USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 44
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On the day after tlte King's forces came into the harbor, [June 30, 1776,] after it had provided for the removal " of all and singular the public papers and " money" which were then in the possession of its Sceretary and its Treasurer, to the White Plains, the Provincial Congress was hastily adjourned to that place, as has been already stated, in order that it might escape from the possibly sudden attack on the City, by the Royal forces-an attack by them, on the seat of the local Government of the Rebellion in the Colony of New York, and that at an early day, having evidently been a feature in the pre-constructed plans of General Howe. The anxious Provincial Congress resolved, however, that it would re-assemble at the Court-house, at the White Plains, on the following Tuesday, the second of July, to resume its official business, which was thus interrupted by the appear- ance, in the distance, of danger ; and it resolved. also, that the next Provincial Congress should meet at the same place, on the succeeding Monday, the eighth of July.
In the brief Session which was thits interrupted, and which was not continued, at the White Plains or elsewhere, the third Provincial Congress continued the intjudicions and unjust, to say nothing of the barbarons, ontrages inflicted on those who were not inclined to accede to every measure of the Congresses and Committees, no matter how passive those Colonial Non-jurors of America might have been ; and those pains and penalties were inflicted, directly.
by his own authority ; 1 and indirectly, by the several local Committees; ? the Congress, meanwhile, at- quieseing in, if not approving. the most barbarous treatment of its prisoners ; 3 winking at the barbarities practised by mobs, on those whom it had proscribed ; '
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, P.M., May 29, 1776;" the amie, " Din Juris, 9 ho., A.M. May 30, 1776; " the same, " Die Martis, "9 ho., A. M., June 4, 176 ;" the mime, " Die Juris, 9 ho., A.M., June "6. 1776 ; " etc.
" Journal of the Itarincial Congress, "Die Lane, 4 ho., P.M., June 3, "17h;" the aime, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A. M., June 6, 1776;" the same, "Thurelay morning, June 20, 1776 ;" the same, "Friday afternoon, "June 21, 1774 ;" +te.
3 Henry Dawkins, accused of counterfeiting, was ironed so heavily, within the press, that he was reported to have been "injured by his trong "so that his legs xwell ; " und Henry Youngs, accused of the same of. fense, also contained in the Jail, was so much injured by the irons with which he was additionally secured, that it became necessary to remove them. (Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Friday morning, 9 ho., A.M., "June, 1776;" the same, " Tuesday morning, New York, June 11, "1776.")
4 About the miiblle of June; 1756, mobs were raised by John Lasher. John and Joshan Hett Smith, Peter Van Zandt, and other leaders of the extreme revolutionary faction, in the City of New York, by whom sev- eral citizens who were of the Opposition, bet uot of the Rebellion, were seized by these revolutionary "patriots," who placed them on "starp "rail4," and carried thein ou men's shoulders, around the City, amidst the buzzas of the mob. The progress of one of they parties was said to have been stopped by General Putnam ; but not until the victim bad sustain-1 serious injuries, (Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 101-103 ; de Lancey's Noter on Jones's History, i., 505-599.)
Peter Elting, a brother-in-law of Richard Varick, wrote of these trans- actions, "We had some Grand Toory Rides in this City this week & in par- "ticular yesterday. Several of them were handeld verry Roughly Being "Caried trugh the streets on Rails, there Clooths tore from there backs "and there Bodies pritty well mingled with the dust. Amongst them " were C-, Capt. Hardenbrook, Mr. Rapllje, Mr. Queen the Poticaty, "and Lesly the barber. There is hardly a toory face to be wen this "morning." (Petr Elling to Captain Richard Varick, "NEW YORK, 13th "June, 1776.")
