house." Ibid., 19 December 1775.
A correspondent of emigre Isaac Wilkins made the following interesting observation on political polarization: "The people of desperate fortunes, and those who are sure to swing for what they have done, are as violent Es ever, as are most of the ignorant, who are led by the others, but those of prosperity are afraid of these estates, and are coming about fast.# V. Pearse Ashfield to Wilkins, 4 November 1775, Cal. H. O. Papers, p. 482. For other comments on Tory weakness see Hugh Finlay to his brother, 29 May 1775, John DeLancey to Oliver Delancey, Jr., 3 October 1775, same to Palph Izard, 5 October 1775, ibid., pp. 366, 439, 443.
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The employment of troops to suppress the Whigs in the province received extensive consideration, but Colden warned the ministry to dispatch a large enough number "as might deter any Opposition to them." When the proposal to march troops through New York to recapture Ticon- deroga from the Allens was considered the lieutenant-governor advised Gage "the Spirit and Phrensey of the People is such that it may be questioned whether one Regt could now prudently venture thro' the
Country ." 1 Tryon's estimate of the number of soldiers necessary. to pacify the colony furnished a further clue to the state of political sympathies. He thought that more than 6,000 regulars aided by three 2
or four regiments of loyalists would have to be utilized.
Although the Whigs had taken the initiative in evolving suit- able forms to oppose the policies of the home government, the Tories had not countered effectively. In the contest for men's loyalties the Tories did not manage to set up an active organization which could
1. Colden to Gage, 31 May 1775, NYHS Coll., X, 415.
By August, 1775 both Gage and Dartmouth thought New York lost to the government as a consequence of the Tories' minority position. Gage to Dartmouth., 20 August 1775. Dartmouth to Gage, 2 August 1775, Gage Corr., I, 413-14, II, 205.
2. Tryon to Dartmouth, 7 August 1775, NYCD, VIII, 598. See also John Weatherhead to Charles Williamos, 5 July 1775, Hist. Mas. Com. p. 327. The North government ordered four regiments, ca. 2,800 men, to New York, but Gage intercepted the ships and diverted them to Boston. Vandeput to Colden, 1 June 1775, NYHS Coll. 56:299; Gage to Lord Barring- ton, 6 June 1775, Gage Corr., II, 682; Smith, Memoirs, V, 28 June 1775, NYPL. -
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Command a numerous following. When the occasion demanded it, they engaged the dissidents vigorously in several spheres of battle. They raked the Whigs heavily in the newspapers and in pamphlets; they battered them in the assembly. They obstructed the formation of local and county committees; they voted against holding a provincial convention. 2 They fought against the selection of delegates to the Continental Congress and opposed the enforcement of the Associations, Continental and Defense. They stood for the established order of
things and obedience to the law. 3 When words and ballots seemed
1. Becker, OP. cit., pp. 160-61, argues: "In defining their position the loyalists were strong; it was in giving practical effect to their views that they were weak. They never had any party organization worthy of the name, and in the nature of the case it was difficult for them to have one. Their position was essentially one of negation: they denied the authority of Congress; they denied the expedience of non-intercourse; their organization was the English government itself, and upon it they relied to do whatever was necessary. To attempt to suppress the extra-legal committees by force would involve the very illegal methods against which they protested."
2. Ibid., pp. 201-03.
3. A protest in Orange County against signing the Defense Association presents an interesting commentary on the extent to which the debate over political rights had spread through the countryside. Thirty- two recalcitrants drev up a substitute statement in which they re- affirmed their loyalty to the king, but protested their love of liberty, "disallowing texation in any wise contrary to the Charter, and shall neaver consent to texsation without being fully represented with out consent." £ See also a similar espousal of no taxation with- out representation by a district committee in Tryon County in 1774. Cal, Hist. Mas., I, 9; Frey, op. cit., p. 1.
