USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 30
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6 The local anthorities arrested and confined, without any trustworthy evitetice, John Morrell, Adam: Patrick, and Isaiah Purdy, in Office- county ; the Berghs, Timothy Donghity, nud Mordecai Lester, in Duch- eas county ; Jolm Connor, in Tryon-county ; Abraham Lawrence, in Qneens contity ; etc.
I letter from the Provincial Congress to the Gentlemen Marchands of the Province of Quebec. " In Provincia Congress, New-York, June 12th, 1775, Letter from the Provincial Congress to the Delegates for the Colony of Nor York, in the Continental Congress, " IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, NEW. " YORK, June 28th, 1725."
See, also, the Plan of Accommodation, alopted in advance and kept in constant readiness for immediate ise, by the same Provincial Congress, "I ho., P.M., Die Martis, June With, 177," (ore pages 17. 95, auto ) Letter from the Provincial Compras to the Committee of Rectanand county, " Naw. "Yosk, 2d December, 1775 :" etc.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
In the earlier days of its existence, the Provincial congress made those arbitrary arrests without any en- in imtient, its own or that of any other body, which could have afforded even a shadow of even revolut- tionary low, if the enactments of a body in acknow !- elged rebellion may be regarded as Laws, for such a radical violation of what were said to have been, and of what were, the fundamental principles of the Duties of those in authority and of the Rights of Person and of Property which belonged to those who were goy- ernel ; but there appear to have been some, among the supporters of the Rebellion, who continued to have doubts concerning the unauthorized and unre- strained right of arrest, even where an opposition to ihr measures of the Rebellion was openly and unre- servedly expressed.
Ou the eleventh of August, a letter was received by the Provincial Congress, from the local Committee at Brookhaven, on Long Island, stating that certain persons, named therein, were " counteracting every " measure recommended for redress and grievances, 1 "and oppusing the measures of Congresses and Com- " mittees ; and that they declared they would furnish, "and that it is suspected they have furnished, the "men-of-war and cutters with provisions," 2 in the same manner that the Asia and other men-of-war were supplied, with the approval of the Provincial Congress, at that time and subsequently, by those who were more in favor with that body; and, at the same time, " requesting the Congress to direct such "measures as they shall think proper, to suppress " such conduct." That letter was referred to a Com- mittee of which Benjamin Kissam, of the City of New York, was Chairman.3 A Report from that Com- mittee was laid before the Congress, on the twenty- sixth of August; ' and, after consideration of the sub- jeet, and apparently without dissent, the following enactment was made on the general subject of the Brookhaven Committee's inquiry :
" WHEREAS attempts may be made to promote dis- " cord among the Inhabitants of this Colony, and to "assist and aid the Ministerial Army and Navy, in " their endeavours to carry into execution the cruel and "oppressive Acts of Parliament, against the Rights " and Liberties of the Inhabitants of this Continent : "And as the immutable laws of self-defence and
! Thus printed in the official copy of the Journal of the Provincial Con-
" Those who shall desire to learn more of that Brookhaven matter may be gratified by a perist of Gaine's New-York Barette und Morenry, No. 1215, NEW-York, Monday, February 6, 177; of a Letter from Major Benjamin Floyd and others to James Rivington, " Bank-HAVES, SFF- " FOLK-COUNTY, NEW-YORK, March 6, 1775," (Rivington's New York that- For, No. 103, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 6, 1775 ;) and of a Declaration of the Inhabitants of Brook-lauren, Nafolk-county, New York, " Book. " Ilwex, March 10, 1775," (Gaite's New-York Gercette : med the Weekly Morenen, No. 1223, NEW-YORK, Monday, March 20, 1775.)
3 Journal of the Borimid Congress, " Die Vearris, 9 ho. V.M., August " 11th, 1775."
" Journal of the Prociucial Congress, " Die Saltati, 4 l. A.M., August "Sith, 1775."
