USA > New York > Fulton County > The border warfare of New York, during the revolution; or, The annals of Tryon county > Part 20
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Sir William Johnson left one son, Sir John John- son, and two daughters, one of whom was married to Colonel Daniel Claus, and the other to Colonel Guy Johnson. The latter was a distant relative of Sir William, and for thirty years had been also intimately acquainted with Indian affairs. In 1762, then being a lieutenant in the British army, he was appointed by Sir William, a deputy superintendent. For some time previous to his death, Sir William seems to have felt that his life was precarious, and deemed it a mat- ter of great importance that a successor should be appointed. In April, 1774, a few months before his death, he wrote a pressing letter to the English gov- ernment, strongly urging such an appointment at once, and recommending Colonel Guy Johnson. He spoke of the duties and fatigues growing out of his civil and military employments, and observed that they had drawn upon him a train of infirmities which had often threatened his life, and at best had rendered it precarious. " I have often," said he, " carried the most important points merely through personal influ- ence, when all other means had failed. If, therefore, I have the least claim to indulgence in support of the application of the Indians, I cannot withhold my
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warmest recommendation in favor of the gentleman they wish for; and whilst I assure your lordship that I rate my present reputation and future fame too high to prostitute it for interest or partiality, would rather hazard the imputation of both than refuse my testi- mony towards a measure that may benefit the public when I am no more."
The recommendation of Sir William Johnson pro- cured the appointment of Colonel Guy Johnson as his successor. The place was one of great power and responsibility. There were within the department at that time, 130,000 Indians, of whom 25,420 were fighting men. The Six Nations numbered about 10,000, and had two thousand bold and skillful war- riors. The whole population of the province of New York in 1774 was 182,251, and an estimate of the militia was 32,000. In 1771, the county of Albany, then embracing all the northern and western part of the province, and extending from the banks of the Hudson on to the great cataract of Niagara, contained only 38,829 inhabitants.
In 1772, the county of Tryon, named after the then governor of the province, was formed, and it embraced the whole section of the State west of a north and south line running nearly through the centre of the present county of Schoharie. It contained, probably, a population of 10,000. Johnstown was the county town. There was no section of the country which felt so deep an interest in the movements and opera- tions of the Indians as the inhabitants of this latter county. The population was sparse, and they were exposed upon the south, the west, and the north, and
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had in their midst, and immediately around them, an Indian population equal in number to their own. If we consider that there were more than twenty-five thousand Indian warriors, in some measure under the control of the superintendent, located in the valley of the Mohawk, it will at once be seen that if the Indians should be prevailed upon to take part in the contest then about commencing, the situation of the inhabit- ants would be one of extreme peril. It was with feel- ings of deep interest, therefore, that they learned that the new superintendent had called an Indian coun- cil, to be held at Guy Park, his place of residence, in the month of May, 1775.
The political elements were all in motion. Tories and Whigs were arraying themselves and preparing for the issue. As early as August, 1774, the inhab- itants, at a meeting held at Palatine, had resolved, among other things, that they deeply sympathized with the inhabitants of Boston, who were suffering under the oppressive act for blocking up the port, and they added, " we will join and unite with our brethren of the rest of this colony in any thing tend- ing to support and defend our rights and liberties."
On the 20th of May, 1775, and just previous to the Indian council at Guy Park, Col. Guy Johnson, the superintendent, addressed the following letter to the magistrates and committees of the western districts : "Gentlemen, I have lately had repeated accounts that a body of New Englanders, or other men, were to come and seize and carry away my person, and attack our family under color of malicious insinua- tions, that I intended to set the Indians upon the peo-
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ple. Men of sense and character know that my office is of the highest importance to promote peace amongst the Six Nations, and prevent their entering into any such disputes. This I effected last year, when they were much vexed about the attack made upon the Shawnese, and I last winter appointed them to meet me this month to receive the answer of the Virginians. All men must allow that if the Indians find their council-fire disturbed and their superintend- ent insulted, they will take a dreadful revenge. It is therefore the duty of all people to prevent this, and to satisfy any who may have been injured, and that their suspicions and the allegations they have col- lected against me are false, and inconsistent with my character and office. I recommend this to you as highly necessary at this time, as my regard for the interest of the country and self-preservation has obliged me to fortify my house, and keep men armed for my defense, till these idle and malicous reports are removed."