On the twelfth of June, in theafternoon, Generals Putnamand Mifflin. who bad evidently witnessed the outrages to which Elting alinded, "complained to the Provincial Congress of the riotous and disorderly " conduct of numbers of the juhabitants of this City, which had led this " day to acts of violence towarda some disaffected persons ; " but what had shocked Israel Putuam, by reason of its barbarism, even while the "complaint" of those two Officers urged the Congress to condemn the offenders, one of whom was then ocenpying a seat in the Congress, that body winked at, and, at the same time, it screened the offenders, and qualified the offense-its wordIs were these : " RESOLVER ; That this Con- " gress by no means approve of the rings that have happened this day ; " they flatter themselves, however, that they have proceeded from a real "regard to Liberty and a detestation of three persons who, by their "Language an I conduct, Jase discovered themselves to be inimical is "the cause of America. To urge the warm friend: of Liberty to !!--- " cency and good order, this Congress assures the public that effectnal "measures shall be taken to secure the enemies of American Liberty in "this Colony, and do require the good people of this City and Colony "> "desist from all Riots, and leave the offenders a minst so good a cause to be " dealt with by the constitutional representatives of the Colony " -- the subsequently infamous " Committee to detect Conspiracies," then in em- bryo, having been, undoubtedly, the "constitutional" agency referird to, (Journal of the Provincial Cougars, " Wednesday afternoon, June 12, "*1756.")
It has been said, apologetically, that the Congress was intimidated : and that the mob was the controlling power ; but the overwhelming mil- itary force which was then in the City, with General Washington at its heal, indicated no such state of Affairs ; and it Is undoubtedly true that that a ries of Mobs, directed by leaders of the Rebellion-one of whom, if no more, was a member of the Provincial Congress-against those of the Columnists who were not of the Rebellion, was intended to give to the new-former " Committee to detect Conspiracies," Ante quently to ob- notions to every honorable man, a good stuff in its work of jo rechtun wirl nitiage.
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and compelling the latter to seek safety in flight.1 It assumed judicial functions, in putting some of its vietims on " trial," before itschi' or a Committee of its members ; 2 sometimes it graciously absolved these whom it had seized on mere " informations ; "' and, occasionally, it honored a victim of a local Com- mittee, by listening to an Appeal from the decision of that inferior tribunal,' although it was not always exempt from an appearance, at least, of partiality to the Respondent in the Case.3 In the same connection, it called into existence and inaugurated the " Com- " mittee to detect Conspiracies." that powerful in- quisitorial ageney of the Rebellion, in New York. whose doings will be noticed more fully, hereafter.
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Those who had been hoist with their own petard, in becoming the speculative holders of Dutch Tea, which they had smuggled into the Colony, and which they could not, now, dispose of, unless on terms and at priees which would have been disastrous to them, pestered the Provincial Congress with appeals for relief from the enactments of their own friends ; and some of them-one of them a member of the preced- ing Provincial Congresses, and another a Delegate of the 'Colony in the Continental Congress-were charged with violating those enaetments, in their
/ 1 The Continental Congress having authorized the employment of Con- tinental troops for such a purpose, a Regiment was sent to Hempstead, for the purpose of seizing those who were disaffected to the Rebellion. The proposed victims having been disarmed, by order of the Provincial Congress, during the Winter of 1775-'℃, they had no means for their de- fense, and, therefore, they fled and hid themselves in swamps, in words, in barns. in hollow trees, in corn-fields, and in the marshes. Numbers took refuge in the pine barrens of Suffolk-county ; others, in small boats, kept sailing nbout the Sound, landing in the night and sleeping in the woods, and taking to the water again in the morning. They were pur. sued like wolves and bears, from swamp to swamp, from one hill to nuother, from dale to dale, and from one copse of wood to another. Numbers were taken ; some were wounded ; and a few were killed-all that, too, on a peaceful, unarmed, passive community ; mable to de- fend itself, because it had been stripped of its arms ; in advance of any Adverse movement ; and only to promote the individual purposes of a handful of ambitious nnd reckless men : all that, too, in the name of " Liberty " and the " Rights of Man." (Journalof the Provincial Congress, "Sunday afternoon, June 30, 1726 ;" General Washington to the President of Congress, "New York, June 2%, 1776; " " Jones's History of Nor York during the Revolutionary War. i., 108, 100.)
" Jornal of the Provinceed Congress, " De Imme, 9 ho., A.M., May 27, "1776 :" fexar, " Tuesday morning, New York, June U, ITT ; " etc. 3 The Provincial Congress to the Committee of Queenscounty, "IN Pro- "VENMIAL CONGRESS, NEW-YORK, A.M., June 11, 1776 ;" Journal of the Provincia Congress, "Thursday morning, June 27, 1776;" de sume, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., June 5, 1776."
A Jourand of the Provincial Congress, "Saturday. P.M., June 1, 1776;" the same, " Die Martis, 9 ho., A. M., June 1, 1776 ;" the same, " Die Mer- " enrit, 9 ho., A. M., June 5, 1774 ;" the same, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A .M., " June 6, 1776 ;" the same, " Die Luna, 9 ho., A.M., June 10, 1776."
