USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 13
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The weather was intensely cold, and the snow was deep. The ex- pedition traversed the wilderness with snow-shoes. It was resolved at a council to first attack Schenectady, a stockaded village containing about eighty comfortable houses, on the bank of the Mohawk River. A few Connecticut soldiers were in it. As the expedition drew near the place they met some Indian women who directed them how to enter the vil- lage secretly by one of the two gates, which was always standing open. The villagers, unsuspicious of any danger, felt so secure that a few hours before the attack, when warned by the commander of the soldiers to be vigilant, they set up some snow images in mockery to personate sentinels.
The blow fell upon Schenectady suddenly and with frightful energy at midnight, while the inhabitants were asleep. Sixty-three persons were massacred, twenty-seven were carried into captivity, and the Dutch Church and sixty-three houses were laid in ashes. Nearly all of the little garrison were killed. A few persons escaped to Albany, travelling
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EXPEDITIONS AGAINST CANADA.
through the snow in the keen wintry air in their night-clothes. In- formed of the strength of Albany, the invaders did not attempt its cap- ture, but hastened back toward Canada with their plunder.
Governor Leisler now proposed a union of New York and New Eng- land, in an effort to conquer Canada and expel the French from the Continent. At the suggestion of Massachusetts he called a Colonial Congress, which met in New York in April-the first ever convened in Ameriea. An arrangement was made for an invasion of Canada. All the colonies were aroused to a sense of mutual danger, and the Congress resolved to invade Canada by land and sea. It was agreed that New York should provide 400 men ; Massachusetts, 160 ; Connecticut, 135, and Plymouth, 60, while Maryland promised 100, making a total land force of 857.
To stimulate Massachusetts to undertake a naval expedition against the French, Leisler fitted out three war-vessels for the capture of Quebec, commissioned to " attack Canada and take French prisoners at sea." This little squadron-the first war-ships sent out from New York -sailed late in May, with orders to stop at Cape Ann, and going on to Port Royal, Acadia, " entice the Boston fleet" to go with them. The latter, commanded by Sir William Phips, and bearing about eight hun- dred men, did go to Port Royal (May, 1690), and seized and plundered it. That place was soon afterward plundered again by English privateers from the West Indies.
Encouraged by these successes, another expedition was planned, having for its object an invasion of Canada by land and water. It was arranged for an army to march from Albany by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal, and at the same time a strong naval armament was to sail from Boston, ascend the St. Lawrence, and attaek Quebec. The army was placed under the command of General Winthrop, a son of Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, the cost of the expedition to be borne jointly by that colony and New York. The command of the fleet, which was composed of thirty-four vessels manned by two thousand New Englanders, was given to Sir William Phips, who, as we have observed, had seized and plundered Port Royal a short time before.
The army moved slowly from Albany early in July. The greater portion of the troops had only reached the head of Lake Champlain (now White Hall) early in September, where they remained for want of boats or canoes, while some white troops and Iroquois Indians, com- manded by Captain John Schuyler, pushed on toward the St. Lawrence. Old Count Frontenac was in Montreal when he was informed of the approach of the invaders. He called out his Indian allies, and taking a
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
tomahawk in his hand, the aged nobleman danced the war-dance and chanted the war-song in their presence. The excited braves were then led by him against the foe. Schuyler was compelled to withdraw, and the whole army returned to New York. The expedition was a failure, partly from a want of supplies and partly from sickness.
Phips sailed from Boston, and without pilots or charts crawled cau- tiously around Acadia and up the St. Lawrence for nine weeks. A swift Indian runner, starting from Pemaquid, carried the news of the naval expedition to Frontenac at Montreal in time to enable him to reach Quebec with re-enforcements early enough to strengthen its defences before the arrival of Phips. When the " admiral " appeared before the town and demanded its surrender, Frontenac treated the summons with contempt.# Failing in attempts to take the city, and hearing of the failure of the land expedition, Phips returned to Boston.
Leisler attributed the failure of the land expedition to Winthrop, and even charged him with treachery, and put him under arrest awhile. Winthrop charged the failure chiefly to the incompetency of Milborne, Leisler's son-in-law, who had engaged to furnish boats for transportation and all other supplies, but failed to do so in time.