The committee, to whom this letter was addressed, observed very truly, that they had an open enemy before their faces, and treacherous friends at their back, but they resolved that the conduct of Col. John- son was alarming, arbitrary and unwarrantable, inas- much as he was stopping and searching travellers upon the king's highway, and they added that they would "defend their freedom with their lives and fortunes."
On the 25th of May, 1775, the Indian council con- vened at Guy Park, but the Mohawks alone were in attendance. A delegation from the Committee of
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Safety was also present, and contradicted the report which had been freely circulated among the Indians, that there was an intention to seize the superin- tendent.
Dissatisfied with the council which had been held at his house, yet professing to be desirous to promote peace between the Indians and the inhabitants, Guy Johnson had called another council to meet in the western part of the county. Under pretense of meet- ing the Indians in this council, he removed his whole family and retinue to Cosby's Manor, a little above the German Flats. Here he was waited upon by another delegation from the committee, and in answer to a communication they addressed to him, among other things he observed : " I am glad to find my calling a congress on the frontier gives satisfaction. This was principally my design, though I cannot sufficiently ex- press my surprise at those who have either through malice or ignorance misconstrued my intentions, and supposed me capable of setting the Indians on the peace- able inhabitants of this county. The interest our family has in this county and my own is considera- ble, and they have been its best benefactors ; and malicious charges, therefore, to their prejudice are highly injurious, and ought to be totally suppressed ;" and he concluded by stating, " I am very sorry that such idle and injurious reports meet with any en- couragement. I rely on you, gentlemen, to exert yourselves in discontinuing them, and am happy in this opportunity of assuring the people of a county I regard, that they have nothing to apprehend from my endeavors, but I shall always be glad to promote their true interest."
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The Provincial Congress of New York addressed a letter to Col. Johnson on the same subject, and in his reply, written from Fort Stanwix, he says: "I trust I shall always manifest more humanity than to promote the destruction of the innocent inhabitants of a colony to which I have been always warmly at- tached; a declaration that must appear perfectly suita- ble to the character of a man of honor and principle." Among the documents obtained by the historical agent of this State, are copies of three letters, taken from drafts and originals in the State Paper Office at London, and which throw much light upon the ques- tion of the agency of the government in the em- ployment of the Indians.
One of these is a letter from Guy Johnson to Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary, dated at Montreal, 12th October, 1775, and after reading the letters of the su- perintendent to the Committee of Tryon County, and to the Provincial Congress, we might exclaim, with Hamlet, "look here on this picture, and on this." After enumerating his difficulties and embarrass- ments, and repeating to his lordship the reports, that it was determined to seize upon his person at Guy Park, and that he had convened an Indian council there in May, he adds : " And having then received secret instructions from General Gage respecting the measures I had to take, I left home the last of that month, and by the help of a body of white men and Indians arrived with great difficulty at Ontario, where in a little time I assembled 1455 Indians, and adjust- ed matters with them in such a manner that they agreed to defend the communication and assist his
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majesty's troops in their operations. The beginning of July I set out for this place with a chosen body of them, and rangers to the number of 220, not being able to get any craft or even provisions for more, and arrived here the 17th of that month, and soon after convened a second body of the northern confederacy,. to the amount of 1700 and upwards, who entered into the same arrangement, notwithstanding they had declined coming in some time before on Gov. Carle- ton's requisition, their minds having been corrupted by New England emissaries."
