USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 43
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1.Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabbats, 9 ho., A. M., March " In, 1776."
" Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Luna, 4 ho., P.M., March "IS. 1776."
3 Ibid.
.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
arrivatious, since the want of the Arms of which they had been robbed would not have been a hindrance to any one who had desired to destroy a Powder-mill; and it shows, also, how unwise that revolutionary policy had been, which had tended not only to impair the industrial usefulness of such a community, at a time when the results of its agrienltural and other in- dustrial labors were most needed, but to make that element, in the Colony, permanently antagonistic, which, under a peaceful and conciliatory policy, might have been made passive and useful, if not friendly and co-operative.
After the autocratic General Lee was ordered to the South, in March, 1776, the military command of the Continental forces in the City of New York was vested in General Lord Stirling ; and, on the thirteenth of that mouth, that commanding General requested the Provincial Congress to appoint a Committee, to con- fer with him on various subjects connected with the defense of the City and Colony.1
On the following day, [ March 14, 1776,] for the pur- pose of putting the City into a proper condition to sustain an attack, "all the male inhabitants, capable "of fatigue," were ordered to " be immediately em- "ployed on the fortifications of the City, aud as well " all the negro men in the City and County of New " York " were similarly ordered; and, at the same time, the inhabitants of Kings-county were ordered to be similarly employed on the defences of that County ; while levies were made on the southern part of Orange, or what now constitutes Rockland, County, and on the County of Westchester, for detachments. from the Militia of those Counties, respectively, for the support and assistance of the working parties in the City of New York.2
That portion of the Regulations, thus agreed to between General Lord Stirling and the Committee of the Provincial Congress, which related particularly to Westelrester-county, is in the following words:
" Tthly. RESOLVED AND ORDERED, That Colonel "Joseph Drake and Colonel Thomas Thomas, of " Westchester-county, da draft out of their Regiments " two hundred men, in the following proportions, to "wit ; Two Companies of sixty-five Privates cach. " besides the Captains and other inferior Officers, out " of Colonel Joseph Drake's Regiment, and one Com- " pany of sixty-five Privates, with the Captain and " other inferior Officers, of Colonel Thomas's Regiment, "and as many more men out of those two Regiments "as will turn out, Volunteers for that service, to be im- " mediately sent to the City of New York, armed and "accontred in the' best manner possible, and to be " joined to Colonel Samuel Drake's Regiment, and to
I Jonrad of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, IO ho., A.M., " March 13, 1776."
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, & ho., P.M., March 11, "'1776."
receive the same pay and provisions as the other "Continental forces in this Colony."
As what was called the Regiment of Westchester- county Minute-men, commanded by Colonel Samuel Drake,3 was then at Hoern's Hook, opposite Hell-gate, it will be seen that Westchester-county was largely depended ou ; but no record has been found which indicates which of the Companies of the Militia of that County were thus drafted and sent to throw up the defensive works within the City of New York, nor is it now known who, if any, of the farmers of that County, volunteered their services, for that la- borions anty.
As has been already stated, carly attention was paid by the Provincial Congress to the subject of the election of Deputies to a new Congress and to that of its own dissolution. To that end, on the sixteenth of December, 1775, the Congress adopted the follow- ing Resolution :
" RESOLVED, That the Committee of Safety be and "hereby are fully empowered to issue orders to the " respective Counties in this Colony, to elect Deputies "for a Provincial Congress of this Colony, to meet "on the second Tuesday in May next. The said "Committee, by their Order, appointing the day of "Election, in cach County, to be at least twenty-one " days before the said second Tuesday in May next.""
Notwithstanding that Resolution, there appears to have been some other " plan for the election of Depu- "ties to form a Provincial Congress to meet when the "present Provincial Congress will expire." It is not now known what that other " plan " embraced nor by whom it was introduced or supported; but it was evidently intended to limit the right of voting for Deputies to the new Congress, to those who had signed the Association, and to have the vote taken by ballot. It appears, also, to have been resolutely and successfully opposed, at least as far as the limitation of the right of suffrage was included in its provisions; and its evidently radical supporters, after their defent on that portion of the " plan," abandoned the pro- ject for an election by baHot.3 The entire subject was then referred to a Committee, for further consig- eration ; and, on the afternoon of the same day, after the said " plan" had been " read, and again read, " paragraph by paragraph, amended, and corrected." it is said to have been " approved," subject, however, to a further consideration, on the following morning."
