USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 33
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On the other hand, Governor Clinton, inflexibly determined to pre- serve the disputed jurisdiction, was exerting himself to the utmost for that object. In the spring of this year (1781) he transmitted a special message to the Legislature, then sitting at Poughkeepsie, con- taining important information respecting the designs of the Vermon- ters, by which it appeared that Dr. Smith (a brother of the historian, Joshua Hett Smith of Andre fame) was actively engaged in foment- ing disaffection, and had held interviews with Ethan Allen, upon the subject in Albany. Allen, it is true, pretended, at the time, that his visit to Albany was solely for the purpose of waiting on the Governor to receive his answer to a petition which the Vermonters had laid before the Assembly; but Clinton wisely mistrusted his errand and refused either to see him or hold any intercourse with him whatever. In order, moreover, to bring the question of jurisdiction to the test, several persons, by the Governor's order, were arrested later in the summer, within the territory of the Grants and within, also, what is now Washington County under the pretext of some military delin- quency. This proceeding was applying the brand to the powder. Governor Clinton lost no time in writing to Captain Van Rensselaer demanding the release of the prisoners taken from the Grants, assert- ing their "determination to maintain the government they had set up," and threatening that, in the event of an invasion of the territory of New York by the common enemy, unless these prisoners were given up, they would render no assistance to New York. Nor was this all. While the county was threatened by invasions from the north and west, the spirit of the Vermont insurgents began to spread among the militia in the northern towns east of the Hudson, belong- ing to General Gansevoort's own brigade. In fact the situation was, at this time, most serious; for, on the one hand General Starke was calling upon him for assistance against the enemy apparently ap- proaching from Lake Champlain and Skeensborough, and on the
291
GENERAL GANSEVOORT'S PERPLEXITY.
other, Governor Clinton was directing him to quell the spirit of in- subordination along the line of the New Hampshire Grants,' and both of these duties were to be discharged with a knowledge that a portion of his own command was infected with the same insurgent spirit. Added to this, he was privately informed that the Green Mountain Boys were maturing a plot for his abduction. Meanwhile, the gov- ernment of the Grants had effected an organization of their own militia, and disclosures had been made to the government of New York, imputing to the leading men of the Grants a design, in the event of a certain contingency, of throwing the weight of their own forces into the scale of the Crown. This was the position of affairs when Governor Clinton addressed to General Gansevoort the follow- ing letter:
. POUGHEFEKSIE, OCT. 18, 1781.
ยท Dear Sir:
Your letter of the 15th instant. was delivered to me on the evening of the roth. I have delayed answering it, in hopes that the Legislature would ere this have formed a quorum, and that I might have availed myself of their advice on the sub- ject to which it relates; but as this is not yet the case, and it is uncertain when I shall be enabled to lay the matter before them, I conceive it might be improper longer to defer expressing my own sentiments to you on this subject.
" The different unwarrantable attempts, during the summer, of the people on the Grants to establish their usurped jurisdiction, even beyond their former claim, and the repetition of it (alluded to in your letter) in direet opposition to a resolution of Congress injurious to the state and favorable to their project of independence, and at a time when the common enemy are advancing, can only be accounted for by what other parts of their conduct have given us too much reason to suspect disaffection to the common cause. On my part. I have hitherto shown a disposi- tion to evade entering into any altercation with them, that might, in its most re- mote consequences, give encouragement to the enemy, and expose the frontier settlements to their ravages; and from these considerations alone I have submitted to insults which otherwise would not have been borne with, and I could have wished to have continued this line of conduct until the approaching season would have secured us against the incursions of the common enemy. But, as from the accounts contained in Colonel Van Rensselaer's letter, it would appear that the mil- itia embodying under Mr. Chittenden's orders are for the service of the enemy, and that their first object was to make you a prisoner, it would be unjustifiable to suffer them to proceed. It is therefore my desire that you maintain your authority throughout your brigade, and for this purpose, that you carry the laws of the state
1 As I have several times stated in the text, I wish it to be understood, that when I mention the " New Hampshire Grants," it takes in the present Washington County. Hence, this discussion. as I have said, is by no means irrelevant.
