USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 34
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
hended within their original grants or charters. Massachusetts conse- quently laid claim to a strip of land equal to its own extent north and south, and extending westward to " the South Sea," or the Pacific Ocean. This included all the territory of New York between the latitude of Troy on the north and the northern part of Duchess County on the south. Connecticut made a similar claim on the same pretext. This would have included nearly all southern New York. Before con- sidering these claims, let us take a brief notice of the rights of older and more legitimate possessors and actual occupants of the soil of New York-the Six Nations.
The conditions of peace with the Six Nations were settled between them and the United States at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix (Schuyler, now Rome) in October, 1784, at which Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee represented the United States. By that treaty the western boundary of the Six Nations was fixed at the longitudinal par- allel of Buffalo. Red Jacket, afterward the great Seneca chief, then first appeared as an orator in opposition to the treaty, which deprived the Confederacy of their hunting-grounds north of the Ohio. The Six Nations were guaranteed the peaceable possession of their lands eastward of the boundary named, excepting a reservation of six miles square around Fort Oswego.
From time to time after 1785 the State and individuals procured lands from the Indians by cession or by purchase. The Tuscaroras and Oneidas first parted with some of their territories in 1785. In 1788 both the Oneidas and the Onondagas disposed of all their lands, except- ing some reservations, and in 1789 the Cayugas ceded all their lands to the State, excepting a reservation of one hundred square miles exclusive of Cayuga Lake. In each case the right of free hunting and fishing in all the counties was reserved.
The Senecas parted with most of their territory in 1797. The same year the Mohawks, most of whom fled to Canada at the close of the war, relinquished all their lands to the State for a consideration. So late as 1819 there were about five thousand of the Six Nations in the State, in possession, in eleven reservations, of two hundred and seventy-one thousand acres of land. In 1838 these lands had been disposed of, nearly all the titles extinguished, and the Indian population had removed westward, some of them beyond the Mississippi River. Such was the final act in the drama of the once powerful barbarian republic in the State of New York-the great Iroquois League. It now disappeared from the face of the earth and entered the realin of past history.
The claim of Massachusetts to a part of the territory of New York
335
DISPOSITION OF NEW YORK TERRITORY.
was amicably adjusted by a convention held at Hartford in December, 1786, when it was agreed that the Bay State should cede to New York all claims to "government, sovereignty, and jurisdiction" over about six million acres of the soil, including what is known as " Western New York." The domain extended from a line drawn north and south between Pennsylvania and Canada on the meridian of Seneca Lake to the western boundary of the territory of the Six Nations, already defined. At the same time New York ceded to Massachusetts and to her grantees and their heirs the right of pre-emption of the soil from the native Indians, and "all other estate, right, title, and property," excepting government, sovereignty, etc. The claim of Connecticut was summarily rejected .*
Massachusetts proceeded to sell the right of pre-emption of this tract. In 178S Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham bargained for the whole tract, agreeing to pay $1,000,000. Unable to fulfil the conditions, they took two million six hundred thousand acres. Between that time and 1793 the remainder of the domain was disposed of to several purchasers, t and settlements were soon afterward begnn.
After the peace (1783) Congress, considering measures for meeting the claims of public creditors, invited the several States to vest in that body power to levy duties on imports within their respective jurisdictions. All the States had acceded to this request in 1786 excepting New York. This State reserved that right to itself, and refused to make the col- lectors amenable to and removable by Congress. It also made the duties payable in the bills of credit issued by the State. At this juncture Congress asked Governor Clinton to call a special session of the Legisla- ture, for the purpose of passing a law conformable to those of other States concerning the public revenue. The governor refused compliance.
* Under this claim Connecticut made some grants to settlers within the State of New York, also in Pennsylvania and in Ohio. The Wyoming Valley was settled by Con- necticut people, so also was the region in Ohio known as the Western Reserve.
