USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 22
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". Samuel Seabury, Timothy Purdy,
" . Luke Babcock, " . Benjamin Fowler, Esq.
" . Joshua Peil, " . Elward Pell, " . John Hunt,
.. . Gilbert Ilorton,
" . Adrian Leforge,
" . Moses Williams, ". . Philip Kelley,
" . James Hains, jun.
" Matthew Hains,
" . Bartholomew Hains, .. . John Hains,
.. . Elijah llain?,
" . Joseph Clark, ". Joseph Oakly, . " . James Slott, " ' Daniel Purdy, " . John Crab,
" ' Izariah Whitmore, " ' Absalom Gidney,
". John Brown, " ' Jasper Stivers, " "Peter M.Farthing,
". Joshua Purdy, jun. "' Haccalinh Purdy, jun. " " James Tomkins, " ' Gilbert Thial, " . William Sexen,
" . Thomas Champeniers, "' John Champeniers, ". . Eliazer Hart, " : James Hunt,
" . Joshua Parker, ". Joshua Barnes, " . John Park, " : Sunuel Purdy,
Caleb Areher, Benjamin Bugbe,
Francis Purdy,
William Odell,
Israel liunt,
Thomas Tomkins.
Frederick Underhill,
Benjamin M.Cord,
John Williams, John Ackeman, Peter Rusting, Jeremiah Hanter, Abraham Storm,
" . Roger Purdy. jun. " . Gilbert Pugsley, ". Abraham Ledian, " . Benjamin Brown, " . Aaron Buis, " . John Baidley, " . David Oakley, jun. ". Isaac Smith, ". . John Hyatt, " ' Abraham Odell, " . Thomas Lawrence, " . John Seyson, " . Isaac Forsheu, " ' Gabriel Requeaw, " ' Gabriel Arehier, " . Elias Secord, " ' James Peirce, ".Edward Bugbe, " " Daniel Haight, "' John Ihunt, junr. " ' Abraham Losee, " . Isaac Tomkins, ". Joseph Paulling, " . Hendrieus Storm, " ' Francis Secord,
". John Parker, " . Gilbert Bates, "' David Purdy, " ' David Bleecker, " . Jordan Downing, " ' Corn. Van Tassell, "' Joseph Appleby, "' Patrick Cary, " 'Gilbert Ward, " . William Dunlap,
Peter Jenning, John Sale, John Smith,
James Hart, junr.
Jonathan Purdy, juur.
Monmouth Hart, junr.
Christopher Purdy,
Gabriel Purdy,
IMIward Merrit. junr.
Heury Dishorough,
William Van Wart,
Abraham Storm, Thomas Berry, Charles Merit,
Benjamin Griffen,
James Angevine,
Jereminh Anderson, junr.
William Barker, junr.
Gideon Arden, Joshua Purdy, George Storm,
Jacob Vermiller, Samuel Heusted,
John Warner,
John Storm, Joshua Secord, Jolen Underhill, William Underhill, junr.
James Ilill,
William Watkins,
Richard Baker,
Bishop lleustice,
Nehemiah Tomkins,
Henry Leforge,
Evert Brown,
Benjamin Beyea,
John Loree, Elnathan Appleby, John Baker,
Jounthan Underhill,
James M.Chein,
Joshua Hunt. Bates Chatterdon,
William Londrine, Dennis Kennedy, James lains, Andrew Bainron, Nathaniel Tomkins,
" MORRISANIA, " May 7, 1775." 1
It will be seen that, with more than his usual shrewdness, Lewis Morris postponed his attempt to reply to the Declaration and Protest which had been made, some weeks previously, by those who had ob- jected to the Meeting at the White Plains, until after Iris brother-in-law, Isaac Wilkins, who had led those protestants, and who was known to have been the
1 This notable paper, except the list of names, was published in Rir- ington's New-York Gazetteer, No. 108, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 11. 1573 ; and the names were published in the next number of that paper -No. 109, New-York, Thursday, May 15, 1775; the text of the article was published in Graing's Now York Google: and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1231, NEW-YORK, Monday, May 15, 1775-although promise was made that the nantes should be published in the succeeding number, they were not-and both the text of the article and the names appear in Holt's Nor-York Jernal, No. 1680, NEW-YORK, May 18, 1775.
From the first-named of those two papers, the re-print of it, in the text, was very carefully made.