" preservation justify every reasonable measure en- "tered into, to counteract or frustrate such attempts : " Therefore,
" RESOLVED, That if any person or persons shall be "found guilty, before the Committee of any City "or County, of attempting. (after the date of this " Resolution,) to furnish the Ministerial Army or " Navy with Provisions or other necessaries, contrary "to the Resolutions of the Continental or of this "Congress; " or of hobling a correspondence, by letter "or otherwise, for the purpose of giving information " to the said Army or Navy, of the measures pursued "by the United Colonies or any of them ; " or of ad- "vising expedients which the said Army or Navy " might or ought to pursue, against the said Colonies
5 The Provincial Congress not only had passed no Resolutions prohibiting the supply of " the Ministerial Army and Navy with provisions or other " necessaries," thereby, even from the revolutionary standpoint, leaving that fuisities open to whomserver might embark in it; but, on the morning of the day on which this enactment was made, it gave its ofli- cial section to the supply of the fair, man-of-war, with its necessary supplies, from the City of New York, att with water and beer, from Brooklyn, all of them by Abraham Lott, the oficial .. Agent-virtueller " for His Majesty's Ships in this Port," (Jonend of the Provincial Congress, "Die Vineris, 9 ho., A. M. September 1st, 1775.") Four days afterward -. Doctor Mc Lean was authorized to supply the sameship, with Dengs and Medicine, as he had previously done, (Journal of the Committee of Filety, "Die Martis, Ohio., A.M., September 8th, 177.") On the twenty ninth of Jannary, 1770, William Men had permission to go ou board the Asia, to measure the men for shoes, and to make and deliver a hundred pairs, if so many should to needed. (Journal of the Committee of safety, " Die Enna, 10 ho., A. M., January 29th, 1776.") Ou the sixteenth of February, 1776, Henry White was permitted to supply the . bir aud the Phowir with fresh provisions and vegetables. (Jourad of the Procincod Congress, " Die Veneris, 10 ho. A. M., February 10th, 1776.")
While the Provincial Congress was tines monopolizing the supplying of the men-of-war, it " was filled with the ntmiost anxiety " when, during the Autumn of 1775, " small boats from Queens and Westchester-conn- "ties " undertook to enter into the same business; amt " to prevent so " grrata mischief," a suraHarmed vessel was purchased, " to watch those " and other dangerous supplies of the like kind,"-(The Committee of Safety to the New-York Delegates in Continental Congress, " IN COMMITTEE OF "SAFETY, NEW-YORK, January 22, 1776.") On the seventh of February. 1776, when the Chairman of the Committee of the city asked permission for an tweemed applicant to send on board the Isse, two hogschools of Spirits, two dozens of Coffee, and one dozen of Chocolate, the solicited permission was withlul until the name of the appffeant could le ascer- tainted, which does not appear to have been accomplished, (letter from Heavy Remsen, Chairmost of the Committee of the City, to the Committee of Sigity, and the reply of the latter, both undated : Journal of the Committee w/ Sufity : " Die Mercurii, 19 ho., A.M., Feb'y Tth, 1736.")
There does not seem to have been any hesitation in supplying the pro- visions, ou the part of any one, either in New York, er in Westchester- comity, or in Queens-county-why should there have been? The only question appears to have been, by how and for chose pecuniary benefit they should be thus supplied. There were those, in the Provinced Con- gress, who were always ready to enjoy an advantage, in trade of cle. where : there was a rommereiat advantage, in vietealing the ships. which those "patriots" preferred to retain. Had the lastmen of West- chester and Queens counties, while bringing their surjons peuturt- tu markel, bren wise enough to have consigned their cargoes to s one of those vaterprising " Merchants, " Alexander Me Dougal ant bis armed vessel, watching "those dangerous supplies," would not have been necessary.
Verily, patriotism and pelf were closely connected, in these times. 6 Jantes Duane, the friend nul correspondent of Lieutenant-governor Colden, was, at that time, one of the Delegates from New York, in the Congress of the Colonies ; and Egbert Dumont, the friend and erre- spondent of the Royal Governor, William Tryout, represented Ulster- county, in that Provincial Congress, and was proteoly prosent-he was in New York-when this enactment was considered and slipted.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
"or any of them, ' such person or persons, so found "guilty, shall be punished at the discretion of the "Committee before whom he or they shall be so found "guilty, or at the discretion of the Congress or Com- " mittee of Safety of this Colony, so as the punish- "ment, by them, at their discretion inflicted, shall "not exered three months imprisonment or other the " punishments hereinafter mentioned, for the first "offence.
