USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 21
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The movement of the Royal troops from Boston to Concord; the reckless slaughter of unresisting Colo- nists who had assembled on the Green, at Lexington,
1 Among the very paltry Credentials which were generally presented by those who aspired to seats in that Convention, those which were pre- sented by Robert R. Livingston, Junior, Egbert Benson, and Morris Graham -- the latter a kinsman of the Motrices of Morrisania-were de- cidedly the shabbiest. Through them, however, a Livingston and a Benson crept into place and authority.
" The peculiar word- with which those Credeafinis closed, very clearly indicate the political status of the Colony, at the date of that Convention. They were these . . . "were unanimously elected Delegates to represent " this Colony at snel: Congress, with full power to thein or any five of "them, to meet the Delegates from the other Colonies and to concert "and determine upon such measures as shall be judged most effectual "fut the preservation and re-establishment of American Rights and "Privileges, and for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain "and the Colonies."- (Forend of the Convention, " Die Sabatti, 11 hora ". a. in. April, 22nd, 1775.")
3 The Journal of this, the first, Provincial Convention of the Colony, was " printed in pursuance of a Resolution of the Legislature, " in 1612; and it has been our authority, in whatever has been stated, in the text. concerning that body.
Sue, ako, deLaneegy Notre to J mes - Henry of New York during the Revolutionary Wer, i., 45, 497; Mitkin's Het og of the Failed States, 1. 325; Hildreth's History of the United States, First Series, ili., 72 ; etc.
Judge Jones, (Haben of New York, i., as, 3% ) strangely supposed the Members to the Congress were elected by the several Counties- those fran the City of New York, at that promiseuitis mass Meeting, at the Exchange, of which an hecount has been already presented. Bancroft, with all the authorities before him. (History of the United States, original edition, vi., 2-3; the same, centenary edition, iv., 313, ) made all " the ru- " ral Counties," without exception, " cooperate with the City." in elect- ing the Deputies, although Richmond, all of Queens except two Towns, Tyron, Cumberland mal Charlotte-counties, made no pretension so send Deputies. He said, also, that all the members of the former Congress, "except the luke warm Isaac Low," were re-elected : both fic Low and John Haring, both of them members of that Congress, declined re- elections, notwithstanding the Convention desired to return them. Losing, ( Ficht- Book of the Herointion, ) appears to have regarded the action of New York, concerning the second Congress, as too insignificant to be worthy of even n jobs-ing allusion.
and of those who were retiring from that place ; + the destruction of the Provincial stores, at Concord; the collision of the raiders with the excited Colonists, while on their retreat, front Concord to Boston ; the disastrous result of that retreat; the intense excite-
The intelligence of that commencement of military operations, in the field, was received in the City of New York, on Sunday, the twenty-third of April ; 5 and, at a Meeting of the Committee of Inspection, on the following Wednesday, that body, among other proceedings, resolved that " this Committee is further "unanimously of opinion, that, at the present alarm- "ing juncture, it is highly advisable that a Provincial "Congress be immediately snnunoned; and that it be "recommended to the Freeholders and Freemen of "this City and County, to choose, at the same time "that they vote for the new Committee aforesaid,6 "twenty Deputies to represent them at the said Con- "gres -; and that a Letter be forthwith prepared and " despatched to all the Counties. requesting them to "unite with us in forming a Provincial Congress, and "to appoint their Deputies without delay, to meet at " New York, on Monday, the twenty-second of May "next." i
+ Notwithstanding the unaccountable display of armed men, on the Green, no attempt whatever was made, by any of them, to oppose the march of the Royal Troops; and when they were ordered to dispers", they did disperse, all of them seeking safety in running away, as fast as they could go. While they were thus running away, the Royal troops opened a fire on them, with the result which is known to the world. It is positively and authoritatively stated, that, with the ex- ception, the only exception, of one, who, when "he was at some "distance"-out of harm's way-turned and "gave them the guts "of his gun," not a single gun was fired by the Colonists. Those curious to learn more on that subject-that " Battle" in which one of the parties dil Ant the firing, and the other all the RUNNING- my phd the testimony in Davcon's Bottlesof the United States by Ser and Land. Article "LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ; " Force's Intericen Irchives, Fourth Series, I., 449-201 ; etc.
