Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 11

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592

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all the energy and determination which self-interest, largely developed, can arouse among active, ambi- tious, unscrupulous, and wealthy men ; while, among the agrieulturists and small country traders, none of whom had been or were, in the slightest degree, ag- grieved by the Colonial policy of the Home Govern- ment,-among whom, therefore, there was no di-affec- tion, because of that policy ; and whose individual interests would be more advanced and better secured by continued quiet, throughout the Colony, than by unrest and political excitement- there was an entire and generally prevailing indifference to the well-told complaints of the commercial and mercantile classes, within the Cities, as well as to the means for obtain- ing a redress of their particular grievances, to which those metropolitan Merchants and Traders had re- sorted, of all of which, the complaints as well as the means employed, these hard-handed rusties, with few exceptions, know almost nothing, and in none of which, the grievances or the means employed for the redress of those grievances, did they possess even the slightest personal interest. Each of these two classes of Colonists, in New York, the commercial and mer- cantile classes, within the two Cities, and the agricul- tural and dependent classes, throughout the country -the former assuming to have been aggrieved by the Home Government and originating means for the re- dress of those alleged grievances, on the one hand ; the latter wholly indifferent to the complaints of the metropolitan Merchants and Traders and to the various means resorted to, by them, in their efforts to effect a removal of those grievances, on the other hand-was sincere, in maintaining what it did main- tain, since each was prompted and controlled by noth- ing else than by its own personal interests ; and what was really "patriotism," the interests of the aggregate body of the Colonists regardless of the interests of any individual or elass of those Colonists, in either of those classes, if they were patriotic on any other sub- ject, had no part nor lot in this matter.

The Congress of the Colonies, as the reader will remember and as we have stated, was one of those means which were resorted to, by the aristocratie, anti-revolutionary commercial and mercantile classes, within the City of New York and by those Traders whose seat was at Albany, for the purpose, it was alleged, of securing a peaceful redress of what those Merchant: and Traders were pleased to consider as grievances-in other words, for the removal of those restraints on that "illicit trade " in which they had been so long, so corruptly, and so successfully engaged, which the Home Government had recently interposed, with more than usual efficiency; and for the exoneration of that lawlessness and reckless de- struetion of property, by mobs who had been in-

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

spired and directed by controlling members of those had originated and by whom it had been fostered, emmaencial and mer amibe chero for which property the local authorities had neglected or declined to compensate the owner -- and, besides the indifference of the farmers, who constituted a vastly great major- ity of the adult males who were permanent residents of the Colony, which we have described, it encoun-

very many disapproved the violence of its declared policy-of that policy which had closed the doors to all hopes for Reconciliation and Peace, and which had opened the doors, invitingly, to Revolution and Rebellion, to War and Ruin -and drew back from those who continued to -u-tain the Congress and who, tered, from its inception, the earnest and active and then, were preparing to enforce its decrees ; while the unscrupulous handful of "fire-eaters," within the latter portion of those classes, allied with the revolu- tionary faction whom those commercial and mercan- tile classes had previously declined to recognize and for whom, individually and collectively, only that superficial respect which practical politicians have ; always entertained for those, of lower ranks of so- ciety, whom they have sought to employ as the means of their own advancement to place and influ- ence and wealth, was entertained, proceeded to en- force, by fair means or by foul, the various decrees, thinly disguised as "recommendations," which the Congress had enacted. City of New York, because of the moderate temper in which it had been proposed ; because of the disre- gard of the pretensions of the Town of Boston, with which they were in harmonious correspondence ; and because the authors and promoters of the project of convening such a Congress had disregarded the as- pirations of some of those "fire-eaters" for places in the Delegation who would be sent to that Congress, as representatives of the Colony of New York ; and, reasonably enough, it encountered, also, the opposition, direct and decided, of that very small number who personally constituted the Colonial Government, and by some of those who occupied places of honor and emolument under its authority, and, most zealously of all these, by those hungry sycophants of authority -hangers on of that Colonial Government who never failed to "sneeze, whenever it took snuff"-the aggregate of whom was powerless in its legitimate opposition because of the smallness of its num- bers.