And thus, at the very time he was writing the let- ters to the committees, and protesting that he had no intentions of engaging the Indians in the contest, he had in his possession the secret instructions of Gen. Gage, under which he was acting, and in pursuance of which he arranged with more than three thousand warriors to take up the hatchet.
The other two letters to which I have alluded, were from Lord Dartmouth to Col. Johnson, and they settle the question as to the active agency of the English government in the employment of the Indi- ans. The first letter is dated 5th July, 1775, and is as follows : "I have received your letter of the 17th of March, No. 7, and have laid it before the king. The present state of affairs in his majesty's colonies, in which an unnatural rebellion has broke out that threatened to overturn the constitution, precludes all immediate consideration in the domestic concerns of the Indians under your protection. Nor is it to be ex- pected that any measures which the king may think fit to take, for redressing the injuries they complain of
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respecting their lands, can, in the present moment, be attended with any effect. It will be proper, however, that you should assure them in the strongest terms of his majesty's firm resolution to protect them and pre- serve them in all their rights, and it is more than ever necessary that you should exert the utmost vigilance to discover whether any artifices are used to engage them in the support of the rebellious proceedings of his majesty's subjects, to counteract such treachery, and to keep them in such a state of affection and attachment to the king, as that his majesty may rely upon their assistance in any case in which it may be ne- cessary to require it."
On the 24th of July Lord Dartmouth wrote the second letter, nineteen days after writing the first, and during which time the news of the battle of Bunker Hill had reached London.
" Sir, I have already in my letter to you of the 5th inst. hinted that the time might possibly come when the King, relying upon the attachment of his faithful allies, the Six Nations of Indians, might be under the necessity of calling upon them for their aid and assist- . ance in the present state of America. The unnatu- ral rebellion now raging there calls for every effort to suppress it, and the intelligence his majesty has received of the rebels having excited the Indians to take a part, and of their having actually engaged a body of them in arms to support their rebellion, justi- fies the resolution his majesty has taken of requiring the assistance of his faithful adherents, the Six Na- tions.
" It is, therefore, his majesty's pleasure, that you do
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lose no time in taking such steps as may induce them to take up the hatchet against his majesty's rebellious sub- jects in America, and to engage them in his majesty's service, upon such plan as shall be suggested to you by General Gage, to whom this letter is sent, accompanied with a large assortment of goods for presents to them, upon this important occasion.
" Whether the engaging the Six Nations to take up arms in defense of his majesty's government, is most likely to be effected by separate negotiations with the chiefs, or in a general council assembled for the purpose, must be left to your judgment, but at all events, as it is a service of very great importance, you will not fail to exert every effort that may tend to ac- complish it, and to use the utmost diligence and activity in the execution of the views I have now the honor to transmit to you. I am, &c.,
DARTMOUTH."
These letters settle the question as to the direct agency of the English government in the employ- ment of the Indians. The directions are peremptory in their language, and admit of no discretion. It was the command of George the Third, that the Indians should be employed, and the Secretary lays the com- mand upon the Indian Superintendent. With how much faithfulness and zeal that Superintendent exe- cuted the command, is known to all who have looked into the history of the war, as it was carried on upon the borders.
But it is alleged, in justification, that the rebels had instigated the Indians to take up the hatchet in their
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behalf. A few of the Stockbridge tribe did early join the continental army ; but they were few in number and comparatively a civilized people. I have search- ed the records of the Committee of Safety, and of the Provincial Congress of New York, but have not been able to find a letter or a speech or even a secret re- solve in favor of the employment of the Indians, but there are letters, and speeches, and resolves innumer- able in favor of a strict neutrality.
At the council of Guy Park in May, 1775, the gen- tlemen who attended on the part of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County stated in their speech, that they desired peace with the Indians, and in the reply, the Indians said, " Brothers, we are very glad to hear you speak and hear you confirm the old friendship of our forefathers, which we intend to abide by and thank you for the same."
