USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. II > Part 21
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"Their lordships, upon consideration of what had been represented by Mr. Bollan, agreed, that a straight line, to be drawn northerly from a point on the south boundary line of the Massachusetts bay,
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twenty miles distant, due east from Hudson's river, on that line which divides the provinces of New- Hampshire and Massachusetts bay, will be a just and equitable line of division between the said pro- vinces of New-York and Massachusetts bay."
This opinion being approved by the privy council, and producing a letter from the secretary of state, recommending that line to both provinces, the sequel will show that we never could remove this obstacle to the extent of our claim, even so far eastward as to cover several ancient patents under this colony.
The disgrace incurred by the British troops, silenced their invectives. His lordship had done nothing against Louisburgh, and was censured by his whole army. On the first intelligence of Mont- calm's attack, he wrote to Mr. Pownal, who had lately arrived as governor at Boston, that he intended to encamp on Long Island for the defence of the continent ; and that governor, on the other hand, was in such consternation, as to give orders for the driving in all the live stock in the west, to the east side of Connecticut river ; and it had taken air, that Mr. Webb had intimidated his troops, by sending his own baggage to Albany, declaring his intention of retreating one hundred and sixty miles down the river to the highlands, and within sixty miles of the metropolis of the province. What impression the assembly wished to make at this time in England, appears from the speaker's letter to the agent of the 12th of September : "As to our military operations, we are still on the losing side, fort William Henry, on the back of lake George, being taken and demo- lished by the enemy, after a siege of eight days,
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with no great loss of men on either side. It surren- dered on capitulation, by which the French became masters of the fort, artillery, and all the stores. Here were lodged all our cannon and stores intended against Crown Point. My lord Loudon is arrived from Halifax, without any attempt on that side. It is said the enemy were superior to us both in land and sea forces. Thus, this campaign is like to end as did the last, with loss to poor America. It seems very strange to us, that the French can send such large supplies to America and always before us, notwithstanding the great superiority of the British navy. Surely there must be a great failure some- where, which if not timely remedied, may probably end in the entire loss of the English America. However, we live still in hopes that the next year's succours will be stronger and arrive earlier, our provincial forces were ready in April, so that no blame can be at our doors. I wish my next may give you better tidings."
Mr. Delancey's vindicatory speech was the more necessary, as he knew that his public conduct had of late been narrowly watched, and his arts during general Shirley's command were disclosed by a pamphlet, published in London, under the title of " A review of the military operations in North America."
Mr. Charles, in a private letter to the speaker, of the 11th May, accompanying a copy of it, writes : " There has lately been published here, a piece which I shall send you, entitled, a review, &c. This production comes from New-York, and has been handed to the press by Mr. Alexander, as he ac-
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knowledged to Mr. Pownal, secretary to the board of trade. There is a virulency against several pri- vate characters, and some reflections on the pro- ceedings of your association, extremely indecent. I believe the governor of Massachusetts bay is put in a fair way, by his brother, of discovering the author."
No reply was ever made to it. Mr. Jones' letters take no notice of it. Secretary Pownal, by menac- ing Dodsley, the printer, traced it to Mr. William Alexander, who denied his being the author; but asserted that he knew most of the suggestions to be true, as well as the facts alleged, which con- vinced him that his brother, the governor, for whom he interposed, deserved the character it exhibited. The pamphlet coming out when America was little known, and transactions here still less, was univer- sally read and talked of in London, and worked consequences of private and public utility.
General Shirley emerged from a load of obloquy .* His extensive designs acquired advocates ; his suc- cessors became cautious and vigilant ; the nation suspicious and inquisitive ; his assembly awed ; party spirit less assuming, and the multitude so enlight- ened that several changes were made on the next dissolution.
The inefficacy of the measures hitherto pursued in America, filled the colonies with distrust; but few discerned the true cause of our disasters. They
* A board of general officers had been ordered to inquire into his conduct, and the secretary at war was commanded to make out the warrant for it. Mr. Shirley often urged for it, and after repeated applications was told that it could not be done, since there was nothing charged against him.
