USA > New York > The history of New York from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 11
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181
1749.] APPEAL-SHIRLEY'S MOVEMENTS.
dered, had no mode of redress, inasmuch as their representatives could neither call the governor to account, nor suspend the council."
This able vindication of their course roused the indignation of Clinton. Charging them with being guilty of disrespect, he refused to receive the ad- dress ; and until it was accepted the house de- clined entering upon the business of the session. Against conduct so resolute the governor had no remedy but a prorogation.
In the mean time Clinton had not been idle in keeping the English ministry well informed with regard to the dissensions which agitated the pro- vince. Ile charged. the assembly with usurping parliamentary powers; with restricting the pre- rogatives of the governor, by assuming to them- selves the sole authority to disburse the public money ; with keeping the crown officers in a con- dition of dependence, by granting the salaries annually, and by naming the persons to whom the salaries were to be paid. As an effective remedy for this disordered state of affairs, he urged that parliament, whose right to control the colonies had never been disputed, should be called upon to interpose, and take from an intractable assembly the power to slight the king's instruc- tions, or to weaken the authority of their go- vernor. Shirley was equally active, and Belcher, the Governor of New Jersey, entered warmly with his council into the conspiracy. Chief Jus-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1749.
tice Morris, at enmity with Delancey, embarking for England on business connected with the boun- daries between New York and New Jersey, un- dertook to support the allegations of Clinton, and Shirley set sail about the same time to quicken, by his personal influence, the action of the mi- nistry.
But the representations of the confederated governors had already produced the desired effect in England. On the 3d of March, 1749, under cover of suppressing the evils of colonial paper money, the Board of Trade, through Horatio Wal- pole, reported a bill "to make all orders by the king, or under his authority, the highest law in America."
The agents of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, immediately protested against the proposed measure as "re- pugnant to the laws and constitution of Great Britain," and their own privileges and charters. Their objections being sustained by Onslow, the Speaker of the house, the bill was finally passed, shorn of its most obnoxious clauses.
But, though unsuccessful in this insidious at- tempt to strengthen the royal prerogative, the Board of Trade determined to persevere. In New York, however, the introduction of so im- portant a measure into parliament had the effect of rendering both parties more temperate and cautious. To guard against misrepresentation,
183
1750.] MODERATION OF BOTH PARTIES.
and to protect the general interests of the pro- vince, the assembly, as early as April, 1748, had appointed an agent in London with instructions to correspond directly with the Speaker of the house. This agent, Mr. Charles, owed his appoint- ment to the recommendation of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, related by marriage to the Delancey family. Active in the interests of his employers, Charles was soon enabled to inform them that the attention of the Board of Trade had been particu- larly directed to the disturbed condition of New York, and that they were preparing a voluminous report on the state of the province, to be laid be- fore the royal council. The receipt of tidings so alarming induced the assembly to assume a more moderate tone.
Clinton also had his own causes for uneasiness. He dreaded a recall; and from the failure of the most important clause in Walpole's bill, was either led to doubt the success of the ministry in their endeavours to give additional force to the royal orders, or he feared to push matters to extremity before he was confident of receiving efficient sup- port. Under these circumstances, he thought it best to conciliate opposition by dismissing Col- den, and submitting himself to the cooler coun- sels of Alexander. But in the midst of the tem- porary calm which succeeded, Clinton did not fail, during the spring of 1750, to press upon the attention of the English government the absolute
184
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1751.
necessity of securing obedience to the royal au- thority, and relieving the crown officers from their condition of dependence upon the colonial assemblies, by a system of parliamentary taxation to be made general over all the American pro- vinces. Adopting the same commodities advo- cated by Colden a year previous, he suggested that imposts on wine and West India produce would be sufficient to defray the expenses of the : civil list. Preferring to attain the same ends by strengthening the king's prerogative, the Board of Trade were at first disinclined to adopt any other mode of reducing the colonies to obedience. But the inefficacy of royal orders becoming every day more apparent, they finally came to the conclusion, in the spring of 1751, to bring the question to an issue in New York by the ap- pointment of a new governor, strictly charged to demand of the assembly a fixed revenue, and the surrender of its disposition. A revenue from the whole of the colonies, to be obtained by Acts of Parliament, was at the same time resolved upon. Dissensions, however, in the English cabinet, de- layed for a time the prosecution of measures so dangerous to the liberties of America.