:
James Suiffen, junr.
l'eter Bonet, Peter Fashee,
Jesse Lawrence, William Sniden,
Solomon Dean,
Thomas Hiat,
William Woodward,
John Whitmore,
William Underhill,
Jeremiah Hitchcock,
William Bond,
Samuel Sneden, . Joshua Ferriss.'
"Of the others who are Freeholders, many also "hold lands at will of Col. Philips, so that the truth "really is, that very few independent Freeholders ob- "jected to the appointment of Deputies.
"LEWIS MORRIS.
" . Gilbert Purdy, .. . James Chatterton, " . Thomas Cromwell, ". . Solomon Horton, " . Nathaniel Underhill, jun. Peter Post, " . Philip Fowler, "'John M.Farthing, .. . Jacob Post, " ' James Baxter, ". John Hart, ". . Cornelius Losce,
James M.Guire, James Regnaw, Samnel Purdy, Sylvanus Purdy, William Dalton, Elijah Tomkins,
Charles Lawrence, Joshua Purdy, junr.
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author of their Declaration and Protest, had left Amer- ica, when he knew that he was probably secured from challenge concerning the untruthfulness of whatever he should write, in that reply-neither Samuel Sea- bury nor Luke Babcock had written anything con- cerning the political questious of that period; 1 it was not thought they would do so; and there was no other person, in Westchester-county, whose pen promised trouble to the new-made leader, no matter how much that peculiar failing which had made his family conspicuous, throughout the Colony," should be manifested in whatever he should write.
The relative merits of the two papers, the Declara- tion and Protext and the reply, will be very readily seen, by every careful reader. The author of the latter was very profuse in his very general charge of "falsities contained in this representation ; " but he failed to specify, even a single instance in which the former had presented an untruth ; and every one will pereeive that he did not except, from the general im- peachment, even those portions of the Declaration and Protect which agreed, in their recital of facts, with his own statement of those facts, contained in the official report of the proceedings of that Meeting, at the White Plains, written over his own signature, on the afternoon of the day on which the Meeting was held, and subsequently presented by him, to the Provincial Convention, as the Credentials through which he and his associates were admitted to seats in that body, as, nominally, a delegation from West- chester-county-if the recital contained in the one was notruthful, therefore, the similar recital con- tained in the other was, necessarily, quite as untrust- worthy as the other. He also impeached the "de- "ceuey" of what the Declaration and Protest con- tained; but, again, he failed to specify in what their "indecency " consisted. He impeached the bona fide of the " enthusiasm " of the protestants, at the Plains ; but he "confessed," and only those who are guilty "confess," that his own companions, those who had given the much coveted place and authority to him, were also noisy, from the effects of other Spirits than that of loyalty to the King-inasmuch as each of the two factions, at the Plains, claimed to have been noisy as well as loyal, the author of the reply had little reason for making such an objection, unless he desired to secure to his own faetion the credit of making all the noise aud of expressing all the loyalty which were then produced, by any one. He ob-
jected, also, that the titles of those who had signed the Declaration and Protect were appended to the names of those to whom they respectively belonged; but a reference to the official report of the proceed- ings of that Meeting, signed by himself and evidently from his own pen, to which reference has been made, will show to any one that thespecific titles of " Mr. ," "EM., " "Captain," " Major," and "Colonel," were added to eighteen of the twenty-six names which that report contained-indeed, he had given the distinctive title of "Colonel," to himself, iu three different places, in that report ; and that, too, with- out a word of apology. He insinuated that one hun- dred and seventy of those who had signed the Protest were not voters-" after the most diligent inquiry, "I cannot find they have the least pretensions to "vote," he said ; adding, "and indeed, many of them "are lads under age"-but he conveniently omitted to make a direct and positive averment of such a want of qualification, in any one of those protestants ; and he also conveniently failed to designate which of the one hundred and seventy whom he named, in any single instance, was a minor. Most of all, he disre- garded the fact that the Declaration and Protest, to which he assumed to make a reply, had made no pre- tension to having been made exclusively by " Free- " holders," but, on the contrary, it was thus headed : " We the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of "the county of Westchester, having assembled at the " White Plains, in consequence of certain advertise- "ments," ete., from which every appearance of ex- clpsiveness, in the signers of it, was expressly ex- cluded. Finally : he impeached the " independence " of those of the signers of that Profest who were Free. holders, by saying " many also hold lands at will un- "der Col. Philips; " but he conveniently forgot to tell how a mere tenant at will could, thereby, become a Frecholder, or how many, in the Manor of Cortlandt, who were only tenants or who held lands at the will of the Proprietors of that Manor, had been induced by other causes than loyalty to those Proprietors or discontent with the General Assembly, to go to the White Plains, to assist into a place in the revolu- tionary organization, the young member of that " patriotic " family, Philip, on whom, a few months before, the Royal Governor, William Tryou, had bestowed a Royal Commission of Major, which he then bore; nor was it convenient for the author of that reply, to state, therein, just how many of the tenants and other retainers of the lordly Lord of the Manor of Morrisania had been induced, contrary to their unassisted inclinations, to ride from the Borough Town of Westchester to the White Plains, on that eleventh of April, to assist in the elevation of himself into an office, no matter what. The char- aeter of Colonel Frederic Philipse, whom he was so swift to impeach, whether regarded as a man or as a gentleman, as a landlord or as a citizen, was quite as pure, and quite as upright. and quite as worthy of
: Mr. Seabury, in his Memorial to the General Assembly of Connecticut, presented on the twentieth of December, 1775, in reply to one of the four accusations which had been made against him, expressly stated that he had not, at that time, written any "pamphlets and newspapers " against the liberties of America ; " which effectually Jisproves much that has been written, on that subject, by modern bibliographers.