" RESOLVED, That if any person or persons shall " be found guilty, before the Committee of any City or "County in this Colony, of having furnished the " Ministerial Army or Navy (after the date of this "Resolution,) with Provisions or other necessaries, " contrary to any Resolution of the Continental or of "this Congress, such person or persons, so found "guilty thereof, upon dne proof thereof, shall be "disarmed and forfeit double the value of the Pro- " visions or other necessaries so furnished, to be ap- " plied to the public exigencies of this Colony, in "such manner as the Congress or Committee of Safety " of this Colony, for the time being, shall order and " direct. And that such person or persons, so found "guilty, shall be put into and detained in close con- " finement, at his or their own expense and charge, " until three months after he or they, respectively, " shall have paid such forfeiture. And that every " such person or persons, who shall be found guilty "of a second offence of the same kind, shall be ban- "ished from this Colony, for the term of seven years "from the time of such second conviction.
"Although this Congress have a tender regard to "the freedom of Speech, the rights of Conscience, "and personal Liberty, as far as an indulgence in " these particulars may be consistent with cur gen- " eral security ; yet, for the public safety, beit
" RESOLVED, That if any person or persons shall, " hereafter, oppose or deny the authority of the Con- "tinental or of this Congress, or the Committee of "Safety, or the Committees of the respective "Counties, Cities, Towns, Manors, Precincts, or Dis- "tricts in this Colony, or dissuade any person or " persons from obeying the recommendations of the " Continental or this Congress, or the Committee of "Safety, or the Committees aforesaid, and be thereof "convicted before the Committee of the County or "any thirteen or more of their number, who shall or " may mcet upon a general call of the Chairman of " such Committee where such person or persons may "reside, that such Committee shall cause such of " fenders to be disarmed ; " and for the second offence-
1 Charles Lee, the secontin command in the Continental Army, bad not, then, lidt luts well-devised " Point " before General Howe; General Samuel B. Parsons had not yet commenced the supply of information, concerning projected military movements, etc., through w' squire " Heron," to Sir Henry Clinton ; Israel Putnam had not get led Robert R Livingston to "question " " his very fidelity ;" and Benedict Arnold, maddeted by wrong, imposed on him, had not yet commenced his cor- respondendo with John Andre.
"Compare this particular penalty with the particular requirement,
"they -ball be committed to close confinement, at "their respective expense." And, in case any of the "said Committees are unable to carry this or any " Resolution into execution, they are hereby directed "to apply to the next County Committee or command- "ing Officer of the Militia, or to the Congress or the "Committee of Safety of this Colony, for necessary "assistance, as the ease may require." But if it "shall so happen that any violators of this Resolu- " tion shall reside in a County where there is no "Committee of the County, in that case, the matter "shall be triable before the Conunittee of the next "County : Provingb that no person shall be tried "before the General Committee of the City and "County of New York, upon the Resolutions herein "contained, unless the stated quorum be present ; "and in the City and County of Albany, unless " there are present twenty-five members.
" RESOLVED FARTHER, That the respective Com- "mittees and the Militia of the several Counties, by "order of the respective Committees or of the Com- "missioned Officer of the Militia then nearest, are " hereby expressly enjoined to apprehend every " Inhabitant of Resident of this Colony, who now is "or who shall hereafter be discovered to be enlisted "or in arms against the Liberties of America, and to " confine such offender or offenders, in safe custody ; "and his or their punishment is reserved to the " determination of this or some future Provincial "Congress. And the Committee nearest to any per- "son who shall be so enlisted or have taken up "arms against the Liberties of America are hereby " directed to appoint some discreet person to take "the charge of the Estate, both real and personal, of "any such person or persons; which person so ap- " pointed shall be invested with such Estate, and "render, on oath, a just and true account thereof, to "this or some future Congress or to Commissioners "by them to be appointed, and to pay the issues and " profits thereof to the Treasurer appointed by this "Congress, for the use of the associated Colonies.
" RESOLVED, That if any person be taken up ou " suspicion of any of the Crimes in the above Reso- "Intions specified, he shall immediately be taken " before the Committee of the City, Town, Manor,
contained in the enactment concerning the Militia, adopted eleven days previously, (page 102 cute,) that trong lohabitual, between sixteen and fifty years of age, should fully equip himsdf with arms and largely supply himself with ammunition, heavy penalties being imposed, in case of de- fault, in either resteet.
