USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 40
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" I counted two hundred and eighty pieces of Cannon, from twenty- " four to three pounders, at Kingsbridge, which the Committee had se- "cured for the use of the Colonies," (Doctor Benjamin Church's break mable L"er, autorespteil in July, 1775.)
Stephen Ward to the Provincial Congress, " March 6, 1776."
" Jagnad of the Committee of Safety, " Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A M. " Jany. 31, 1776."
The local Committee of the County of Westchester, amply endowed, by its own lawless zeal and by the equally lawless grace of the Provincial Congress, with entire authority to arrest anybody and everybody on whom its whims or its animosities might rest, very promptly exercised its ill-founded prerogatives ; and a large number of the residents of the three Towns of Westchester, Eastchester, and Mamaroneck, and some of those of Yonkers, was seized, and carried before it, and examined. Many of these were evidently dis- charged, because nothing was shown to sustain the suspicions or antipathies which had prompted those who had seized them; but there were others, a con- siderable number, who were filtered out from the great mass of the suspected, because of their seeming or construed connection with the spiking of the guns, and seut down to the City of New York, to be dis- posed of, by the geuerally relentless Committee of Safety, agreeably to the dictates of its stern, huperious will. Among those who were thus selected to face the ordeal of that Committee, in which the great professional experience of John Morin Scott was com- bined with the savage coldness of Alexander MeDou- gal and John Brasher, were John Fowler, Peter Val- entine, William Lounsberry, James Lounsberry, Joseph Purdy, William Armstrong, William Sutton, John Flood, Isaac Purdy, John Gedney, John Haines, Joshua Gedney, Josialı Burrell, William Haines, James Haines, Junior, Thomas Haines, Isaac Geduey, Isaac Valentine, William Dicken, Isaac Valentine, Junior, and Cornelius McCartney -- the latter a schoolmaster, in Yonkers -- and several of these were subjected to great hardships and cruelty, in the confinement to which they were subjected.3
On the thirty-first of January, 1776, the Committee of Safety directed Jacamiah Allen to remove those of the guns which were uear Kingsbridge, as well as those which were near John Williams's, "to the " larger parcel at Valentine's, so as to have them all "brought together, for the greater convenience of "guarding them and drilling out the spikes ; " and, at the same time, the Committee agreed to give Allen twenty shillings apiece for clearing and unspiking the whole of the guns and for removing those at Wil- liams's; but those at Kingsbridge were to be removed, at the expense of the Commitee."
"There are so many entries, in the Journal of the Committee of & foty, concerning the spiking of the gaus auml those who were supposed to have been interested in the transaction, that we cannot pretend to refer to them, separately. The reader is referred to the body of the Journal, during January and February, 1776.
Sve, also, the Journal of the Provincial Congress, during March, 17Th; etc. 6 Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A.M. " Jany. 31, 175.""
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ably "THE BRows Beers," comnamled by Captain Jonathan Blake,? was ordered into the service of the Colony, for the protection of the guns; but a dratt County, to discharge that service,3 a Captain, a Lieu- tenant, two Sergeants, a Corporal, fourteen privates, a Guardhouse, and all the surroundings of a permanent outpost having been provided for that easy purpose.4 It might have been expected that that favored party of White Plains Minute-men would very soon excite feel- ings of envy among those, surrounding its position, who were not enjoying the feast of fat things which it had secured; and it was so-David Barclay, recom- mended by Stephen Ward, the latter a Tavern-keeper, near where Tuckahoe is, and a deputy in the Provin- cial Congress,3 applied for the job of guarding the guns, offering to do so for thirteen pounds per week, which was less than one half the amount which had been expended on the skeleton Company of Minute- men who had previously discharged that duty ; 6 and the offer was promptly accepted." Jacamish Allen, who was drilling the spikes from the guns, appears, however, to have been unwilling that any others should poach on his manor; and, very promptly, he underbid Barclay, offering to do the same guard-duty which Varian and Barelay had successively done, the former at a cost of more than twenty-six pounds and the latter at thirteen, for only six pounds, ten shill-
1 The Committee of Safety to Lieutenant colonel Graham, " Is Cosmit- "TEE OF SAFETY, NEW-YORK, Jany. 22, 1776."
2 Compare Captain Jonathan Blake's letter to the Committee of Safety "HEAD QUARTERS IN WESTCHESTER, Jany. 31, 1776," with the Roster of Colonel Malcon's Regiment,-Historical Maunscripts relating to the War of the Revolution, in the Secretary of State's Office, Albany : Military Returns, xxvii., 1.