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inadequate, the Tories did not hesitate to try suppression. 1
Reverend Samuel Seatury participated in this phase of the con-
test. In a pamphlet directed to the colonial assembly, he called upon the legislature to denounce the Continental Congress and Asso- ciation and to refuse to cooperate further with the other colonies. Majority approval of this policy, he declared, would be forthcoming from the people when the assembly delivered them from the tyranny of committees, from the fear of violence and the dread of mobs. However, he gave no hint how the assembly could accomplish these objectives, A statute forbidding committees would have entailed the use of force to suppress then. Perhaps Seabury intended this, since he pleaded with 2
the legislature to "break up this horrid combination of seditions men."
These events do not disprove, however, the contention that the Tories by the very nature of their position did not need, nor could they have an extensive party structure. The conduct of the Friends of Government in other circumstances will demonstrate whether they did endeavor to rally the people to their sido.
When the Whigs plunged into the task of obtaining local approval of the Continental Association in the first months of 1775, they stirred
1. See above, pp.22-26,38. the ship James incident in February, Dart- mouth's order of March re delegates to the Congress, the arrest of Sears in April and the actions of the Johnsons in May. Set on foot by Dr. Myles Cooper, a move began in March to ban a Whig meeting in the city, but government leaders seem to have divided on the proposal and did nothing. To the Freemen and Freeholders of .. . New York, 23 September 1775, by "The Remembrancer," Broedsides, NYPL; Sabine, op. cit., p. 211.
2. An Alarm to the Legislature of the Province of New York, pp. 83, 88, 89.
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the Tories into brisk opposition. In soze districts the adversaries drew up Loyalist Declarations, in others they signed counter-associa- - tions: The latter usually contained a pledge to assist the magistrates 1 in the execution of the law. Under the leadership of the Johnsons and Butlers, the grand jury and magistrates of the Tryon County Court of Quarter Sessions published a loyalist declaration. Shortly there- after, in early May, the Palatine District Committee denounced the 2 declaration as unrepresentative of the county. The loyalist asso- ciations marked a new phase in Tory tactics, the attempted formation of a popular bulvark.
The Tories seem to have concentrated their efforts in West- chester and Dutchess Counties, but after three months they claimed a maximum of only 600 signatures to their association in the latter county. The lack of spirited response and Whig counter-measures apparently 3
stalled the drive and the Friends of Government never revived it. A similar fate overtook the Westchester campaign. Their rebuff is all the more surprising, since the county's greatest manor-holder, Frederick Philipse, played a leading part among the Tories. On the other hand. Pierre Van Cortlandt of Cortlandt Manor aligned himself with the Whigs.
1. Becker, op. cit., pp. 170-72; Schlesinger, op. cit., p. 493; Dawson, op. cit., pp. 43-45; L. Y. G., 13 February 1775; Biv. Gaz., 16 February. 2 March, 6 April 1775.
2. Frey, Op. cit., pp. 4-5.
3. "One of the Associators of Dutchess County," Riv. Gaz., 30 March 1775. The Tories circulated their Association among all male inhabitants, pot simply the freeholders. By the 1771 census the county had 21,000 whites.
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"Ab Inhabitant" of the latter manor happily informed the public that "some lovers of Loyalty and Liberty" had "disconcerted" the loyalist Association drive there. 1
Thus the Tory Association movement lost momentum and died.
If the Tory measures to mobilize a popular base did not suc- ceed, neither did the Whigs, according to some writers, attain that 2 objective. Two key tests supply the criteria for the latter judg- ment, the elections in April, 1775 for the Provincial Convention and in May, 1775 for the First Provincial Congress. Unfortunately, the surviving fragmentary evidence of participation in the balloting renders any conclusions tentative ones. However, a re-examination of certain contests suggests that the Whig influence predominated, although the Tories have hitherto held that position in historical works.
The cases in point in the Provincial Convention elections are Dutchess and. Westchester Counties. After the election in Dutchess, the Tories attacked the Whig delegates as representatives of a minority. An anonymous correspondent set down the Tory estimate of the county's sentiment, but gave figures for only one of the eleven Dutchess precincts. He said Poughkeepsie precinct ballotted 110 to 77 against sending dele- gates; that a "great majority" in Charlotte precinct voted similarly; that in five other precincts the people "almost unanimously opposed" the Convention. These supporters of royal administration approved a
1. Becker, op. cit., p. 189 and n. 51; Dawson, op. cit., p. 47; "An In- habitant, " Cortlandt Manor, N. Y. G., 19 June 1775.