During this period of intrigue and dissension, the French were steadily persevering in their ef- forts to extend the limits of their dominion over the regions watered by the Ohio and the Missis- sippi. In 1749, the Count De la Gallisoniere,
185
OHIO COMPANY.
1751.]
Governor- General of Canada, despatched an of- ficer, with three hundred men, with instructions to explore the region of the Ohio, to bury leaden plates, engraved with the arms of France, at the mouths of important creeks, to take possession of the country by formal verbal process, and to for- bid the Indians from trading with the English.
On the north-east an attempt was also made to restrict the disputed limits of Acadia to a part of the peninsula now known as Nova Scotia, and the old French inhabitants were invited to remove from the ceded territory and open settlements upon the newly-established frontier, where forts had been established for their protection. In the west the military station at Niagara was im- proved and strengthened, and permission ob- tained from the Iroquois to build a trading-house in the vicinity of the Mohawk country.
In the mean time, to secure the valley of the Ohio to the English, a company, organized in England and Virginia, had obtained a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land between the Kana- wha and Monongahela, on condition of settling thercon one hundred families within seven years from the date of their patent. In order to effect their purpose with advantage, Christopher Gist, an experienced trader, was employed by the Ohio company to examine the region west of the moun- tains, as far as the falls of the Ohio. His report of the country, and the amicable disposition of
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186
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1752
the western tribes, proving favourable, a trading nouse was erected in 1751, at Brownsville, on the Monongahela.
To traverse the designs of the French, Clin- ton, acting upon the advice of his council, invited the governors of all the provinces to meet de- puties from the Six Nations in congress, at Al- bany, but only Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina responded to the call. The con- vention met in July. Old differences were har monized, and a new treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was formed, in which the Cataw- bas also joined.
Notwithstanding these ominous preparations for resistance, the Marquis Duquesne, the new governor of Canada, determined to maintain the claim of France to the valley of the Ohio. In the summer of 1752, he sent a party of French and Indians to Sandusky, to punish the Miamis for trading with the English ; and carly the fol- lowing year pushed forward a body of twelve hundred men to establish posts at Erie, Water- ford, and Venango. The latter being on the main stream of the Alleghany, the western In- dians, alarmed at these encroachments, entreated the Governor of Virginia to check the progress of the French by building a fort at the junction of that river with the Monongahela, promising to assist in its defence. Dinwiddie wrote to Eng-
1753.] OSBORNE SENT OUT. 187
land for advice, and was ordered to repel intru- sion by force.
While the steady and resolute movements of the French were rapidly tending to a renewal of hostilities, the Board of Trade were busy with schemes having in view the better "regulation" of the colonies. The long-pending difficulties in New York first claiming their attention, they determined, before appealing to the direct action of parliament, upon making a final effort to re- establish the executive authority by means of arbitrary instructions. In order to carry out this purpose with effect, Sir Danvers Osborne, brother-in-law to the Earl of Halifax, was com- missioned to succeed Clinton in the government of the province, while at the same time, to conci- liate the refractory assembly, Delancey was ap- pointed lieutenant-governor.
Osborne was strictly and imperatively charged to maintain in its fullest integrity the royal pre- rogative, and to demand of the assembly "a per- manent revenue, solid, indefinite, and without limitation," to be disbursed by the governor alone, under the advice of his council.
No person could have been selected more illy fitted to perform this arduous service than Sir Danvers Osborne. Naturally mild, amiable, and gentlemanly, the recent loss of a beloved wife had utterly overpowered the little strength of. character he originally possessed, and had sub-
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188
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1753.
jected him to a constant depression of spirits nearly allied to lunacy. HIe reached New York on the 7th of October, 1753, and on the 10th, after taking the oaths of office in the presence of the council, his commission was publicly read at the town hall. Returning thence to the fort with Clinton, his sensitive nature was deeply wounded by the contumelious expressions vented by the people against his predecessor. "I expect the like treatment," said he, gloomily, "before I leave the government." On his return to the council chamber, the bold address of the city corporation disturbed him still more. «We are sufficiently assured," said they, "that your ex- cellency will be as averse from countenancing, as we from brooking, any infringements of our inestimable liberties, civil or religious."
