USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. I > Part 10
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VOL. I .- 17
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Soon after this interview, Fletcher returned to New-York ; and, in September, met a new assem- bly, of which James Graham was chosen Speaker. The governor laboured at this session to procure the establishment of a ministry throughout the colony, a revenue to his majesty for life, the repairing the fort in New-York, and the erection of a chapel. That part of his speech relating to the ministry was in these words : " I recommended to the former assem- bly the settling of an able ministry, that the worship of God may be observed among us, for I find that great and first duty very much neglected. Let us not forget that there is a God that made us, who will protect us if we serve him, This has been always the first thing I have recommended, yet the last in your consideration. I hope you are all satis- fied of the great necessity and duty that lies upon you to do this, as you expect his blessing upon your labours." The zeal with which this affair was recommended induced the house, on the 12th of Sep- tember, to appoint a committee of eight members, to agree upon a scheme for settling a ministry in each respective precinct throughout the province. This committee made a report the next day, but it was recommitted till the afternoon, and then defer- red to the next morning. Several debates arising about the report in the house, it was again " recom- mitted for further consideration." On the 15th of September it was approved, the establishment being then limited to several parishes in four counties, and a bill ordered to be brought in accordingly; which the speaker (who on the 18th of September was
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appointed to draw all their bills) produced on the 19th It was read twice on the same day, and then referred to a committee of the whole house. The third reading was on the 21st of September, when the bill passed and was sent up to the governor and council, who immediately returned it with an amend- ment to vest his excellency with an episcopal power of inducting every incumbent, adding to that part of the bill near the end, which gave the right of pre- sentation to the people, these words " and presented to the governor to be approved and collated." The house declined their consent to the addition, and immediately returned the bill, praying "that it may pass without the amendment, having in the drawing of the bill had a due regard to that pious intent of settling a ministry for the benefit of the people." Fletcher was so exasperated with their refusal, that he no sooner received the answer of the house than he convened them before him, and in an angry speech broke up the session. I shall lay that part of it relating to this bill before the reader, because it is characteristic of the man.
" Gentlemen,
"There is also a bill for settling a ministry in this city, and some other counties of the government. In that very thing you have shown a great deal of stiffness. You take upon you, as if you were dicta- tors. I sent down to you an amendment of three or four words in that bill, which though very imma- terial, yet was positively denied. I must tell you it seems very unmannerly. There never was an amendment yet desired by the council board, but
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what was rejected. It is the sign of a stubborn ill temper ; and this you have also refused.
" But, gentlemen, I must take leave to tell you, if you seem to understand by these words, that none can serve without your collation or establishment, you are far mistaken ; for I have the power of collating or suspending any minister in my govern- ment by their majesties' letters patent ; and whilst I stay in the government, I will take care that neither heresy, sedition, schism, or rebellion, be preached amongst you, nor vice and profanity encouraged. It is my endeavour to lead a virtuous and pious life amongst you, and to give a good example : I wish you all to do the same. You ought to consider that you have but a third share in the legislative power of the government ; and ought not to take all upon you, nor be so peremptory. You ought to let the council have a share. They are in the nature of the house of lords, or upper house ; but you seem to take the whole power in your hands, and set up for every thing. You have sat a long time to little purpose, and have been a great charge to the country. Ten shillings a day is a large allow- ance, and you punctually exact it. You have been always forward enough to pull down the fees of other ministers in the government; why did you not think it expedient to correct your own to a more moderate allowance ?'
" Gentlemen, I shall say no more at present, but that you do withdraw to your private affairs in the country. I do prorogue you to the tenth of January next, and you are hereby prorogued to the tenth day of January next ensuing."
