USA > New York > Westchester County > Tarrytown > Souvenir of the revolutionary soldiers' monument dedication, at Tarrytown, N.Y. October 19th, 1894; > Part 2
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The love of freedom is a distinguishing trait of our people, and we are grateful to-day to meet together to renew our allegiance to our Government and to express our gratitude to the heroes to whom we erect this monument, and for the liberty we enjoy. What would we give if they could be among us to tell us of their trials and ask us to share in their triumphs. But let us not think of them as dead, but
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sleeping. They fought a good fight and 'rounded their little life with sleep' in Sleepy Ilollow.
Grateful for the honor of being here to-day and honoring with our deepest affections the memories of the men who gave us indepen- dence, may their names and the deeds they wrought be never forgotten. May this monument to the memory of the officers and soldiers of the Revolution encourage the patriot and be a warning to the traitor. May it last so long as patriotism shall live in our land and until freedom and independence shall be forgotten."
President Tallmadge then formally declared the mnomunent dedi- cated, after which Mr. M.'D. Raymond, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, with a brief address as follows, committed the inon11- ment to the care and keeping of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Associa- tion :
"It is fitting that on this historie spot, on this redoubt thrown up during the Revolution, that a monument to the men of the Revolution should be erected. In its massive simplicity it well typifies the clear granite of their character and their enduring strength. In a contest greater than they knew they contended manfully for the great cause of human liberty, and helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of the Republic. The thunder of guus salutes them to-day ; the flag which they followed waves above them ; we sing the paans of victory in their , praise ; they were our heroes, and we honor them.
This Monument shall stand a silent sentinel, keeping the watch of the ages over the hallowed graves of these patriots dead-an object lesson in patriotism to those who shall come after us, a memento to them of what the men of this generation thought of the men of an hun- dred years ago, of one and another of whom, as the poet sings, it may well be said :
' Right in the van, On the red rampart's slippery swell, With heart that beat a charge, they fell. Toeward as fits a man ; But the high soul burns on to light men's feet Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet.'
To the President and Officers of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Asso- eiation : Into your hands this monument is committed in the trust that you will guard it well."
D. Ogden Bradley, as President of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Association, said in reply :
"In behalf of the officers of this Cemetery Association, I accept
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this trust. We will carefully guard the monument, hoping that it will not only aid to perpetuate the memory of the heroic men whose names are enrolled upon it, but that it will stimulate patriotismn and love of country in many generations yet to come. Tablets of stone will con- tribute their part, but the great nation itself is, and always will be, the best possible memento of those self-sacrificing Westchester County yeo- menl. It is an interesting circumstance, that the earthwork, which surrounds us and on which so many of you are now standing, was thrown up during the Revolution by these men themselves, so that they fabricated with their own hands the most distinguishing feature of the monument, which after the lapse of more than a century we are dedi- cating to their memory. These are the only fortifications still remain- ing intact, so far as we know, in this neighborhood. A large tract of . these surrounding grounds has been dedicated to public use, so that the redoubt is, fortunately, likely to be preserved in perpetuity. Our work to-day will contribute to that result."
An invocation by Chaplain Morgan terminated the exercises at the monument, after which the procession proceeded, and so took up the line of march down Broadway, past the Andre Capture Monument, during which some fine instantaneous views were taken which are reproduced in this souvenir volume, and past the reviewing stand in front of the residence of Mr. Benson Ferris, where Captain Glass of the U. S. Navy and Grand Commander John C. Shotts acted as reviewing officers, and so to Music Hall, where the literary exercises of the day took place, Hon. Noah Davis acting as President, with the following Vice-Presidents : Isaac M. Requa, Major R. E. Hopkins, J. D. Archbold, F. W. Giteau, Hon. D. O. Bradley, Andrew C. Fields, Alfred B. Hall, Rev. Amos C. Requa, Geo. B. Newton, John D. Rocke- feller, Franklin Couch, Joseph B. See, Gideon W. Davenport, Dykman Odell, Jolm T. Terry, Robert Sewell, Edwin Gould, Hon. Arthur S. Tompkins, Hon. Wm. Ryan, J. B. Tompkins, Hon. J. O. Dykman, Leonard F. Requa, Jolin I. Storm, Glode Requa, Win. N. Crane, John J. Odell, Wm. Dutcher, Hon. Jas. Irving Burns, Daniel Van Tassel, John C. Shotts, Rev. Dr. Cole, J. C. L. Hamilton, Rufus King, B. F. Tompkins, Hon. Geo. W. Robertson, Isaae Odell, William Rockefeller, Dr. R. B. Coutant, Professor Bashford Dean, Col. Wm. Cary Sanger, Hon. F. S. Tallmadge, Benson Ferris, Samuel Requa, Major J. B. Ketchum, Dr. G. W. Murdock, Rev. Dr. J. A. Todd, Rev. Dr. J. K. Allen, Rev. J. S. Spencer, Rev. N. J. Wheeler, Rev. Win. F. Compton, Rev. C. H. McAnney, Isaac B. Loovett, J. H. Vail, Gen. A. J. MeKay, Major M. H. Bright, James B Hawes.