6 The most graphie account of the proceedings, in the City of New- York, on that pie morable sunday, as far as we have knowle lze of the subject, is that presented by Julge Jones, in his History of New York. during the Revolutionary War, (i., 39-11.)
6 The Committee of Inspection had recommended the dissolution of that Committee, because it was invested with powers respecting only the " Association" of the Continental Congress; and it had also recom- mended the election of a new Committee of one hundred persons, thirty - three of whom should be a quorum, all of whom should retire and the Committee be " dissolved within a fortnight next after the end of the "next Session of the Continental Congress."
The "Committee of One hundred," which was the- called, suites quently became the local Committee of the Revolutionary element, in the City of New York, and well known to every student of the history of that period.
Minutes of the Committee of Inspection, "Wednesday, April 26. " 1775."
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76
WESTCHESTER-COUNTY.
Inasmuch as the City and, to a considerable extent, the Colony were practically in a state of anarchy, the Colonial Government being confessedly unable to do anything, even for the maintenance of a shadow of its official dignity and authority, the calmness and ability with which the Committee controlled the ex- citable masses, within the City-those who had been schooled, for many years, in acts of lawless violence and destruction, and whose organization and leader- ship had not been disturbed,-were peculiarly note- worthy and entitled to the highest praise ; and, under the circumstances which then existed, which clearly indicated that the Colonial General Assembly would not re-assemble on the third of May, to which day it had adjourned, there was an existing necessity that some other body, possessing a general influence, should be assembled, in its stead, for the control of the excited revolutionary elements, if not to lead them ; and the call for a Provincial Congress, thus published, was, therefore, under the existing circum- stances, both prudent and praiseworthy.
It is proper, however, that notice should be taken, in this connection, of the fact that, during the entire period preceding the publication of that call for a Provincial Congress, there had been a wholesome fear, among all classes, unless the most radical and reck- less, that such a body, called and organized without warrant in law and liable to become controlled by those who would be inclined to resort to the most violent measures, notwithstanding the pretensions and professions of those who promoted the call for such a body, would soon become more oppressive than the Colonial Goverment, administered agreeably to law, by the legally constituted officers, had ever been or could thenceforth become. They referred, especially, in support of their fears, to the Colony of South . and Home Governments. Carolina, where such a Congress had superseded the Colonial Legislature ; and they called attention to the
2 Judge Jones, who was on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the Colony, said that a meeting of His Majesty's Counedl was held at Lien- tenant-governor Cobien's house, on the afternoon of that Sunday which has been made memoralde, in history ; and that the Judges of the su- prem- Court of the Colony, the Attorney-general of the Colony, the Miyor and Recorder of the City, and the Fieldl-officers of the City Militia, were present, on invitation. "The Governor desired their advice in the " then critical situation of affairs. Several things were mentioned, pro- " forel, acimasted, and talked of lot to Einde purpose. A Jade of the " Supreme Court," [Thomas Jones, who terate this statement.] " then "procent, badly proposed that the Militia should be called out, the " Riot Act rend, and if the mob did not thereupon disperse. to apprehend " and impri-on-the ringleaders, and by such coercive means to secure ; " the peace of the City. This proposal was instantly opposed by William " Smith, one of his Majesty's Council, who eunly declared 'that the " " of Rice should be continued " }under fire exception, in its favor, abien the . & Mferment which then raged in the City was general and not confined to " 'a few ; that it was owing to a design in the British Ministry to en- | " Colony should be deposited in the hands of Committees" appointed to " 'shave the Colonies, and to carry such design into execution by dint of . receive it. for the public use, at prices manused by the Congress, and pay-
" 'a military force : that the Battle of Lexington way looked upon as " 'a prelude to sucht intention : and that the spirit then prevailing in " " the Town (which he represented as universal would subside as soon " " as the grievances of the people were redressel ; and advised to let " . the populace act as they placed'-Noirly replied, the times were " critical. a declaration of one's sentiment- might be dangerous, the " Conneil broke up, and nothing was done." -History of Nor York during the Revolutionary War, i. H.)