At the same time, the magistrates and committees of Schenectady and Albany, in a reply to a speech of the principal Mohawk chief, made in behalf of his tribe, said :
" Brothers, we are extremely well satisfied to hear that you have no inclination or purpose to interfere in the dispute between Old England and America, for you must not understand that it is with Boston alone, it is between Old England and all her colonies. The people here are oppressed by Old England, and she sends over troops among us, to destroy us. This is the reason our people are all in alarm to defend themselves. They intend no hostilities against you. Do you continue peaceable, and you need apprehend no danger. It is a dispute wherein you have nothing
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to do. Do not you disturb any of our people, and de- pend upon it they will leave you in peace."
In a communication to Guy Johnson, under the same date, May 23d, the Albany committee say- " We are not ignorant of the importance of your of- fice as Superintendent, and have been perfectly easy, with respect to any suspicions of the Indians taking a part in the present dispute between Great Britain and her colonies, knowing them to be a people of too much sagacity to engage with the whole continent in a controversy that they can profit nothing by."
On the 2d of September, 1775, a conference was was had at Albany, between the committees and a few of the Six Nations, and at which commissioners on the part of the Continental Congress were present. In their reply to the speech of the Indians, the com- mittee among other things say :
"Brothers, attend ! In your speech you further ob- served, that you had long since taken a resolution to take no active part in the present contest for liberty. We do not offer to censure you for your conduct, but admire your wisdom, praise your pacific disposition, and hope that you will have fortitude to maintain and persevere in it."
On the 10th day of June, 1775, the delegates from New York in the Continental Congress, Philip Living- ston, Francis Lewis, James Duane, William Floyd, and John Alsop, addressed a letter from Philadelphia to the Provincial Congress of New York, in which they say : "We shall not fail to attend to what you suggest concerning the Indians. This is an object to our colony of the highest moment, and we hope in
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due time it will be considered by Congress. We think the Indians will not be disposed to engage in this un- happy quarrel, unless deceived and deluded by mis- representation, and this with vigilance and care on our part can be prevented. As one step towards it which we much applaud, are the assurances you have given the Superintendent of his safety."
The proof could be multiplied, if necessary, by many such extracts from the letters, speeches and proceed- ings of the various public bodies, which were called into existence by the exigencies of the times. The English government understood the mode of Indian warfare, and could not have failed to foresee, that their employment would make the war one almost of ex- termination upon the borders. That the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, and the fire-brand would do their fearful work, not alone on the field of battle, where armed men meet, but also among the women and children in the homes of the unarmed and defenseless.
Such reflections must have forced themselves upon the attention of the English Secretary, when he penned his letter of the 19th of July, 1775, and he felt called upon to give some excuse for the course which his king and government had determined to pursue.
I have already spoken of the departure of the In- dians with General Johnson in the summer of 1775. Few of the Mohawks ever returned to dwell in their homes upon the banks of that river which bears their name. The graves of their ancestors were abandon- ed. Their council-fires were extinguished. That they should remain attached to the English govern- ment is by no means strange, for they had been their
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allies in war, and dependents in peace, and the chain of friendship had been brightened by constant use for more than an hundred years. They returned however as enemies, and with the other confederated tribes laid waste the frontier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania. Year after year they swept over the valleys of the Schoharie, the Mohawk, and the Susquehanna, until there was scarcely a spot remain- ing, where the destroyer had not left the impression of his footsteps. It is impossible now to say what would have been the fate of the Six Nations, had they remained neutral in the revolutionary contest. There can be little doubt, however, that their final removal from the land they had so long inhabited would have been delayed. If their employment by the English government was disastrous to the inhabitants of the frontier, it was equally so to the Indians themselves. A considerable portion of the Oneidas refused to take up the hatchet against the Americans. When hostili- ties commenced on the part of the other tribes, the bond of union which had for so long a time bound to- gether the Six Nations was severed, never more to be reunited. The great council-fire which had burned so long at Onondaga went out, never again to be rekin- dled. The fame and the power of that distinguished confederacy which had been known and felt over the whole of North America, were thereafter to be num- bered with the things that were. Their country was overrun by invading armies ; their villages were de- stroyed ; and their cultivated fields were laid waste. During the long years of the war, many a warrior fell in battle ; others died from want and its consequent
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diseases. Their pleasant homes, alike with those of the pale faces, were made desolate.