3 The Committee of Safety to Lieutenant colonel Graham, "IN COMMIT- "THE OF SAFETY, NEW YORK, Jany. 22, 1776."
4 "I hereby acquaint you that I have taken an account from Curt. " Varian what the expense of guarding the guns at Valentine's and "Williams' will be, this week, vizt .: 1 Capt., 1 Lieut., 2 Sergeants, 1 " Corporal, and 14 Privates. 6 of the above men board at 10s. per "week, and the others draw provisions from the Commwygry, with a "Guard room and firewood, at £3. per week, besides items, making in "the whole about £26., and last week it was considerably more." (Stephen Wird to the Provincial Congress, "March &, 1775.")
It will be remembered that James Varian, the favored commander of tho Huard, in this instance, with eighteeen others, hid Lech constitutol A full-fledged Company of Westchester-county Minute-men, on the four- teenth of February preceding (ride pages 108, 109, ante ;) and it will be wen, from that letter which has been quoted, how soon and in what manner those nineteen Westchester county "patriots" reached the sweets to which they had aspired-five held offices of greater or less dignity, while the fourteen who hell no offices enjoyed the comforts of drawing their support from the Commissary or from the Treasury of the Provincial Congress, in addition to the pay of soldiers and what, by book or by crook, they could pick up, in the neighborhood of their quarters.
This was only a moderate specimen of what constituted the greater portion of the " patriotism " of the Westchester-county revolutionists, a't that period.
5 Stephen Ward to the Provincial Congress, "March 5, 1776."
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 4 ho , P. M., March "6, 1776."
On the twenty-second of January, one of the Inde- | ings per week ; and, of course, Barclay was -uperank i pendent Companies of the City of New York,' probe and the coveted job was given to the last conter." Very reasonably, Barclay complained to the Congress, Hand made a counter-offer which was more favorable than the offer on which Allen had been employed; was subsequently made from the Minute-men of the i and, of course. the latter was ousted, leaving him in possession ?- an illustration of what material the new- created controlling power, (" the Ring," if the reader pleases,) in Westchester-county, in 1776, was com- posed ; and in what the " patriotism" of that con- trolling power consisted.
In the latter part of January, 1776, burning with anxiety to be at the head of a separate command, away from General Washington, and availing hintelf of the rumor that a heavy military force had been sent from Boston, probably to New York, 1 the infamous Charles Lee, who was, tlten, second in command of the Continental Army and in the zenith of his evan- escent fame, induced the Commander-in-chief" to de- spatch him, from Boston, to the latter City, "with "etich volunteers as he " [could ] "quickly assemble, "on his mareh, in order to put the City of New York " in the best posture of defense the season and circum- "stances will admit of." 22
In the proseention of the duties to which General Lee had been thus assigned-in his enlistment of meit into the service of the Continent ; in his appoint- ment of the ruffian, Isaae Sears, to a high military office ; in the barbarities inflicted on the inhabitants of Queens-county, by his authorized representative, Sears; in his haughty disregard of the local authori- ties, legal or revolutionary, in New York; and in his personal and official intercourse with those authori- ties and with the inhabitants of the City-the Instructions which General Washington had given to him, as well as the superior enactments of the Con- tinental Congress and his own knowledge of the proprieties of intercourse between individuals and of the character of obligations in business relations, were entirely disregarded ; and he permitted himself to be controlled, instead, by his own vile and ill- controlled passions and by the promptings of those. as ill-constituted as himself, who were gathered around him and who pandered to his vanity and his malignancy, for the promotion of their own evil purposes. . It is not within the purposes of this po'- lication, however, to take more than a passing notice
& Journal of the Committee of Safety. " Die Luna, I ho., P.M., March " 18, 1776 ;" and the same, " Die Martis, tho., P.M., March 19, 1776." Journal of the Committee of Safety. " Die Sabbati, A.M., March 23, "1756."
W General Washington to the Presided of Congress, " Cavaeiner, 4 Jaun- [ Mary, 1776 ;" the same, "Cambridge, 11 January, 1775:" General Ich- ington's Instructions to Gearral I. , " HEAD-ALI VIRUS, CAMBRIDGE, & Jan- "unry, 1776."
