USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 19
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The Caucus undoubtedly discharged all the duties which its controlling spirit assigned to it-it took into consideration, after a fashion of its own ercation, the subject of the proposed election of Delegates to rep- resent the County, or to assume to do so; and it "agreed to send the following Notification to the "principal Freeholders in the different Towns and " Districts in the County," the designation of whom,
Westchester county, was entrusted to I -wie Morris, of Morrisania, in the Borough Town of Westchester, a brother-in-law of Isaac Wilkins, of that Town, with the last-named of whom, as the leader of the majority ot the General Assembly of the Colony, the reader has been already mado acquainted.
In all that had previously been said or dour, in behalf of the Colony, in its dispute with the Home Government, not a Morris had been heard, except in that instance when one of them described the unfranchised masses of the colonists as " poor reptiles " (ride Page 12, cafe); but the fragrance of the distant emolunients and influences of office, more fully developed than ever before, had passed over from the City into Westches- ter-county ; and, reasonably enough to all who knew of the greed for of- tice which every Morris of every peried had possessed, both Lewis and Gouverneur, to say nothing of others, were no longer torpid and in- different.
" Subsequently distinguished as Loyalist -.
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in that selection, having been left to him by whom ! the Manor of Morrisania. were aroused; and, especi- the Caucus had evidently been controlled-and hav- ally in the Borough Town of Westchester, within which the ancestral home of the Morrises was situat- ing, in behalf of somebody else more than in behalf of the body of the County, thus put the political ma- 1 ed. the ambitious purposes of that gentleman and of cliinery in motion, sari-factorily to themselves and to their chief, the twelve gentleman waded through the Spring-time mud, back, to their respective homes.
The "Notification " to which reference has been made, that which the Caucus authorized to be sent to the elect, among the Freeholders of the County, was in these words :
" March 28th, 1775.
"SIR :
" A number of gentlemen from different districts in " the county of Westchester having this day met at " the White Plains to Consider of the most proper "method of taking the Sense of the Frecholders, of "the Said County, upon the Expediency of choosing " Deputies to meet the Deputies of the other Coun- " ties, for the purpose of Electing delegates to repre- " sent this Colony in the General Congress to be held " at Philadelphia on the 10th of May next, are of "opinion that the best way of proceeding for that " purpose, will be to have a general Meeting of the " Freeholders of the Said County.
" As this County is very Extensive we take the " liberty of recommending the meeting to be held at "the White Plains on Tuesday the 11th day of April " next at ten o'clock in the forenoon at the Court " House, and therefore do desire you, to give notice "of the Same to all the freeholders in your district, " without exception, as those who do not appear and " vote on that day, will be presumed to acquiesce in " the Sentiment of the majority of those who vote. "We are &e." 1
There can be no good reason for supposing that that Caucus failed to employ the best means which it could control, to secure the attendance, at the ap- pointed place, on the appointed day, and at the des- ignated hour, of all those of the farmers of the Coun- ty of Westchester, whom it supposed to have been friendly to the Morris family, and who were willing or who could be induced to accept the head of that wealthy and aristocratic, but really unpopular, family, as their political leader-to that family. the stake was a very important one; and. to secure that stake, it played desperately. On the other hand, those of the inhabitants of the County who were conservative in their political opinions, and those who were not favor- ers of the new-born, but selfish, zeal of the Lord of
1 Thiis narrative of the organization and doings of that notable Caucus, including the copy of the "Magication " which was issued, by its au- thority, is based on the elaborate paper, signed by "LEWIS MORRIS, "firmen," which served as the Credentials of those who appeared in the Provincial Convention, as Deputies from Westchester-county, and w lub is preserved in the Credentials of Inlogates, Hat rical Manuscripts relatingto the War of the Revolution-Volume xxiv., Page 25-in the Office of the secretary of State, at Aliany.