3 Vid forces152, 153, andte.
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabbati, 10 ho., A. M. Her. " 16, 1755." & Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Luna, Io ho., A.M., March " 11. 1771%." 6 Journed of the Provincial Congress, " Die Lane, The., P. M., March 11, " 1576."
The obscurity of the Journal of the second Provincial Congress, on the subject moder consideration, is relieved, bo satte revient by the Jour- word of the third of those Congresses in an occasional reference to the subject.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Besides that almost unintelligible entry in the Jour- mix of the Provincial Congress, no mention appears to have been made on the subject, if any thing further was done with it. It is probable. however, that an Election was ordered to be made for Deputies, on the third Tuesday, which was the sixteenth day, of April; 1 and that the fourteenth day of May was designated for the meeting of the new Provincial Congres -.:
The Provincial Congress itself appears to have been disbanded, informally-its Journal makes no mention of a formal adjournment-on the afternoon of Mon- day, the thirteenth of May, 1776;3 and, thus the second Provincial Congress of the Colony of New York and its doings, for evil or for good, became sub- jects for the pens of those who should thenceforth assume the grave and responsible duties of historians.
We mentioned, in another part of this narrative,' the election of " a Committee for the County of West- "chester," on the eighth of May, 1775, and the ap- pointment of Gilbert Drake for its Chairman, and Micah Townsend for its Clerk. It appears that, either by pre-determined limitation or otherwise, the term of service of that County Committee expired in May, 1776; and, in order that the succession of that body
might be continued, notice to that effect having been given, on the sixteenth of April, 1776, "a Number "of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Westchester- "county appeared at the Court House," and "chose "the Persons hereafter named to serve as a Committee " for the said County from the 2nd Monday in May, " 1776, to the 201 Monday in May, 1777-any twenty " whereof to be a Quorum, vizt :
"For Morrissunia.
"LEWIS MORRIS, JUNE. -1. "For Westchester.
" THOMAS HUNT,
" ABRAHAM LEGGETT, " ISRAEL HONEYWELL, " JOHN OAKLEY, "GILBERT OAKLEY,
" DANIEL WHITE, "JOHN SMITH-7. "For Yonkers. " WILLIAM HINDLEY, " WILLIAM BEITS, " THOMAS EMMONS, " JOHN CRAWFORD, "FRED. V. CORTLANDT -5.
burned, here.] [ The original Ms.
MYERS, GUION, WILLIS,
LIP WELL, JUNE. A.
For Mamaroneck.
GILPBUDD HORTON-1.
1 The elections in the Counties of New York, Westchester, Duchess, Kings, Queens, Tryon, L'ister, and Orange were held on that day ; while Albany-county appears to leave elected her Deputies on the 25th ; Suf- full, on the Isth ; Richmond-county, on the 23rd ; and Charlotte-county, on the 1-t May.
2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martin, 19 ho., A.M., May "14, 1776."
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Luna, 3 ho., P.M., May 13 " 1776."
4 Vide pages 82,83, 91, ante.
" For Philipsburg.
For Rye.
SAMUEL TOWNSEND, ISRAEL SEAMAN, FRED. SAY,
" ABRAHAM STORM,
" PETER VAN TASSELL, SAMUEL LYON, GILBERT LYON,
"GLODE REQUEAU,
"ABR" LEDEW,
JOHN THOMAS, JUN'-6. For Bedford.
ELIJAH HUNTER,
"GERSHOM SHERWOOD, JOHN WOOLSEY, TITUS MILLER,
"JAMES REQUEAU,
" THOMAS CHAMPENOIS, -10. "For W. Plains.
" BENJAMIN LYON,
"JOSHUA HATFIELD-2. "For Scarsdale.
"SAMUEL CRAWFORD-1. "For H. Precinct.
" THOMAS THOMAS,
" WE. MILLER,
"ISAIAH MAYNARD-3. " For North Castle.
" MICHAEL HAYS,
" PETER LYON,
" JACOB PURDY,
" ANDREW SNIFFIN,
" GILBERT PALMER,
"CALEB MERRITT, JUNT.
"CALEB CARPENTER-7.
JOSH LOCKWOOD-1
For Salem. ABIJAH GILBERT-1.
For Cortlandis Manor.