With the restoration of peace, the tide of emigra- tion set in upon their country with resistless force ; and, like the other aborigines, they have gradually faded away before its advance.
Some found a home in Canada under the protection of that government which had prevailed upon them to take up the hatchet, and there their descendants are still found.
A few yet remain upon the soil of their fathers, but they are imperfect representatives of that proud and warlike people, who, by their prowess and skill, earned from the early colonist the appellation of the Romans of North America.
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NOTE N.
LIFE AND SERVICES OF GENERAL JAMES CLINTON.
Lecture on the Life and Military Services of General James Clinton. Read before the New York Histori- cal Society, Feb. 1839. By WILLIAM W. CAMPBELL.
IT was beautifully and truly said by Montgomery, that it is difficult to convey to others an accurate im- pression of an impassioned speaker; that it is like " gathering up dew-drops, which appear indeed jew- els and pearls in the grass, but run to water in the hand. The essence and the elements remain, but the grace, the sparkle, and the form are gone.'' He who has attempted the task will have realized the force and the truth of the poet's observation, and will have felt regret and disappointment when he perceives that his description is comparatively tame and spiritless, of events, and scenes, and efforts which charmed him as a beholder, and produced impressions which are glowing and fresh in his memory. But if the speaker possessed the power of conveying to this
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audience correct impressions of eloquent men, he would not be called upon to exercise that power in discharging the duty which he has assumed this even- ing. The individual, whose biography he proposes briefly to sketch, was a plain, blunt soldier, born upon the frontiers, and who spent no inconsiderable portion of a long life amid the toils and perils of border wars- a true patriot, who, if not first, was prominent among the men who sustained the heat and the burden of the revolutionary contest in this state. I mean Gen- eral JAMES CLINTON. A brief sketch of his family, and especially of his father, Colonel Charles Clinton, may not be uninteresting. The name of Clinton has been prominent for the last hundred years, both in the colonial and State history of New York. For nearly forty years of that period, individuals of that name have held the high and responsible trust of gov- ernor, besides filling many other offices of a military, legislative, and judicial character. The different branches of the family were originally from England. The first of the name who was distinguished here was the colonial governor, George Clinton, who was the youngest son of Francis, sixth Earl of Lincoln, and who was governor of the province of New York from 1743 to 1753. He returned to England, and was af- terwards appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital. He was the father of Sir Henry Clinton, who was in command of the English army during a part, of the Revolution.
General James Clinton was a descendant of Wil- liam Clinton, who was an adherent to the cause of royalty in the civil wars of England, and an officer
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in the army of Charles I. After the death of that monarch he went to the continent, where he remained a long time in exile. He afterwards passed over to Scotland, where he married a lady of the family of Kennedy. From Scotland he removed to Ireland, where he died, leaving one son. This son, James Clinton, on arriving at manhood, made an unsuccess- ful effort to recover his patrimonial estates in Eng- land. While in England he married a Miss Smith, a daughter of a captain in the army of Cromwell, and with his wife returned and settled in Ireland.
Charles Clinton, the son of this marriage, and the father of Gen. James Clinton, was born in the county of Longford, in Ireland, in 1690. In 1729 he deter- mined to emigrate to America. Being a man of in- fluence, he prevailed upon a large number of his neighbors and friends to remove with him. He sailed from Dublin in a vessel called the George and Anne, in May, 1729, and, by a receipt preserved among his papers, it seems that he paid for the passages of nine- ty-four persons.
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