+ The following is a list of the titles of the subdivisions of the Massachusetts domain in Western New York purchased of the Indians, with the number of acres in each :
Phelps and Gorham tract, 2,600,000 ; Morris Reserve, 500,000 ; Triangular, 87,000 ; Connecticut, 100,000 ; Cragie, 50,000 ; Ogden, 50,000 ; Cottinger, 50,000 ; Forty Thousand Acre, 40,000 ; Sterritt, 150,000 ; Church, 100,000 ; Morris's Honorary Creditors, 58,570 ; Holland Company's Purchase, 3,600,000 ; Boston Ten Towns, 230.400. Before the close of the last century a larger portion of the soil of Northern New York was in the posses- sion of land speculators. Among them Alexander Macomb, father of General Macomb, was the most extensive holder, in Franklin, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, and Herkimer counties. He purchased over two million five hundred thousand acres for eighteen cents an acre, on a long credit, without interest. This reckless squandering of the public domains by the commissioners of the Land Office was severely condemned.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
This independent action of New York made the inherent weakness of the Articles of Confederation, as a form of national government, very conspicuous. New York had already taken official action, for the pur- pose of giving to Congress more power for the collecting of revenue than had yet been proposed .*
Washington had observed with great anxiety the tendency toward ruin of the new government, and he now proposed a convention of represen- tatives of the States to consider amendments of the Articles .. A conven- tion was called at Annapolis in September, 1786. Only five States responded. New York was one of them, and was represented by Alex- ander Hamilton. Nothing was done except to recommend the assem- bling of another convention at Philadelphia in May the next year. It was done. All the States but New Hampshire and Rhode Island were represented. Robert Yates, John Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Ham- ilton represented New York. Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was chosen president of the convention. He was ably supported by eminent statesmen from the several commonwealths. The convention was in session from May until September, 1787. It framed a new Con- stitution-the one (with some amendments) under which the Republic has ever since been governed. Copies of the instrument were sent to the Legislatures of the several States, to be submitted by them to conven- tions of delegates chosen by the people for approval or disapproval.
Now came the tug of war. Differences of opinion concerning the new
* " It is the glory of New York," says Bancroft, " that its Legislature was the first to impart the sanction of a State to the great conception of a Federal Convention to frame a constitution for the United States." The chief instrument in bringing about such action by the Legislature of New York was the then foremost character in the State, General Philip Schuyler, assisted by his son-in-law, Colonel Alexander Hamilton. From the very beginning of the discussion of plans for a national government Schuyler had deprecated the essential weakness of the proposed Articles of Confederation, and urged, on all occa- sions, the absolute necessity of a strong general government. At length the Continental Congress, in May, 1782, considering the desperate condition of the finances of the country, appointed delegates to explain the common danger to the authorities of all the States. Governor Clinton called an extra session of the State of New York to receive the delega- tion which had been sent North. They met at Poughkeepsie in July. Hamilton repaired thither and held consultations with the members of the Legislature, especially with his father-in-law. On motion of Schuyler the Legislature resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the State of the Nation. They adopted a series of resolutions, drafted, it is believed, by Hamilton, declaring the necessity for a stronger national government, that should have power to provide itself with a sufficient revenue for the public use. The Legislature incited Congress, for the common welfare, "to recommend and each State to adopt the measure of assembling a general convention of the States specially authorized to revise and amend the Confederation, reserving the right of the respective Legislatures to ratify their determinations."
337
POLITICAL PARTIES IN NEW YORK.
Constitution everywhere prevailed. Radical differences in sentiment had been eonspicuous in the convention that framed it. The adherents, respectively, of the idea of a strong eentral government and of State supremacy were apparently irreconeilably antagonistic.
Two of the New York delegates-Yates and Lansing-were decidedly favorable to the doctrine of State supremacy, while Hamilton" as strongly advocated the plan of a powerful Federal Government wielding supreme authority. Ham- ilton's opinions prevailed in the convention. Yates and Lansing were so dissatisfied with the evi- dent sentiment of the convention that they withdrew, leaving Ham- ilton the sole representative of New York in the convention.
This was the birth-time of the stalwart twins --- the first two op- posing political parties in the United States-the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. These parties were of a more pronouneed and violent type in New York ALEXANDER HAMILTON. AFTER CARRACI. than elsewhere. Hamilton was the acknowledged leader of the Federalists, and Governor George Clin- ton of the Anti-Federalists.