2. Becker, op. cit., pp. 187-91; Dawson, Op. cit., passim.
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"Protest" against holding a provincial convention and denied that the 6 . remaining four precincts, which had voted Whig, spoke for the county. The writer of this letter felt so confident of his case that he offered to produce proof: "If any of the Minority entertain the least Doubt that the Protest does not express the Sense of the Precincts therein mentioned, formal and ample Testimonies of its Authenticity shall be sent you." . "A Freeholder of Dutchess County" retorted that the Tories never read the Protest publicly, nor did any one of the seven precincts approve it before it appeared in print. Furthermore, this Whig "Free- holder, " maintaining that 1,200 of the 1,800 county freeholders favored the provincial convention, challenged the Friends of Government to print their list of names with precincts appended in order to prevent fraud. After a two weeks pause a Tory rejoinder appeared which de- clined further disputation on the grounds that "every Altercation that may tend to promote Divisions and Animosities ought carefully to be avoided; and ... a Coalition of Parties in the County of Dutchess will probably very soon take place, and a proper Union between its Inhabitants established .... " It is possible that the Whigs did not have enough time to organize their support throughout the county, but even so, the Tories seemed to have strength to counter only in Charlotte and Pough- keepsie. However, the news of the fighting at Lexington may have dissipated the previous indifference and deprived the Tories of much of their strength. Therefore they declined to produce proof of their 1 strength.
1. N. Y. G., 24 April, 1, 15 May 1775.
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As in Dutchess, a sharp skirmish developed in Westchester over participation in the provincial convention. When the Whigs circulated an appeal to the freeholders to meet at White Plains to select a county representation, the Tories rallied their adherents, freeholder and non- freeholder alike, to oppose them. "A White Oak," writing in Rivington's Gazetteer, pressed the Tories "to give your votes" against the convention. Led by Colonel Frederick Philipse, Assemblyman Isaac Wilkins and Reverend Samuel Seabury, some 250 gathered at White Plains on the appointed day to cast their ballots. Although the two opposing factions comprised approximately an equal number, an important difference existed between them. The Whigs seemed to be freeholders, a fact which the Tories never disputed, whereas almost fifty percent of the opposition fell into the non-freeholding class. £ Consequently, in the balloting half the Tory votes would be challenged and the Whigs would carry the day. Possibly this is the explanation of the Tory withdrawal from the meeting without voting.
The importance of the White Plains incident lies in the deter- mination of the representative character of the two parties. The evi- dence, however, is inconclusive. Since the Whigs claimed freeholds, it is possible they represented a larger section of the county popula- tion than the Tories. On the other hand, a comparison of the list of Philipsburg Manor occupants with the signers of the loyalist statement shows that Philipse tenants constituted about one-third of the group that accompanied the Colonel to White Plains. In an attempt to recoup the loss at the county courthouse, an anonymous writer, perhaps Wilkins or Seabury, alleged that two-thirds of the county disapproved the pro-
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vincial convention and promised to prove it with the publication of certain resolves then signing. Unfortunately, the Friends of Govern- ment did not fulfill this promise. 1
The chief point of interest in the First Provincial Congress election is the contention that in at least five of the counties only 2 a small minority participated in the voting. In two of these, Tryon and Dutchess, however, there are indications to the contrary. Tory influence in Tryon seems to have centered in Mohawk District, the Johnson bailiwick, but the Whigs dominated the other four districts. The key factor lay in the tardy organization of the county committee. The Palatine District Committee notified the Albany County Committee 19 May 1775 that it could not hold an election early enough to be in time for the congressional meeting. Nevertheless, the Committee as- sured Albany, a majority of the county are Whigs. Five days later thirty delegates from all districts, except Mohawk, met to form & county committee. Despite threats by the Johnsons, the Mohawk people chose four persons to represent them on the county committee. When the Johnsons threatened to imprison some of the Whig leaders, the county committee resolved to use force to free them unless the Tories abided
1. "A White Oak, " Riv. Gaz., 6 April 1775; Lewis Morris to the Printer, 11 April, Anonymous, Westchester County, 13 April, Lewis Morris to the Printer, 7 May 1775, N.Y.G., 17. April, 15 May 1775; Memorial of Samuel Seabury, Philipsburg Rent Roll, in American Loyalists, Transcripts of the Manuscript Books and Papers of the Commission of Enquiry into the Losses and Services of the American Loyalists, 41:562, 581-592, NYPL; M. K. Couzens, Index of Grantees of Lands Sold by the Commissioners of Forfeitures of the Southern District of the State of New York, passim.