JUDGE MILLS DELIVERING ORATION IN MUSIC HA'L.
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Address by Judge Noah Davis.
On taking the chair, Hon. Noah Davis delivered the following introductory address :
" FELLOW CITIZENS : For this great honor, I give you my cordial thanks. It is a good thing in the midst of our party strifes to turn back for a while to the struggles, sufferings and triumphs of the Revolution, out of which our liberties, our principles, and our goverment sprung.
This day is the 13th anniversary of the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis and his army to Washington and the army he commanded. That was the closing military event of the war of the Revolution. It was no merc triumph of the Sword. Great as it was in that aspect, it was far greater as the potent triumph on the battlefield,-of the Rights of Man, -- that the world had ever seen. It vindicated the Declaration of Independence and established its principles by the final arbitrament of war. Had the reverse been the result ; had Washington been compelled to surrender his sword and army into the hand of Cornwallis, what tongue or pen can paint the probable consequences of such a disaster? No! the Almighty Ruler of human events was not willing to
" Shut the gates of mercy on mankind."
His providences were the might of our triumph ; His will, the mercy of mankind. Do yon ask for proof ? Contrast for a moment with our own, the status after more than a hundred years of the still remaining Provinces of the British Crown, in the estimation of the civilized world. With territory almost boundless in extent, with incxhaustible resources of natural wealth in forest, mine, and vast expanse of fertile soil ; with ocean, lakes and navigable streams illimitable; with the armed forces and unequalled military power of the Mother Country to defend them against
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all foes; with almost unrestricted personal liberties ;- they are stinted in population, avoided by immigration-'cabined, eribbed, confined,' in the elements and trimphs of human progress.
Seemingly content they lie asleep on the breast of the mightiest, most liberal, and most excellent Sovereign of the earth.
But with our own America, independent and free in hier national life, the reverse of all these things is the truth. In every quarter of the globe her influenec is felt and recognized in all the impulses of liberty ; in all the progress of commeree ; in every national question of finance ; in the marelies of education ; the products of art ; in the inventions of genius ; in the achievements of skill and science ; in the circles of education and learning ; in the missions of Christian mercy ; in the hopefulness of emigration ; and, best of all, in the solu- tion of national controversies by the arbitration of justice and peace, instead of the sword and cannon of war.
All these things for us are the natural ontgrowth of the struggles, the sufferings of our Revolution, made possible and secure by the final triumph at Yorktown. It is often wished by patriotie hearts that it miglit be permitted to the men and women of the Revolution, wlio achieved these things for us, to revisit once more the land of their toils, sufferings and love, and see the triumphs of their courage and virtues. in the blessed happiness and progress of their elrildren.
But the next best thing, and perhaps the safest for us, is to recall their virtues-to recount their deeds and sufferings -- and to honor their memories, and profit by their examples. This we do to-day by mnon11- ment and story.
Nearly all through the Revolution, the City of New York was in possession of the British army. It was the entrepot of the armies of England, and of the forces hired to conquer us. During the whole period of the war, Westchester lay in the darkest shadow of the strug- gle. To be a Tory was dangerous, but to be a patriot was far more so. The marauders of the city plundered the country, often sparing neither friend nor foe-oftentimes no man could lie down at night with assur- ance that he would rise in the morning, or rise with the assurance of food for the day, or of sleep for another night.