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faet that, there, the entire machinery of the Colonial Government had been stopped; the Courts had been closed ; aml decrees of the most oppressive character had been enacted ; and these, not by the Colonial Government nor by those who were peculiarly sup- porters of the authority of the King, but by those who had assumed to lead the popular movement, who had utilized the project of a Provincial Convention or Congress as a more powerful instrumentality for the acquirement of authority which they had not previ- ously possessed, for the establishment of systems of government which were neither practical nor useful, and for the gratification of malice and revenge, be- tween individuals and communities, all of them done, too, in the name of "Liberty " and the " Rights of the "Colonies," with violent denunciations of tyranny and official oppression, per se, and with solemn appeals to Heaven, as guaranties of the self-assumed righteons- ness and] of the good intentions of the self-constituted and law less oppressors." Reference was also made to other instances, ir other Colonies, in which the rey- olutionary clements, regardless of all law, human or divine. and governed only by their own unbridled wills and for their own individual purposes, had be- coine more oppressive than those Colonial Govern- ments had been, against whom the full force of the revolutionary opposition had been so noisily hurled ; and it was peculiarly noticeable, in the greater number, if not in all, such instances, that the most violent and lawless of those who were most reckless of the rights of individuals, were those demagogues who, previously to the norising, had been most unmindful of the com- plaints of the masses-those of the " poor reptiles " of their estimates-and most sycophantic in their zeal for the promotion of the pretensions of the Colonial
That serious distrust, among thoughtful meu, to
1 The Provincial Congress of South Carolina assembled at Charleston, on Wednesday, the eleventh of Jannary, 1775, and adjourned on Tues- day, the seventeenth of the same month. Besides approving the doings of the Continental Congress, it torbale the commencement of any Action for Debt, and the picsvention of any such Action as had been commenced since the preceding september, unless with the consent of the Committee of the Parish in which the Defendant resided ; " that " Seizures and Sales upon Mortgages should be considered on the same " footing as Actions for Debts: " "that i Summan should be issued "by any Magistrate, in small and mian thus, without the like con- " sour of the Parish Committre ; " that " compensation should be ma le " by those who raise articles which may beexported" [which, agreedbly to the Association of the Cuttingald Congress, and only Rice] " to those " who cannot raise such articles, for the foxes which they may sustain "by not exporting the commo litas they raise," " that if the Exportation Continental Congress had mat ! " onethird of the Rise maple in the
able in the paper currency of the Colony , which was depreciated to seven for one of specie ; and other decrees of the most oppressive characters.
Descriptions of that Provincial Congress and of its remarkable methods and st.Il more remarkable doines, may beseen in Harmony's Hotry of the Revolution in Saati foralino, i . 25-25; Drayton's Memoirs of the Ameri- can Probation os relating to Both tavolino, i. 166-180 ; etc.
See. also, Jegreat of the Congress, re-printed in Force's American Archives, Farth Soties, i., 1109-1115.
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77
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Ya Yoga br elewhere ; without the slightest author- tto to the Government of their own Colony ; and, es family, bent on nothing else than to be present to mir in the distribution of the booty which an evi- etis expected general overturning of the homes and! the business-offices and warchouses of that City would have placed within their reach. They lived, on their way through Westchester-county as well as wlui they were within the City, entirely on their wita and on the products of their wits, professing to have come only " with a view of aiding and a-sisting " u- in preparing for our defense ;" but their reckless arrogance and audacity, in their assumption of authority in local affairs as well as in other matters, in which they were evidently sustained by some of the more desperate of the leaders of the revolutionary faction, in the City of New York, which were made matters of record, had they not been only earlier specimens of the peculiarly "New England ideas " which, subsequently, became so common and so well known, would have been regarded, by those of later periods, as unaccountable, if not impossible .: Thoughtful inen, therefore, had abundant reason for reflection ; and men of property needed to provide for the security of their possessions; and peaceful men and heads of families did well, when they sought shelter in distant parts of the country, while there were so many and such portentous warnings of the ills which were so evidently and so rapidly approach- ing.