JOSEPH TRAVIS, DANIEL BIRDSALL, SAMUEL DRAKE, ABRAHAM PURDY, NATHANIEL HIVATT, JOSEPH LEE,
EBENEZER PURDY,
ISAAC NORTON,
HALSEY WOOD-9. For Rycka Patent.
HERCULES LENT, 1 - Total 66." 5
Of this second County Committee, John Thomas, Junior, of Rye, was made the Chairman, and Edward Thomas was appointed its Clerk.
The day after the dissolution of the second Provin- cial Congress, [May 14, 1776,] was the day which had been appointed for the organization of the third of that series of Congresses." There was, however, on that day and on the four succeeding days, an insuffi- cient number of members of the several Deputations to form a quorum of the Counties; but, on the fifth day, [ May 18, 1776,] the Counties of New York, Richmond, Suffolk, Westchester, Kings, Charlotte, and Tryon-those of Albany, Queens, Ulster, Glou- cester, Cumberland, Duchess, and Orange were either entirely unrepresented or were without the requisite numbers to make their several Deputations complete- assumed the consistent, counter-revolutionary respon- sibility of organizing the Congress and of proceeding to transact business.7 It continued in session, without tak-
5 Members of a Committee for Westchester county- Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Miscellaneous Papers, NAxviii., 399.
6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A. M., May "11. 1726."
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabbati, 10 ho., A.M., May "18, 1976."
Ulster, Gloucester, and Cumberland-counting were entirely unrepre- sented ; instead of the requisite there, only Means, Cuyler and Glenn appeared from Albany county ; instead of the requisite three, only Messis, Blackwell and Lawrence appeared from Queens-county ; Inale.]
1
16
STEPHEN SNEDEN, EDWARD BRIGGS, DANIEL SEBRING-3.
For New Rochelle and Pelham.
For Eastchester.
"ISRAEL HONEYWELL, JUN.
"JAMES HAMMOND,
"JOSEPH YOUNGS, '
ISRAEL LYON -- 4. For Poundridge.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ing any recess, until the thirtieth of June, when, he- cause of supposed danger, in the City of New York, it adjourned to meet at the White Plains, on the fol- I ing a reconciliation with the Colonies, who were then approaching New York, to exhibit their powers and their inclinations, in that better desired measure. How successfully the scheme was carried out, in the latter body, will be seen, hereafter.
lowing Tuesday, [.July 2, 1776]; 1 but the Journalz very clearly indicate that no such adjourned meeting was attempted-the Deputies had more important business requiring their personal attention ; and the third Congress was permitted to pass away, without further ceremony.
The third Provincial Congress was distinguished by the entrance into it, among the Deputies from the City and County of New York, of John Jay, James Dnane, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, and Francis Lewis, notwithstanding all of them were, also, Dele- gates from the Colony to the Continental Congress, then in session, in Philadelphia; and because three of those five are now known to have resisted the car- lier movements toward Independence, in that Con- gress,2 and to have, also, resisted the later movements in that direction, in the Provincial Congress, it is a reasonable conclusion that the hegira of those three, if not that of the whole number, had been made for the purpose of obstructing the adoption of that in- creasingly popular measure, as well as that of the es- tablishment of a new form of government, through
of the requisite three, only Mr. Schenck appeared from Duchess-county ; and of the requisite tico from Orange-county, only Mr. Little appeared. 1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "sunday morning, June 30, "1776."
Mr. Bolton, ( History of Westchester-county, original edition, il., 959 ; the same, second edition, ii., 564, )said of the imaginary journey of the Deputies, from the City of New York to the White Plains, between the adjourument of the Congress and the day on which it was to be re-as- sembled, " The journey between New York and the Plains was per- " formed by the members on horseback, Pierre van Cortlandi, the Previ- " dent. riding at their head. As expresses overtook them from General " Washington, the House was called to order, on horseback, and several " Jesolutions passed."
As has been already stated, there was not The slightest attempt made to keep up the organization of the Congress, after its hurried and in- formal dissolution, on that eventful Sunday ; that there was, therefore, no such funereal procession as Mr. Bollou has described, nor any such official acts, on horseback or on foot, as he has imaginedl ; and that there was no such meeting of the Provincial Congress, at the White Plains, on Tuesday, the second of July, as he has left his readers to suppose.
