USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 38
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On the fourth of December, 1775, also during the period between the dissolution of the first and the organization of the second of the series of the Pro- vincial Congresses, the Governor of the Colony, Wil- liam Tryon, from his shelter, on board the ship Dutchess of Gordon, lying in the harbor of the City of New York, evidently and reasonably encouraged by the backwardness of the Deputies to the Provin- cial Congress; by the known inelination to peace, of a large majority, if not of nearly all, the Colonists; and by the countenance and expected support of sundry of the leaders of the Rebellion, addressed a letter to the Mayor of that City, Whitehead Hicks,12
6 Ibid.
i Rec. Stoned Souburg to the Truerable Society, " NEW YORK, December " 20. 1776."
$ Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of Rt. Rev. Samuel Salary, D. D., 19. 9 sammuel Seabury's unme was on the first " List of Westchester county "Tories," (Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Miscellaneous Papers, XaviV., 193.) In September, 1776, affer reciting the disaffection of Rev. Sanmel Seabury, the Committee of Safety, five of the Westchester-county meni- bers being pre- nt, directed Colouel Joseph Drake, forthwith, to remove him from his home to the house of Colonei John Brinckerhof, at l'ish- kill. to remain there till the further order of the Convention or the Cota- mittee of Safety ; and that he be not permitted to leave the farin of the said Colonel Brinckerhoff, except in company with the Colonel. At the same time Colonel Van Cortlandt, John Jay, and Robert Harper were directed to ascertain what property Mr. Seabury had which might be srized and sold for the payment for his board and lodging, in his involve- tary exile. (Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Mercurii, O to. " A.M., September 11, 173%.")
10 Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of It. Her. Sumuel Seabury, D.D., 00.
"11 Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of the Rt. Rer. Samuel S-a- Bury, D.b .. 45-60.
12 Governor Tryon to the Mayor of the City of New York, "SHIP DUTCH- " ENQUE GORIMIN, NEW YORK HARLOUR, 4th Dec. 1775."
This letter appeared, in print, in Gaine's New York Gazette ; and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1201. NEW-YORK, Monday, December 11. 1775.
dale until the second Thursday of the following May, see the sanie Historical Collections, etc., 200).
1 Her. Samuel Serbery to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, "NEW " YORK, December 29. 1776." : Rot. Sammel Seabary to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, Janu- "ary 13, 1776 ; " Beardsley's Life and Correspondence of Rt. Ber. Samet Seabury, D. D., 43.
3 Rev. Samuel Seabury to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, Janu- " ary 13, 1776."
4 Bradley's Life and Correspondence of Rt. Rec. Samuel Sabury. D. D., 48.
& Rev. Samuel Seabury to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, January " 1:3, 1776."
141
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
screed in which was another letter addressed "To concerned in them. Joshua Hett Smith, another of " THEINHABITANTS OF THE COLONY OF NEW YORK." the brothers, whose unholy associations with General Benedict Arnold and Major Jolm Andre, at a later expressive of his hope that some measure might be od pied a- the basis of an accommodation between the period, are well known, was not, then, in any Com- Vi thar chustry and the Colony. It was written in a wpart of .kim ine-> and regard for the welfare of the country, probably as a feeler, and certainly after con- >trion with some of the leaders of the Rebellion ; and it was well-calculated to lead the revolutionary portions of the Colonists back to their duty and to jewer. in which it appears to have been quite . ffic- Use"several of the Delegates" [in the Provincial congreve] "were favorably disposed," we are told; and there can be little doubt that by far the greater number of the Colonists, also, could their well-con- sidered and honest preferences have been safely ex- pressed, would have heartily coneurred in the propo- sition.
It was not, then, generally known, but the revela- tions made by the publication of the records of that period have recently shown, that that letter was in- troductory to a movement toward a peaceful solution of the political troubles of the Colonies, which, if the letter should be well-received, the very able family of Smith, who had been among the originators and most earnest promoters of the Rebellion, and whose duplicity and hypocrisy are well known, was prepar- ing to direct and lead. Thomas Smith, one of the brothers, was a member of the Provincial Congress, and, of course, in all the councils of the party of the Rebellion, enjoying the confidenee of those who were
'I The following is a copy of that letter, taken from the New- York Colonial Manuscripts, ci., 123, in the Office of the Secretary of State, at Albany :
" TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY OF NEW YORK :
" I take this public Manner to signify to the Inhabitants of this Prov- "tuce, that his Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant me bis " Royal Permission to withdraw from the Government ; and at the site " Time to assure thein of my Readiness to perform ever service in my "Power, to promote the cominon Felicity, If I am excluded from "every Hope of being any Ways instrumental towards the Re-establish- " ment of that Harmony, at present interrupted between Great Britain "and her Colonies, I expect soon to be obliged to avail muyself of his " Majesty's Indulgence.