Notwithstanding the direct opposition of the little clique of fire-eating revolutionists and that of the larger and more influential circle of the Colonial Government and its adherents-"friends of Govern- " ment," as they called themselves-and the chilly indifference of the great body of the farmers, consti- tuting the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Colony, that Congress of the Colonies was convened under the auspices of those among whom it was originated ; was turned from the pacific purposes for which it had been called, into others which were revolutionary in their character ; and was dissolved, to take its place in the history of that very eventful period. The " fire-eating" few who had succeeded in effecting that radical change in its character and in securing from it an acquiescence in their revolu- tionary purposes, were, of course, well pleased with the results of the movement. The Colonial Govern- ment and its adherents were, of course, none the less antagonistie to it, because they were powerless to suppress the growing revolt or to protect the Colonists from the effects of the revolutionary action of the Congress. The farmers throughout the Colony con- tinued their agricultural labors in continued indiffer- ence, unmindful of that approaching catastrophe which was, so very soon afterwards, to overwhelm themselves as well as others and to involve all, alike, in one common ruin of every thing which was or which could be dear to them. Of those commercial and mercantile classes among whom the Congress

The memory of those readers whose hairs of gray reveal the advent or the presence of old age, will be very likely to compare all these circumstances with similar circumstances which have occurred, within our own country and within the period of their own personal recollections ; and to the practical, personal knowledge of that hoary headed tribunal we may safely refer all these movements and counter-move- ments for the advancement or the obstruction of pre- determined and unholy revolt, for its intelligent judg- ment. The glamour of success may have made all these transactions, before the Congress was convened and while it was in session and after its dissolution, appear to have been possessed of different characters from those which they really possessed ; the diligence of personal descendants, whose best claim to distinc- tion among men rests only on the apocryphal fame of their ancestors, actors in those events, may have transformed the pigmies and the political tricksters and those who were without honor or honesty or man- liness, of that period, into great men and patriots and men of virtue, of integrity, and of personal upright- ness ; but, notwithstanding all these fictitious inter- positions, the Truth remains, unchanged and un- changeable.

Among the conservative farmers of Westehester- county, generally, it is believed that the result of the Congress was not satisfactory-as will be seen, here- after, some of the most influential of them, who had heartily approved the popular movement for the re- dress of the Colony's grievances, and who had car- nestly united with their countrymen in calling the Congress, were forced to the seeming inconsistency of open dissent ; and there was significance in that dis. sent, while such other communities as the Towns of Hollis, in New Hampshire; 1 Marshfield, in Massa-

Proceedings of the Praca, in local Town- Meeting, November 7, 1774, reprinted in Force's almarlon _Trelives, Fourth Series, i., 1200.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

motto: ' Kidgriebl, . Newtown. ' Stratfield, (now some of them by formal Votes, in legal Town-meet- ires, and all of them, in practise, also declared their disapproval of the revolutionary measures adopted by Bridgeport,) ' Greenwich, bunbury and its vicinity" Darien,' Norwalk." Redding," Stanford," New Mil- ford," Morris," Plymouth, "Sali-bury, "etc., indeed the : the Congress and recommended by it, to be enforced entire western portion of the Colony, "in Connecticut; in the several Colonies.

Oyster Bay,16 Jamaica," Shawangunk," all those in Richmond-county," in New York, and many others,20

1 Letter from Marchgeht to a Gruthat in Bata, January 21, 175, published in Hirington's New-York Gazetteer, No. 05. NEW-YORK, Thursday, February 9, 1775, reprinted in Force Americana Archives, Fourth Series, i., 11TT, 1758; Ertout of a letter from london to a bientle- tas at Avr- York, January 20, 1775, reprinted in the wenn work, i., HIT .: P'ra elings of the Town, in legal Town-Meeting, 90th February, 1:75, rquintel in the same work, 1., 1212 ; Protest of sixty four of the In- hotstate of the Town, 20th February, 1775, re-printed in the same work, 1., 1240, 1250.

" }weddings of the Town, in Special Town-Meeting, 30th January, 177%, published in Rington's No-York Theether, No. 91, NEW-YORK, Thursday, February 2, 1775, and reprinted in Force's Juo riena . Archives, Fourth Series, i., 1202, 1203 ; Card signed by turenty- nine of the Inhabit- mais, "RIDGEHELD, Connecticut, February 2, 1575," reprinted in the rame work, i., 1210 ; Proceedings of Adjourned Torn-Meeting, April 10, 1775, reprinted in Hard's History of Fairfield-envaty, Connecticut, 639 ; the sune work, 650, 653 ; Teller's History of Ridgefield, Conn., 45, 46.