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"The violence of this man's temper is very evident in all his speeches and messages to the assembly ; and it can only be attributed to the ignorance of the times, that the members of that house, instead of asserting their equality, peaceably put up with his rudeness. Certainly they deserved better usage at his hands. For the revenue established the last year, was at this session continued five years longer than was originally intended. This was rendering the governor for a time independent of the people. For at that day the assembly had no treasure, but the amount of all taxes went of course into the hands of the receiver-general, who was appointed by the crown. Out of this fund moneys were only issuable by the governor's warrant ; so that every officer in the government, from Mr. Blaithwait, who drew annually five per cent. out of the revenue as auditor- general, down to the meanest servant of the public, became dependent solely of the governor. And hence we find the house, at the close of every session, humbly addressing his excellency for the trifling wages of their own clerk. Fletcher was notwithstanding so much displeased with them, that soon after the prorogation, he dissolved the assembly.
The members of the new assembly met according to the writ of summons, in March 1694, and chose colonel Pierson for their speaker, Mr. Graham being left out at the election for the city. The shortness of this session, which continued only to the latter end of the month, was owing to the disagreeable business the house began upon, of examining the
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state of the public accounts, and in particular the muster rolls of the volunteers in the pay of the pro- vince. They however resumed it again in Septem- ber, and formally entered their dissatisfaction with the receiver-general's accounts. The governor, at the same time, blew up the coals of contention by a demand of additional pay for the King's soldiers then just arrived, and new supplies for detachments in defence of the frontiers. He at last prorogued them, after obtaining an act for supporting one hun- dred men upon the borders. The same disputes revived again in the spring, 1695; and proceeded to such lengths that the assembly asked the governor's leave to print their minutes, that they might appeal to the public. It was at this session, on the 12th of April, 1695, that upon a petition of five church wardens and vestrymen of the city of New- York, the house declared it to be their opinion " That the vestrymen and church wardens have power to call a dissenting protestant minister, and that he is to be paid and maintained as the act directs." The intent of this petition was to refute an opinion which prevailed, that the late ministry act was made for the sole benefit of Episcopal clergymen.
The quiet undisturbed state of the frontiers, while the French were endeavouring to make a peace with the Five Nations, and the complaints of many of the volunteers, who had not received their pay, very much conduced to the backwardness of the assembly, in answering' Fletcher's perpetual demands of money. But when the Indians refused to
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comply with the terms of peace demanded by the French governor, which were to suffer him to rebuild the fort at Cadaracqui, and to include the Indian allies, the war broke out afresh, and the assembly were obliged to augment both their detach- ments and supplies. The count Frontenac now levelled his wrath principally against the Mohawks, who were more attached than any other of the Five Nations to our interest : but as his intentions had taken air, he prudently changed his measures, and sent a party of three hundred men to the isthmus at Niagara, to surprise those of the Five Nations that might be hunting there. Among a few that . were met with, some were killed and others taken prisoners, and afterwards burnt at Montreal. Our Indians imitated the count's example, and burnt ten Dewagunga captives.
Colonel Fletcher and his assembly having come to an open rupture in the spring, he called another in June, of which James Graham was chosen speaker. The count Frontenac was then repairing the old fort at Cadaracqui, and the intelligence of this, and the King's assignment of the quotas of the several colonies, for an united force* against the
* As such an union appeared to be necessary so long ago, it is very surprising that no effectual scheme for that purpose has hitherto been carried into full execution. A plan was concerted, in the great congress consisting of commis- sioners from several colonies, met at Albany, in 1754 ; but what approbation it received at home, has not hitherto been made public. The danger to Great Britain, apprehended from our united force, is founded in a total ignorance of the true state and character of the colonies. None of his majesty's subjects are more loyal, or more strongly attached to Protestant principles ; and the remarkable attestation, in the elegant address of the lords, of the 13th of No- vember, 1755, in our favour, " That we are a great body of brave and faithful subjects." is as justly due to us as it was nobly said by them.
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French, were the principal matters which the governor
laid before the assembly. The list of the quotas was this :
Pennsylvania £ 80
Massachusetts Bay 350
Maryland 160
Virginia. 240
Rhode Island and Providence Plantation 48
Connecticut 120
New-York 200
As a number of the forces were now arrived, the assembly were in hopes the province would be reliev- ed from raising any more men for the defence of the frontiers ; and, to obtain this favour of the governor ordered £1000 to be levied, one half to be pre- sented to him, and the rest he had leave to distribute among the English officers and soldiers. A bill for this purpose was drawn, but though his excellency thanked them for their favourable intention, he thought it not for his honour to consent to it. After passing several laws the session broke up in perfect harmony, the governor in his great grace recom- mending it to the house to appoint a committee to examine the public accounts against the next session.