3 That particular feature of this enactment was intended to impoverish the victims, if he possessed property, or la leave him to be started, if he had none ; and the barbarism of the provision and of those who framed it, was seen, subsequently, in the physical sufferings of John O'Contion and David Purdy ; and in those of the Berghs, the Dobbses, and Timothy Danghty, Historical Maanscripts, etc. : Petitions, xxxi., 95, 96, 68, 70, :6 ; etc.)
+ Not long after this enactment was made, the Committee of West- chester county, as will to seen, hereafter, called for and received the armed assistance of men of Connecticut, to enforce obedience to its Rose- lutions of submission to some of its arbitrary seizures of the properties of route of their law-abi-ling neighbors.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" Precinct, or District where the offender shall have | they possessed a conceded interest; that no appeal "Iwen taken up; and if, inpon examination, the sue- from the judgment of such a local revolutionary " picion shall appear to the said Committee to be : tribunal, too often controlled by personal or family " aroundles, that he be discharged: PROVIDED, quarrels+ or by ecclesiastical or neighborhood feuds "Also, that no person charged to be an offender , or by foreign interferences, was provided for. or " shall be triel upon any of the foregoing Resolves, allowed ; and that the dictates of his conscience and the oath of his office, if he held an office, as far as these should assert his duty to his Sovereign and to the Colonial and Home Governments, must be sternly disregarded and suppressed, by every one. "until the persons to be Judges of the offence be "first severally sworn to try and adjudge the person "so charged, without partiality, favour, or affection, " or hope of reward, according to evidence ; and that "every witness who shall be examined on such trial "shall have the charge distinctly and clearly stated "to him ; and be thereupon sworn to speak the truth, " the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 1 * * * * * * *
It will be seen that, by this remarkable enactment, every person in the Colony was placed at the merey of the local Committee of the County in which he lived ; that no one was permitted to disregard or to treat with disrespect either the "recommendations " or the " Resolutions " of Congresses or Committees, of either high or low degree, no matter with what disclaimers of obligation those "recommendations" and " Resolutions " might have been accompanied,2 nor to dissent from whatever outrages on persons or properties there might be inflicted on quiet, law- abiding persons, by even the most insignificant "District Committee" in the Colony, nor even to question the authority to do whatever it should incline to do, no matter how monstrous its actions should be, in any such Congress or Committee; that sequestra- tion, if not confiscation and absolute sale,3 of proper- ties, real and personal, and close confinement in bar- racks or jails, and banishment from home and family, no matter at what cost to him or to those who were dependent on bim, were penalties to which every one was subject, whenever a County Committee saw fit to inflict them ; that, by making the offenees and the penalties matters of general interest to " the associa- "ted Colonies " -- for doing which no one can pretend that a local Provincial Congress, even during a Re- bellion, could consistently assume to legislate-this enactment afforded a warrant for inroads from other Colonies, whenever the latter were inclined to make them, for the direct adjustment of matters in which
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " + ho., P.M., September 1st, "1775."
2 Compare the disclaimers which accompanied the Associations which were sent out, for signatures, (pages 94, 95, ante ; ) with the penalties which were subsequently imposed ou those who had declined to sign those .isso- cittions, in the orders issued for their disarmament, (page 112, ante ;) in this remarkable enactment ; and with the multitude of arbitrary arrests und painful imprisonments, throughout the Colony, with which the Pages of the records of the doings of the revolutionary faction so pecn- barly abonnd.
3 We are sensible that the letter of this enactment affords a warrant for nothing else than a sequestration of the properties of those who were 1Evscribed ; but the spirit of it was seen in the action of those Conmit. they who were, by this enactment, made masters of the great body of the 1. bonists, when those Committees, as will be seen, hereafter, not only requestrated, but confiscated and sold, the properties of those who were Juraually obnoxious to them.