The French and their barbarian allies in Canada and Acadia were greatly elated by the repulse of their assailants ; and so important was the event regarded by French statesmen, that King Louis caused a medal to be struck bearing his likeness on one side and on the other a figure seated on military trophies, symbolizing France, with the legend around it : " FRANCE VICTORIOUS IN NEW ENGLAND.". The expedition ex- hausted the treasury of Massachusetts, and compelled the Government to emit new bills of credit. The first emission was in February, 1690, and was the first paper money ever issued on the continent of America.
On the death of Governor Sloughter (June 16th, 1691) the eare of the Government devolved upon Dudley, t the chief-justice and senior
* Sir William sent a messenger with a written demand for the surrender of the city. The bearer was taken, blindfolded, before Frontenac, who, after reading the demand, angrily threw the paper in the messenger's face, and gave his answer that " Sir William Phips and those with him were heretics and traitors, and had taken up with that usurper the Prince of Orange, and had made a revolution which, if it had not been made, New England and the French had all been one ; and that no other answer was to be expected from him but what should be from the mouth of his cannon."
t Joseph Dudley was born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1647 ; died there in 1720. He repre- sented his native town in the General Court from 1673 to 1681, and was one of the Com- missioners of the United Colonies of New England. In 1682 he was agent of the colony of Massachusetts in England. James II. appointed him President of New England in 1685, and in 1687 he was commissioned Chief-Justice of the Superior Court, and the next year he was sent to England with Andros by the Bostonians, who expelled them from
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CHARACTER AND ADMINISTRATION OF FLETCHER.
member of the governor's council. He was then absent at Curaçoa. His associates filled his place temporarily with Captain Ingoldsby, who, as commander of the troops, had more real power than any one else in the province. He held the position until late the next year, when, at the close of August, Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, who had been commis- sioned Governor of New York, arrived. Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of strong passions, inconsiderable ability, aristocratic in his tendencies, opposed to all popular concessions, averse to religious toleration, and very avaricious. Fortunately for himself and the public welfare, he early became acquainted with Major Peter Schuyler, of Albany, who had almost unbounded influence over the Five Nations The governor appointed him one of his council, and his influence there was equally salutary. He so guided the conduct of the governor that he saved the magistrate from becoming intolerably obnoxious to the people, for Fletcher's incessant solicitations for money, his passionate temper, and his bigotry were continually manifested. During the whole
Brenfhtche
SIGNATURE AND SEAL OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER.
of his administration of seven years, party rancor, kindled by the death of Leisler, burned intensely, and at one time menaced the province with civil war. He adopted the views of the anti-Leislerians, and became their supple instrument.
Although the New York Assembly was filled with bitter opponents of Leisler, they, as boldly as he, asserted the supremacy of the people, and would suffer no encroachments on colonial rights and privileges. They rebuked the interference of the governor in legislation by insisting upon amendments to bills, and drew from him on one occasion the reproachful words which tell of their independence and firmness : "There never was an amendment desired by the Council Board," said Fletcher, " but
the colony. Then he was made Chief-Justice of New York (1690), where he served until 1693, when he returned to England and was made Deputy-Governor of the Isle of Wight. He was in Parliament in 1701, and from 1702 until 1715 he was Captain-General and Governor of Massachusetts. Retired to private life at Roxbury.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
what it was rejected. It is a sign of a stubborn ill-temper." With that "stubborn ill-temper" of the Assembly the governor was almost continually in conflict, and when he was recalled he seemed as glad to leave the province as the people were to get rid of him."
From the beginning of Fletcher's administration, Frontenac almost continually gave the province uneasiness by his attempts to win the Five Nations to the French interest by persuasions and threats. Failing to persuade them, he struck the Mohawks a severe blew early in 1693. Colonel Schuyler hastened from Albany with pale and dusky volunteers to the aid of the Iroquois, and drove the invaders back. He re-took about fifty captives from the French.
When Fletcher heard of this invasion, he hastened to Albany with three hundred militia volunteers. The river being free of ice, they ascended it to Albany in sloops, with a fair wind, in three days. This promptness and celerity gained great credit for the governor. The Iroquois called him " The very Swift Arrow."