292
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
into execution against those who shall presume to disobey your lawful orders. I would only observe that these sentiments are founded on an idea that the accounts given by Colonel Van Rensselaer in his letter may be relied on; it being still my earnest desire, for the reasons above explained, not to do anything that will bring matters to extremities, at least before the close of the campaign, if it can consis- tently be avoided.
"I am, with great respect and esteem, "Dear sir, your most obedt. serv't., " GEORGE CLINTON. " Brig. Gen. Gansevoort." 1
The apprehension of Clinton was by no means groundless. Indeed, there was, at this time, too much reason to fear that treason was deeply and extensively at work, and from the tempers of great num- bers of the people, and the carriage of the disaffected there was just canse to dread that, should the enemy again invade the country, either from the north or the west his standard would be joined by much larger numbers of people than would have rallied beneath it at any former period. These fears, moreover, received additional confirmation by the statements, under oath, of two prisoners who had escaped from Canada in the autumn of the present year-John Edgar and David Abeel. The substance of the statements of these men was, that several of the leading men of the New Hampshire Grants (in which category many of the inhabitants of what is now Washing- ton County should be included) were forming an alliance with the King's officers in Canada. Among these leaders were Ethan Allen and his brother Ira and the two Fays, and their consultations with the British agents were sometimes held at Castleton, on the Grants and sometimes in Canada. Mr. Abeel's information was that the Grants were to furnish the King with fifteen hundred men, to be under the command of Ethan Allen, who was then in Canada upon that business. A third account, submitted to the New York Legisla- ture at this time by Clinton, was somewhat different and more in de- tail. In this paper, it was stated, "First, that the territory claimed by the Vermonters should be formed into a distinet colony or govern- ment; secondly, that the form of government should be similar to that of Connecticut, save that the nomination of the governor should be vested in the Crown; thirdly, that they should be allowed to re- main neutral, unless the war should be carried within their own terri-
1 MS. letter, in the author's possession.
293
ETHAN ALLEN'S TREASONABLE DESIGNS.
tory; fourthly, they were to raise two battalions, to be in the pay of the Crown, but to be called into service only for the defense of the colony ; and fifthly, they were to be allowed a free trade with Canada. General Haldimand had not deemed himself at liberty to decide defin- itely upon propositions of so much importance, and had, accordingly, transmitted them to England for the Royal consideration.1 An answer was then expected. Such was the purport of the intelligence, and such, moreover, was the weight of the testimony, that Governor Clinton did not hesitate to assert that they " proved a treasonable and dangerous intercourse and connection between the leaders of the revolt in the northeastern part of the state and the common enemy."
Indeed, Governor Clinton was entirely correct in his surmises; and there can be no question that both Ethan Allen and his brother Ira, had in contemplation the turning over of the present State of Vermont and Washington County to the British, and no sophistry on the part of Slade and other historians of Vermont will shake this belief. In- deed, if space permitted, this statement could very easily be proved. but as I have it not at my disposal the reader must be satisfied with my statement. The fact is, that Ethan Allen, like Arnold, who did at the outset, so much for the Colonial cause, was, like him, ready to sell out to Great Britain-and was actually as much of a traitor as Arnold- though the latter, having so much of theatrical display, was painted on the canvass of history as the monster of all the Revolution .?
The Legislature of the Grants assembled at Charleston, N. H., in October, about which time General St. Leger, agreeably to an arrang- ment with Allen and Fay, ascended the lake with a strong force to Ticonderoga, where he rested. Meanwhile, a rumor of the capture of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown had such an effect upon the Vermonters as to cause Allen and Fay to write to the British Com- missioners, with St. Leger, that it would be imprudent at that partic- ular juncture to promulgate the Royal proclamation, and urging delay to a more auspicious moment. The messenger with these despatches had not been longer than an hour at the headquarters of St. Leger at
1 Canadian archives. First series.
2 Nor were Allen and Arnold the only ones who showed the white feather! Even Duchow. the Chaplain of the Continental Congress, wrote to Washington (then at Valley Forge) urging him to go over to the British cause !