As Mr. Bolton has not named any authority for his statement, although he was not the first to print ir, he must be regarded as anthorially responsible for it ; and, therefore, it niny bo proper to say, further, that Pierre Van Cortlandt was not the President of the Congress, nor bul he been euch, at any time, General Woodhull having been elected its President, and John Haring, of Orange county, occupied the Chair, as President pro tom., on the last day of its session. In the same connection, it may be said that, although Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt was elected as one of the Depaties from Westchester county to the third Provincial Congress, that under notice, he never occupied a sat in it, even for a single day.
" The Resolution of July 2, 1776, separating the Colonies from the Mother Country, was not the earliest declaration of Independence, in the Colo- nies, by any means. The correspondence of John Adams is well filled with evidence of his correet judgment of the real character of the earlier enactments of the Continental Congress ; but the Resolution which was introdneed into that Congress, carly in May, 1776, and adopted on the tenth of that month, and the Preamble to that Resolution, which was adopted on the fifteenth, recommending the adoption of new forms of Government, in the several Colonies, was, assuredy, nothing else than a Resolution of Independence, thinly disguised by the prefix of another nanie.
the Provincial Congress of New York, at least long enough to enable the Royal Commissioners for cilect-
The deputation from Westchester-county to that third Provincial Congress, said to have been " duly " elected to represent the said County in Provincial "Congress for twelve months, with such powers an ! "authority as was recommended in the Resolutions "of the late Provincial Congress to be given them. "any three of whom to be a quorum," were Colouel Pierre Van Cortlandt. Colonel Lewis Graham, Colo- nel Gilbert Drake, Major Ebenezer Lockwood, Gouv- erneur Morris, William Paulding. Jonathan G. Tomji- kins, Samuel Haviland, and Peter Fleming.3
During the less than two months which intervened between the organization and the untimely dissolution of that third Provincial Congress, [May 18 to June 30, 1776.] the Northern Army was effectually driven from Canada; and all which had been promised and hoped for, in that very well planned. but premature and expensive, expedition, produced nothing else than disappointment and disaster, the latter as serious to those of the resident Canadians who had favored the invading Colonists, as it was to the latter. In South Carolina, the superior bravery of Colonel Moultrie and his handful of Carolinians, even when hampered by the superior authority but inferior prac- tieal knowledge of General Lee, had secured lasting honor to himself and to his gallant command and re- newed safety to his own country ; and "though not "of inch magnitude, in itself, it was, like many "other successes attending the American Arms, in " the commencement of the War, of great importance "in its consequences : by impressing on the Colonists "a conviction of their ability to maintain the con- "test, it increased the number of those who resolved "to resist British authority and assisted in paving " the way to a declaration of Independence." The Continental Congress had yielded to the teachings of its experience, and directed enlistments to be made for three years, instead of for six months ; but " that "zeal for the service which was manifested in the " first moments of the War, had long begun to abate; " and hough the determination to resist became more "general, that enthusiasm which prompts individuals, "voluntarily, to expose themselves to more than " equal shares of the danger and hardships to be en- " countered for the attainment of a common good, "was sensibly declining" -- in other words. there were more of those who were willing that somebody
3 Journal of the Provincial Congres, " Die Sabbati, 10 ho., A.M., May " \x 1776."
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
elve than themselves should do whatever fighting than in New York, seeing before them a semblance might become neces-ary; bnt, on the other hand, of greater consequence to themselves, in the proposi - tion for Independence, were rapidly concentrating
those who were expected to do the fatigue duty and to hazard their lives, had begun to see that the offices ! their efforts to accomplish that end. The desire for and the benefits to be derived from their expected labor and exposure were to be converted mainly to the benefit of others ; and their enthusiasm for "the " Rights of Man and of Englishmen," which was formerly proclaimed by muhitudes of earnest men, with scarcely one holding back, was. also, "sensibly " declining," as Marshall has aptly said-indeed, en- listments were made only among those who were desperately poor or among those whose moral charac- ters were not unstained; and even these had to be bribed by bounties, that certain indication that some- thing else than simple, unadulterated patriotism in - spired the act. General Washington was at New York, with the main body of the Continental Army, strengthening the defences and seeking means to prevent the passage of ships of war up the Hudson- river or, through the East-river, into the Sound ; urg- ing the increase of his Army on those who did no more than call on others, as unwilling as themselves, to enter the ranks ; and begging for Arms and muni- tions of War, of which he was almost destitute, from those who had neither Arms nor munitions of War to bestow on him nor on any other. A large body of Militia, as will be seen, hereafter, was ordered into the field, for the support of the Army, to be mustered in until the close of the year ; a " Flying Camp," 80 called, was ordered to be composed of ten thousand men from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; and, on every hand, were seen the active prepara- tions, by an unwilling and bounty-bought or poverty- driven Army, to settle the dispute in which it pos- sessed no direct, if any, interest, by the arbitrament of Arms.