In September, Fletcher went up to Albany with very considerable presents to the Indians ; whom he blamed for suffering the French to rebuild the fort at Cadaracqui, or Frontenac, which commands the entrance from Canada into the great lake Ontario.
While these works were carrying on, the Dionon- . dadies, who were then poorly supplied by the French, made overtures of a peace with the Five Nations,
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which the latter readily embraced, because it was owing to their fears of these Indians, who lived near the lake Missilimakinac, that they never dared to march with their whole strength against Canada. The French commandant was fully sensible of the importance of preventing this alliance. The civili- ties of the Dionondadies to the prisoners by whom the treaty, to prevent a discovery, was negotiated, gave the officer the first suspicion of it. One of these wretches had the unhappiness to fall into the hands of the French, who put him to the most ex- quisite torments, that all future intercourse with the Dionondadies might be cut off. Dr. Colden, in just resentment for this inhuman barbarity, has published the whole process from La Potherie's history of North America, and it is this :
" The prisoner being first made fast to a stake, so as to have room to move round it, a Frenchman began the horrid tragedy by broiling the flesh of the prisoner's legs from his toes to his knees, with the red-hot barrel of a gun. His example was fol- lowed by an Utawawa, who being desirous to outdo the French in their refined cruelty, split a furrow from the prisoner's shoulder to his garter, and filling it with gun-powder, set fire to it. This gave him exquisite pain, and raised excessive laughter in his tormentors. When they found his throat so much parched, that he was no longer able to gratify their ears with his howling, they gave him water to ena- ble him to continue their pleasure longer. But at last his strength failing, an Utawawa flayed off his scalp, and threw burning hot coals on his scull. They then untied him, and bid him run for his life. VOL. J .- 18
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He began to run, tumbling like a drunken man. They shut up the way to the east, and made him run westward, the country, as they think, of departed miserable souls. He had still force left to throw stones, till they put an end to his misery by knocking him on the head. After this every one cut a slice from his body, to conclude the tragedy with a feast."
From the time Colonel Fletcher received his instruction respecting the quotas of these colonies for the defence of the frontiers, he repeatedly, but in vain, urged their compliance with the king's direc- tion ; he then carried his complaints against them home to his majesty, but all his applications were defeated by the agents of those colonies who resided in England. As soon, therefore, as he had laid this matter before the assembly, in autumn, 1695, the house appointed William Nicol to go home in the quality of an agent for this province, for which they allowed him £1000. But his solicitations proved unsuccessful, and the instruction relating to these quotas, which is still continued, remains unnoticed to this day. Fletcher maintained a good corres- pondence with the assembly through the rest of his administration ; and nothing appears upon their journals worth the reader's attention.
The French never had a governor in Canada so vigilant and active as the count de Frontenac. He had no sooner repaired the old fort called by his name, than he formed a design of invading the coun- try of the Five Nations with a great army. For this purpose, in 1696, he convened at Montreal, all the regulars as well as Militia under his command ; the Owenagungas, Quatoghies of Loretto, Adirondacks,
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Sokakies, Nipiciriniens, the proselyted praying In- dians of the Five Nations, and a few Utawawas. Instead of wagons and horses, which are useless in such a country as he had to march through, the army was conveyed through rivers and lakes in light barks, which were portable whenever the rapidity of the stream and the crossing an isthmus rendered it necessary. The count left La Chine, at the south end of the island of Montreal, on the 7th of July. Two battalions of regulars, under the command of Le Chevalier de Callieres, headed by a number of Indians, led the van, with two small pieces of can- non, the mortars. grenadoes, and ammunition. After them followed the provisions : then the main body, with the count's household, a considerable number of volunteers, and the engineer ; and four battalions of the militia commanded by Monsieur De Ramezai, governor of Trois Rivieres Two battalions of regu- lars and a few Indians, under the Chevalier de Vau- drueil, brought up the rear.