Proceedings of the Town, in Town-Meeting, " NEWTOWN, CONNECTI- "CUT, February 6, 1775," published in Rivington', Sue-York Gazetteer, No. 95, NEW-YORK, Thursday, February 23, 1775, re-printed in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 1215; Hurd's History of Frictieli- county, 463.

Hard's History of Painfullwannty, 78, 59, and the Petition for Harbor Guar,1, dated January 14, 1777, which is therein reprinted.

& Hard's History of Fairfield-county, 373, 371, and the Charges ande against Rer. Jonathan Murdock, l'ustor of the West Society, dated July 12, 1784, printed therein ; Mead's History of Grermeich, 153, 154.

6 Proceedings of the Town, in legal Town-Meeting, February 6, 1775, in Rivington's New- York Cuartoer, No. 97, NEW-YORK, Thursday, Febru- ary 23, 1773, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth series, i., 1216; Hund's History of Fairfield-county, 184.

THord's History of Fairfield-county, 208.

Hur': History of Fairfield-county, 502-504; Childs's Burning of Nor. irulk, in Hurd's History, 513, 314.

Hirington's New-York Galver, No. 97, NEW-YORK, Thursday, Feb- runny 23, 1775 ; Rev. Mr. Bearli's Reports to the Sectary of the Vener- able Society, 1765-1781 ; Hurd's History of Fairfield-county, 583.

10 Huntington's History of Stamford, 205 ; Hunl's History of Fairfield- county, 796.

" Product of one hundred and twenty Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town of Son Milford, February 27, 1975, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 1270 ; History of Luchfield-county, Connecticut, Phil. : 1881, 451.

Dwight's Trucela, il., 369.

Y History of Litchfield-county, 105, 406.

It History of Litchfield-county. 530.

13 Himmars Historical Collections of the part sustained by Connecticut, during the War of the Revolution, 18, 24, 570.

1. Letter from Oyster-buy to James Rivington, from " A Spectator," de- w ribing a Meeting of ninety Freche Hlers of that Town, on the thirtieth of December, 1751. (Bieington's New York Gazetteer, No. 30, NEW YORK, Thursday, Jaunary 5, 1775.)

1: Inclaration of ninety-our Freeholders and forty-give other principal In- habituais of Jamaica, " JAMAICA, January 27, 1755," in Birington's Viic- Fork Cosetteer, No. 91, NEW-YORK, Thursday, February 2, 1755.

18 Carl, dated " ULSTER-COUNTY, NEW YORK, February 11, 1775," pub- linhaal in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 123).

" I'merdings of the Committee of Observation of Elizbethdown, Var Jersey, February 13, 1793, published in Holt's New-York Journal, No. 13, New -York, Thursday, February 16, 1775 ; and those of the Com- Here for Observation for the Township of Woodbridge, New Jersey, " Wompmains, february 20, 1776," jaiblished in Force's American 3., 4 ... , Fourth series, i., 1949, each providing for " boycotting " the

2 Deatenant-governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW YORK. " Nur. 1774; " the time tothe same, " NEW YORK, December 7, 1774 ;"

While the more conservative portions of the Colo- nists, in opposition to the Home Government, were earnestly laboring to maintain themselves in the lead- ership of the political elements of the Colony, and, at the same time, to sceure a redress of the grievances to which the Colony had been subjected and to effect an honorable reconciliation between the Colonies and the Mother Country, the revolutionary portion of the same body of Colonists, strengthened by the accession to their number, of those, recently of the opposite portion, who were endeavoring to pose, for office-sake, both'as aristocrats and as democrats, as might best suit successive audiences, nominally intent on the ac- complishment of the same ends, was really employed in zealously promoting measures which were better adapted to the defeat of itself, in whatever it should really seek to accomplish, in the interests of peace.