The "Min ation," as printed in the text, was copied from the original Manuscript.
his family were empathically snubbed. by a Meeting of his townsmeu, duly summoned to take into consi- deration " whether or not they should choose Deputies "to represent them at a Provincial Convention."" Be- sides that local and evidently personal rebuke, by the townsmen of the Morrises, the great body of " the "Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of West- "chester," or such of them as were " friends of Gov- "ernment and our happy Constitution." was earnestly appealed to, in the circulation of the following stirring Address:
" To the Frecholders and Inhabitants of the County of +
Westchester. " NEW-YORK, April 6, 1775. " You are earnestly desired to attend a general "meeting of the county, to be held at the White " Plains, on Tuesday next, the 11th inst. to give your "votes upon the questions :---
"Whether you are inclined to choose deputies to " meet at the city of New- York, in a Provincial Con- " vention ? Or,
" Whether you are determined to abide by the "loyal and judicious measures already taken by your "own worthy represcutatives in the general assembly " of this province, for a redress of American grievances ? "The consequences that may arise from your ne- " glecting to attend at the White Plains, on Tuesday "next, to declare your sentiments relative to the ap- "pointment of deputies to meet in Provincial Con- "gress, may be very fatal to this county; the friends "of goverment, and our happy constitution, are there- "fore earnestly invited in person, to oppose a measure "so replete with rain and misery. Remember the "extravagant price we are now obliged to pay for "goods purchased of the merchants, in consequence "of the Non-Importation agreement; and when the " NON-EXPORTATION agreement takes place, we "shall be in the situation of those who were obliged "to make bricks without straw.
"A WHITE OAK."S
2 "A Correspon Jent acquaints us, That. on Monday the 3d of March, "the Inhabitants of the Borough of Westchester met, in Consequence of "a Summons, to give their Sentiments upon a Question, whether or not " they would chocen Depaties to represent theta at a Provincial Conven- "tion in this City: when they declared themselves already very ably "and effectually represented in the General Assembly of this Province, "by Faac Wilkins, Esquire :^ peremptorily disowned all Congressional "Conventions and Committees, mont loyally repeating the old Chorus, "God save the King, which was seconded by three hearty Cheers; and " then the jolly Frechellers and Inhabitants spent the Day with great " Hilarity and good Inmour over their Tankar Is and Bowls."- Gaine's Vor- York Gazette, and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1226, NEW-YORK, Monday, April 10, 1775.)
"This appeal, an exact copy of the original, was printed in Biringen's Noir- York Gazetteer, No. 103, New-YORK, Thursday, April 6, 1775.
* The wife of Isaac Wilkins was Isabella Morris, sister of Gouverneur and half-sister if Colonel Lewis Morris, the head of that family.
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It is reasonable to suppose that many of the fairt- It is evident that neither of the ts . fictions was ers of Westchester-county, whatever their political ; very punctual in its attendance, at the appoint ! opinions may have been, were more than usually ex- | hour-a practice which is continued to this day, in cited by these extraordinary appeals and by others . Westchester-county, on similar occasions-and, for a which have not been preserved, addressed to them by reason which was perfectly obvious, the promoter, of the proposed Meeting, very evidently, were not in a hurry to assume the great responsibility of carrying forward the schemes of the revolutionary faction in the City of New York, to which they had been invit- those whom they had hitherto regarded as leaders in political affairs; but it is equally clear that not even those extraordinary means, thus employed, were suc- cessful in withdrawing even a respectable minority
of the Freeholders, to say nothing of those heads of ' ed, especially in view of the greater number of these families who were not Freeholders, who, at that time, who were opposed to those schemes, and who were present and apparently prepared to oppose them ; while those who were opposed to the Morrises and to their schemes and to the pro- posed election, and whose evidently superior numbers had served to dampen the ardor of their op- ponents, could do nothing else than to wait, and to watch the progress of events. Notwithstanding the hour of ten had been named in the Notification through which the assembled farmers had thus met, it was nearly noon before any attempt to organize a Meeting was made-probably, some whose presence was desired and expected, had not arrived ; probably, those leaders of the movement who were present were, meanwhile, " comparing notes," and arranging plans of action, and enjoying that social glass, frequently renewed, of which their Chairman subsequently made mention, unwittingly ; most probably, the superior numbers of those who were known to be opposed to them, whose strength of numbers was being con- stantly increased, warned the ambitious Lord of the Manor of Morrisania and his adherents that "the " better part of Valor is-Discretion."