2. Becker, op. cit., p. 201.
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by legal procedures. Undeterred by the Johnsons' armed tenantry, the Whigs could report by June 2 that all districts had met to sign the congressional Association and had completed the choice of full delegations to serve on the county committee. In response to the urgent letters of May 31 and June 3 from the First Congress, the com- mittee voted promptly to delegate two members to represent Tryon County in Congress. With this action Judge Robert R. Livingston 1
could advise his son, "the whigs are predominated at last in Tryon n
In Dutchess the post-election conflict over the Provincial Convention still roiled the waters when the city committee's circular, soliciting a provincial congress, reached the inhabitants in early May. The Whigs campaigned energetically to establish committees in every precinct and to have citizenry sign the Association. The Tories fought back vigorously, but the tide ran against them. In mid-June the Whigs said with assurance that "Committees either have or will be chosen in every part of Dutchess .... " Considered in the context of
this activity, the election of delegates to Congress would seem likely 2 to have aroused more than a minority of the freeholders to participate. The clash of arms in the spring of 1775 sharpened the tensions . in the colony and the subsequent deepening of hostility to the adminis- tration turned the Tories from words to guns. Shortly before Lexington and Concord, Dartmouth approved a plan to raise an armed Loyalist Asso-
1. Ibid., pp. 202-03; Frey, op. cit., pp. 9, 12-19; Judge Robert R. Livingston to Robert R. Livingston, Jr., 17 June 1775, Unpublished Corr. R. R. Livingston, no. 46.
2. Ibid .; Becker, op. cit., p. 203.
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ciation from the Highlanders of New York to oppose all illegal combi- nations and insurrections and to give the utmost aid in suppressing all such practices as were contrary to the law and to the king's au- thority. The project seems to have contemplated the settlement of Associators on a strategically located tract of land in the province, awarding to each family head taking the oath of Association 100 acres free of quitrents for five years. Although Dartmouth had commanded Colden to secrecy, Gage re-emphasized the necessity of stealth, "for the Friends of Government appear every where to be so subdued, as not to admit of its being done openly." When the Association's sponsor, Colonel Allen Maclean, reached New York, the omni-present hostility to the government sent him rushing off to Boston to confer with Gage. Apparently fearful of arousing the Whigs' anger, he dropped the Asso- ciation scheme, but made his way cautiously to Johnstown. There he arranged with Sir John Johnson to recruit Highlanders for him from among his tenantry and to dispatch them to Montreal where he intended to organize a regiment. 1
Toward the close of the year, Sir John Johnson also undertook the formation of a battalion of his own, but, he wrote to Tryon, "we must however not think of stirring till we bave & support ..... That support never came, however, even though Johnson
1. Colden to Dartmouth, 7 June 1775, Dartmouth to Colden, 5 April 1775, NYHS Coll., X, 426, 56:281; Gage to Dartmouth, 25 May, 24 July, 20 September 1775, Dartmouth to Gage, 15 April 1775, Gage Corr., 1, 401, 409-10, 414-15, II, 193, 195; Warrant to Colonel Maclean to Raise # Regiment, 3 April 1775, Oath of Association, Colden to Dartmouth. 3 July 1775, NYCD, VIII, 562-53, 564, 588; Force, op. cit., 4th Ser., III, 552.
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1
raised 500 to 600 men. Schuyler disarmed them in Jamary, 1776. If
the Tories had the numerous adherents claimed for them, Tryon and Maclean would have succeeded in founding the Loyalist Association.