History has failed to record, in the annals of any other community, another such instance of solemn mockery and of refined hypocrisy and of relentless personal and partisan bitterness as is seen in this enactment, framed and ordained and promulgated by men who pretended to so much of honor and intelli- gence, to so much of loyalty to the King and of re- gard for the Constitution, to so much of veneration for the Rights of Man and of reverence for the supreme Laws of God, as were claimed, for themselves, by the Livingstons and the Morrises, the Van Cort- landts and the Clintons, and their several supporters, in the Provincial Congress of Colonial New York ; and the annals of partisan malignity, ecclesiastical or civil, atford few instances wherein an ecclesiastical or civil enactinent, no matter by what authority nor under what circumstances it may have been ordained and promulgated, has been more relentlessly enforced, in its penalties, than this enactment of a revolution- ary Congress was enforced, in the Colony and State of New York. Scarcely a homestead existed in Colonial Westchester-county, in which the unbridled despotism of a self-constituted Precinet or Distriet or Town Committee did not display its ill-gotten, ill-regulated power, under the sanction of this enactment, protected and supported, whenever protection and support were needed to ensure entire success, by the local and the Continental military power or by hungry ruffians from over the border;5 and there are enough of
+ " The information you have received, in respect to Captain Cuthbert, "is, I believe, in part true, but bas originated from a private pique, and "is much exaggerated. You will observe I have bought his wheat from " him, which he readily sold me, at the same time complained, most "bitterly, of being threatened with the loss of his life, by the same Don "you mentioned, who. I believe, is a very bad min. Many persons in "the country are seeking for private revenge under pretence of concern " for the publick safety."-General (Benedict Arnold to Sammel Chase, " SOHET, May 15, 1776.")
General Arnold's remarks were perfectly applicable to every portion of the Colony. Who, among historical students, does not know that oue of the most virulent of those who persecutedl the Joyal and law abiding Colonists, in Colonial New York-a very thinly disguised monarchist who was thus figuring as a most zealous republican -- had been largely prompted to play a vart in the politics of the period which was radically distasteful to himself, in order that he might, thereby, revengetully op- pose and persecute the friends and family of the two young Lulies, sisters, who had successively preferred more graceful and more companionable, if not as mentally and scholastically deserving, suitors for their hands and fortimes ?
5 This sentence has been written with a perfect understanding of what is stated in the text, concerning those who passed from Connectient into Westchester county, to assist the local Committees. in that County. in their work of ontrage and robbery. Greenwich, Stanford, Ridge Bold, Danbury, Wilton. New Camatu, and the other border Towns
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
merely incidental allusions, left among the well-con- cealed record- of those times, to say nothing of those more startling evidences which went, unrecorded, into the graves of those who had been thus plundered and outraged, when the latter were carried to their last earthly homes, to show that the Drakes and the Thomases, the Odells and the Martlings, the Lock- woods and the Dutchers, and those who were associated with them, "patriotically " supporting what was called " the glorious cause of Liberty," were experts in ruth- less barbarisni, and entirely worthy of thecrowns of in- famy which history has awarded to more distinguished, but not more accomplished, inquisitors and despots.
The publication of this barbarous enactment was followed, immediately, by active preparations for persecution, by those, in Westchester-county, who were engaged in promoting the cause of the Rebel- lion ; and they promptly reported to the Provincial Congress, for what purpose is very evident, the fol- lowing list of those, in that County, who were espe- cially obnoxious to them :1
" Col. Phillips,2 Bartholomew Hains,5 "Joseph Harris, Mr. Duncan and Brown " James Harris, at Marroneek,
" Major Brown's two sons "Isaac and Josiah that
Capt. Joshua Purdy,6
Jeremiah Travess,
"lives at home,3
"Lyon Miller,4
Solomon Fowler,7 Joshua Purdy,"
in Connecticut, as is well known, were too nearly akin in sentiment to the Towns in Westchester-county to have supplied respectable men, for such a questionable service ; and specimens of those of Connecticut who were so' zealous in the support of the hebellinn, in New York, when there was no armed forces before them - those, from that Colony were not so zealous, on the northern frontier and in Canada, at Kips Bay and in New Jersey, when an armed enemy was either before or behind them- might have been seen in those who were led by Waterbury and by Sears, by Wooster and by Webb, of whom and of whose peculiarly " New Eng. "land Ideas," concerning the laws of meum et tuum, history has left abundant evidence.
1 Historicol Manuscripts, etc. : Miscellaneous Papers, xxxiv., 193.
2 Colonel Frederic Philipse, of Yonkers and Sleepy Hollow, Member of the General Assembly, already made known to the reader. He was exiled ; and his property sequestrated, confiscated, and soll.
3 Isac and Josiah Brown were arrested ; thrown into the Prison at the White Plains; and subsequently released on condition that they should board with William Miller, Deputy Chairman of the County Committee, at their own expense, instead of at their own homes.
+ Lyon Miller was First bientenant in the Harrison Precinct Company of Militia, reorganized nmuler the enartment of the Provincial Congres?, in August, 1770.
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