" This family are so remarkable for "enlarging the truth,' that all "stories suspected of not being true are known throughout the County "of Westchester, in the City of New York, and on the westernmost part "of Long Island, by the name of 'Morrisanias.'" -- (Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 110.1
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respect, as was that of Colonel Lewis Morris or that of any other member of that unpopular family ; and his practises, in private and in public life, against which not even a Morris, in his bitterest mood, could say a word of open disrespect, merited no such fling from the office-seeking head of the small, new-born revolu- tionary faction, then in Westchester-county-from one whose only antagonism to the Colonial and Home Governments originated in and was sustained by the continued ill-success of the family of which he was the head, in its unceasing hankering for that official station from which, exeept in a single notorious in- stance, the controlling power within the Colony, for many years, had rigidly excluded it.
At the same time, and through the same public press in which Lewis Morris published his reply to the Declaration and Protest, to which reference has been made, he also published the following Cards,1 evidently the only trophies of the kind, which he had secured, during the political campaign in which he had been engaged, since the publication of the Declu- ration and Protest had aroused his indignation, and the withdrawal of his brother-in-law had left hini without an opponent :
I
"Ifthat our names were not subscribed to the "protest of West Chester, either by our- "selves, or our orders or permission, directly or indi- "reetly, is certified by us, each for himself.
"PETER BUSSING. "PETER BUSSING, jun. " May 4, 1775." II
"MR. RIVINGTON,
"I Did sign a protest, which was printed in your "paper; but I did so, because I was told that the in- "tent of signing it was to shew, that I was for the " liberties of the country.
" SAMUEL BAKER."
III " NORTH-CASTLE, May 8, 1775. " MR. RIVINGTON,
- N your paper lately I saw my name to a pro- "test. I never signed it, but went into Capt. "Hatfield's house, and was asked, whether I was a "Whig or a Tory ? I made answer, that I did not "understand the meaning of those words, but was for "liberty and peace. Upon which somebody put down
Hiringlow's New York Guretteer, No. 108, NEW YORK, Thursday, May 11, 1775.
Any one who is acquainted with the habits of printers, in "making "up" the forms of a newspaper, for the press, will understand, from the places which these three Cards, and the reply of Lewis Morris to the DerLination and Protest (omitting the names), and the proceedings of the Hosting at the White Plains-five distinct articles relating to Westches ler-county-occupy, together, in the last Column of the inside forin of the pajer, that they all proceeded from the same hand ; and that the three Cards of recanting protesters were, evidently, among the results of Lewis Morris's political pilgrimage through that County, in his dili. gret search for protestants who were not, also, Frecholders.
"my name. Now, Sir, I desire that you will print " this to shew to the world, that I have not deserved " to be held up in the light of a protestor.
"JEREMIAH HUNTER."
With these four publications-the reply to the Dec- laration and Protest and the three Cards of recanta- tion-as far as Westchester-county was concerned, the literature of the first Provincial Convention of the Colony of New York ended-and, as every farmer had returned to his rural home, at the close of the eventful eleventh of April, and had resumed his work, the neecssary work of the season, on his farm or on the river, with the exceptions, here and there, of a disturbed mind, an angry thoughit, or an unneighborly resent- ment, new features in the social life of Westchester- county farmers, the whole subject gradually became a thing of the past, fit only for material for history.