The excitement and bitterness of factional strife, not always of a purely political character, with which the City of New York had been unceasingly afflicted, during several years preceding the period now under consideration, had tended to the serious disturbance of the individual and social relations of many of those who lived in that City ; and the political annals of that period afford ample testimony to the fact that terrorism, there, one of the reasonable results of the existing excitement, was prevalent, audacious, and unchecked by those in authority. The County of Westchester, in her rural contentment, as has been seen in other portions of this narrative, had contin- ued, during the entire period of that earlier revolu- tionary era, in the City of New York, to enjoy peace and good-will among her inhabitants ; but the Meet- ing at the White Plains, ou the eleventh of April,
which reference has been made in connection with and the military Expedition to Concord, on the nine- teenth of that month, with their respective trains of discord and malevolence, appear to have rapidly dis- turbed that quiet and neighborly feeling which had previously prevailed, and to have originated that the call for a Provincial Congress, was greatly strengthened, inand it is after the receipt of the in- les cen ret the en any expedition to Concord, and in the midst of the intense excitement which then precated throughout the City, by the inroad into the reign of terror, throughout that County, which, sub- Vanity of Westchester and the City of New York, of & h .. " sur ber of men, from Connections, who had strat own motion, unsolicited by any one in . .sequently, distinguished it so highly in the annals of partisan strife. History has recorded two notable instances of that rapidly developed, so called, " pub- "Jie opinion," among the new-born and, consequently, unnaturally zealous " fire-eaters" of that ancient and orderly County ; and they may properly find atten- tion, at this time, not only as portions of the history of Westchester-county, during the era of the Ameri- can Revolution, but as instances of the dangers which attend an unchecked zeal, even when exercised in behalf of what may be regarded as .purely commend- .. able purposes.
The first of these acts of terrorism, exercised by the rampant revolutionary elements in Westchester- county, was that in the case of Jonathan Fowler and George Cornwell, two respectable residents of the County, both of whom had signed the Declaration and Protest, at the White Plains, on the eleventh of April, as well as the Resolres which were referred to, in that Declaration and Protest, both of whom were compelled by that, so called, " public opinion, " to pub- lish a recantation of their evidently well-considered political opinions, which was done in the following words, carefully copied from the original publication, in Gaine's New- York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1229, NEW- YORK, Monday, May 1, 1775:
" TO THE PRINTER.
E the subscribers do hereby make this public Declaration, That whereas we "and several others in Westchester-County, having " signed a certain Number of Resolves, which at the " Time of our said signing, we deemed Constitutional, "and as having a Tendency to promote the Interest " of our Country ; but since, upon mature Delibera- " tion, and more full Knowledge of the Matter, find " not only injurions to our present Cause, but like- "wise offensive to our Fellow Colonists. We do " therefore thus publicly testify our Abhorrence of " the same, and declare ourselves Friends to the Colo- " nies, and cver ready cheerfully to exert ourselves "in the Defence and Preservation of the samc.
" JONATHAN FOWLER, Esq. " GEORGE CORNWELL, EMq- " 29th April, 1775."
As both the signers of that recantation were evi- dently intelligent men, one of them having been, at that time, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the County, it is not probable that they had signed those Resolves-no mention having been made of the Declaration and Protext-without having under- stood the effect of their action on " the common cause;"
Proceedings of the Committee of the hundred, Adjourned Meeting, May S ITED ; Leske's Movie of General John Lomb, 1US ; etc.
1
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" MY COUNTRYMEN:
" Before I leave America, the land I love, and in " which is contained everything that is valuable and " dear to me, my wife, my children, my friends, and " property; permit me to make a short and faithful " declaration, which I am indueed to do neither "throughi fear, nor a consciousness of having acted " wrong. An honest man, and a Christian, hath noth- "ing to apprehend from this world. God is my judge, " and God is my witness, that all I havedone, written, " or said, in relation to the present unnatural dispute "between Great Britain and her Colonies, proceeded "from an honest intention of serving my country. "Her welfare and prosperity were the objects towards " which all my endeavours have been directed. They "are still the sacred objects which I shall ever stead- "ily and invariably keep in view: And when in " England, all the influence that so inconsiderable "a man as I am, can have, shall be exerted in her " behalf.
" It has been my constant maxim through life, to " do my duty conscientiously, and to trust the issue of "my actions to the Almighty .- May that God in " whose hands are all events, speedily restore peace "and liberty to my anhappy country. May Great- " Britain and America be soon united in the bands of "everlasting amity : and when united, may they con- " tinue a free, a virtuous, and happy nation to the "end of time.