" It has given me great Pain to view the Colony committed to my " care, in such a turbulent State as not to have afforded the since my " Arrival, any Prospect of being able to tike the dispassionate and " delegate Sense of its Inhabitants, in a constitutional Maurer, upon " the Resolution of Parliament for composing the present Ferments in "the Provinces ; A Resolution that was intended for the Basis of an " Accommodation ; and if candidly considered in a Way in which it will "le most probably successful, and treated with that Delicacy and "Decency requisite to the Cultivation of a sincere Reconciliation and " Friendship. might yet be improved for the Purpose of restoring the " general Tranquility and Security of the Empire.
" I owe it to my Affection to This Colony, to declare my wish, that " some Measure may be speedily adopted for this purpose ; as I feel an " extremwe Degree of Anxiety, in being Witness to the growing Calamities "of this Country, without the Power to alleviate them: Calamities " that must increase, while to many of the Inhabitants withhold their " Allegiance from their Sovereign, and their Obedience to the Parent " Country ; by whose Power and Patronage they have hitherto been sus- " tained and protected.
"WILLIAM TRYON.
mittee or Congress ; but, nevertheless, he was, at that time, one of the leaders of the Rebellion, out-doors, andl-was admitted to the inner councils of those who were its leaders. William Smith, the elder of the historical family of that period and allied to the Liv- ingstons, by marriage, was the most influential of all those who were, at that time, engaged in the political affairs of the Colony. He had been associated with William Livingston and John Morin Seott, in the historically famous "triumvirate." He had professer to approve the usurpations of legislative authority and other questionable doings of the Continental Con- gress of 1774; and he is known to have been an outside adviser of the facetious minority of the General Assem- bly, with whom and with whose inconsistency of action the reader is already acquainted. He was the life-long and confidential friend and the frequent host of Gene- ral Philip Schuyler; and the correspondent, friend, and political adviser of George Clinton. He gave up his house, for the occupation of General Washington, when the latter ocenpied the City; and, with much ostentation, he appeared to be largely in sympathy with those, in New York and elsewhere, who were in the Rebellion. But, notwithstanding all these. Wil- liam Smith adroitly avoided the placing of his name to the General Association of the Congress of 1774, that aet which was made the political shibboleth, after the catchwords of " Rights " and "Liberty" had ae- complished their purposes and a new issue, that of an implicit obedience to the powers which were, had been made by those who were leaders in the Rebel- lion. He was, also, at the same time that he was thus masquerading as a confidante and an adviser of those who were leading the Rebellion and as a sympathiser with and promoter of the Rebellion itself, a Member of the Colonial Council of the King; au iuthnate friend and confidential adviser of the Governor of the Col- ony, William Tryon-whose leanings toward the pre- tensions of the Livingston family were as distinctly seen as were those of the venerable Lieutenant-gover- nor, Cadwallader Colden, toward the pretensions of the more influential De Lancey family -- and a secret schemer, aiming to promote the interest of his own family by disarming the Rebellion of its strength ? and, thereby, effecting a reconciliation with the Home Government.
* * *: ** *
*
As far back as the eighth of June or eighth of July, a Report had been made by a Committee which had been previously appointed to consider the subject, provid-
" SHIP DUTCHESS OF GORDON,
" HARROCK OF NEW YORK, 4th Dec. 1775."
" The strength of the Rebellion was in the union of all the disif- fected Colonies ; and, hud ho succeeded in wirludrawing New York from the existing confederation, which he and at the Smiths endeav. ored to do, that strength would have been impaired, and, persibly. the confederation of the Colonieseffectually broken.