During that brief period, also, the movements of some of those who had assumed to be the leaders of the masses, throughout the several Colonies, were more frequent and more decided in their tone, in favor of Independence-movements, however, both within and without the Congress of the Continent, and more especially from the Delegations from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, which encountered the most determined and vigilant opposition. It were useless to pretend. with any respect for the truth, that the great body of the inhabitants of the Colonies was favorably inclined to or particularly interested in, a change in those who ruled them or in the manner of that rule, sinec it was perfectly evident that they would not be per- mitted to exercise any greater political authority nor to have their labors lessened nor their wants better supplied, under one than under the other form of Government: or, in New York, under the administra- tion of the Livingston regime instead of that of the De Lancey, under the last of which they had hitherto lived ; but the leaders of the Rebellion, elsewhere
such a change was, also, sometimes promoted by the consciousness, andong those whose consciences had not become charred by their hankering for offices, of that evident hypocrisy in pretending to an earnest loyalty toward a monarch against whom they were waging an open and recognized public War, with which the Committees and the Congresses of the Re- bellion had continued to affront the common sense and the morality of Christendom ; and that moral in- clination to Independence, and those other inelina- tions, in the same direction, which were prompted by less holy influences, were all strengthened by the alarm which was produced by information that the Colonies had been formally declared to be in rebel- lion ; that mercenaries had been employed to assist in reducing them to subjection, in which all classes would be subjected to a common ruin-a repetition, on a larger scale, but on the other side, of what had been done, already, by the leaders of the Rebellion, in New York, against the peaceful, agricultural inhabitants of Westchester and Duchess and Queens and Richmond-counties; that the Indians were to be employed by the Home-Government, for the pur- pose of harassing the frontiers and threatening the inland settlements and villages ; and that the Slaves were to be withdrawn from their masters, as far as possible, and armed in the service of the King. All these influences had culminated in the submission to the Continental Congress of a Resolution, "That "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, " free and independent States, that they are absolved " from all allegiance to the British Crown, aud that " all political connection between them and the State " of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- "solved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the "most effectual measures for forming foreign Al- " Hances. That a plan of Confederation be prepared " and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their "consideration and approbation." It encountered, however, the most serious opposition, among which the Livingstons and their supporters, Delegates from New York, were peculiarly conspicuous ; and, when the third Provincial Congress came to its un- timely end, it was still pending, that Delegation, as far as the paucity of its numbers went, appearing conspicuously among those who were not its sup- porters.
While these various important matters were oe- enpying the attention of the Colonists, General Howe came into the harbor of New York, and ocenpied Staten-island with his entire cominand; and the inhabitants of Richmond-county, as that beantiful island was then called, politically, and ns it is still called, as might have been reasonably expected since they were still smarting under the sen-
.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
tence of ontlawry and the consequent outrages to which they had been recently subjected by the Pro- vincial Congress and its Committee of Safety, received the new-comers, it is said, "with great de- " monstrations of joy, took the Oaths of Allegiance to " the British Crown ; and embodied themselves, under " the authority of the " [ Colonial] "Governor, Tryon, " for the defense of the Island. Strong assurances were " also received from Long Island and the neighboring " parts of New Jersey, of the favorable disposition of "the people to the Royal Cause," it was said; attd those who had been harried from their homes, and who had sought refuge in the swamps and thickets of the country, victims of the rapine and outrages of lawless and ruthless "patriots," their own country- men, quite reasonably, hastened to seek the protection of those by wltom, under a more judicious policy, they would be enabled to occupy their own homes and to pursue the ordinary routine of their peaceful lives, in quietude and safety, A large and well-pro- vided force, for the reinforcement of General Howe's command, was known to be on the ocean and not distant, convoyed by a strong naval force, under the command of Admiral Howe-the latter a brother of the General and, with -him, a half brother of the King-and it was already known that, thenceforth, New York would be the base of all the military and naval operations, on the Atlantic seaboard, in the next campaign.
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