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are hinted at in a letter of that day :-* "To the scandal of the present age will history account these losses, sustained by a people who had it in their power to extirpate the whole French colony at their pleasure. You know, and every man here knows, that we might have raised forty thousand men on such a design, if our strength was united, a number equal to all the males in Canada. That union can in a moment be effected, by a law for the establishment of an American parliament. While each colony is left to divert itself with its private contentions, the common interest must suffer ; whereas a convention of members from each, for a general representation of all, would extinguish the party disputes now subsisting. Pennsylvania, a colony of. fifty thousand fighting men, must then do her part; and when that day dawns, the little tyrants of the respective colonies will die away with these projects, and our affairs be well understood in England. You have a board of trade, and their lordships are presumed to have the best acquaint- ance with the true state of America. We have fifteen colonies on the continent alone ; each three separate branches of the legislature, all transmitting their several acts, votes, &c. to the plantation office. These must all be read for information concerning our state. But is it possible for that board to take even a cursory perusal of the papers transmitted ? and yet something more than that is necessary. I conclude from these premises, that their lordships do not know the state of America. Consider, be-
* It was written by the author, August, 1757, to a gentleman in London.
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sides, that their acts affect a body which is in to-day but out to-morrow ;- and if they are uninformed what must be the consequence ? A law for the establishment of a union, I know, requires the ablest heads. Parliament is sufficient for the task. The defects of the first plan will be supplied by expe- rience. The British constitution ought to be the model ; and from our knowledge of its faults, the American one may, perhaps, rise with more health and soundness in its first contexture, than Great Britain will ever enjoy."
The earl went to Albany on the 20th of Octo- ber,* and thence for a few days visited fort Edward, and there met colonel Peter Schuyler, who was made prisoner at the surrender of Oswego. He left Quebec the 22d October, and reached New- York the 19th November, upon his parole, to return in May unless a cartel was settled. The troops from Halifax, on their return, were immediately ordered to Albany. His lordship posted but one hundred and fifty men at Herkimer, a little fort about one hundred miles west of Albany ; and Montcalm, taking advantage of their public influence on the Six Nations, debauched five hundred from the four remote cantons of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayu- gas and Senecas, to join a French party, who fell upon the German Flats on the 15th of November, massacred some carried others into captivity, and broke up several families of that settlement; and thus ended the unfortunate year of 1757. His
* Governor Morris sailed for England 4th October, to animate the adminis- tration to an expedition against Canada.
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lordship cantoned his troops in several of the pro- vinces with such a magisterial tone as gave fresh and general offence ; but from the civil department he met with no opposition :- their pusillanimity or their interests, made them silent and inactive until the multitude exulted at the news, which not long after arrived, of his being recalled to England.
Before the close of this unfortunate year, Mr. Delancey had another interview with his assembly.
The small-pox prevailing in the centre of the capital, he convened them in the suburbs, and as it was ludicrously said, at his own kitchen. The truth is, they met on the 6th December in an out-house occupied by the overseer of his own farm upon the skirts of the town.
One of the main designs was to procure an indemnity for himself and the council, for diverting £2000, which had been appropriated for fortifica- tions, from that use, for the construction of barracks, that private families might be delivered from the inconvenience of the soldiers billetted upon them by the noble general at the head of the army, and which they ventured to draw out of the treasury at the request of the city corporation, who had en- gaged to replace it ; but he held up other objects to their attention. The salaries of the year, the defence of the western frontiers, the maintenance of the prisoners, restraining the king's troops from intemperance, the regulation of the staples of flour, beef, pork, and butter, a stricter militia law, the con- tinuance of the excise upon tea and the stamp duty, a poll tax upon negro slaves, and a tonnage duty on all vessels, not excepting those from Great Britain.
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Several laws for ordinary cases were passed towards the end of the month, and among them one to prolong the currency of the bills of credit, the royal inhibition notwithstanding, without the least hesitation.