142
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ing " for the dissolution of this Congress and election I Graham, So phen Ward, Esq., Colonel Joseph Drake. "of a new Provincial Congress for this Colony ; "' but. Robert Kirkham, Pq., John Thomas, Junior, Es .. William Panlding. Major Ebenezer Lockwood, Col- very probably, nothing was really done and deter- mined on, concerning the subjects referred to. There . Quel Pierre Van Cortlandt, and Colonel Gilbert was some action, in the Provincial Congress, on Drake' were elected ; and that any three of these should have authority to represent Westchester-coun- ty in the coming Provincial Congress-Gouverneur Morris, James Van Cortlandt. Philip Van Cortlandt, James Holmes, and David Dayton, all of whom had been members of the preceding Congress having been dropped, and Major Ebenezer Lockwood and Col- in their stead. collateral subjects; but it was not until a much later period that that body was dissolved-on the fourth of November, either because of the absence of a quorum or for some other reason, no record of a formal adjournment having been made, the Provincial Congress ceased to exist ; and the works which it had done as well as its own existence, became matters of ; onels Pierre Van Cortlandt and Gilbert Drake sent lristory. Sooner or later, History will assign each to ' the place to which it is justly entitled.
It has been stated " that, as the out-come of the various labors of that body, on that subject, an Ordin- ance had been adopted by the Provincial Congress, on the twenty-seventh of October, providing for the Election of new Delegations to a new Provincial Con- gress, on the seventh of November, and for the as- sembling of that new Provincial Congress, on the fourteenth of that month; but there is no record of any such aetion, on the official Journal of that body ; and no copy of that Ordinanee has been found, not- withstanding the most diligent search and inquiry have been niade. Whatever may have been the form and character of the document, it is evident, however, that such an Ordinance was really adopted and promulgated, and that, agreeably to its provisions, on the seventh of November, a meeting was held at the White Plains, for the election of Delegates from the County of Westchester, to the coming Congress.3 It . is not stated in what manner nor by whom the elec- tion was made; but it is stated that Colonel Lewis
1 In the Journal of the Provincial Congress, of the sixteenth of October, it is said the Report was made "on the eighth of July last ;" in the Journal of that body, of the eighteenth of O tober, it is said the Report was made "on the eighth of June last ;" and in a memorandum ap- . pended to the Journal of that body, of the nineteenth of October, stating that the Report was " wanted," it is said, also, that it was "of the ath "June last." In the Journal of the Provincial Congress, of neither of those days, however, does there appear the slightest mention of any such Report or of the subject of it.
2 Minutes of Proceedings during the recess of the Provincial Congress, by their A-ljourument on the fourth of November, 1775.
3 The following document, copied from the original manuscript, ( His- toriral Manuscripts, etc .: Credentials of Delegates, xxXIV., 24, 67,) illustrates this subject :
"Tu ritE HONORABLE THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS OF THE COLONY OF "NEW YORK.
" We the Committee for the County of Westchester do humbly certify "that at the Election of delegates to represent the sand County in the " Next Provincial Congress to be held at New York the 14th justant, " which was this day held at the Court House of the stid County, Colonel " Levis Graham, Stephen Ward, Esq. Col. Joseph Drake, Robert Graham, " Esq, John Thomas, June Esq., Mr. William Burling, Major Ebenezer " Leckerved, Col. Pierre Van Cortlandt, and Col. Gilbert Drake, were daly " elected agreeable to the resolves of the Provinetil Congress, to repre- " sent this county until the Second Tuesday of May next ; and that it " was voted by the people that any three of the said Deputies shall act "for this county. Dated the 7th day of November, 1775.
" By order of the Committee. "GILBERT H. DRAKE, Chairman.
"A true copy from the minutes taken to
"MICAH TOWNSEND, Clerk of the Committee."
The day appointed for the organization of the new Provincial Congress was the fourteenth of November; but, on that day. there was not even a respectable minority of the Delegates present, which may well be considered as indicative of the coolness with which the Rebellion wa- regarded by the great body of the Col- onists, in New York, even at that early period; and of how little warrant there had been, in fact, for the outrages which had been committed by the preceding Congress and by its Committees, in their name.