Meeting with Delancey at dinner the next day, Osborne complained of indisposition, and said, with a smile, "I believe I shall soon leave you the government-I find myself unable to support the burden of it."
The following day he convened the council, and laying his instructions before them, desired their opinions. "The assembly will never yield obedience," said they. With great emotion Os- borne next addressed Smith, who had hitherto re- mained silent : when, receiving a similar answer, " he sighed, turned about, reclined against a win-
189
1753.] OSBORNE'S SUICIDE.
dow frame, and exclaimed, ' then what am I come here for ?' "
Pleading ill health, he returned to his lodg- ings in great mental distress, and during the course of the evening consulted a physician. After dismissing his servant about midnight, he burned a number of private papers, enclosed and directed a sum of money to the person from whom he had borrowed it, and retiring to the garden of the house just before the break of day, delibe- rately hanged himself.
190
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. -
[1753.
CHAPTER XV.
Lieutenant-Governor Delancey-Royal instructions-Course of the assembly-George Washington -- Movements of the French-First skirmish-Death of Jumonville-Surrender of Fort Necessity-Congress at Albany-Franklin's plan of union-Rejected by the colonies-Disaffection in New York -Establishment of a college-Liberal grants by the assem- bly for the defence of the frontiers-General Braddock appointed commander-in-chief-Congress of governors at Alexandria -- Plan of campaign-Success in Nova Scotia- Rout of Braddock's army-His death-Crown Point expe- dition-Fort Edward built-Approach of Dieskau-Skirmish with the provincials-Battle of Lake George-Rout of the French-Capture of Dieskau-Honours awarded to Johnson by parliament-Neglect of Lyman-Inactivity of Jolinson -- Fort William Henry built-Niagara expedition-Reverses and disappointments of Shirley-Sickness of troops-Fort Oswego built.
BY the unexpected death of Sir Danvers Osborne, the arbitrary measures he was commissioned to enforce failed of their intended effect. Delancey, the new lieutenant-governor, having been so long in the confidence of the assembly, was not dis- posed to weaken his popularity by insisting upon obedience to instructions which he well knew would never be complied with. Even the council, although a majority of them were opposed to the extreme views of the popular party, were not inclined to acquiesce in the demand for a fixed revenuc. Thus supported, both by his friends
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191
WASHINGTON COMMISSIONED. -
1753.]
and opponents, Delancey merely urged, as a mat- ter of form, obedience to the royal mandate, and having discharged his duty to his superiors, left the assembly free to act as they thought proper. Under such circumstances their course may readily be conjectured. They respectfully de- clined making any change in the rule they had adopted respecting annual appropriations, but conceded to the governor and council the autho- rity to disburse the public moneys.
This firm and steadfast opposition to the royal commands might have given rise to serious conse- quences, had it not been that the attention of the English government was diverted from the ques- tion of prerogative by the threatening aspect of affairs upon the frontiers.
The colonies, generally, had received orders to repel the advance of the French ; but it fell to Dinwiddie, as governor of Virginia, to take the initiative. Desirous of avoiding hostilities, if possible, he commissioned George Washington, then in his twenty-first year, a native of Virginia, and a surveyor by profession, to cross the moun- tains with a message to the French commandant, demanding that the French should withdraw from the territory of the Ohio, and release the traders captured at Sandusky. After a dangerous and painful journey of eleven weeks, Washington re- turned. He had held a friendly conference with Tanacharison, the half-king, and various Indians
192
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1754.
assembled at Logstown; had carefuly examined the point of land formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela with the Ohio, with a view to the construction of a fort at that place ; . and had delivered his message to St. Pierre, the commandant of Fort le Boeuf at Wa- terford, a few miles south of Lake Eric. The answer of St. Pierre, and the unguarded conver- sation of his officers, rendering it certain that the French were determined not to recede from the territory of which they had taken possession, Din- widdie convened the assembly of Virginia in Janu- ary, 1754, and obtained from them a grant of ten thousand pounds towards the defence of the frontiers. Forty-one men were despatched to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio. The mili- tary force of Virginia was increased to six hun- dred men, and Washington, commissioned as lieu- tenant-colonel of the regiment, was ordered to Alexandria to enlist recruits.