The restless Frontenac continually disturbed the Five Nations and the English by menaces, until finally, in the summer of 1696, he invaded the heart of the country of the Iroquois with a large army. He had gathered at Montreal all the regulars and militia under his command and a host of Indian warriors ; and in light boats and bark canoes they ascended the St. Lawrence, entered Lake Ontario, and crossed it to the month of
* To Governor Fletcher was intrusted the large powers of commander-in-chief of the militia of Connecticut and New Jersey. Late in the autumn of 1693 he went to Hartford with Colonel Bayard and others to assert his authority there, which had been questioned. He ordered out the Connecticut militia when the season for parades had ended. The charter of the colony denied Fletcher's jurisdiction. The Assembly, then in session, promptly gave utterance to that denial on this occasion. Fletcher haughtily said to the governor : "I will not set my foot out of this colony until I have seen His Majesty's commission obeyed." The governor yielded so much as to allow Captain Wadsworth to call ont the train-bands of Hartford.
When these troops were assembled Fletcher stepped forward to take the command, and ordered Bayard to read his Excellency's commission. At that moment Wadsworth ordered the drums to be beaten.
"Silence !" angrily cried Fletcher, and Bayard began to read again.
" Drum ! drum ! I say !" shouted Wadsworth, and the voice of Bayard was drowned in the sonorous roll that followed. Fletcher, enraged, stamped his foot and cried, " Silence !" and threatened the captain with punishment. Wadsworth instantly stepped in front of the irate governor, and while his hand rested on his sword-belt, he said in a firm voice :
" If my drummers are interrupted again I'll make the sunlight show through you. We deny and defy your authority."
The governor was a coward. He meekly folded up his commission, and with his ret- inue retired to New York. He complained to the king, but nothing came of it.
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THE FRENCH INVADE THE FIVE NATIONS.
the Onondaga River at Oswego. This narrow and rapid stream they ascended (carrying the boats around the falls) to Onondaga Lake, fifty men marching on each side of the river. The Onondagas had sent away their wives and children, and had determined to defend their castle near the shore of the lake ; but when they discovered the number of the in- vaders and the nature of their weapons, they set fire to their village and fled into the deep forest. The old Connt Frontenac was carried in an elbow-chair. His only trophy was a venerable sachem about one hundred years old, who saluted him at the castle. With the count's permission the French Indians put the old man to the most exquisite tortures, which he bore with amazing fortitude and defiance.
When the invaders turned their forces toward Canada, the Onondagas pursued them, and annoyed them all the way. This expensive expedi- tion and the continual incursions of the Five Nations into the country near Montreal spread famine in Canada. Frontenac continued to send ont scalping parties until the treaty of Ryswyk, in 1697, brought com- parative peace to the contending nations. Count Frontenac died the next year.
From the beginning of his administration Fletcher made strennous efforts to introduce the Anglican Church, with its ritual, into the city and province of New York. He was very intemperate in his zeal to accom- plish his purpose, for he was a bigot. A majority of the inhabitants of the province were of Dutch descent, and were members of the Dutch Reformed Church, which they regarded as the established church in New York.
The governor succeeded in procuring from the Assembly, in 1693, an act which he construed as giving him the right to recognize the Anglican instead of the Dutch Reformed Church as the State religion. Under this act Trinity Church was organized, and its first edifice for public worship was completed in 1696." The first printing-press in the prov- ince was set up by William Bradford, a Quaker from Philadelphia, in 1693. He was afterward employed by the city government to print the corporation laws and ordinances. In 1725 Bradford began the publica-
* This church corporation still exists. The first vestrymen were : Thomas Wenham and Robert Lusting, church-wardens ; Caleb Heathcote, William Merritt, John Tudor, James Emott, William Morris, Thomas Clarke, Ebenezer Wilson, Samuel Burt, James Everts, Nathaniel Marston, Michael Howden, John Crooke, William Sharpas, Lawrence Reed, David Jamison, William Huddleston, Gabriel Ludlow, Thomas Burroughs, John Merritt, and William Janeway.
There is no drawing of the first church edifice in existence. The engraving represents the second or enlarged church, erected in 1737. It was destroyed by fire in 1776.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
tion of a newspaper in New York, the first ever issued in that province. During Fletcher's administration an organized system of piracy (its name softened to "privateering") grew up and extensively prevailed, espe- cially on the coasts of New York and the middle provinces. Some of these marauders sailed out of the port of New York, and merchant ves-
OLD TRINITY CHURCH.
sels were seized and plundered in sight of that port. The system was then encouraged by governments as a strong arm in fighting their ene- mies, and by men in high places, who, as shareholders in " privateers," found it profitable. It finally became so odious, so absolutely piratical, and so injurious to commerce, that it was resolved to break up the system.