The last link in the chain of evidence relating to the division of political loyalties is military service in the respective armies. There can be no more severe test of political beliefs than to call upon a people to defend them with their lives. That the Yorkers
did so is a gage of the profundity of their attachment. Determination of the numbers who served, however, is a very difficult task. Obstacles of many kinds beset the investigator, some of which are insoluble for the present. For example, the American lists of soldiers do not dis- tinguish men who enlisted as paid substitutes, deserted, then re-en- listed for someone else. Nor can we tell how many fictitious names there are in Muster rolls, nor how many who deserted at a propitious moment to join. the British.
Since available military statistics are incomplete and even conflicting, one method of evaluating them is a comparison with popa- lation figures. The Revolutionary Army drew 19,793 New Yorkers into the regiments of the line, the levies and into the privateers. Another 43.645 served in the militia and an additional 8,327 prepared for duty,
1. Sir John Johnson to Tryon, n.d., Tryon to Dartmouth, 5 January, 7 February 1776, NYCD, VIII, 651, 663.
Tryon directed his energies toward the military organization of the Queens County Tories, an act which provoked the Provincial Congress to request the Continental Congress for troops. The Tories published a Declaration, averring that they were arming for self-defense only. New Jersey troops disarmed about 600 in January. Becker, op. cit., pp. 238, 244-45; Cuerna County, 6 December 1775, Broadsides, NYPL,
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but the termination of the war spared then. The total is 51,972. Furthermore, fragmentary documents suggest that this figure is in- 1 complete, that units existed whose records have disappeared. Approxi- mately 23,500 fought for the British, of whom 15,000 were in the army
2 and navy and 8,500 in the loyalist militia. Thus the total mumber of men under arms 18 75,472. Herein lies a contradiction. The 16 to 60 age group supplied the pool from which the armies drew their recruite. According to the censuses of 1756, 1771 and 1786, this bracket comprised 23.8 percent, 25 percent and 24 percent respectively of the total white population. Therefore, if 75,472 men bore arms, using 25 percent as the age bracket percentage, the total white popula- tion must have been at least 301,888. Since the 1771 census counted
1. James A. Roberts, compiler, New York in the Revolution as Colony and State (2nd ed.), p. 15 (bereafter cited as h. Y. in Rev.). A year by year breakdown of regulars and levies furnished the Continental Army is in the Hamilton Papers, L. C., V (microfilm, Ist Series, reel 3, courtesy of Hamilton Papers, CUL).
2. Flick, Loyalism, p. 112; Claude H. Van Tyne, The Loyalists in the American Revolution, pp. 182-33. Van Tyne agrees with Flick's estimate, but an analysis of some of the sources employed by the latter raises a question as to their reliability and their interpretation. The detailed presentation is in Flick, pp. 95-112. For the most part figures of troops are drawn from general statements and commissions to recruit specific numbers. Flick used very few unit records. The difficulties to which the use of this material can lead receive illustration in the Appendix, pp, 230-34.
3. In Angust, 1776 the Provincial Con-ress ordered all white males ages 16 to 50 to enroll in the militia. Since the state was under almost incessant attack from 1776 to 1782, it is unlikely the government re- leased the able-bodied from militia duty after attaining the age of 50. Journal of the Provincial Compress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the State of New York, 1775-72, 1, 566 (hereafter cited as Jour. Prov. Cong.).
4. Greene und Harrington, op. cit., pp. 101, 102, 104; Daily Advertiser, 26 December 1786.
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only 148, 124 whites, it is highly improbable that the population could have doubled. Even if we assume that the rate of growth was the same for 1771-76 as for 1756-71, the total white population would have been only 169,148 and the military age group only 42,289. It is possible that the estimates of men in arms are erroneous and that the population increased more rapidly from 1771-76 than has been supposed. Application of the 25 percent military age bracket to a suggested total white popu- lation of 208,000 would yield a pool of 52,000 fighting men. 1
Although the Revolutionary Army compilations derive from an actual computation of names on payrolls and muster rolls, it is obvious that they are unreliable. On the other hand, the state of the evidence 2 does not permit an accurate re-evaluation,
An analysis of loyalist statistics reveals much the same situ- ation as that of the America. First, the total number of loyalists in arms from all colonies seems to be less than Flick imagined. An early computation, which had the merit of drawing upon muster rolls,
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