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Ticonderoga1 before the rumor respecting Cornwallis was confirmed by an " Express. " " All ideas of further operations in that quarter were, therefore, instantly abandoned, and before evening of the same day, St. Leger's troops were re-embarked, and, with a fair wind he sailed immediately back to St. Johns.
With the return of St. Leger to St. Johns, all active operations ceased with the enemy at the north, but the difficulties of the state government with the New Hampshire Grants were on the increase and the controversy ran so high that by the first of December (1781) an insurrection broke out in the regiments of Colonel John Van Rensselaer and Colonel Henry K. Van Rensselaer in the northeastern towns of the state. These disturbances arose in Schaghticoke, Hoosic, St. Coick's and the parts adjacent (viz. Washington County) belong- ing then to the County of Albany, but claimed by the government of the Grants. General Gansevoort was apprised of the insurrection the fifth. He at once directed Colonels Yates 3 and H. K. Van Rensselaer whose regiments at that time were the least disaffected, to collect such troops as they could, and repair to St. Coick's to the assistance of Col. John Van Rensselaer. An express being dispatched to Clinton, at Poughkeepsie, with the news and a request for directions what course to pursue in the emergency, the return of the messenger brought very explicit orders from the indomitable governor. "I perfectly approve of your conduct," wrote Clinton, "and have only to add that, should the force already detached prove insufficient to quell the in- surrection, you will make such additions to it as to render it effectual. I have transmitted to General Robert Van Rensselaer the information and have directed him, in case it should be necessary on your appli- cation to give assistance from his brigade." Although the fact had not been stated in the dispatches forwarded to Governor Clinton, that the movement had originated in the Grants, yet the governor was at no loss at once to attribute it to the "usurped government of that pretended state," and it was his resolute determination, as he ex-
1 Should the reader like to hear more of St. Leger, he is referred to my " Burgoyne's Cam- paign," and his subsequent career is really worth a perusal.
2 This word " Express" which occurs so frequently in this, and contemporary histories, has not the significance of the present meaning. It was confined to a messenger-whether Indian or White-who undertook to break through the enemy's lines and carry the intelligence thus sent forth.
3 The great-grandfather of Hon. Austin A. Yates of Schenectady, N. Y., a well known lawyer of that city.
295
CLINTON FAILS TO SUBDUE THE GRANTS.
pressed it, to oppose force to force, and in regard to the Grants, themselves to "repel force by force." On the 16th, the day after receiving Clinton's instructions, Gansevoort took the field himself,1 repairing, in the first instance to the headquarters of Starke at Fort Edward, in order to obtain a detachment of troops and a field piece. But Starke was lukewarm; his troops, he said, were too naked to move from their quarters, and he pleaded the impropriety of his in- terfering without an order from General Heath. " Gansevoort then crossed over to the east side of the river in order to arouse the militia in Hoosic. His efforts, however, were fruitless. None of the militia responded, and only eighty men could be depended on out of the four regiments of Yates, Henry K. Van Rensselaer and Van Vechten. Instead of the latter regiment, only the Colonel, a few officers and one private could be prevailed on to march. Under these discourag- ing circumstances, Gansevoort was compelled to relinquish the expe- dition, and the insurgents-among them as I have said, and to their shame be it recorded, the people of Washington County-remained the victors, to the no small terror of those of the loyal inhabitants, who were well disposed, inasmuch as they were apprehensive of being taken prisoners and carried away, as had been the case with others, should they refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the government of Vermont. But, although Clinton had thus failed to subdue the sturdy mountaineers-a task that the Colonial governors of New York before him for thirty years had been unable to accomplish-his ill- success was owing to the force of circumstances, and not to lack of ability. His position, during all of this controversy, had been most trying, for this trouble with the Vermonters was, in effect, a serious insurrection within his own state, calling for his closest attention, occurring, too, at a time when he was endeavoring by every possible means to assist the general government in her war against the com- mon enemy. This fact was recognized by Washington who, through- out the war, and to the close of his life, continued to place implicit confidence in Clinton's judgment. Nor, were these marks of confi- dence merely of respect to his professional opinions. The cordial regard in which he was held by the Commander-in-chief .is shown,
I MIS Letter from Gansevoort in the author's possession.