inhabited that extensive aud thiekly settled County, from their homesteads and from the urgent duties, at home, which the opening Spring had imposed upon them. Notwithstanding all the reasons which ex- isted for their continued attention to their respective home duties, however, there were some, relatively a small proportion, of either party, those who were op- posed to the Morrises and to the proposition to elect Deputies to a proposed Convention of the Colony and these who favored both, who went to the Plains, on that Tuesday morning, the eleventh of April, as, re- spectively, they had been requested to go. They went, as farmers were wont to go and as they continue to go, on suchi occasions, on horseback or on foot. over Westchester-county's Spring-time muddy roads or "across lots," as best suited their individual con- venience; and the little Village, what there was of it, scattered along the wide spread Post-road, was un- doubtedly, the scene of many a discussion, friendly or unfriendly, as friend met friend or neighbor met neighbor in that ancient thoroughfare, each intent, as farmers only can be intent, on the promotion of the particular cause to which each had become especially devoted. Reasonably enough, the two Taverns which were, then, prominent within the limits of the Vil- lage, were made the stopping-places of those rural
About twelve o'clock, however, those who favored the Morrises and the proposed election of Deputies appear to have quietly and noiseles-ly left the Tav- ern, passed over the old post-road, and re assembled incomers unto whom no Village householder had ex- ; in the Courthouse; organized a Meeting; and ap- tended a Village welcome, Captain Hatfield, the land- lord of one of those Taverns, entertaining those who were opposed to the Morrises and to the proposed election of Deputies, while those who favored that family and that proposed election, " put up in another " Public House in the Town," probably that which was kept by Isaac Oakley.1
pointed Colonel Lewis Morris, its Chairman. It was done quietly, if it was not done secretly : it was done quietly, without inviting any others than those of their own faction, to assemble with them: it was done quietly and in a manner which clearly indicated that something else than an untrammeled and un- biased expression of the will of all those who were present-carrying with it, also, the assumed acquies- cence of all those who were not present-concerning the Morrises and the questions which were pro- pounded in the Notification, was chiefly desired, and must be procured, " by fair means or by foul :" most evidently, it was done, quietly, with an inclination and a hope that it might accomplish all the purposes of
1 Protest of the Inhabitants and Freeholders of Westchester county, Vive- York, "COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER, April 13, 1775, " publishedin Rivington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 105, NEW YORK, Thursday, April 20, 1775; and in Gaine's New York Gazette : und the Weekly Mercury, No. 1227, NEW YORK, Monday, April 17, 1775.
We have been favored by our nowearied friends, Hon. Lowist. Platt and Hon. J. O. Dykman with information, concerning these two Tay- erus, which our readers will find worthy of their remembrance.
Captain Hatfield's Tavern stood almost due South from the all Court- house, and nearly half a mile distant, on the North side of the OLD stige- road to New York, -the line of that road has been changed, since 1773- on property more recently eward ly Samuel E. Lyon, Faq., and now by the heirs of the late Alfreil Waller, F-1.
The old builling has been removed from the place on which it stood, in 1575, to a place, further to the northward, not far from the site of the old Court-house ; and is now ocenpied as a tenement.
Isac Oakley's Tavern stood on the East side of the oldl stage-rond,
directly opposite to the elt Court-house. We remember the old house, , very listincily, having often seen it and, more than once, at least forty years ago, having -lept nieder its roof. It is said that it was burned, about 1948 ; and that the site remains un cenpied.
The of I Court-house, the scene of many an adventure during the later Colonia! era, occupied the site of the present residence of W. P. Flere, E-1, on the West side of the stage road to New York.