To the lieutenant-governor the assembly gave an augmented salary of £1800, and £400 more under the pretext of fire and light for the indepen- dent companies now scattered through the provinces, and the sum of £50 was added to the puisne judges' salaries, as a consideration for their extraordinary services, unassisted as they were, by the chief justice's absence from the bench. And the day before they rose, care was taken to order the speaker to write to sir Charles Hardy, who went from Halifax to England, to answer, as it was conjectured, the double purpose of preserving his commission and prolonging his return.
Mr. Jones's letter was doubtless very agreeable to our admiral, just arrived from an unsuccessful expedition. I transcribe it here, and insert beneath the one to the agent that covered it .*
* Sir-Enclosed you have a letter to sir Charles Hardy, our late governor, wliich you are to deliver to him with your own hands, and to consult and advise with him in affairs relating to this colony. We are greatly surprised to find that their lordships for trade and plantations, have made a second report to his majesty on the affair of the Massachusetts line, by which we shall be great losers, because by the course of Hudson's river, a due east line from the stations, we are to run from and to, will fall some miles short of twenty which by the first report we were to have. You are therefore to use your best endeavours to pre- vent such a loss to this colony. The committee and commissioners will write more largely to you on this head. We are also greatly surprised, that this affair should be transacted without your privity, (which we must suppose to be the case) because you have given us no notice of it. If you knew of it, you have been greatly deficient in your duty, and are justly liable to censure for not opposing it, and acquainting us with it. The house have not yet finished the business before them, and are to meet soon after the holidays, After that I expect to
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"New-York, 24th Dec. 1757-
" Sir,
" By the enclosed minutes you will see the autho- rity I have to write to you in the name of the general assembly of this his majesty's colony ; and I assure you sir, that it is with the utmost pleasure I execute this authority, in a grateful acknowledgment of your past and steady attention to the public service of the colony from the first moment of your arrival in it. My station of speaker to the general assem- bly during your whole administration, furnished me with frequent opportunities of observing with plea- sure that the welfare and prosperity of his majesty's subjects committed to your care, was your chief and
principal study. Surely no governor ever attended the public service with more assiduity, or more steadily pursued the good of those he governed. This, sir, assures us that though you have left us, you will not forget us, but will on every suitable occasion assist our agent, Mr. Robert Charles, on what may relate to this colony, and represent us in a favourable light to our most gracious sovereign, to whose person, family and government, this colony has a most sincere and inviolable attachment. I do, in the name of the general assembly, most heartily congratulate you on your preferment in his majesty's navy, and assure you, that you have their most ardent wishes, and I am persuaded of the whole province, that success, honour, and happiness, may attend you
write to you again on the affair of the Jersey line also. An order is made out for your last year's allowance, and the same continued for another year ; but how after that I cannot say. The house have not proceeded to the examination of accounts : when they do, you will fall under consideration.
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in that and every other station to which Divine Pro- vidence shall call you. "
While we were in suspense respecting the plan expected for the operations of the ensuing year, the military officers indulged great heats concerning the inactivity of the last campaign. Lord Charles Hay led a party at Halifax in severe reflections on the earl of Loudon. Their animosities spread to New- York, and among the discontented, no man indulged in greater liberties than Mr. Lee, then a subaltern, who did not restrain himself in the open coffee-house from calling it the cabbage planting expedition ; drawing into question not only the earl's military skill, but his courage and integrity : and others were divided respecting the northern events. There were advocates for Mr. Webb, who insisted that fort Wil- liam Henry was unnecessarily surrendered, while those who adhered to colonel Young, impeached that general, not only for neglect to relieve the beseiged, but for the loss of the German Flats, by demolishing the fort at the great carrying-place in 1756. For Mr. Webb, it was affirmed that he was not 3000 strong at fort Edward, till the day before the capitulation ; that he then wrote to Monroe, that he was on the point of marching to his aid, but was over-persuaded by Young to give up the fort. As to the demolition of the western fort ; in order to acquit Webb, it was averred to be in consequence of the earl's positive orders.