2 While it goes without saving that no suspicion whatever of treachery can be alleged against Starke, yet it is evident that he had been tinged with sympathy for Allen and Fay.
296
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
not only by the solicitude with which the latter watched over the safety of his person, but in the circumstance, that almost his first act on retiring into private life, was to write to him as one upon whose affectionate sympathy he could rely. "The scene, my dear friend," said he in a letter to Clinton, written three days after his arrival at Mount Vernon, "is at length closed. I feel myself eased of a load of public care and hope to spend the remainder of my days in cultivating the affections of good men, and in the practice of the domestic vir- tues. " 1
Meanwhile, during all of this acrimonious controversy which has been just narrated, the people of Charlotte County very naturally, in puzzled bewilderment, were anxious to know what would be their status-whether, their county would ultimately belong to Vermont or New York .?
But upon one thing they were resolved, viz. : to have the name of the county changed, and for the reason that the long and bloody struggle of the Revolutionary war, with its accompaniments of inva- sion, rapine, house-burning and Indian outrage, had very naturally caused most bitter feelings among the people against everything which savored in the least of English name or origin. "Even the name of Queen Charlotte," says a writer, "was not agreeable to the inhabitants of Charlotte County, whose farms had been devastated by Queen Charlotte's husband." Still more odious was the name of Tryon County-derived from the tyrannical and blood-thirsty governor of New York whose raids upon the defenceless towns of Connecticut on the Sound were yet held in shuddering horror-to the settlers of the Mohawk valley, who had been subjected to pillage and massacre during all of the war by Tories and Indians in British employ. Ac- cordingly, on the second day of April, 1784, the New York Legisla- ture, in compliance with a petition signed by the most representative men of these two counties, passed an act changing the two names just mentioned. This act was a model of brevity and precision (which, by the way, it might be well for the Assemblyman of the present day to copy) and, after the enacting clause, read as follows:
1 Autograph letter of General Washington formerly in my possession.
2 Indeed, had these good people of Charlotte county been accustomed to the slang of the present day, they undoubtedly would have expressed their feelings in that inelegant, though very expressive phrase, " Where are we at ?"
297
COUNTY FIRST NAMED WASHINGTON.
"From and after the passage of this act, the County of Tyron shall be known by the name of Montgomery and the County of Charlotte by the name of Washington."
"Thus," says Johnson, "the most honored appellation known to Americans was conferred upon this county. The name was not as common then as now and we believe this is the oldest Washington County in the United States-a veritable patriarch with nearly forty namesakes among counties, besides an almost countless host of towns, villages and post offices." In the same year also (1784), the township of Hartford was formed from Westfield (now Fort Ann) and the settlement of Dresden was begun.
The doubts of the people of Washington County, however, regard- ing to which state they were finally to belong were soon set at rest. Vermont, in 1790, overawed by public opinion, "drew in her horns," and yielding to New Hampshire her right of exercising her jurisdic- tion over all the towns east of the Connecticut river, she, though not very gracefully, made it known that the management by New York state of Charlotte and Albany counties would not be interfered with. In the same year the long drawn out contest between New York and the New Hampshire Grants was finally settled. Governor Clinton, as stated, having completely failed in his efforts to extend the author- ity of his state over the Green Mountain Boys, made a virtue of necessity, and on the 6th of March a law was passed by the New York Legislature ceding to Vermont "all claim to political jurisdic- tion and also to ownership of the land within that state, and appoint- ing commissioners to meet with others from Vermont and settle the boundaries between the two states."