11 General Washington's letter to John Mais, " CAMBRIDGE, "Jann- "ary. 1776," clearly Prheated that Geberal ben operab Jon the Com. mander-in-chief through John Mars, who was, then, in Massachusetts. 12 General Washington to the Committee of Safety, " CAMBRIDGE, Jann- "ary 8, 1776."
Fre, also, General Washington's Instructions to General Lee. " Http- " QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, S January, 1776."
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
any of these transactions of that early military | those Committees were respectively located, was seen wer, in Quecas-county or in the City of New " in the action of "the Committee of Observation for "the united Town of Bedford and Precinct of Pound- "ridge and Salem, in Westchester," on the tenth of January, 1776, in which that pompous body, "con- "ceiving that bad consequences do arise to this dis- " tressed country from supplying the markets, at New " York, on supposition that the common enemy may, "by that means, be furnished with Provisions," for the purpose of regulating that grave irregularity, as its narrow and bigoted understanding presented the subject to its official censorship, bravely, " RESOLVED, "That from and after the date hereof, the said Com- "mittee do hereby strictly forbid any of the inhabit- "ants of the said Town and Precincts, directly or, "indirectly, to carry or cause to be carried, by land "or water, provision of any kind to the said markets ; "and do hereby direct the Minute-men and all others "that are friends to their country, to do their utinost "to stop all drovers of fat Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, Poul- "try, or any other Provisions whatsoever, and from "being drove or carried through either said Towu or "Precincts, for the purpose aforesaid, without leave "of the said Committee," on the penalty of being deemed enemies to their country.' hora ; but those ontrages which were inflicted by hi, authority, on the farmers of Westchester-county, while he was marching through the County, on his muy to New York, may be noticed, in its pages-in his progress over the well-known Post-road, between the Byram-river and Kingsbridge, the same line of march which had been traversed by Sears and his banditti, a few weeks previously, he appears to have regarded himself as the legitimate possessor of desputic powers, while those among whom he was, were considered as only base creatures who were absolutely subject to his unbridled caprices and to the most extravagant exactions of those who sur- rounded him. Notwithstanding, within the pre- ceding six or seven weeks, the farmers who lived along or near the line of the Post-road had been visited by Sears and his gang of Connecticut banditti, both on their way to the City of New York and on their return, thence, to Connecticut, by whom, on each occasion, they had been ruthlessly plundered,1 they were again visited, during that march of Con- nectieut-men, under General Lee, by that new detach- ment of New England freebooters, and robbed, to the full extent of the hungry desires of their brutal visitors. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent visita- tion of his ruffianly countrymen to each of these peaceful families and the reckless depredations of those cowardly banditti, Colonel Waterbury, who commanded the Regiment whom General Lee had mustered into the Continental service-himself, as was subsequently seen and heard, in the City of New York, as fine a specimen of the same class as was needed to perpetuate it 2-under the direct sanction of the General and with his orders, but without the slightest authority, legal or revolutionary, of either the local or the general Cominittees or of either of the Congresses, foreed his way into every house he reached, ransacked them, and carried away, without even a memorandum of the names of those from whom they were taken, everything which bore the semblance of Arms,3 leaving his victims, as far as he could possibly do so, entirely without the means of defense, easy prey for whomsoever might next appear, on an errand of similar pillage and outrage.
An amusing instance of the consequential airs as- sumed by the petty local Town-committees, in West- · chester-county, in whom had been vested such extra- ordinary powers over the persons and properties of those who lived within the several Towns in which
In obedience to that local law, it appears that Jonathan Booth, a drover, while on his way to New York with a drove of Cattle, was detained at Bed- ford, by the Committee of that Town; but, person- ally, he evidently pushed forward to the City of New York; and, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1776, he laid the subject before the Committee of Safety, which was then in session, and solicited its more powerful interposition. Very promptly, that body took the subject into consideration; and, without much, if any, discussion, the Committee "came to a "Resolution," which was delivered to the anxious drover, for his comfort and relief-the Committee of Safety was not inclined to concur in the questionable theory of "patriotic" economy which was maintained by its subordinate Committee in Bedford; and, after having recited, in a Preamble, the facts and the Resolution which have been already presented, to- gether with the additional declaration that "this "Committee, not doubting the good intentions of the "said Committee met at Poundridge, do nevertheless "conceive that the said Resolve has a manifest teu- "deney to distress, in the article of Provisions, the "inhabitants of this City and other friends to Liberty "whose business may call them thither," it therefore "RESOLVED, That it is the opinion of this Commit- "tee, that no Committee of any City, Borough. Town, "or Precinct in this Colony ought to prevent any "such supplies of Provisions to this City as aforesaid, "unless they shall have due proof that such supplies "are intended to be furnished to persons engaged in
I Vide pages 129, 132, ante.