Fletcher's direct and indirect connection with the pirates, his petty tyranny, his participation in frauds in making grants of land, and his universal unpopularity caused his recall in 1695, when Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont," an Irish peer, was appointed his successor. The
# Richard Coote was born in the county of Sligo, Ireland, in 1636, and succeeded his father as Baron of Coloony in 1683. He was among the first who espoused the cause of the Prince of Orange in 1688. On the accession of James he went to the Continent, but returned in 1688 and became a member of Parliament. He was made the treasurer of Queen Mary, and was created Earl of Bellomont. Succeeding Fletcher as Governor of New York, his conduct there made him popular. Bellomont died in New York City.
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GOVERNOR BELLOMONT AND PRIVATEERING
earl was specially charged to investigate the conduct of his predecessor, to enforce the navigation laws, and to suppress piracy. But the earl did not arrive in the province until April, 1698, when he bore the com- mission of governor not only of New York, but of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. To assist him in his arduous duties, he brought with him his kinsman, John Nanfan, as Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of New York. The British Government seemed powerless to suppress the pirates. They infested almost everysea. Before Bellomont left England a stock company was formed for the purpose of at- tempting the task. It was com- in DUKART posed of the king, Governor Bellomont, several noblemen, Rob- ert Livingston, the first "Lord of the Manor of Livingston," and others. They fitted out the galley Adventure as a " privateer," well EARL OF BELLOMONT. manned, armed, and provisioned. Livingston, who had proposed the scheme, recommended Captain William Kidd, a notable ship-master of New York (then in England), as her commander .* He was commis- Bellomout SIGNATURE OF EARL OF BELLOMONT. sioned by King William, sailed from Plymouth for New York in April, 1696, and soon did noble service in clearing American waters of pirates. Then he sailed for East- ern seas with a crew of one hun- dred and fifty-five men to measure strength with the pirates in the Indian Ocean.
* This privateering company was proposed by Robert Livingston, who offered to be " concerned with Kidd a fifth part in the ship and charges. The king approved the proj- ect, raising a tenth share to show that he was concerned in the enterprise." Lord Chan- cellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earls of Romney and Oxford, Sir Edward Harrison, and others joined in the scheme to the amount of $30,000. The management of the whole affair was left to Lord Bellomont. Kidd sailed from Plymouth for New York in his own ship in April, 1696.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Kidd was successful as a privateer, but soon became a pirate himself. At Madagascar he exchanged his ship for another, and swept the seas for booty from Farther India to the coasts of South America, respect- ing no flag or nationality. Thence he made his way homeward (1698), and ou Gardiner's Island, east of Long Island, he buried much treasure, consisting of gold, silver, and precious stones. His piracies were known in England long before the company noticed them. The belief became general that the monarch, the earl, the Lord of the Manor and their noble associates had shared the plunder with Kidd. It became neces- sary to vindicate their character. They needed a scapegoat, and Kidd was made their victim. After burying his treasures he appeared openly in Boston, for in his pocket was his king's commission, and Governor Bellomont, who was there, was his partner in business. What had he to fear? The earl, expressing a horror of Kidd's crimes, ordered his arrest, and he was brought before his associates a prisoner in irons.
Kidd sought Bellomont's favor by revealing to him the place where the treasures were hidden. It was a critical moment for the earl, for his safety lay in an attitude of immovable firmness. Ile was deaf to the prayers of the prisoner and the entreaties of his wife for mercy, human and divine, for her erring husband. There was a severe struggle in the breast of the governor between pride and fear and his better nature. The former triumphed. Kidd was sent to England in fetters to be tried on a charge of piracy and murder. He was convicted of the second-named offence, and was hanged in London, in May, 1701. So the penalty of , omission, at least, of the associate king and nobles and rich citizens was borne by the poor commoner on the scaffold. The earl secured the buried treasure, and at his coffers its history ends in impenetrable mystery.