The other colonies being called upon for assist- ance, the assembly of New York voted, during April, one thousand pounds to Virginia, and de- spatched two companies of regulars to support the militia of that province ; but declined giving any further aid, .on the ground that it was doubt- ful whether the French had actually encroached upon any territory belonging to the colonies. To strengthen their own frontiers, they granted four hundred and fifty pounds for an additional gar-
1754.] MOVEMENTS OF THE FRENCH. 193
rison at Oswego, and agreed to become responsi- ble for the repairs of that fort, and to bear their proportion of the expenses which might be in- curred in the erection of such new forts as should be found necessary for the common defence.
While these resolutions were under debate, Washington, at the head of one hundred and fifty men, was marching for the forks of the Ohio, to assist in building the fort already commenced at that point. On the 17th of April, three days before he reached Wills' Creek, the French, one thousand strong, descending the Alleghany from Venango, had driven off the workmen at the forks of the Ohio, and were strengthening and com- pleting the works already began there, naming the post of which they had thus taken forcible possession Fort Duquesne.
Washington had no sooner received this alarm- ing intelligence, than he resolved to push forward and fortify himself at the mouth of Redstone Creek, on the Monongahela, until reinforcements should arrive. Moving but slowly by reason of the ruggedness of the way, and the deep fords which had to be crossed, he was met at the cross- ing of the Youghioghany by a message from Tanacharison, the half-king, warning him of the approach of a French detachment, and their avowed resolution to attack the first English they met. Hastening to Great Meadows, he threw up an intrenchment, and after sending out a small
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194
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
- [1754.
mounted party on wagon horses to reconnoiter, encamped for the night. On the morning of the 27th, Gist, who had been the companion of Wash- ington on his journey to Fort le Bœuf, and who had opened a plantation on the Youghioghany, brought fresh tidings of the vicinity of the ene- my. Late in the evening, an express arriving from Tanacharison, Washington marched with his command, through the rain and darkness, to the Indian camp, and early the following day, ac- companied by the half-king and his warriors, proceeded in search of the enemy. Having dis- covered the place of their concealment, he at- tacked them by surprise, routed them with the loss of ten killed and took twenty-one prisoners. Among the killed was Jumonville, the com- mander.
Reinforcements coming up soon after, an inde- pendent company was left at Great Meadows to build a stockade, called Fort Necessity, while the Virginians were employed in opening a road to Gist's plantation, and a path to the mouth of the Redstone. In the midst of these labours the French advanced in force, and Washington was compelled to fall back upon Fort Necessity. On the 3d of July the fort was assaulted, and after nine hours fighting a capitulation was agreed upon, by the terms of which the garrison were permitted to retire across the mountains, bearing with them their arms and baggage.
195
1754.] FRANKLIN'S PLAN OF UNION.
While these events were transpiring on the western frontiers, a convention of delegates from the colonies north of the Potomac, with the exception of New Jersey, assembled at Albany to meet the Six Nations in council, and to con- cert measures for the common defence. It was at this congress that Franklin, one of the dele- gates from Pennsylvania, brought forward his celebrated plan of union. He proposed to esta- blish a grand council, to consist of forty-eight members, who were to be elected triennially by the provincial assemblies of all the colonies, not any one of which was to be represented by more than seven, nor less than two delegates. The head of this federal government was to be a pre- sident-general, commissioned by the crown, with power to nominate military officers, and a negative on the acts of the council. The federal govern- Inent was to make peace or war with the Indians, regulate the Indian trade, purchase lands from them, raise soldiers, build forts, equip vessels to guard the sea coast, the lakes, and the great rivers, to enact laws, and levy such taxes as might be equal and just.