: The associations and conduct of Colonel Waterbury, while he was in the City of New York, to say nothing of his acknowledged thefts in Westchester county, afford ample evidence of his ruffianly personal character.
Vide page 16, ante.
+ Holt's New- York Journal, No. 1725, NEW YORK, Thursday, January
Ser. also, Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die sabbati, 10 ho., "A. M., Feb. 17, 1776;" and the same. " Die Veneris, Io ho., A.M., | 25, 176; Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Jovis, 10 ho., A. M. " Febry. 23, 1776." " Juny. 26, 1776.""
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" service against the Liberties of America; nor in and he evidently returned to Bedford, a happier man "such case any longer than nutil such Committees than when he had left that Town, a few days pre. viously. "respectively shall. in cases where such proof shall "have been made, have duly certified this Committee "or the Provincial Congress thereof, and until order "shall have been made thereon, by this Committee "or the Provincial Congre ... "
The Committee of Bedford was undoubtedly served with a copy of this enactment by the Committee of Safety; and Jonathan Booth and his drove of fat Cattle were surely permitted to pass through that Town and to New York. withont further molestation ; but that very zealous Committee did not appear to have become entirely reconciled to the abridgement of its pretensions, made more reasonable by recent action of the Committee of Safety, when, a short time afterwards, it stopped another drove of Cattle, be- longing to Joseph Booth, of Newtown, in Connecticut, while, like that which had been previously stopped, by the same Committee, it was on its way to the New York market.
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In the latter instauce, the obstructed drover re- turned to Newtown ; procured a Certificate from the Committee of that Town, declaring that he "had " lately served his country as a faithful friend and "soldier in the northern Army, under General Schuy- "ler; that he had suffered by the stoppage of his "Cattle, at Bedford, on the way to the New-York "market; that he is the owner of the said Cattle; "and that the said Committee take pleasure in recom- " mending him as a friend of his country;" and, with that Certificate, he proceeded to the City of New York, and presented the case to the Provincial Con- gress, which was then in session. It is said "the "Congress took the same into consideration, and "came to the following determination, to wit :
" Whereas a large supply of fresh Provisions will " be required for the Continental Army, iu and near " the City of New- York :
"RESOLVED AND ORDERED, That no obstruction "whatsoever be given to any person or persons in " passing and re-passing through any of the Counties " in this Colony, with fat Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, or any " kind of Provisions, for the purpose of supplying the " inhabitants of the said City of New-York or the "Continental Army, in and near the said City, unless "such person or persons shall have been adjudged to " be, or held up, as inimical to this country."
In addition to that general action of the Provincial Congress, which controllel or assumed to control every other revolutionary body within the Colony, the Congress also gave to the complaining drover, a copy of the following ORDER: "That the bearer "hereof, Joseph Booth. be permitted to pass, with "his drove of Cattle, to the City of New-York;"?
I Jinerual of Commander of NER. " Die Jovi, I ho., A. M., Jany. 23, "1776."
" Journal of the Provincial compras " Ine Jovis, I bo., P.M., Feb. 29. "1776."
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In the same connection, it may be proper for us to remind the reader that, about a fortnight before the Committee of Bedford made its second attempt to lay a local embargo on what was intended for the New York market, the Committee of Safety itself had in- terfered with the disposition of the surplus of the products of the farmy in Westchester-county to resi- dents of the neighboring Colony of Connecticut, in which, very probably, Bedford, one of the border- towns of the County, had materially suffered. The facts are thus related in the official records of the Committee of Safety ; 3 and the reader may judge therefrom, something concerning the animus of the Committee of Bedford, when, on the second occasion, it interfered with the disposition of the products of Connecticut, within the Colony of New York, while the disposition of the products of farms in Bedford and its vieinity, in Connecticut, was interfered with and stopped, summarily, by a higher anthority.