This commission met in the following October, and agreed on a boundary, "beginning at the northeast corner of Massachusetts and running thence northerly along the western bounds of the towns of Pow- nal, Bennington, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Sandgate, Rupert, Wells and Poultney, as then held, to the Poultney river; thence down the middle of the deepest channel of Poultney river to East Bay, and thence down the middle of East Bay and Lake Champlain to the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude. It will thus be seen that this boundary forms the southwest corner of Salem northward to Clinton county, and also forms the eastern boundary of Washington County. It was further agreed by the commissioners that "Vermont should pay to
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298
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
New York the sum of $30,000, to be divided among those who had lost by buying land from New York within the disputed territory." This was but a small fraction of the value of the lands patented by the New Yorkers, but, as has been remarked, "it probably served as a salve to the wounded dignity of the state." 1 "Chancing to have met with a list of the civil officers of Washington County for 1790," says Johnson in his admirable history of that county, "we reproduce here, as it is, perhaps, the only complete list which has come down from the last century-most of the early papers of the Board having been destroyed. It is as follows: Salem, Hamilton McCollister; Ar- gyle, William Reed; Queensbury (now in Warren County) William Roberts; Kingsbury, Seth Allen; Westfield (Fort Anne) George Wray; Whitehall, Cornelius Jones; Hampton, John How; Granville, Timothy Leonard; Hebron, John Hamilton."
In 1791 Vermont was finally admitted into the Union as one of the original thirteen states, "thus putting the seal of Federal authority on the settlement arrived at this year," Washington County thus be- came a border county along all of its great length. By the same act, the town of Cambridge, comprising the present towns of Jackson and White Creek, was transferred to Washington County; while that part of the towns of Saratoga and Stillwater, lying east of the Hudson, was formed into a new town, by the name of Easton, and was also an- nexed to Washington. "We do not know," says Johnson, "but we imagine very strongly that these transfers were managed by General John Williams of Salem, then an influential member of the State Sen- ate, so as to strengthen the south end of the county, and get the coun- ty seat permanently fixed at Salem." "At all events," continues Johnson, "that same year a petition was circulated asking the Legis-
1 The last two clauses of the act, passed by the Vermont Legislature, October 28, 1790, read as follows : "It is hereby enacted by the general assembly of the state of Vermont, that the people of the state of Vermont on or before the ist day of June, 1794, pay the state of New York $30,000.
"And it is hereby further enacted that all grants, charters or patents of land lying within the state of Vermont, made by or under the government of the late colony of New York-except such grants. charters or patents, made by, or under the government of the late province of New Hampshire-are hereby declared null and void, and incapable of being given in evidence, in any court of law within the state." Slade's " Vermont State Papers."
The money received from Vermont was divided in 1799 among the New York claimants, from which it would appear as if the "Ring"-for they had " Rings" in that day also-received the bulk of the award. Thus, Goldsborough Banyar of Albany (an old friend of Sir William Johnson), and a large landed proprietor in Cambridge received $7.218, while the settler, Charles Hutchins, whose lands had been seized, and his house destroyed by Ethan Allen and his band, received $9.98. The other residents of Washington County benefitted by the fund were Ebenezer Clarke, $37.42; Archibald Campbell, $49.91, and Samuel Stevens, $653.63.
BOUNDS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY ESTABLISHED. 299
lature to fix the county-seat at Salem, and to authorize the building of a court-house and jail at that point, there having been no county buildings previous to that time." Fort Edward and the neighboring towns, as a matter of course, resisted this movement. Edward Sav- age of Salem (father of the celebrated Chief Justice Savage) and also a State Senator at the same time was, as might be inferred, greatly opposed to such a change. But, while Salem and Fort Edward were thus struggling for the honors of the county-seat, some of the river people desired to have it located at Fort Miller. The Legislature, however, avoided a decision by a device so frequently resorted to since that time, and at length, permanently incorporated in the law-that is, they authorized the Board of Supervisors to fix the locality. The Board accordingly met and located the county-seat at Salen1.
It was not, however, until 1812 that the exact line of Washington County was finally settled by commissioners from both states. The New York commissioners were Smith Thompson, Simeon de Witt and George Tibbitts,' and with this act the long dispute between New York and Vermont may be said to have ended. The following year, moreover, the boundaries and status of Washington County were per- manently fixed, for on the 12th of March, 1813, the County of Warren was established. This reduced the area of Washington County to the. limits which it has ever since retained. It also brought the county- seat at Sandy Hill, within a mile of the county line; but as the court- house was already built, that location has been able to hold its. ground. against all rivals ever since.
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