Day by day, the handful of punctual Delegates met and adjourned. They amused themselves by dic- tating letters to the Committees of the faltering Counties, urging the attendance of their several Dele- gations, " in order that the business of the great cause "we are engaged in may be no longer delayed or "neglected." > Threats were made, in some in- stanees, that " the Continental Congress" might " find "it necessary, for the public service and for the want of "a Congress, to put the Colony under a Military "Government, directed by a Major-General and an " Army, and that at the sole expense of this Colony," adding that " many Gentlemen present are apprehen- " sive" that such " would be the consequence if a Con- "gress [were] not speedily formed, so as to proceed to " business," etc.6 On the first of December, the Commit- tee of Orange-county was asked -- the second request of the kind-"that you will not delay sending down your "members by next Monday morning, that the publie " business may no longer suffer for the want of a repre- " sentation of your County ; for such is the perilous "state of America, and this Colony in particular, that
4 It will be seen that eight of the nine Del- gates thus elected carried titles with their bames-the terms " Esq." and "MR." at that time, having recognizeil places in the order of rank-and that only one of the nine, William Paulding, was low enough, in the social rank, to be a plain, untitled MAN.
3 These words, taken from the letter sent to the Delegates-elect of King-county, on the twenty second of November. represent the sub- stanice of those sent to the Committee of Orange county, on the follow- ing day : to the Delegates from Richmond-county in the preceding Con- gress, of the twenty fourth of November ; and to the Delegates-elect and to the Comnuttres in the several Conties of Tryon, Charlotte, Cum- berland, Orange, Kings, and Duchess on the first of December. (Mindre of the Proceedings during the faces of the Provincial Congress, by their Adjonraiment on the fourth of November, 1TIM.)
" These were sent, on the first of December. to the Committees of Tryon, Charlotte, and C'umle rland-counties, respectively.
143
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
1 Letter to the Committee of Orange-county, " NEW-YORK, December Ist, "1775."
2 Letter from Paul Mickeut to Robert Benson, " RICHMOND-COUNTY, De- "rember Ist, 1775."
3 " The evil consequences that will attend the not having a Provincial "Congress to determine on the measures necessary to be adopted and " carried into execution, at this unhappy crisis, are more easily con- "ceived than expressed ; and rest assured, Gentlemen, that the neigh " bouring Colonies will not remain inactive spectators, if you show a " disposition to depart from the Continental Union. Confusion and dis- " order, with numberless other evils, you must suppose, will attend the " want of a Congress for the government of this Colony, until a recon. "ciliation with the Mother Country can be obtained." (Letter to the Committee of Richmond-county, "NEW-YORK, 2d Dec. ITT5.")
1 It is very well known that the Morrises were zealous loyalists, in Enrope as well as in America, until the family lost its hold on the Colo- hial Goverment, by tho removal of the elder Lewis from the office of Chief Justice of the Colony. . The ajgwintment of Thomas Hutchinson to the Beach, to which Janus Otis, the elder, aspited, transferred the weight and influence of the Odis family from the side of the Government to the leadership of the Opposition, in Massachusetts. Israel Putnam was too highly appraised for the Royal shambles, and so remained in the market, justil, on the demand of the Livingstons, he was place where he could do no further harin. The greater success of Benjamin Pratt, of Boston, and, subsequently, that of Daniel Horsmanden. in the race for the place of Chief Justice of the Colony of New York, when James De Langey died, added fresh bitterness to the Morrises, in the disappoint- ment of Robert Hunter Morris ; and the disappointment of William Saith, on the same occasion, threw the Smiths into the front rank of the malcontents, in New York. Egbert Dumond, of Ulster county, is said to have becrune informer of Congressional secrets to Governor Tryon, provisionally, with a hankering after the Shrievalty of Ulster-county, us Jaunes Duane had communicated the secrets of the Congress of 1774. to Lieutenant governor Colden, undoubtedly for an equivalent, present or prospective. Who suppose that Captain Gilbert Livingston, of Arnold's Aueriran Legion, und Robert G. Livingston, Junior, that Philip John Livingston, the Royal Sheriff of Duchess-county, and his brother, John
the heroic treatment of the troubles was preferred,
" : Convention of the Deputies is absolutely necessary, ยท with the utmost despatch." To these pressing words. , why those lea lers were not arrested and punished, as the following threat was appended : " But if, after other and less distinguished violators of the peace were wont to be punished, in America and elsewhere. " .nch repeated applications to your County, to be in " Congress, by their Deputies, if you contime to ne- " glect a measure so necessary for your reputation and " safety, you must not complain if the Congress de- "termine upon matters relative to your County, in "common with others, although yours should, by "your inattention, be unrepresented."! Richmond- county was not inelined to send a Delegation ; 2 and was, first, coaxed to eleet a Delegation, and, finally, threatened. 3 How much more, which was not re- corded, that handful of the leaders of the Rebellion, in Colonial New York, said and did, for the intimida- tion of those who were less zealous, in that cause, is not now known ; but the careful reader will not fail to inquire, without obtaining an answer, why the Home Government failed, during that long interval of hesitation and of doubt among the greater number of the Colonists, to strengthen the Colonial Govern- ment in the maintenance of order and obedience to the Laws ; why those who were not inclined to rebel- lion were not protected in the quiet possession of their properties and in the peaceful pursuit of their respective voeations ; and why the price which would have obtained the marketable leaders of the Rebellion, for the use of the Home Government, was not paid, as the smaller and more effective investment,' or, if