"Col. Gil. Drake informed the Committee that "sundry persons from Connecticut are purchasing "up" [for speculative purposes .' ] " the barrelled Beef "and Pork in Westchester. Thereupon the Commit- "tee came to the following Resolution, to wit :
"'WHEREAS the Continental Congress, by their "'Resolution of the first day of November last, have "'resolved that no produce of the United Colouies "'be exported, except from Colony to Colony under "'the directions of the Committees of Inspection and "' Observation, and except from oue part to the other ""of the same Colony, before the first day of March "'next, without the permission or order of the Con- "'tinental Congress ;
"'AND WHEREAS this Committee of Safety for the "'Colony of New York conceives that it is necessary "'to prevent the sale of all the barrelled Beef and "'Pork in the County of Westchester, and to retain "'the same for the Continental service in this Col- "'ony, as such Provisions may be necessary for the "'Continental Army in this Colony :
"' RESOLVED, That the Committee of the County "'of Westchester be requested to take effectual "'means to prevent the sale and transportation of "'any barrelled Beef or Pork out of Westchester- "'county, to any person or persons residing out of "* this Colony, until the further order of the Provin- "'cial Congress or of the Committee of Safety of this "' Colony.'
" A draft of a letter to the Committee of West- " chester-county was read and approved of, and is in "the words following, to wit :
"'GENTLEMEN :
". We have been informed by a Gentleman "' from your County, that some of the inhabitants of " Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die sabbati, 4 ho. P. M. Febru- "ary 10, 1776."
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*** your County are disposfiz of their barrelled Bref Drake was the Chairman and the master-spirit, under- " . and Pork, to persons out of the Colony. W. ... Tak to prevent Abraham Livingston, the Contractor for supplying the Continental Army with Provisions, ". prehend that such Provisions will be wanted for " the use of the Continental Army in this Colony, from taking any Pork from that County, the Com- mittee of the County of Duchess, of which Egbert Benson was the Chairman, having published a similar manifesto, to control the market after a fashion of its own creation, in that County.
** and that the service may possibly suffer it all the " barrelled Provisions are taken out of the Colony. ". We therefore request you to take the most offeetnal "'measures to carry the enclosed Resolution into eNe- "'cution.
"' We are, respectfully, Gentlemen, "' Your very humble servts.,
"' By order of the Committee of Safety. ""To the Committee of the County of Westchester."
It will be seen that the farmers of Westchester- county, at the time of which we write, were prohib- ited from finding a market for the surplus of their products, beyond the limits of the Colony or, at their own doors, to those who were not of New York, and that, in consequence of that prohibition, they were limited to those local purchasers, forestallers, or specu- lators, wbo should incline to purchase, and at prices which were not regulated by competition. At the same time, as has been seen, the surplus products of ; the farmns in Connecticut were brought into the Col- ony, in open disregard of the provisions of that Re- solution of the Continental Congress which was used as the warrant for the prohibition of the reciprocal trade of Westchester-county with Connecticut ; and the mar- ket of New York, for nothing else than the products of the Colony of New York, which the Resolution would have guaranteed, if it had been impartially enforced, was recklessly destroyed, in favor of the greed of New England. Need there be any wonder that the Com- mittee of Bedford objected, and embargoed those who had come into the Colony, from Connecticut, in vio- lation of the Resolution of the Continental Congress and in derogation of the interests, if not of the Rights, of the farmers of that Town ? Necd there be any surprise, when doubts are raised against the integrity of those who had thus hampered the farmers of Westchester- county, when the latter had sought a market for their surplus products, compelling them to either accept a purely local market and a depreciated price or to hold, indefinitely, what they had for sale? Can any one say, honestly, that those who made those enact- ments, purely in the interest of the farmers of Con- nectieut, at the expense of those of Westchester- county, notwithstanding they were unquestionably " patriotic," were anything else than corrupt legisla-
tors and roguish, dishonest men ? Will not those who know the character of Gilbert Drake, before and during and after the War, entirely understand that his motive, in moving and securing the embargo on the products of Westchester-county, without imposing a similar embargo on the products of Connecticut, was corrupt and roguish ?
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