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those who had originated and promoted it, secretly an I rapidly, without alarming those who were assem- bled at Captain Hattiell's, and before they could be brought to the Courthouse, to defeat those purposes and to relegate the Morrises to that political obseur- ity in which, very ungraciously, they had so long and so ingloriously rested. It was, in short, nothing else than a political coup-de-main; but, unfortunately for the honor of those who participated in it, it was not as respectably successful as those who had contrived it, had desired. 1
Intelligence of the movement of their opponents very soon reached those who were assembled at Cap- tain Hatfield's Tavern; and we are told that, un- doubtedly with very little delay, they, also, " walked " down to the Courthouse, although not half of their " friends who were expected had yet appeared." At that time, when the full force of all who thus pre- sumed to aet, in so vital a question, in the name of all who were, then, in Westchester-county-and that, too, without any delegation of authority and, cer- tainly, without any expressed "consent"-was un- doubtedly present and acting, there was not present more than from a hundred to a hundred and twenty- five, Freeholders and others; and there is evidence that quite as large a number, Freeholders and others, walked down to the Courthouse, from Captain Hat- field's Tavern, and stripped all the novelty and all there was of what was said to have been integrity from the exposed and unsuccessful coup-de-main." The individual respectability of none of these, of either faction, appears to have been impeached by any one; but Colonel Morris subsequently attempted to depre- ciate the politieal standing of some of those who were
1 From the fact that the Meeting had been organized and " had already "entered upon the business of the day." before it was known to those who were at Hathell's Tavern, that any movement toward such an or- ganization had been made-a fact which was openly stated in the Pron et of the one faction without having been controverted in the elaborate re- ply of the Chairman of the Meeting -the secrecy of the movement is es- tablished. beyond a question. The motives of those who contrived that particular mode of operations, will be manifest to all who are acquainted with the facts and with the practices of un-crupulous politicians, in Westchester-county as often as elsew lier ..
" In the narrative which the Chairman of the Meeting prepared, in- Enelitely after the adjournment of that Meeting, he stated that "a very " numerous body of the Freeholders of the County assembled at the "Car' House ; " and that "an incon-ilerable number of Persons "( among whom were many tenants not entiled to a vote) with Lanc " Wilkins, Esq., and Col. Philipe at their Lead, then appeared." In the Protest of the Inhabitants and Freeholders, subsequently published, it is statoil, specifically, that when those from Captain Hathell's Tavern en- trond the Courthouse, "the numbers on each side seemed to be nearly "equal ; and both together might amount to two humtred or, at most, "two luitidred and fifty." Nearly a mouth after the publication of that Trots, and after he had secured the seat in the Continental Congress for which he had so earnestly hankered-Lis half-brother, Gouverneur, Ling then an aspirant to a seat in the proposed Provincial Congress, to which he was elected. on the following day-Lewis Morris published an elaborate and very minute reply to that Protect, in which, although nearly every feature of the latter was bitterly controvertell, he conveni- molly maid nothing whatever of the number of those, of either faction, who were at the Plains ; and, therein, he emphatically acquiessed in what was said, on that subject, with -o meb precision, in the Protest.
not ofhis supporters, by saying there were among them " many tenants who were not entitled to vote," ete., -they were recognized as respectable farmers, even by that particular Morris who aimed to belittle them; but. in the presence of such as he, with nothing but what he had inherited, to ensure to him even a nom- inal respectability, they were evidently expected to be no more than dumb dogs, even while their homes and their properties were put in jeopardy and the peace and happiness of their families endangered by the doings of those "better classes," before one of whom they then stood.
It is said that Isaac Wilkins, of the Borough of Westchester, and Colonel Frederie Philipse, of the Manor of Philipsborough, both of them Members of the General Assembly of the Colony, walked at the head of those who moved from the Tavern to the Courthouse, and who interrupted the proceedings of the Meeting ; and all agreed that, when the entire number of those new incomers had entered the Courtroom, without indecorously attempting to dis- turb the Meeting, in the slightest degree, Isaac Wil- kins, in behalf of those with whom he had come, " declared that, as they had been unlawfully called "together, and for an unlawful purpose, they did not "intend to contest the matter, by a Poll, which would "be tacitly acknowledging the authority that had "summoned them thither; but that they had come only "with a design to protest against all such disorderly "proceedings, and to shew their detestation of all un- "lawful Committees and Congresses. They then fur- " ther declared their determined resolution to continue "steadfast in their allegiance to their gracious and " merciful Sovereign, King George the Third ; to sub- " mit to lawful authority ; aud to abide by and sup- "port the only true representatives of the People of "this Colony, the General Assembly." They then gave three cheers, and returned to Captain Hatfield's Tavern, "singing, as they went, with a loyal enthusi- " asm, the grand and animating Song of
"'God save great George, our King, "' Long live our noble King ! etc." 3
After the protestants had thus peacefully left the Courthouse, the Meeting returned to the business for the transaction of which it had been convened and organized; and the question was submitted, by the Chairman, " Whether they would appoint Depu- "ties for this County, to meet the Deputies of the "other Counties, at the City of New York, on the "twentieth of April iustant, for the purpose of "electing Delegates to represent this Colony in the "General Congress, to be held at Philadelphia, on
" There is very little difference, concerning what occurred in the Courtroom, in the narrative drawn up by Lewis Morris and in that por- tion of the Protest which relates to that subject ; and both are referred to, as authorities, for what has been said, in the text, relative thereto. Concerning what was done, elsewhere, by the protestant-, atter they bad left the Courthouse, the Protest is our suficient authority.