6 In the Appeal of Thomas Harriot from the decision of the General Committee of the City and County of New York, the latter of whom was, als), very evidently the Complainant in the original Case, on the sixth of June, the Provincial Congress, without any application from either party, volun. tarily offered to give its aid to the Respondent, " for the attendance of " their withesses," leaving the Appellant without nny such favor. As might have been foreseen, in such an instance of pre-entertained par- tiality In the Appellate Indy, the decision which the General Committee Unul made in its own Cuss, was sustainul by the Provincial Congress ; and the Appeal therefrom, of Thomas Harriot, was proously dismissed.
efforts to " work off" some portions of their stocks of the article ; but, of course, in such instances as Isaac Sears and John Alsop, the offenders sustained no evil consequences from the exposure of their commercial peccadillos."
There were other subjects, of greater general in- terest than these, which received the hurried atten- tion of that very busy body of men ; and to some of these, places in this narrative may properly be given.
The first of these is that "Committee to deteet "Conspiracies," already alluded to, which originated in that much talked-of " Hickey Plot,"-the latter, a partisan bugbear which, before long, will descend to the low level of " the Negro Plot," in the same City of New York, in which the conspiracy against the helpless vietims was greater than any which had pos- sibly existed among them, against others; or to the lower level of that "Witchcraft" excitement, in Salem, led by elerical narrowness and bigotry, which had brought so mneh shame on the Mathers aud on Colonial Massachusetts.
Sometime between Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, [May 20, 21, 1776,]-as no entry of its ap- pointment was made on the Journals of the Provincial Congress, nothing is known concerning the time nor the circumstances of the appointment, unless from in- ference ™ -- that body appointed a Committee "to con. " sider of the ways and means to prevent the dangers "to which this Colony is exposed by its intestine "enemies." Beyond the single fact that John Alsop, one of the most determined enemies of ludependence and subsequently a recognized Loyalist,8 was a mem- ber, if not the Chairman, of that Committee, there is no record of the names of those who constituted it ; and, beyond the information which was contained in its title, there is quite as much obscurity surrounding the purposes for which it was created.
On Tuesday afternoon, [May 21, 1776.] as we have said, Mr. Alsop submitted the Report of the Commit- tee ; 9 and it was duly debated, with several motions for amendments, until the following Friday, [May
6 Journal of the Provin il Congress, "Die Mercurif, 9 ho, A.M., May "20, 1776 ;" the amps, " Friday Afternoon, June 14, 1776."
See, also, the Provincial Congress to the Delegates in the Homemental Con- gr.", "IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, NEW YORK, July 28, 1775." and the " really anxious" reply of James immar, John Alsop, John Jay, Habert It. Livingston, Junior, and Francis Lewis, " Pintapetrus, 20th Sept. 1776;" General Washington to the Provincial Congress, " NEW York, 13 May, 1776," enclosing a le cer from Isaac Spars, concerning those who were under- solling their tras ; and what shall le, hereafter, said on the subject.
: John Alsop did not take his seat in the Provincial Congress until Monday morning, May 20th ; but on Tuesday afternoon, May 21st, he presented the Report of the Committee to the Congress. The Colli- mittee, of which he was evidently the Chairman, minst have been created during that brief interval.
& See his letter, resigning his seat in the Continental Congress, be- cause of the Declaration of Independence. "PHILADEtimes, In July. "1776," and Jones's Hotury of Jate York during the American Bee Inten. i., 25.
o Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 1 ho., P.M., May 2i. ''1774."
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24, 1776.] when it was approved, not, however, with- out several very important omissions, if the record of the approved Report may be relied on.1 In its amended form, the Report was in the following words : "Your Committee do report: That there is great " reason to believe that the enemies of American Lib- "erty have a general communication with each other "through this and part of the neighbouring Colonies, " by reason whereof the influence of the British Gov- "ernment is much extended and the minds of the " people poisoned by false reports and suggestions.
" That many ill-disposed people have lately resorted "unto, and a great number dwell in, the southern and " eastern parts of Queens-county; that there are also "several ill-disposed persons in the City and County "of New York, and in Kings County, and in sundry "other parts of this Colony, many of whom will most " probably take up arms on the part of our foes, when- "ever they shall see a prospect of success.