Ou the first of December, competent Delegations appeared from the five Counties of New York, Al- bany, Westchester, U'lster, and Suffolk, with insuffi- cient Delegations from Kings and Duchess, and 110 portions of such Delegations from Richmond, Queens, Orange, Tryon, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Char- lotte-counties ; and, consistently with usage and the Rules of the preceding Congress, " the Representa- "tives of a majority of the Counties not being pres- " ent," those who were present " could not proceed to "business, as a Congress."> On the sixth of that month, competent Delegations appeared from the five Counties of New York, Albany, Westchester, Duchess, and Suffolk, with insufficient Delegations from Kings, Ulster, and Orange-counties, and no portions, of such Delegations from the Counties of Richmond, Queens, Tryon, Cumberland, Gloucester, or Charlotte; at which time, directly in violation of the rulings, on the first of that month, they declared that " the " Deputies from a majority of the Counties appeared," -a falsehood, which, to have established its true character, needed only a reference to the Credentials which were tiled. as their several authorizations, by the respective Delegations,-organized a Congress, and proceeded to the discharge of those duties to which they had respectively assigned themselves." There were five Delegations present, on the first. of December, when it was declared that "the Represen- " tatives of a majority of the Counties not being pres- "ent," those who were present " could not proceed to " business, as a Congress :" five days afterwards, when no more than five such Delegations appeared, with an elasticity of conscience and of action which was worthy of those who were present, what had been declared, under similar circumstances, at their former meeting, was entirely disregarded ; and what, at that former meeting, was said to have been insufficient to have allowed the five Delegations who were then present, "to proceed to business, as at Congress," was declared, in this later meeting, to be sufficient to permit five Delegations-four of the five having been of the former five-to do what the former five- "eould not" do : with the authorized Delegations of
W. Livingston. Captain in Fanning's King's American Regiment, were not the better exponents of the real opinions of that officeseeking family of Livingstons ; and who can doubt, with the roster of subsequent office holling L. vingstons before him, that much of additional infineuce, in favor of the Home Government, might have been seured trom that family and its adherents, had that Government been as g nervus in the disposition of offices to raumbets of that peculiarly other-seeking family, as the revolutionary anthorities and the subsequent state Government, in New York, unquestionably were?
5 Minutes of the Proces songs during the recessof the Provincial Congress, "NEW YORK, Friday, Der. Ist, 1775. "
6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Wednesday morning, December "6th, 1755."
111
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
only five of the fourteen Counties then present, the Je .... of the Provincial Congress bearing testimony to that fact, it will be seen and understood that the record which stated that " the Deputies from a mna- "jority of the Counties appeared," is a false record ; that there was, really, no quorum present, even umler the rule and usage of that revolutionary body ; and that, tested by that rule and that usage, even from the convenient standpoint of rebellion, the Congress was not properly constituted and was without due revolutionary authority-of course, it possessed no other authority, in the slightest degree.1
What was thus called a Provincial Congress, cleetrd Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull, of the County of Suf- folk, to be its President ; and John Mckesson and Robert Benson, the Secretaries of the former Pro- vincial Congress, were elected Secretaries of that .? It assembled, day by day, until the twenty-second of December, when it took a recess, leaving a Commit- tve of Safety to discharge some of the duties which it had nudertaken to perform.3 That Committee, of which Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, of Westchester- county, was the Chairman, continued in session, until the twelfth of February, 1776, when the Pro- vincial Congress was again assembled ; + and that Congress continued in session, until the sixteenth of March, in that year, when it took another recess, leaving, as before, a Committee of Safety, to discharge some portions of its self-imposed duties, during its absence.' That Committee, of which Joseph Hal- lett, of the City of New York, was the Chairman, con- tiuned in session, until the 8th of May, 1776, when the Provincial Congress was again assembled-it is writ- ten that " several matters of the utmost importance,
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