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"the tenth day of May next." By an unanimous Although no action, on that subject, appears to vote, it determined to do so ; and it then appointed, have been taken by the Meeting, its master-pirit also without opposition, Colonel Lewis Morris and and Chairman, in his official capacity, appears to Doctor Robert Graham -- the latter a kinsman of the have continued the work for which the Meeting had heen convened, completing it before he left the White Plains, by preparing an official narrative of the ori- former-both of Westchester; Stephen Ward, of Eastchester; Colonel James Holmes and Jonathan Platt, of Bedford; John Thomas, Junior, of Rye; "gin of the Meeting ; of the Caneus which had " recolt- and Samuel Drake and Philip Van Cortlandt, ; "mended" it; of its Proceedings, when convened ; both of the Manor of Cortlandt; a majority of ; and of its noisy loyalty to that "gracions Sove- whom was authorized to represent the County, and to cast the Vote of the County, in the proposed Con- vention. 1
The following Resolutions were, then, submitted to the Meeting; and they were duly adopted, also without a dissenting voice:
" RESOLVED: That the thanks of this body be "given to the virtuous Minority of the General " Assembly of this Province, and particularly to " John Thomas and Pierre Van Cortlandt, Esquires, "two of our Representatives, for their firm attach- " ment to and zeal, on a late occasion for the preser- " vation of the union of the Colonies and the Rights " and Liberties of America ; and that this Resolve be " communicated, by the Chairman, to every Gentle- " man of whom that Minority consisted.
" RESOLVED : That the 'thanks of this country is " due to the Delegates who composed the late Con- "gress, for the essential services they have rendered "to America, in general; and that this Resolve be " forthwith published."
We are told, also, by the Chairman of the Meeting, that, "after the business of the day was thus con- "cluded, the people gave three huzzas for our gra- " cious Sovereign,2 and dispersed, quickly, without the " least disorder." 3
1 As Jonathan Platt and Colonel Holmes did not accept the appoint- ment, and as offly six touk their seats in the Convention, the majority which was necessary to cast the vote of the County was reduced to four ; and, thus, the control of the Delegation was retained by those who went from Westchester. Fastchester, and Rye.
" The practice of all, at that period and subsequently, on all such occa- siona as that referred to in the text, will sufficiently indicate to the reader, that the enthusiasm for the King which was displayed, as funch by one faction as by the other, at the White Plains, on that eventful April day, was de quite as much to what had been drunk at the two Taverns, before either of those factions had gone to the Courthouse, as to the love for the King which either of them really possessed. Butthe Chairmas of the Meeting kindly furnished conclusive evidence on the
subject, when he wrote, " much pains, I confess, were, on that day, ; has ever been engaged, was carried through Westchester county in " taken, to make temporary enthusiasts, aud with other more schiluri- " ting spirit than the spirit of loyalty."-(Lewis Morris to the Publick, " MORRISANIA; May 7, 1773.")
Only culprits " confess" a wrong-doing ; and with this " confession " of one of the principal offenders, on the occasion referred to, the reader will be enabled to understand how small an amount of genuine patriot- Som there was, in such a crowd, no matter for whom it hurraked ; and how small the price was with which that crowd had been purchased, to further the purposes of either " the friends of the Government" or those of the revolutionary faction - may he not be enabled to understand, also, something more of those who originated aud fostered the revolu- tionary spirit, in the Colonies, and something more of the means which they employed, call them what you may, that those, claiming to la " historians, " with a very few really honorable exceptions, have hither- to told to him ?
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