On the seventh of November, James Duane, who had already distinguished himself, in connection with John Jay and Joseph Galloway, as everything else than an honest promoter of anything which was rev- olntionary in its tendencies, pandered to the revolu- tionary spirit which pervaded the revolutionary por- tion of the unfranchised inhabitants of the City, through whose influence he had once beem elevated to a seat in the Congress and through whose contin- ued influence, only. a similar favor might be secured, in the near future-that James Duane submitted a Resolution to the Committee of Correspondence, in the City of New York, for the election, by the Free- hollers and the Freemen of the City, of eight persons in each Ward, for the purpose " of observing the con- "duct of all Persons touching the Association " [of Non- Importation, and Non- Exportation, and Non-Consump- tion] "entered into, by the Congress," against Great Britain and her Colonies, and for the purpose, also, of publishing the names of all those whom that Com-

the same to Governor Tryon, "NEW YORK, Dec. 7, 14:" Governor Gage to the same, " HosTON, December 15, 1974; " Joseph Road to Jeish Quincy, Junior, " PHILADELPHIA, November 6, 1974 ;"> Proceedings of a Meeting of Fraholders of Mahalleses-county, New Jersey, " according to a "Nolice," January 3, 1753, reprinted in Force's American Archivos, Fourth Series, i., 1083 ; Primerdings of Turn of Barnsigik, Massachusetts in Town Meeting, January 4, 1775, reprinted in the same work, i., 1092; Letter from teogin bon Gentleman in New York, dated February Is, 1775 ; reprinted in the same, i., 1160 ; Proceedings of the Goutal Committer, [establishing non-intercourse with Georgia] " CHARLESTOWN, "SOUTH CAROLINA, February 8, 1775;" Duchessemody [New York] Association, January IS, 1975 ; Letter to James Ricington, dated " First- "ING, IN QUEEN'S COUNTY. LONG-ISLAND, Jan. 14," published in Bar- ington's New York (Startver, No. 92, NEW-YORK, Thursday, January 1), 1775 ; Letter to the same, dated, "NEWTOWN ON LONG ISLAND, Jan. 12, "1975," published in the same issue of that payer ; Letter to the same from Ulster-community, New York, published in the same papel, No. 93, NEW- Youk, Thursday, January 20, 1755 : Letter t. the same, from Duchess- county, published in the same paper, No. 95, NEW YORK, Thursday, Feb- ruary 0, 1775 ; etc.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY

mittee should condemn, for having violated that A. lowing day [ November 15, 1774,] such an interview sociation, in order " that, thenceforth, the parties to the was had; but not until the Committee of Correspon- dence, meeting separately, had ordered " that, when "a Committee for carrying the Association of the Con- "gress into execution shall be elected, this Committee "do consider themselves as dissolved ; and that this " Resolution be immediately made public."! "said Association should respectively break off all deal- "ings with him or her"-in more modern phrascology, in order that the alleged offender, whether guilty or innocent of any violation of law, on the mere con- demnation of a local Committee, on whom individual animosity or local prejudice might exercise a greater power than either justice or equity could control, might be promptly boycotted, in all his or her busi- ness relations, and, thereby, be involved in disaster and ruin. At the same time, John Jay, Prier T. Cur- tenius, Isaac Low, and James Duane were appointed to prepare a Cireular Letter to the different Counties, recommending them, also, to appoint similar "Com- "mittees of Inspection," "agreeably to the provisions "of the eleventh resolve of the Congress." 1

" Some difficulties having arisen relative to the _1.d- "vertisement published by the Committee, for choos- "ing a Committee of Inspection " -- in other words, the handful of professional politicians who assumed

to represent the unfranchised Mechanic, and Working-men of the City, having repudiated the limitations imposed by the Congress, and insisted that the votes of the great body of the inhabitants, as well as those of the Freeholders and Freemen, of the City, should be received, in the election of the pro- posed Committee of Inspection-an interview, between the leaders of those plebeian and revolutionary elaim- ants of political authority and their aristocratie and conservative neighbors of the Committee of Corre- spondenee, was invited by the latter ;2 and, on the fol-

1 Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, "NEW-YORK, November 7, 1774."

The eleventh Resolution of the Congress, referred to in the text, provided "that a Committee be chosen in every County, City, and "Town, by those who are qualified to vote for Representatives in the " Legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to olserve the con- "duct of all persons, touching this Association " [of Non-Importation, Non- Consumption, and Sin-Exportation,]; "and when it shall be trade " to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of any such Committee, that "any person within the limits of their appointment has violated "this Association" (achother he may hace consented to it, or not? " that " such majority do forthwith cause the truth of the case to be published " in the Gazette, to the end that all such foes to the Rights of British " America may be publicly known and universally contemned, as the "enemies of American Liberty ; and, thenceforth, we respectively will " break off all dealings, with him or her."