Bellomont arrived at New York in the spring of 1698. Before he sailed for America he had learned much concerning public affairs in the province from Robert Livingston, who had been one of the bitterest foes of Leisler. Aware that the new governor had esponsed the cause of Leisler and Milborne, and always willing to favor the stronger side in public questions, Livingston now changed his political position. On his return to New York he was found to be a professedly warm friend of the new governor, as he had been of Fletcher. He had shared with the latter the profits of " privateering," and had flourished under his official favor. Now as Bellomont had attached himself to the democratic or Leislerian party, Livingston found himself opposed to his old asso- ciates, Bayard, Van Cortlandt, and others, who still held places in the council, and wielded much power. Livingston had become a patroon-
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POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PROVINCE.
the possessor of a manorial estate of many thousand acres on the eastern border of the Hudson River, south of the Van Rensselaer Manor. Active, shrewd, and intelligent, lie became one of the most useful men in the province.
The Provincial Assembly convened on the 18th of May, 1698. It comprised nineteen members. In his speech to them the governor alluded to the legacy his predecessor had left him-" a divided people ; an empty purse ; a few miserable, naked, half-starved soldiers, not half the number the king allowed pay for ; the fortifications and even the Government House very much out of repair ; the province a receptacle of pirates, and the Aets of Trade violated by the neglect and connivance of those whose duty it was to have prevented it." It was a severe commentary on the conduct of his predecessor when he added : "I will take care there shall be no misapplication of the public money ; I will pocket none of it myself, nor shall there be any embezzlement by others." Perceiving the danger to be apprehended from so small a body through undue influences, the governor recommended an increase of the number of representatives to thirty.
The Assembly was strongly anti-Leislerian in its composition. The members agreed in a hearty address of thanks to the new governor, but really in nothing else. They wrangled continually. The late elections formed a subject for angry controversy. At the beginning of June six members seceded, when the governor dissolved the Assembly, and soon afterward dismissed two of liis council who were specially obnoxious. They were all anti-Leislerians, and friends of Fletcher. *
Bellomont found the province disturbed by the continued hostile atti- tude of the French in Canada toward the Five Nations. He sent Colonel John Schuyler and Dominie Dellius (April, 1698) to Count Frontenac, at Montreal, with tidings of the treaty of peace at Ryswyk, and a request for an exchange of prisoners, "whether Christians or Indians," who had been taken in wars between the French and the Five Nations and the English. The old count, still claiming for France sovereignty over the Iroquois, refused to give up barbarian prisoners ; and Jesnit priests insisted upon keeping up missionary stations among the Iroquois in defiance of the opposition of the latter. Bellomont finally said to Frontenac : " If it is necessary I will arm every man in the provinces under my government to oppose you, and redress the injury you may perpetrate against our Indians." He added that he
* The following gentlemen composed the council : Frederick Philipse, Stephen Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, Gabriel Mienvielle, William Smith, William Nicoll, Thomas Willett, William Pinhorne, John Lawrence.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
would not suffer them to be insulted ; and he threatened to execute the laws of England upon the missionaries "if they continued longer in the Five Cantons." Another war seemed to be impending, but this certainty was averted by the death of Frontenac in the fall of 1698 .* During this controversy, Bellomont visited Albany to strengthen the Iroquois by his presence and by material aid. On his return he com- pleted the weeding out of obnoxious members of his council. Pinhorne and Brook had been dismissed from office in June, and now Bayard, Mienvielle, Willett, and Lawrence were suspended, and Philipse re -. signed. Their respective places were soon filled. Abraham de Peyster, Robert Livingston, Dr. Samuel Staats, and Robert Walters took seats at the Board. They were all Leislerians.
The anti-Leislerians perceived that they had nothing to expect from the new governor. Indeed, he did not conceal his indifference to their praise or censure. He continually opposed and exasperated their leaders. Early in the fall of 1698 he granted to the families of Leisler and Milborne the privilege of exhuming the remains of their murdered kinsmen and giving them Christian burial. They were taken from the soil near the gallows into which they had been almost as rudely thrust seven years before as if they were mere brutes. They were placed in coffins, and at the request of their political friends they were permitted to lie in state in the old City Hall, at Coenties Slip, several days. There was fearful public excitement during the time, for this act was fraught with a significance almost incomprehensible to us. It was a gauntlet of defiance cast by the democracy of the day at the feet of the aristocracy.
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