On January 17th, 1788, Egbert Benson + offered in the Legislature of
* Alexander Hamilton was born at Nevis, West Indies, January 11th, 1757. He was of Scotch descent. Educated at King's (now Columbia) College, New York, he engaged in the political controversy preceding the Revolution ; became a captain of artillery in March, 1776 ; a member of Washington's military family in the spring of 1777, and served as his secretary and trusted confidant until 1781. He was of essential service to Washington. Hamilton married a daughter of General Philip Schuyler late in 1780. He was colonel of a regiment of New York troops at the siege of Yorktown, soon after which he left the army, studied law, and soon became eminent in his profession. He served as a member of Congress and of the New York Legislature ; was a member of the convention that framed the National Constitution, and was one of its chief advocates through the press. Washington appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, which post he resigned in 1795. When in 1798 war with France seemed probable, he was made second to Washington in command of the armies of the United States. On July 12th, 1804, Hamilton died of wounds received in a duel with Aaron Burr.
+ Egbert Benson was one of the most active and useful men in New York at this time.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
New York a resolution providing for a State convention of representa- tives chosen by the people to consider the new National Constitution. This resolution elieited inneh and warm debate, but was finally adopted by both branches of the Legislature.
From the moment when the new Constitution was published in New York spirited and sometimes violent contests between the advocates and opposers of the instrument occurred at publie gatherings and in the publie prints. Acrimonious publications appeared in newspapers and in pamphlets during the eanvass and the sittings of the convention. On the one hand it was urged by the opponents of the proposed Constitution that by its adoption a fatal blow would be struck at the so-called " inde- pendent sovereignty" of the States, by the gradual absorption of the principal functions of government by the central power ; that the wealth and immense resources of New York especially, instead of being devoted to the development of its vast territory and possibilities, would be largely given to the accumulation of the wealth and power of the National Government, and that its politieal influence would be greatly diminished. It was argued that the inevitable tendency of such a state of things would be the establishment of a virtually monarchical government.
To these arguments the advocates of the Constitution replied, pointing to the provisions of the instrument itself, that the distribution of the powers of the proposed new government was so earefully arranged that, so far from enabling it to treneh upon the jurisdiction of the States, it was itself liable to constant and serious eneroachments on their part, and that the existing Confederacy-a mere league of independent States, held together only by the common interests of all its members and sub- jeet to disintegration at the pleasure of any-was wholly inadequate to the purpose of a national government. It was at this period that the able essays in favor of the Constitution, written by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, known collectively as The Federalist, were published and scattered widely over the Union with powerful effeet.
The sole question which seemed to govern the electors of New York in their choice of delegates to their convention seems to have been whether the candidates were for or against the adoption of the Constitution.
He was born in New York City in 1746 ; died at Jamaica, L. I., in 1833. He was a most efficient member of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety, and was a distinguished jurist, holding a high rank in jurisprudence. He was the first attorney-general of the State of New York, and member of the first State Legislature ; a delegate to the old Congress in 1784-88 ; a member of Congress, 1789-83 and 1813-15 : and judge of the Supreme Court of New York 1794-1801. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard and Dartmouth colleges, and was the first president of the New York Historical Society. He wrote a " Vindieation of Major André."
339
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AT POUGHKEEPSIE.
The members of the convention chosen in the several counties assembled at the court-house in Poughkeepsie on June 17th, 1788, and was organized by the choice of Governor Clinton for its president, John Mckesson and Abraham B. Bancker, secretaries, and Nicholas Power, printer to the convention. The convention was composed of sixty-one dele- gates," a clear majority of whom were opposed to the new Constitution.
The discussion of the sev- cral articles of the Consti- tution began on June 19th Chinolos Power. and continued three weeks, during which time several SIGNATURE OF NICHOLAS POWER. amendments were proposed and adopted. On July 11th John Jay moved that " the Constitution be ratified, and that whatever amendments might be deemed expedient should be recommended."