"I leave Amerien, and every endearing connection, " because I will not raise my hand against my Sover- "eign,-nor will I draw my sword against my Coun- "try; when I can conscientiously draw it in her " favour, my life shall be chearfully devoted to her " service.
" ISAAC WILKINS.
"New YORK,
"May 3, 1775."
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While these nawelcome features of the political
and the offence which they had given to their neigh- bors, or to such of them as could inflict injury on movements, in Westchester county, were extending them or on their property, was clearly the cause : over the entire community, Lewis Morris was busily which produced their recantation. employed, after his seat in the forthcoming Congress ture, in an attempt to belittle the Declaration and Protest of those, at the White Plains, who had ob- was, there, the manager and Chairman. For that purpose, on the seventh of May, he prepared an elab- orate reply, which, a few days afterwards, with some other historical material. he gave to the newspapers, for publication. As an important portion of the local literature of Westchester-conuty, of that period, it may properly find a place in this work. The fol- lowing is a carefully prepared copy of it :
The second of those aets of terrorism, to which ref- of the Colonies had been secured beyond a peradven- erence has been made, was that in the case of Isaac Wilkins, that leading Member of the General Assem- bly of the Colony, in its contest with the Home fios- jected to the proceedings of the Meeting of which he ernment ; that very able " A. W. FARMER " who, with his pen, had aronsed so much indignation ; and that spokesman of the protestants, at the Meeting at the White Plains, with whom the reader is well ac- quainted. That gentleman, in order to secure his personal safety, was compelled to abandon his home and family, and to take refuge in England. Ou the eve of his departure, while he was in the City of New York, he wrote the following touching address to his countrymen, which has been carefully copied from " To the PUBLIC. Rivington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 108, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 11, 1775 :
6 Very extraordinary paper, called a protest L against the proceedings of the Freeholders "of the county of We-t-Chester, relative to the elec- "tion of deputie- for the late Convention, and said to " have been subscribed by the several persons whore " names are printed with it, was published in Mess. "Rivington and Gaine's Gazetteers, a few weeks " ago.
"By whom this performance was given to the pub- "lie, is uncertain, and being as little distinguished by " decency as by truth, there is reason to suspeet, the " author's name will remain a secret.
" The falsities contained in this representation, are " too flagrant to impose upon any person in this col- "ony, and nothing but the apprehension of its gain- "ing credit in other parts of the world, would have "induced me to have made it the subject of ani- " madversion.
" I shall pass over the many little embellishments " with which the author's fancy has endeavoured to " decorate his narrative; nor is it necessary to call in "question the reality of that loyal enthusiasm, by " which it was said these good people were influenced ; "and I really wish it had been the fact, because when "inconsistencies and fooleries result from inebriety or "enthusiasm, they merit our pity, and escape indig- "nation and resentment.
"Much pains, I confess, were on that day taken to "make temporary enthusiasts, and with other more "echilirating spirit, than the spirit of loyalty.
" To give the appearance of dignity to these eurious " and very orderly protestors, the author has been "very mindful to annex every man's addition to bis " name, upon a presumption perhaps that it would " derive weight from the title of Mayor, Esquire, Cap- "tain, Lieutenant. Judge, &e.
. " But it is not easy to conceive why the publisher "should be less civil to the Clergy than to the gentry " and commonalty, Samuel Seabury and Luke Babcock, " certainly ought not to have been sent into the world "floating on a news paper in that plain way,-the
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" ne is the REVEREND Mr. Samuel Semburg, Rector of ! ". Jesse Park, " the united parishes of East and West Chester, and one "of the Missionaries for propagating the GOSPEL, and " not POLITICKS, in foreign parts, &c., &c., the other is " the Reverend Mr. Luke Babcock, who preaches and " prays for Col. Philips and his tenants at Philipsburg. "In this formidable catalogue of 312 sober and loyal "protestors, there are not less than one hundred and " seventy, who after a most diligent enquiry, I cannot " find have the least pretensions to a vote, and indeed " many of them are lads under age. Their names are " as follows :
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