The reader will judge how ill-adapted such a "smelling Committee " us was thus ordered, in every Town, must have been, to promote har- mony among the Colonists, or to give support to those who were seking a redress of the grievances of the Colonies and a restoration of harmony between the Colonies and the Mother Country.

2 Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, " NEW York, November "14, 1774 ;" Letter from the Committee of Correspondence is the forumilles of Mechanics, " COMMITTEE CHAMBER, November 14, 1774."

The uncertaincies, if nothing else, of political office-seeking, and the tricks, if nothing else, of office-seekers, during that eventful period, may he seen, although they may not be entirely understood, in a comparison of the contemptnous manner in which the aristocratle Committee bad spurned the democratic Committee, when it was proposed that the Fitter should be consulted. in the nomination of the ticket for Members of the proposed Congress, (Minutes of the former, June 29 and July 1, ITT4,) with the eagerness with which the aristocratic nominees on that ti ket, very soon afterwards, repudiated the fundamental principle maintained

It was thus acknowledged by that Committee which had been originated in the memorable Caucus, at Sam. Francis's, six months previously, and which had been subsequently organized, with so much osten- tation, at the Coffee-house, nominally, for the promo- tion of " the common cause " of the Colonies, in their reasonable dispute with the Home Government ; but, more surely, for the protection of the conservative and aristocratic elements of the City's population . from the already unwelcome and yet more threatened aggressions of those which were more democratic and revolutionary in their inclinations; and, less promi- nently, but most surely, for the advancement of the individual purposes of those who were its originators and master-spirits-by that hitherto respectable Com- mittee of Fifty-one which no longer represented. without wavering, those political principles on which it had been originally founded and for which it had resolutely contended, not always unsuccessfully ; which was no longer controlled by those who even appeared to be actuated simply by an unselfish de-

by their own organization, and accepted that of their plebeian neigh- bors' organization, in order to secure the support of that body, at the Polla, and to assure their election, & Correspondence lettera tenham Brusher and others, a Committee, and Philip Livingston and others, nominees for the ofice, July 26 and 27, 1774); and with the voluntary invitation. from the aristocratic to the iletnocratic Committee, to nieet in conference, in the instance nieationed in the text, when the primary movenient was to he made, toward the election of another Delegation, to meet in another Congress, in the ensuing May. If the reader will closely which the successive events, in that connection, and notice the final result, he will see, also, how well the consolidation of aristocracy and der ocracy, into one mas- of political conglomerate, for the advancement in authority of particular nien, acconudishel that pitrpose, the interests of the Colo- Dies and those of political honesty, in the meanwhile, having been en- tirely disregardled.

3 Minutes of the Committee, " NEW York, November 15, 1774."

Judge Jones, in his History of Sale York during the Revolutionary War, (1., 24,) said, " This Committee met frequently, and silent Resolutions "were proposed, bur ever rejected. Mr. Low and the republicans of the " Committre finding it not to answer their purpose, actually dissolved "it, and nominated one of their own, without an election or the least "notice to the Citizens. Mr. Low continved Chairman. They acted as "a legal body, tegaliy chosen, and fined, imprisoned, tobbed, and ban- "ished His Majesty's loyal subjects with a vengeance." As will be seen, hereafter, the Judge was in error, when he supposel and stated that the second Committee, that of " Insertion," was not elected, and was created secretly, without notice to the Citizens. On the contrary, tire two factions of the Opposition, in the City, having been consolidated in order to secure sub a result, that "Committee of Inspection " was elected by "a respectable number of the Freeholders and Freenten " of this City, assendded at the City Hall, where the Election was con- "dacted under the inspection of several of the Vestrynien" of the City.

The unquestionable records of the doings of both Committees, as well As all knowh authorities brought down front that period an 1 relating thereto, abundantly prove that there is nothing which was inaccurately stated, in any other portion of the statement, notwithstarling the learned ! Editor of the Judge's work, singularly chongl, appears to entertain a dif- ferent opinion on that subject .- (Vitex to the History, i., 138.)

----

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

, re to promote the common weal; and which had therefore, in thus providing for its own dissolution. heen invaded, if it was not, then. controlled, by those, [ without permitting itself to be crowded out of its ex- istence by that faction of its own political party for whom it had, generally, no respect -- by that faction of that party of the Opposition, hitherto its only poli- tienl antagonist, which, then, appeared with John Jay and James Duane, lately two of the Committee, among its nominal leaders.

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Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 11

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.] Number of Pages: 592

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592