Out of the darkness of seven years of such conditions gleam the lights of devoted lieroism that will be depicted to you by the speaker of the day. Hear and consider, and once and again highly resolve that Government of the people, for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the carth."
الاستك حديد
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HON. ISAAC N. MILLS.
Address by Hon. Isaac N. Mills.
NCE more amidst her busy life, the old Manor of Philips- burg pauses, to pay the meed of well earned praise and obligation to her men of the Revolution. Once more she bares her . head and bends the knce in reverent honor before their hallowed graves. Such homage is to her but nature. Her very air is sweet with the per- fume of patriot memories. Throughout our State, here and there, in sacred ehureliyard and wayside cemetery, moulder the mortal part of its Revolutionary heroes. Nowhere in all its territory are the graves of those men to be found more frequent relatively, or better preserved and known, or locally held in more tender regard, than right here in ancient Sleepy Hollow, where to-day we have unveiled in their honor the memorial shaft.
Sleepy Hollow! There is no more fitting final resting place for heroic dead. The genius of Irving, whose remains, at his own request, rest within her soil, that sweet and gentle Father of American Litera- ture, has made her name known and loved, as far and as widely as the English tongue is spoken. Rising in terraced heights from the gentler slopes and glades along the river's edge ; with the beauteous Poeantico bearing the crystal tribute of distant hills to lave her feet ; with the broad belt of the water's flashing tide stretching for miles upon miles aeross her southern and western horizon ; and with her own surface pleasingly diversified in open spaec and wooded erest or slope, now clothed with autumn's fairest charms, she presents a scene of sylvan beauty unsurpassed in all our country.
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In her immediate neighborhood, in Revolutionary days, brave deeds and deeds of great moment were performed. On that September morning in 1780, when the fate of the new born nation rode along yon- der highway in the keeping of the British spy, the straining car of the listener, standing upon her southern slope, might perhaps have caught the faint ccho of Paulding's bold challenge, which checked the spy, broke the plot of treason and saved the patriot cause in its direst crisis. Let others speculate, if they will, as to what Paulding, Williams and Van Wart might have done under different circumstances ; what in fact they did, is and ever shall be enough for the people of this old manor. Not the deeds which men might have done, but the deeds which they in fact did, make the truth of history.
Within the manorial domain, a few miles to the south, in the early part of August, 1781, Washington and Rochambeau, under the inspiration of these hills and waters, conceived the great plan, the splen= did strategy of the Virginian campaign. On July 2d of that year, Washington and his army, on their way southward to make the move- ment against New York, rested at eveningtide before the portals of her church ; and the ISth of August following, upon their return, they passed along her western border on the long march to Yorktown. Knowing, as we do, the inherent reverence of that great leader's nature, we may rest assured that holy thoughts were in his mind as he rode by' that edifice, even then sanctified by venerable age. Perchance, that morning, as he passed beneath ber shadow, he in his reverent heart craved her benediction upon his high emprisc. Asked or unasked, we love to think her choicest blessing went with him that day.
Within her sacred keeping lie representatives of every generation of civilized men and women, who have lived and died within the pro- vince or State of New York for full two hundred years. Could they but be restored to life and re-endowed with memory and speech, and would they but narrate to us the events in our country's career which they personally witnessed or heard of at the time of their happening, every chapter of American history from the English occupation of this province to the present time would be unfolded to our ears.
Upon the choicest spot of the cemetery grounds this monument has been erected :- upon the very crest, overlooking the southern slope, along whose lower reaches, thick strewn, lie those patriot graves ; and right within the protecting arin of the old redoubt, still plainly to be seen, which with its cannon, in Revolutionary times, frowned over the bridge and pass below.