Before the army went a parcel of scouts, to descry the tracks and ambuscades of the enemy. After twelve days march, they arrived at Cadaracqui, about one hundred and eighty miles from Montreal, and then crossed the lake to Oswego. Fifty men marched on each side of the Onondaga river, which is narrow and rapid. When they entered the little lake*, the army divided into two parts, coasting along the edges, that the enemy might be uncertain as to the place of their landing ; and where they did land
* The Onondaga or Oneida Lake, noted for a good salt pit at the south-east end; which, as it may be very advantageous to the garrison at Oswego, it is ped the government will never grant to any private company.
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they erected a fort. The Onondagas had sent away their wives and children, and were determined to defend their castle, till they were informed by a de- serter of the superior strength of the French, and the nature of bombs, which were intended to be used against them ; and then, after setting fire to their village, they retired into the woods. As soon as the count heard of this, he marched to their huts in order of battle ; being himself carried in an elbow chair behind the artillery. With this mighty appa- ratus he entered it, and the destruction of a little Indian corn was the great acquisition. A brave sa- chem, then about a hundred years old, was the only person who tarried in the castle to salute the old general. The French Indians put him to torment, which he endured with astonishing presence of mind. To one who stabbed him with a knife, "you had better," says he, "make me die by fire, that these French dogs may learn how to suffer like men : you Indians, their allies, you dogs of dogs, think of me when you are in the like condition."* This sachem was the only man of all the Onondagas that was killed ; and had not thirty-five Oneidas, who waited to receive Vaudrueil at their castles, been afterwards basely carried into captivity, the count would have returned without the least mark of triumph. As soon as he began his retreat the Onondagas followed, and annoyed his army by cutting off several batteaux.
This expensive enterprise, and the continual incursions of the Five Nations on the country near Montreal, again spread a famine through all Canada.
* " Never perhaps (says Charlevoix) was a man treated with more cruelty, nor did any ever bear it with superior magnanimity and resolution."
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'The count, however, kept up his spirits to the last, and sent out scalping parties, who infested Albany as our Indians did Montreal, till the treaty of peace signed at Ryswick, in 1697
Richard, Earl of Bellomont, was appointed to succeed colonel Fletcher, in the year 1695, but did not receive his commission till the 18th of June, 1697 ; and as he delayed his voyage till after the peace of Ryswick, which was signed the 10th of September following, he was blown off our coast to Barbadoes, and did not arrive here before the 2d of April, 1698.
During the late war the seas were extremely infested with English pirates, some of whom sailed out of New-York ; and it was strongly suspected that they had received too much countenance here, even from the government, during Fletcher's ad- ministration. His lordship's promotion to the chief command of the Massachusetts Bay and New Hamp- shire, as well as this province, was owing partly to his rank, but principally to the affair of the pirates ; and the multiplicity of business to which the charge of three colonies would necessarily expose him, induced the earl to bring over with him John Nanfan, his kinsman, in the quality of our lieutenant governor .* When lord Bellomont was appointed to the govern- ment of these provinces, the king did him the honour to say " that he thought him a man of resolution and integrity, and with these qualities more likely than any other he could think of to put a stop to the growth of piracy."
* His commission was dated the 1st of July, 1697.