Reference has been made to the action of the Com- mittee of Inspection, in the City of New York, on the twenty-sixth of April, providing for its own dis- solution ; for the election of a new Committee of one hundred, to occupy its place, in that City; and for the organization of a Provincial Congress, with gen- eral authority for the government of the entire Col- ony .? For the accomplishment of the last-named of those purposes, a Circular Letter was addressed, by the Chairman of that Committee, to the Committees of those Counties in which Committees had been chosen, and to prominent residents of those Counties in which Committees had not been chosen, inviting their co-operation, and recommending them to choose Deputies to the proposed Congress, the following being a copy of that Circular Letter :
"CIRCULAR.
" COMMITTEE CHAMBER, NEW-YORK, April 28, 1775. " GENTLEMEN,
"The distressed and alarming situation of our "Country, occasioned by the sanguinary measures "adopted by the British Ministry, (to enforce which, "the Sword has been actually drawn against our "brethren in the Massachusetts), threatening to "involve this Continent in all the horrors of a civil " War, obliges u> to call for the united aid and council "of the Colony, at this dangerous crisis.
"Most of the Deputies who composed the late " Provincial Congress, held in this City, were only "vested with powers to chose Delegates to represent "the Province at the next Continental Congress, "and the Convention having executed that trust "dissolved themselves: It is therefore thought "adviseable by this Committee, that a Provincial "Congress be immediately summoned to deliberate "upon, and from time to time to direct such measures " as may be expedient for our common safety.
" We persuade ourselves, that no argumen's can
I Vide Page 75, ante.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" now be wanting to evince the necessity of a perfect "union ; and we know of no method in which " the united sense of the people of the province can " be collected, but the one now proposed. We there- " tore entreat your County heartily to unite in the "choice of proper persons to represent them at a " Provincial Congress to be held in this City on the " 221 of May next .- Twenty Deputies are proposed " for this City, and in order to give the greater weight "and influence to the conneils of the Congress, we "could wish the number of Deputies from the "counties, may be considerable.
"We can assure you, that the appointment of a "Provincial Congress,1 approved of by the inhabitants "of this city in general, is the most proper and " salutary measure that can be adopted in the present " melancholy state of this Continent ; and we shall be "happy to find, that our brethren in the different "Counties coneur with us in opinion.
" By order of the Committee. " ISAAC LOW, Chairman." 2
As there was not, at that time, any Committee, within the County of Westchester, unto whom that Cireular Letter could be sent, it was probably sent, as that relating to the proposed Provincial Convention had been sent, to some prominent resident of that County, most convenient to the Chairman of the Committee of the City, for circulation in the several Towns, throughout the County ; and, by that local poli- tieian, whomsoever he may have been, it may be reasona- blysupposed that those Circular Letterswhich were thus sent to him, were duly circulated " where they would " do the most good," for his own interest and for those of his family. It is said, however, that " a general "notice," inviting a Meeting of the Freeholders of the County, was published ; and history has recorded, over the official signature of the "Chairman for the " day," that such a Meeting was held, at the White Plains, on Monday, the eighth of May, 1775, " pur- " suant to a general notice for that purpose," James Van Cortlandt, of the Borough Town of Westchester, occupying the Chair. No pretensions were made, in the official report of the Meeting or elsewhere, that the attendance was large: on the contrary, it is very probable that not more than two dozens were present. Whatever the number may'have been, it assumed to be the representative of all who were, then, within the County, of every condition in life ; and, in the name and in behalf of all those who then lived therein, whether present or absent, it appointed "a Committee "of ninety persons, for the said County," and de-
I It will be noticed that the proposed assembly was, in this Circular Letter, called a " Provincial Congress," not a " Convention," as the last WAN named.
" The re-print of this Circular Letter, in the text, is minde from a care- fully-made copy of one of the originals, which has been processed among Associations in the Historical Manuscripts relating to the War of the Rerolution, in the Secretary of State's Office, at Albany, Volume XXX., Pago 152.
termined that any twenty of them, "should be "impowered to act for the said County; " and it also determined to send a Deputation to the proposed Provincial Congress, referring to the new-appointed Committee of the County, the nomination of those who should be members of that Deputation.