" That from the various reports and the best intel- " ligence which can be obtained from Europe, as also " from the positive assertions of the disaffected through- "out this and the neighbouring Colonies, and from " such of their measures as have come to the knowl- "edge of your Committee, there is no room to doubt " that a large hostile armament will soon arrive in " this Colony.
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" That the greater part of those who now hold Of- " fices and Commissions under the Crown, and many "others who are generally reputed inimical to Amer- "ican Liberty, will be liable to suffer injuries from "the resentment of the people,2 and the Colony in "general exposed to great danger from the active ex- " ertions of those among us who are determined to "assist in the subjection of America.
" Your Committee are, therefore, of opinion that, "as well out of regard to the safety of individuals as "for the general welfare of America, it is highly and " indispensably necessary to take speedy and effectual "measures to prevent the hostile intentions of our " foes, to stop the channels of intelligence and com- " munication among the disaffected, and to quell the "spirit of opposition which hath hitherto prevailed.
1 On Tuesday afternoon, on motion of Mr. Sands, Richmond-conaty was ordered to be named as one which was especially proscribed ; and on motion of John Morin Scott, an oath of some kind was ordered to " be "extended to all such as refused to sign the Association," to which only Gouverneur Morris, to' his honor be it said, objected. On Wednesday morning, an attenipt to authorize the seizure and detention of residents of Queens-county, as hostages, to secure the submission of those who were left within that County, was rejected, only Westchester and Tryon- connties having supported the proposition. "Sundry other amendments "having been made therein," an attempt to commit the mutilated paper to its parent Committee, to re-model it, was rejected. It is evident, from the final entry on the subject, that other important changes hal been male during a session of the Congress, on Thursday evening ; but the Journal of that Session makes no mention of any action on that anbject : and on Friday morning, the amended Report, from which many peculiarly obnoxious features had been removed, was adoptel.
" The connection of the Mobs, in the City of New- York, already referred to, with the purposes of the authors of this enactment, is distically ven, in these words.
" Your Committee do propose that, for these par- " poses, the following persons he apprehended by the "assistance of the Continental troops, now stationed "in and near this City, to wit,
[ The names were not entered on the Journal.]
" That a Committee be appointed to confer with the "Commander-in-chief, now here, upon the subject of "apprehending the persons above-named, and to su- "perintend the taking of them. That upon and after "the apprehension of the said persons, such of them as " shall give good and sufficient security, on oath, and "otherwise, as the sail Committee shall think proper, "that they will not be concerned in any measures " taken or to be taken against the United American " Colonies, or any or either of them, and that they " will discover all measures taken or to be taken " against the said Colonies, or any or either of them, "as far as the same shall come to their knowledge, re- "spectively be permitted to go at large; and that as "to such persons as shall refuse such seenrity, it shall " be in the discretion of the said Committee to admit "on their parol of honour, to be given to the said " Committee or to the Continental Congress, as many "of the said persons as may, in the judgment of the "said Committee, safely be trusted on their said "parol, to reside in some part of one of the neigh- "bouring Colonies, such as shall be chosen by the " said respective persons, and approved by the said "Committee; and that all such persons as, in the "opinion of the said Committee, cannot safely be "trusted on their said parol, or if to be trusted shall " refuse to give such parol, shall be reported to this " Congress, to be severally dealt with, as this Congress " shall think proper.
" That it be recommended to all the General County "Committees, in the several Counties in this Colony, " to apprehend all persons holding Military Commis- " sions under the King of Great Britain, and also all "such persons holding Civil Offices under the said " King, or, being possessed of influence in their re- "spective Counties, as are suspected of holding prin- "ciples inimical to the said United Colonies; and "after they shall have apprehended, to deal with them " in such manner as is prescribed for the conduct of "the Connaittee above named.
"All which is, nevertheless, most humbly sub- "mitted.