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Before the earl set out for America, he became acquainted with Robert Livingston, esq .* who was then in England, soliciting his own affairs before the council and the treasury. The earl took occasion, in one of his conferences with Mr. Livingston, to mention the scandal the province was under on account of the pirates. The latter, who confessed it was not without reason, brought the earl acquainted with one Kid, whom he recommended as a man of integrity and courage, that knew the pirates and their rendezvous, and would undertake to apprehend them, if the king would employ him in a good sailing frigate of thirty guns and one hundred and fifty men The earl laid the proposal before the king, who consulted the admiralty upon that subject ; but this project dropped, through the uncertainty of the adventure, and the French war, which gave full employment to all the ships in the navy. Mr. Livingston then proposed a private adventure against the pirates, offering to be concerned with Kid a fifth part in the ship and charges, and to be bound for Kid's faithful execution of the commission. The king then approved of the design, and reserved a tenth share to show that he was concerned in the enterprise. Lord chancellor Somers, the duke of Shrewsbury, the earls of Romney and Oxford, Sir
* This gentleman was a son of Mr. John Livingston, one of the commis- sioners from Scotland to King Charles II. while he was an exile at Breda. He was a clergyman distinguished by his zeal and industry ; and for his opposition to episcopacy, became so obnoxious after the Restoration to the English court, that he left Scotland, and took the pastoral charge of an English presbyterian church in Rotterdam. His descendants are very numerous in this province, and the family in the first rank for their wealth, morals, and education. The original Diary, in the hand-writing of their common ancestor, is still amongst them, and contains a history of his life.
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Edmund Harrison and others, joined in the scheme, agreeing to the expense of £6000. But the man- agement of the whole affair was left to lord Bello- mont, who gave orders to Kid to pursue his com- mission, which was in common form. Kid sailed from Plymouth for New-York, in April, 1696; and afterwards turned pirate, burnt his ship, and came to Boston, where the earl apprehended him. His lordship wrote to the secretary of state, desiring that Kid might be sent for. The Rochester man- of-war was dispatched upon this service, but being driven back, a general suspicion prevailed in Eng- land, that all was collusion between the ministry and the adventurers, who. it was thought, were unwilling Kid should be brought home, lest he might discover that the chancellor, the duke, and others, were confederates in the piracy. The matter even proceeded to such lengths, that a motion was made in the house of commons, that all who were con- cerned in the adventure might be turned out of their employments, but it was rejected by a great majority.
The tory party who excited these clamours, though they lost their motion in the house, afterwards impeached several whig lords; and, among other articles, charged them with being concerned in Kid's piracy. But these prosecutions served only to brighten the innocency of those against whom they were brought ; for the impeached lords were honourably acquitted by their peers.
Lord Bellomont's commission was published in council on the day of his arrival ; colonel Fletcher, who still remained governor under the proprietors
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of Pennsylvania, and lieutenant governor Nanfan being present. The members of the council were,
FREDERICK PHILIPSE, WILLIAM NICOLL, STEPHEN VAN CORTLANDT, THOMAS WILLET,
NICHOLAS BAYARD, WILLIAM PINHORNE,
GABRIEL MIENVIELLE, JOHN LAWRENCE.
WILLIAM SMITH,
After the earl had dispatched captain John Schuy- ler and Dellius, the Dutch minister of Albany, to Canada with the account of the peace, and to solicit a mutual exchange of prisoners, he laid before the council the letters from secretary Vernon and the East India Company, relating to the pirates ; informing that board that he had an affidavit, that Fletcher had permitted them to land their spoils in this province, and that Mr. Nicoll bargained for their protections, and received for his services eight hundred Spanish dollars. Nicoll confessed the receipt of the money for protections, but said that it was in virtue of a late act of assembly, allowing privateers on their giving security ; but he denied the receipt of any money from known pirates. One Weaver was admitted at this time into the council chamber, and acted in the quality of king's council ; and in answer to Mr. Nicoll, denied that there was any such act of assembly as he mentioned. After considering the whole matter, the council advised his excellency to send Fletcher home, but to try Nicoll here, because his estate would not bear the expense of a trial in England. Their advice was never carried into execution, which was probably owing to a want of evidence against the parties
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accused. It is nevertheless certain, that the pirates were frequently in the sound, and supplied with provisions by the inhabitants of Long-Island, who for many years afterwards were so infatuated with a notion that the pirates buried great quantities of money along the coast, that there is scarce a point of land, or an island, without the marks of their auri sacra fames. Some credulous people have ruined themselves by these researches, and propagated a thousand idle fables, current to this day among our country farmers.
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