This motion called out the most vigorous opposition from the Anti- Federalists, and the majority of the convention urged the calling of a new national convention, for the purpose of making additional amendments specified by them. They proposed to amend Jay's motion so that it should read, " that the Constitution be ratified on the condition that certain specified amendments should be made. " An able and prolonged discus-
# The following are the names of the delegates chosen by the people of the several counties :
City and County of New York .- John Jay, Richard Morris, Jolin Sloss Hobart, Alex- ander Hamilton, Robert R. Livingston, Isaac Roosevelt, James Dnane, Richard Harrison, Nicholas Low.
City and County of Albany .- Robert Yates, Jolin Lansing, Jr., Henry Oothout, Peter Vroman, Israel Thompson, Anthony Ten Eyck, Dirck Swart.
County of Suffolk .- Henry Scudder, Jonathan N. Havens, John Smith, Thomas Tread- well, David Hedges.
County of Ulster .- George Clinton, John Cantine, Cornelius C. Schoonmaker, Ebenezer Clark, James Clinton, Dirck Wynkoop.
County of Queens .- Samuel Jones, John Schenck, Nathaniel Lawrence, Stephen Carman. County of Kings .- Peter Lefferts, Peter Vandervoort.
County of Richmond .- Abraham Bancker, Gosen Ryerss.
County of Westchester .- Lewis Morris, Philip Livingston, Richard Hatfield, Philip van Cortlandt, Thaddeus Crane, Lott W. Sarles.
County of Orange .- John Haring, Jesse Woodhull, Henry Wisner, John Wood.
County of Duchess .- Zephaniah Platt, Melancthon Smith, Jacobus Swartwout, Jonathan Akin, Ezra Thompson, Gilbert Livingston, John De Witt.
County of Montgomery .- William Harper, Christopher P. Yates, John Frey, John Winn, Volkert Veeder, Henry Staring.
Counties of Washington and Clinton .- Ichabod Parker, John Williams, Albert Baker. I copied the above names from the original printed Journal of the Convention, in my possession. It was printed by Nicholas Power, in quarto form.
340
Modenesday 10 oblock A. M. July 16 " Meses
The Convention Met pursuant to adjournment_ Mr. Hobart made a motion for the Convention to adopt the following Resolution biz. Wherea was since the time of electing the Delegates Ve. 157
The said resolution being read Debates arose there
and after some time spent thereou
there of
Ordered that the farther Consideration of
be postponed until Tomorro
FAC-SIMILE OF A PART OF THE MS. JOURNAL OF THE CONVENTION.
THE EMPIRE STATE.
341
NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.
sion ensued, but before any vote was taken news reached Poughkeepsie that the convention of New Hampshire had ratified the Constitution.
This settled the question. The people of the requisite number of States had now spoken in the affirmative. The question for the people of New York now to decide was not whether they preferred the new Constitution to the Articles of Confederation, but whether they would secede from the Union. The Anti-Federalists decided wisely and patriotically. The Federalists proposed a compromise between Jay's proposition and that of their opponents. The latter, not without hesita- tion and reluctance, yielded their assent to the following resolution :
"Resolved, That the Constitution be ratified, in full confidence that the amendments proposed by this convention will be adopted."
A most remarkable speech of three hours by Alexander Hamilton and a patriotic one by Gilbert Livingston, of Duchess, effected the happy result. There were fifty-seven members present and voted, thirty of them for the ratification of the Constitution and twenty-seven against it -- a majority of three. This decision was taken on July 28th, and on that day the convention finally adjourned. On September 13th Gov- ernor Clinton officially proclaimed the National Constitution as the funda- mental law of the Republic.
At a special session. of the Legislature of New York, begun in the eity of New York on December 8th (1788), they chose delegates to represent the State in the concluding session of the Continental Congress. They also appointed presidential eleetors and provided for the election, by the people, of six members of Congress. Under this provision Egbert Benson, William Floyd, John Hathorn, Jeremiah van Rensselaer, and Peter Sylvester were elected the first representatives of New York to seats in the National Congress under the new Constitution. The two Houses of the Legislature could not agree upon a method of choosing United States Senators, and none were appointed at that session. The State remained unrepresented in the National Senate during the first session of the first Congress. Finally the Legislature, convened in special session, by joint resolution passed on July 19th, appointed General Philip Schuyler and Rufus King" Senators. The latter gentle- man had only recently become a citizen of the State of New York.