Whatever the real design, it certainly was owing to the height of these animosities that a winter attack upon Ticonderoga was talked of, and lord Howe mentioned as the person who was to lead that enter-
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prise. His lordship then commanded a regiment quartered on Long Island. The carpenters at Albany were employed in framing small sleds to be drawn by hand; snow shoes were provided; worsted caps bought up; a new corps of five hundred rangers formed under colonel Gage, and Rogers ordered to raise one thousand men, of which he was to be major commandant. But after a few weeks nothing more was heard of this undertaking, and the obloquy was transferred from Webb and Young, to the earl of Loudon, already expressed by the joint calumnies of his own army and the provinces. Mr. Webb win- tered with him in town; but general Abercrombie took no part in these quarrels, and quietly passed his time at Albany, where he received the public inti- mation of the extensive project of making a conquest of all Canada, and his own advancement to the command of a great army, to be composed of the British troops, augmented by the whole force of the colonies.
Mr. Delancey collected the assembly, and made a speech to them on the 10th March, 1758, in which he incorporated the animating terms of Mr. Pitt's circular letter, for setting all the wheels in motion to raise 20,000 provincials. The king was to furnish all the arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions : the levying, clothing, and pay, we were to defray, with a promise of being relieved according to our active vigour and strenuous efforts, by a parliamentary re- imbursement.
" I hope," says the lieutenant-governor, "a num- ber of ballot men will have at heart the honour of a brave and the best of kings ; and will voluntarily and
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cheerfully engage in a service, on the success of which their properties, their civil and religious liberties depend.
Nothing could be more grateful to the majority of the people than the design proposed. The assembly promised their aid without a moment's hesitation, and resolved to raise, clothe, and pay two thousand six hundred and eighty men, with ten pounds bounty for every volunteer, and twenty shillings to the officer for every recruit. And the lieutenant-governor and council, to favour the levies, laid an immediate em- bargo. The house voted to maintain every poor soldier's family in his absence; and to defray the expense, bills were emitted for £100,000, to be can- celled by a tax for nine years. The necessary law was passed, and the assembly dismissed before the end of the month, without the least jar among the legislators upon this subject, though the council had refused their assent to the favourable project for ex- tending the power of the government, by enlarging the influence and authority of the trustees of the peace.
Mr. Nicoll brought in the five-pound bill on the Ist December preceding, and four days afterwards it was sent to the council. On the 23d they were stimulated as to the progress respecting what "the good people of the colony had so much at heart," and were answered, that while the bill was in com- mittee a petition was presented to be heard against it, which that house intended to grant after the holidays. Another more important message by Mr. Watts and colonel Delancey, respecting it, was delivered on the 31st January; adding that this
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house, in justice to their constituents, cannot avoid being solicitous about a bill which experience has shown to be attended with such happy effects in the several counties where it took place, and which the disinterested part of the good people of this colony are impatiently expecting to see continued, and therefore, that their just expectations may not be disappointed, and that the city of New-York and such other parts of the colony as have hitherto been excluded, and where its use is apparently necessary, may no longer be deprived of the bene- fits almost universally acknowledged to arise there- from-the house hopes the council will not continue to defer their concurrence thereto.
The upper house took no umbrage at the unpar- liamentary mode of arguing and corresponding with each other, but simply replied, that the day formally appointed for the hearing, would not arrive till the 8th instant. Before that they were irregularly adjourned from the 4th of February to the 7th of March, on a letter from the lieutenant-governor to the speaker. I observed that he chose to make a speech to them after the receipt of Mr. Pitt's letter, though there had been no end of the session. The council unmoved, sent down the bill with amend- ments, and the same morning (21st March) were informed that the house would not concur in them, and thus the fate of the bill was suspended-the council adhering to their alterations, and the lower house being, as was then supposed, satisfied with the amazing influence which the new commissioners for raising the army would create prior to the elec- tion near at hand, in consequence of the septennial
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act passed in the time of Mr. Clinton, who was censured for a practice in which he was now en- slaved, that of filling up vacancies in the counties according to the nomination of the members, some of whom were trusted with blanks to be filled up at their pleasure. But on the nearer approach of the dissolution, the assembly rescinded their vote and concurred with the amendments, and the bill was passed.