" JOHN ALSOP, Chairman." 3
When that Report was presented, read, and ap- proved, there were, throughout Westchester-county, the entire body of officers of the Colonial Militia, in- cluding some of the members of the Van Cortlandt and other leading families ; the entire number of the King's Justices of the Peace; the entire bodies of the Court of Sessions and Court of Common Pleas, at the
3 Journal of the Preciound Congress, " Die Veneris, 9 b., A. M., May Ot,
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head of the last-named of which was John Thomas, who is already known to the reader as, also, one of the members of the former General Assembly and as the head of that prolific family of office-holders bear- ing that Welsh surname; and the entire body of County Officers, including those of the Prerogative Court, the Sheriff, the County Clerk, etc. All these, together with those who were especially obnoxious and all those whose social standing did not warrant the admission of them into the first class, were to be apprehended-the more prominent by detachments of the Continental Army, the less prominent by the County Committee-and " dealt with," after a " man- "ner" which was " pre-cribed for the conduct " of those under whose directions the several "apprehen- "sions " should be made. No overt act was charged against any one: it was sufficient that "suspicions " were entertained by some one in revolutionary anthor- ity, that one of the inhabitants of the County, no matter whom, was "holding principles inimical to the "said United Colonies," whatever those " principles" might have been; and the unfortunate victim, for nothing else than his opinions' sake, was liable to be exiled or subjected to any other penalty, personal or peeuniary or both, as his captors, unrestrained by any Statnte or any enactment of the revolutionary author- ities, should ineline to impose on him. It is not stated in the annals of that period, however, that either Major Philip Van Cortlandt or Judge John Thomas or any other of those officeholders under the Crown who were also officeholders or supporters of the Revolutionary party, sustained any injury from the provisions of that enaetment.
Although there is no entry on the Journal of the Provincial Congress which makes mention of the ere- ation of such a Committee, it is very evident the Com- mittee was appointed, with instructions "to report a ".Law or 'set of Resolutions of this Congress, to "'prevent the dangers to which this Colony is ex- "'posed by its internal enemies,'" since, on the twenty-eighth of May, such a Committee made a Report to the Congress, through John Morin Scott, who was probably its Chairman. It is not shown what that Report provided for ; but Richmond-county voted against it, which may afford some evidence of the character of the paper, sinee that County and Queens-county were always the especial objects of the resentment of those who were in rebellion, a feeling, as far as Richmond-county was concerned, which was amply reciprocated within the succeeding six weeks.
The work of proscription did not eease with the ac- tion of the Congress which has been already referred to. On the fifth of June, in the unexplained words of the Journal of that body, " the Congress proceeded to "hear the Resolutions relative to persons dangerous
"and disaffected to the American cause and to per- "sons of equivocal character." There is not the slightest allusion to the origin of the Resolutions ; but it is very probable they proceeded from the Commit- tee of which John Morin Scott was the mouthpiece, to whom allusion has been made in the preceding para- graph ; and, possibly, they may be the Report therein referred to. Notwithstanding the great length of these Resolutions, the notice which was taken of Westehes- ter-county and of Westchester-county interests, in their several provisions, render it necessary that they shall find a place in this narrative. They were in these words :
" WHEREAS the Continental Congress, by their Re- "solve of the sixth day of October last, did recom- "mend to the several Provincial Assemblies, and "Conventions, and Couneils or Committees of Safety, " to arrest and secure every person in their respective "Colonies, whose going at large might, in their opin- "ion, endanger the safety of the Colony or the lib- "erties of America :
" AND WHEREAS, from sundry informations and "evidences exhibited to this Congress, it appears " that the enemies of Americau Liberty, in this aud "the neighbouring Colonies, have a general com- "munication with each other, by reason whereof " the influence of the British Ministry, however "feeble, is, in some measure, sustained, and the "minds of the people frequently alarmed and poi- "soned by false reports and misrepresentations, pur- " posely framed and propagated with design to pro- "mote the views and machinations of the enemies of " America.
" AND WHEREAS certain persons in Queens-county, " Kings-county, the City aud County of New York, " Richmond-county, and Westchester-county have " been represented to this Congress as disaffected to "the American cause, and, together with others in "various parts of this Colony who, having little or no " property in it, or regard for its Rights, may be in- "fluenced, by the hope of plunder and confiscation, "to take an active part with our enemies, whenever " it may, in their opinions, be done with success :
" AND WHEREAS, from various reports and the best " intelligence which could be obtained from Europe, "as well as from the positive assertions of the dis- "affected throughout this and the neighbouring Col- " onies, there is great reason to expect that an hostile " armament will soon arrive in this Colony, whereby " it bath become highly expedient and necessary to " provide that the inhabitants of this Colony, while "employed in repelling a foreign invasion, be not " injured or annoyed by domestic enemies :
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