* Rufus King was born at Scarborough, Me., in March, 1755, and died at Jamaica, L. I., in April, 1827. He was a graduate of Harvard ; became a lawyer ; married the daughter of John Alsop, a rich merchant of New York. and ever afterward made that city his home. Mr. King, like Schuyler, was a leading Federalist. From 1798 to 1804 he was United States minister at the court of Great Britain. He was again in the Senate, for the third time, in 1818. Always an anti-slavery man, he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the admission of Missouri as a slave-labor State. He again went to England as American minister in 1825, but soon returned in feeble health.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
So soon as the questions concerning territory, boundaries, ownership, and government, which had occupied the minds of the people of New York, were settled and adjusted, the virgin soil and topography of the State attracted the attention of enterprising people, and settlements began to carry light and civilization into the dark wilderness.
New political divisions were rapidly organized. In 1770 Albany County embraced all of New York northward of Ulster County and west of the Hudson River, also all north of Duchess County and eastward of that river. In 1772 Charlotte and Tryon counties were taken from Albany. The name of the former was changed in 1784 to Washington, and that of the latter to Montgomery. A part of Charlotte was included in the counties of Cumberland and Gloucester in forming the State of Vermont.
Tryon County included all the province west of a longitudinal line running nearly through the middle of Schoharie County. In 1789 Ontario County was taken from Montgomery County, and included all the land of which pre-emptive right had been ceded to the State of Massachusetts.
No State in the Union presented so wide a range for enterprise and exertion as New York after the war, especially in the industries of agriculture and commerce. The borders of its great river were then settled with wealthy, industrious, and thriving people. Campaigns . against the Indians, especially that of Sullivan in 1779, had revealed to soldiers of the latter, who were largely New Englanders, the richness of the soil of the interior, and they gave glowing accounts to their friends of the beauty and fertility of the land they had traversed. The purchase of great tracts of land for speculative purposes, already. mentioned, followed, and set in motion emigration from the east into that region.
The first emigrant from New England was Hugh White, of Middle- town, Conn., with his own family and those of four of his neighbors. They seated themselves, at the beginning of 1784, about four miles west of (present) Utica. This settlement was the first rose that blossomed in the wilderness of Central and Western New York. The now beautiful and thriving borough of Whitestown is of itself a grand monument to the memory of its founder, who died there, in 1812, at the age of eighty
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EMIGRATION TO CENTRAL NEW YORK.
years. Before 1790 scores of families flocked into that region, largely from New England, and thenceforth emigrant wagons with families, implements of labor on farms and for domestic purposes were continually carrying forward population farther and farther into the wilderness of Western New York.
In 1788 Mr. Phelps, one of the purchasers of the six million acres tract, penetrated to the country of the Genesee. Hle and some friends went up the Mohawk in boats from Schenectady as far as pos- sible, and made their way to the outlet of Canandaigua Lake, where they planted the seed of a flourishing settlement by constructing some log- huts and making it the business capital of the domain. The Rev. Samuel Kirkland, an earnest missionary laborer among the Oneidas, was their interpreter. Gorham procured cessions of lands from the Senecas.
In 1791 a party of emigrants constructed a wagon-road from Whites- town to Canandaigua, the first ever opened from the Mohawk River to the Genesee country. These pioneers suffered great hardships in the performance of their task, for the route lay over lofty hills and deep ravines, broad marshes and swift-running streams ; yet they persevered, and made a highway for swarms of emigrants from New England, who soon made it a beaten path. It was soon afterward continued to the foot of Lake Erie, at the site of Buffalo. In this work the Government did nothing ; private individuals did everything. This highway was the first work of internal improvement in the State of New York. Others of greater importance will be noticed presently.
When the National Constitution was adopted by the requisite number of States the patriotie opponents of the instrument generally acquiesced in the decision. Judge Yates, who in the National and State conven- tions had strongly opposed it, now, in his first charge to the Grand Jury at Albany after the ratification, said :
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