There were only twenty-three of the ninety who had been named for the Committee, present and act- ing on the subject which had been referred to it; but it was not slow in nominating, " to represent the said "County in Provincial Convention," Gouverneur Morris, Doctor Robert Graham, Colonel Lewis Graham, and Colonel James Van Cortlandt, all of them from the Borough Town of Westchester; Stephen Ward and Joseph Drake, from Eastchester ; Major Philip Van Cortlandt, of the Manor of Cort- landt; Colonel James Holmes, of Bedford; John Thomas, Junior, of Rye; David Dayton, of North Castle ; and William Paulding, of ----; and, un- doubtedly, with equal promptness, the Meeting confirmned the nominations, by electing the eleven nominees to seats in the proposed Congress of the Colony.
It is said, in the official report of the Meeting, that, after the election of the Deputation, as above " stated, "the Committee signed an association, simi- " lar to that which was signed in the city of New- " York, and appointed Sub-Committees to superintend "the siguing of the same throughout the County ; "3
3 The temciation, which was thes "signed by the Committee"-if any others than Members of the Committee had been present, they also would have signed it -- was not that Isociation which the Continen- tal Congress has decreed and promulgated, in the preceding October, but another and entirely different affair, which had been drawn up by James Duane, John Jay, att Peter Vau schaack, and "set on foot in " New-York," on the twenty-ninth of April. It had been largely signed, in the City, and copies of it had been sent " through all the "counties in the Province ; " and the action taken at the White Plains, concerning it, was only responsive to the request of the Committee of One hundred, which had supersailed the Comunittee of Inspection, in the City of New York. The following isa copy of that Anoriution, care- fully copied from Hiringfont's New-York Gazetteer, No. 1UT, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 4, 1775 :
6. PERSUADED that the silvation of the rights and liberties of "America, depends, under God, on the firm union of its in- "halstants, in a vigorous prosecution of the mesene- necessary for its " safety, and convinced of the necessity of preventing the anarchy and "confusion which attend a dissolution ofthe powers of government ; "we, the foxmen, tresholders, and inhabitants of the city ati county of " New York, being greatly alarmed ut the avowed design of the minis- "try to raise a revenne in Anterira, And shocked by the Woody scene "now acting in the Massachusetts-Biy ; do. in the most solemn manner " resolve never to become slaves; and to associate under all the ties of " religion, honour, and love to our country, to adopt, and endeavour to "carry into execution, whatever measures may be reconnneuded by the " continental congress, or resolved upon by our provincial convention, "for the purpose of preserving our constitution, and opposing the exe- " cution of -overal arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British Partia- "ment, until a reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on "constitutional principdes, (which we must ardently desire) can be ob- "tained; and that we will, in all things, follow the advice of our " general committre, respecting the purposes aforesaid, the preservation " of peace and good order, and the safety of individuals and private prop- "erty.
" Dated in New-York, April and May, 1575."
This Isonciation, with some slight change, was re-printed ( without any
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and after that had been .done, the Meeting was ad- journed.1
The official report of the proceedings of the Meet- ing does not give the names of any of the ninety per- son, who were said to have been chosen as a "Com- " mitter for the County of Westchester;" and a careful search for those names, in other contemporary pub- li ations, has been rewarded with only a partial * **- the Credentials of the Depaties to the Pro- uincial Congress, to which reference has been made,, reveal the names of the following :
David Dan.3, George Comb.
Mde Oakley,
Micah Townsend,
Jobn G. Graham,
Benoni Platt,
Samuel Drake,
Frederic Van Cortlandt,
. Lewis Morris,
James Varian,
Jonathan Platt,3 Samuel Haviland,
Michael Hays, Benjamin Lyon,
Samuel Crawford,
Robert Bloomer,
Gilbert Thorn,
William Miller,
Thomas Thomas, Joshua Ferris,
James Newman, Gilbert Drake,
Jonathan G. Tompkins, Chairman.
It will be evident to the reader that, until the ap- pointment of the "Committee for the County of West- " chester," by the Meeting which was held at the White Plains, on the eighth of May, 1775, as has been already stated, there had not been even the slightest appearance of any central organization, for political purposes, within the County ; that, until they were crowded into the political arena, by the place-seekers who were among them, the hardworking farmers throughout the County had not permitted the political questions of the day to disturb their peaceful labors; and that the place-hunting few, as insigniti- cant in numbers as they were in honest patriotism,
apparent reason) appended to the Journal of the Provincial Convention, which Convention had adjourned a weck before the Association was written and before it was known that any reason for such an Association with imminent. In de Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New- York dur- ing the Recointionary War, i., 505, 506, it has been again 're-printed, this time Trom the inaccurate re-print just referred to, and, of course, with its imperfections, together with a more serious omission than any which that had presented.
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