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In a special sense we dedicate this monument to the memory of the seventy-six men, whose names are cut upon its sides, and even to the memory of all those "who by their valor sustained the cause of " liberty and independence on these historic fields," that is, anywhere within the old Philipse Manor. They were noble men, though plain, common folk, as indeed were the great inass of the Continentals every- where. Their character was simple, massive and rugged as, with most appropriate taste, is the monument itself. The free air of these hills taught them the rights of man far better than their manorial master learned the same in schools, camps, and legislative councils. They knew by instinet at least, that governments derive "their just powers from the "consent of the governed," and that there is no such thing as " the "divine right of kings to rule." The Declaration of Independence, with its grand statement of the right of self-government, its awful arraignment of the tyrant king, and its solen appeal to "The Supreme "Judge of the world" fell upon their cager ears and went to their respon- sive hearts as a benediction of heaven-born truth. Mueh as they respected and loved their great landlord, Frederick Philipse, knowing well, as they did, his pure personal character and upright life, yet even his vast personal influenee wasimpotent to change their views or swerve them from what they deemed to be their duty.
Some of them, many doubtless, served for considerable periods in the regular Continental line and participated in most of the noted battles of the war. Most of them, however, rendered their service as members of that famous first regiment of Westchester Militia, which was composed solely of men of this manor, and mainly from this part of it. Although the members of that regiment were not always on active duty, they were ever subject to call. The warning officer was likely to be at their doors at any hour of day or night to summon them to battle. Oftener, however, that call came to them from no human lips, but borne on the very breeze, in the faintly heard sound of distant inusketry fire, telling that the invader was up the county again. Let us recall such a scene. It is a morning in early spring, with the wind fresh from the northeast, presage of coming storm, though still the skies are bright. The militia-man has just returned to his home from long service with his regiment. He is early in his field upon one of those hills which look out up the Saw Mill River Valley. Mark his active toil. How strenuously he strives to make good, as best he may, the days which he has stolen from farin and family and given to his country. And now, after a long period of unceasing labor, though the
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day is still young, he pauses a moment, faces the north and listens. What faint echoes are these, which come to him from the far north- ward ? Is it thic baying of the hounds as they follow the fox over the hills ; or indeed, is there far nobler game to-day afoot up the valley? Note his very attitude. The implement of husbandry, the hoe or spade, slips unheeded from his grasp ; his forin straightens and then bends slightly forward ; the good right hand, with open palin slightly inward curved, is raised behind the ear; the right foot is forward flung; the left arın falls behind ; the lines of the noble face grow tense ; and the fire of battle begins to· blaze in his cyes, as with eager glance he scans the northern horizon. The sound, which the loyal wind, loving the fair manor well, now brings in increasing volume, needs no interpretation to his ears. He has heard it often and knows it well. It is the musketry fire of his good comrades to the north, and tells to him the tale that the British marauder is up the valley once more to plunder, burn and slay. It cries to his very soul, "To arms, they come, the foc, "the foe !" I trust that my eyes may yet see, crowning some one of those lofty heights, which look np that lovely valley, that identical militia-inan, in that very attitude, reproduced in heroic bronze. The posture, however, is only for an instant. He needs no second call to duty. He leaps from the field to the farmhouse, scizes the trusty musket, already charged, from the hooks over the mantle shelf, and the precious powder and ball from the closet near by ; and snatching a kiss from lips of loved wife and babes, whom he may never see again, he goes bounding away northward over hill and dale, to the chosen, natural place of rendezvous, -a little cliff, which juts out from the ridge and about whose very base winds thic valley road, down which the retir- ing foe must come. In the bushes along the verge, with his gathering comrades, he hides and waits. See, how closely they crouch to the very soil, in whose defence they are about to risk their lives. Note, with what ardent glance they search the upper bend of the road, round which the swelling turmoil above tells that the enemy must soon come. Not long have they to wait ; for soon round that upper bend the van- guard appears, stretching from wall to wall; and close behind it the struggling, surging mass of frantic cattle, that early morning stolen from patriot farms above ; and then the rear guard, with serried ranks and steady, though quickening tread, British Regulars or Delancey's famous rangers, for craven cowboy would long since have taken to the woods in abject flight. Behind, scarcely a dozen rods away, press the patriot farmers of the upper valley, sending thick and fast their avenging
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shots into the retreating lines ; and now, just as the hostile force wheels to pass round the foot of the cliff, our hero and his brave comrades, with deliberate and unerring aim, pour into its unprotected flank a wither- ing fire. This unexpected attack is too much even for far famed English valor to endure ; it tells the foe that the patriot farmers of the old manor are rising in arms on every hand; it carries dismay and panic to their very hearts ; and those of them who have not already fallen, abandon their plunder, and seek safety in headlong flight. As they scurry down the road, many a patriot musket from behind boulder, tree or wall, booms ont its resolute defiance ; and many a foeman falls. More than once the men of that inilitia regiment thus fought a minia- ture Lexington along that valley road. In one at least, not a single foe escaped death or capture, save the Tory guide, who, concealing him- self in the wayside bushes, was overlooked in the hot pursuit.