This plan of union, though adopted by the con- vention, was rejected by the colonial assemblies as giving too much power to the crown ; while in England it was regarded by the Board of Trade as favouring the independence of the provinces.
At this period there were many causes operat-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK. [1755.
ing to render New York disaffected to the autho- rity of England. The original European set- tlers, the Dutch, and their descendants, had never been disposed to submit patiently to the jurisdic- tion of their conquerors, and the breach had been widened by the preferences shown to the Episco- palian form of worship. The restrictions in their commercial relations were also severely felt, and as constantly evaded whenever an opportunity of- fered. Nor were those who held large and du- bious grants of land better disposed, for while some feared an inquiry into the validity of their titles, others dreaded the operation of a land tax.
The establishment of a college in 1754, the pre- sidency of which was limited to such as were in communion with the Church of England, the mem- bers of which did not constitute one-tenth of the population of the province, weakened in those of other religious denominations that sentiment of loyalty which many had hitherto entertained, while it inflicted the first serious blow upon the popularity of Delancey.
Notwithstanding the growing disaffection to- ward the lieutenant-governor, the assembly, alarmed at the successes of the French in the Ohio territory, readily acquiesced in his wishes to provide for the defence of the province, and for undertaking such other operations against the enemy as might be thought best conducive to the common interest. In February, 1755, they voted
1755.]
ACTIVE PREPARATIONS. 1 197
forty-five thousand pounds in bills of credit; and in May, after the plan of the campaign had been agreed upon, they ordered eight hundred men to be enlisted, to co-operate with the forces raising in the other colonies, and appropriated ten thou -. sand pounds toward defraying the expense of the enterprise.
The British government having received tid- ings of Washington's expulsion from the Monon- gahela, were no less active. Although there had been no formal declaration of war, they antici- cipated approaching hostilities by appointing General Braddock commander-in-chief in Ame- rica, and by sending with him two regiments of regulars to assist the troops levied in the pro- vinces. On the fourteenth of April, the govern- ors of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, met Braddock in con- gress at Alexandria, and concerted with him the plan of the campaign. Four expeditions were agreed upon. Lawrence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, was to expel the French beyond the supposed limits of that province. Johnson, the Indian agent in the Mohawk country, was to conduct a mixed force of provincials and Iroquois against the fort at Crown Point. Shirley, the second in command to Braddock, was to assault the post at Niagara, while the latter in person undertook the reduction of Fort Duquesne.
The operations in Nova Scotia resulted in the
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198
HISTORY OF NEW YORK. 1 [1755.
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capture of Beau Sejour, and the occupation of the settlements at Minas and Annapolis ; but the inhuman abduction of the peaceful Acadiens from their happy homes, and their distribution among the English colonies, where they pined gradually away in misery and destitution, has fixed a stain upon the projectors of that barbarous act which time can never efface.
In the mean time Braddock was slowly moving toward the Ohio. Holding the provincials in utter contempt, and profoundly ignorant of the Indian mode of warfare, he refused to throw for- ward scouting parties in advance of the army, and imprudently suffered himself to be surprised by a small body of French and Indians lying in ambush within seven miles of Fort Duquesne. Fighting in masses, exposed to the deadly fire of a concealed enemy, the troops fell by hundreds. Braddock himself, after having had five horses disabled under him, was mortally wounded. The troops at length becoming thoroughly disorgan- ized, broke and fled, having sustained a loss in killed and wounded of sixty officers, and near seven hundred men. The Virginians under Wash- ington taking to the trees, and fighting with their accustomed coolness and courage, assisted in co- vering the retreat of the regulars until nearly the whole of them fell a sacrifice to their heroism. The retreating forces were not rallied until they reached the rear division commanded by Colonel
199
DIESKAU EMBARKS.
1755.]
Dunbar. On the 13th of June, four days after the battle, Braddock expired of his wounds, and was buried at the road-side, near Fort Necessity. Finding the spirit of the regulars utterly broken, Dunbar abandoned the expedition, and recross- ing the mountains, halted awhile at Cumberland, and proceeding from thence to Philadelphia, finally reached Albany, where he went into win- ter quarters.
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