Mr. Amherst was to accomplish the conquest of Cape Briton, the island of St. Johns, and their dependencies. Mr. Forbes commanded in the en- terprise against the French forts on the Ohio; but the main army for penetrating Canada through the northern lakes was to be conducted by Mr. Aber- crombie.
Fort Edward was the place of rendezvous. The New-York troops were all levied and collected there a fortnight before; the stores arrived from England about the middle of June, under convoy of the vanguard ; not long after which the forces of the colonies came in. By the activity of lord Howe and lieutenant-colonel Bradstreet, the boats were forwarded with speed, and lord Howe led the first division of 4000 men, before the end of June, to lake George. General Abercrombie followed with the main body, and on the 6th July the whole army landed at the north end of those waters.
They defeated (to use the words of Mr. Jones' letter to the agent of the 2d November) a party who went against them, and got possession of all the ground between the place of landing and the French fort at Ticonderoga; but meeting with a VOL. IT .- 41
*
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small repulse there, they immediately (at least as appeared to us) gave up all the advantages they had gained, and hastily returned back over the lake again, and nothing has been attempted since in that quarter. Where the fault lay we cannot take upon us to say, but it appears to us to be more in the head than the body.
Lord Howe, on the march to the lake, fell a sacrifice to his valour in a conflict with the French advanced guard. Brigadier Prevost, in a letter of the 3d August, informed the author, that the army marched in the best order, but from ignorance in the officers, or the indocility of the troops, they took fright on the report of a few muskets, and instantly dispersed. That this happened twice in two hours.
The works at Ticonderoga were trifling; they had piled logs on the land side in a line for a breastwork, and trees before it to embarrass the assailants. Mr. Abercrombie, who was two miles in the rear, and not informed that there was at one end an open access to the French encampment, ordered an attack with musketry alone, upon that part of the line which was finished and fortified with cannon, and there we sustained the loss in killed and wounded : nearly two thousand brave men, who were advancing with the utmost difficulty, greatly obstructed by an abattis of trees ..
The French general, who was just within the lines, perceived our folly, stripped off his clothes, and with a drawn sword, forbid a musket to be fired upon the pain of the severest punishment, until he gave the word. When embarrassed and unable to fly back, he issued the word of command, and our front was
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mowed down like grass. Hearing of the slaughter, Mr. Abercrombie ordered a retreat ; he hurried them on the night of the 7th to the lake, where they em- barked with the utmost precipitation, nor even then abated their speed till they had passed its whole length.
Colonel Peter Schuyler, who was then a prisoner in Canada, informed the author that Mr. Montcalm's whole force there and at Crown Point did not exceed three thousand men; nor their killed and taken both within the lines and at the advanced guard, two hundred and thirty ; and that from a dread of our vast superiority, they had actually before our retreat prepared to abandon Crown Point.
Lieutenant colonel Bradstreet, impatient of this disgrace, and hoping nothing from a general, who, while he calumniated his army as broken-spirited, discovered that he wanted firmness himself, urged an attempt upon Frontenac. He was sent to Oswego in 1755, was there again in 1756, and had entered into Shirley's views of the importance of command- ing the waters of Ontario, and offered his services to conduct the enterprise. Abercrombie gave him a detachment of three thousand men : he rather flew than marched with them through that long rout from lake George to Albany, and thence again up the stream of the Mohawk river, then across the portage, down the Wood creek to the lake of the Oneidas, and the rapids of the Onondaga, to Oswego. Thence he pushed his open boats into the sea of Ontario, traversing the south-eastern coast from point to point, till he crossed the St. Lawrence and surprised the garrison of Frontenac. He invested it, took it,
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