In effective service to the cause, the patriots of this manor were excelled by the men of no other section; for among their number, although not buried here, are to be included the three immortal captors of Andre. They fought bravely on many a bloody field ; and as scouts and in other irregular ways greatly aided the Continental arms. Each one of them, while at his home, was in effect an advanced picket of the American Army. Some of them, time and time again, taking their lives in their hands, assumed the part of Tories and going within the enemy's line at New York gained valuable information and faithfully communicated it to Washington or his officers. Upon several occa- sions was the patriot army or one of its outposts thus timely warned. In the actual career of more than one of them, that wonderful character, "The Spy," of Cooper's famous fiction, had its substantial prototype. Some of them, by their active and efficient services to the Continental cause, made themselves so especially obnoxious to the British authori- ties, that the latter offered money rewards for their capture; in one instance, at least, that is, in case of a single individual, as high as one hundred pounds.
Through untold toil, hardship and suffering they remained ever constant. It was of them that the English General Howe said : "I can "do notliing with this Dutch population ; I can neither buy them with "money nor conquer them with force;" words of highest eulogy, fit even to be engraved upon this monument as their final and truthful epitaph.
In may be well for us to listen to what they themselves so modestly and pathetically said of their own fidelity and sufferings.
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One hundred and fifteen years ago last January, they presented to tlie Legislature of this State their humble petition, in which they spoke of themselves in these words :
" This Petition humbly showeth :
"That your petitioners since the commencement of the present "contest have exerted ourselves to the utmost of our abilities, and by "our indefatigable efforts in the cause in which we are engaged have "hitherto kept possession of the ground, although the difficulties we "have had to surmount are perhaps without a parallel. It is well "known to several members of your honorable Houses that our landlord "in the first of these troubles, espoused our cause, but soon after sent "up a writing purporting a protest against Congresses and Committees, "which he cujoined ns, the inhabitants, to sign, or we should labor "under his displeasure; but disregarding his threats, the inhabitants "had a meeting, and concluded not to sign the paper; and not long "after we were all summoned to meet Mr. Philipse at the White "Plains, expecting by liis presence to awe his tenants into compliance, "but to his mortification found we had virtue enough (a few only "excepted) to refuse him, being not only then determined to risk all our "properties in the glorious cause of Liberty, and are still fixed in our "resolutions to persevere to the end of the contest.
"That we have been and are still greatly exposed to the ravages "of the enemy, and that during the contest they have been up among "us as far as Tarry Town four different times with considerable armies, "and that the losses sustained and the distress occasioned thereby to "the unfortunate families where they came is not to be conceived.
"That many of us have repeatedly lost all of our stock and been "plundered of wearing apparel, beds, beef, pork; and such furniture "as they could not carry off lias been wantonly stove to pieces.
"That we have several instances of the enemy burning our "houses, barns, etc., the unhappy sufferers being turned out of doors "in inclement seasons of the year, thus reducing from comfortable liv- "ing to that of indigence and distress.
"That those inhabitants who have escaped the ravages of the "enemy's armies have suffered by the Tories, and that not a single "instance occurs to us of an avowed friend to our cause, but what has "becn greatly affected.
"That several of our friends have been carried off out of tlicir "beds and hurried to the Provost at New York, and that a number of "us dare not sicep in our own houses, but are obliged to seek shelter "wliere we consider ourselves more safe."
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