USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 46
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On that day, Judge Jones, who had been sabatoned before the Com- mittee and had come to the City of New York, to answer the Summons, Fostul rady Gouverneur Morris ; and by the latter, he was paroled and permitted to return to his home, in Queens county.
" An anonymous Information, forwarded by John Thomas, Junior, Chairman, " IN COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, WHITE PLAINS, June 23, 1776," among the papers of tho Conmittre, ot the same day.
" Minutes of the Connaitre to Detect Conspiracies, " Thursday, A. M., "June 27, 1776."
12 Thong who are interested in the methods of this Committed, the subsequently much eulogized Chief-justice of the State of New York and Chief justice of the United states being the presiding ofliver, may are the forms of its Sammans and its Parole, in Jones's History of Je York sharing the Royaldamery War, it., 295, 996 ; the form of its Harun' in its Maunter of June 19, 20, and 24, 176; and those of its various Bonds, in ita Miantes of June 24, 25. 20, and 27, 1756.
The future eulogists of John Jay and Gouverneur Morris miny advan-
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improper for us to state, however, that, thirteen days for three instances which areper. I in Westchester- after its sessions ware interrupted, in the ground county. panie which was produced by Gemera! Howe's arrival, there remained twenty-seven prisoners, call- fined in the cells in the City Hall, and forty-three, including the Mayor of the City, in those of the new Jail.'
It would appear incredible that such a relentless spirit of partisan bitterness could have been enter- tained, at such a time, in such a body as the Provin- cial Congress of New York ; but the records of the Congress which clearly avowed such bitterness, and those of the Comunitice which it created for the pur- pose of excenting its malignant enactments, to say nothing of the unwritten and other informal testimony of the terrorism which was at once revived, and the renewed activity, in persecution, of every pelty Pre- cinet, District, and Town Committre, all bear ample testimony to the fact that personal animosities and partisan malignity had so entirely overwhelmed the reason and the judgment and the Immanity of the aristocratic leaders of the Rebellion, in their haughty demands for uniformity of opinion as well as of practice, in religion as well as in politics," that not even the near approach of an avowed and power- fill enemy nor the severely pressing necessity of pre- paring to receive and to successfully oppose that not distant enemy enuli check their headlong and reckless work of arousing those, among themselves, victims of their former oppression and plunder and outrage -- many of whom, nevertheless, would have remained passive spectators of the struggle-and of forcing them, in retaliation and self defence, to become earn- est and active, if not desperate, belligerents, on the side and in support of the Crown.
As portions of the general subject of proscription, mention may be properly made, in this place, of two
tageously read, from these Minst 4, what those distinguished lawyers were capable of doing, julicially, when they were within closed and closely guarded doors; what they, then, regarded as ollences before the law ; the musthols which they adopted, in their inquisitorial process ; and what their judgments were and whenit penalties they inflicted ..
With these instances of the capabilities of those two men lestore us, we have been enabled to understand, more clearly than ever before, some of actions of the Chief Itslire und of the Ambassador which, previously, load needed additional rygdanation
1 List of Privương in thơ ty Holt, Ser York, July 12, 1756, and I ist vị Pr umer in the Ser Good, among the papers of the Committee- Historical Momriple, etc. : Mischen Iser, XXX .. .
" It will be remembered that the opinions of its victims, on questions of law, of Legislation, and of Political Economy, were regarded as matters of Alleure, even where to eat which was obnoxious had been charged against them ; and that, for those opinion, buly, in many instances, those victims were sulgjerted lo punishment. It will be rio membered, also, that the leaders of the Rebellion nemmed the right of determining when and in what manner religious services should be colt- Aneted by the Churches, in the Colonies, and those for whom Cluirchen and individuals should and should not offer their prayers to Almighty God. In Connecticut, Percy Episcopalian Church, exerpt ofte, was closed, Iweare the Clergy would not submit to the requirements con- corning their prayers to God ; and in that single exception, the court- agrous preacher maintained his relations with Ide Master, not with- standing the opposition ; and the cowards did but seriously disturb him.
Ir appears that it had income the practice of sey- oral of the local Committees - those in Westchester- county, in some instances, having been of the num- her-of sending those who were offensive to them. without the slightest authority, revolutionary or con- servative, to the Forts in the Highlands, which were then garrisoned with Continental troops, "with order- "to the commanding Officers to keep them at hard "labor, until further orders," no matter what the disability of the victims to sustain such hardships may have been -a process concerning the propriety of which even General Putumm, who was then the Offerr in command of the Army, in the absence of General Washington, entertained some very reasonable and very clearly expressed doubts; ' and the Provincial Congress, in consequence of those doubts and of other considerations was constrained to countermand those portions of the commitments to those Farts, which had imposed hard lahor on the prisoner -. 4
Another instance of that spirit of per-ecution was seen in the movement of Egbert Benson, one of thu-e who were controlled more by their hanghty and ill- controlled wills than by any enactment of Committee or Congress or by any requirement of personal or pa- litical integrity, for the employment of a local force, in the service and pay of the Colony, for the purpose of " keeping the peace and order and to suppress the "disaffected in Duchess-county."> The "requisi- " tion," for by that expressive word the call of Benson was then known, was duly referred to the Deputations from Duchess, Westchester, and Ulster-counties, for consideration and report-Gouverneur Morris, Samuel Haviland, Jonathan G. Tompkins, and Lewis Gra- ham, representing Westchester-county : 6 and, on the following day, that Committee recommended the employment of one hundred men in Duchess-county and fifty men in Westchester-county, " the said men " to be raised in the said Counties respectively, and "confined to the service of those Counties, and to "continue in pay until the first day of November "next, unless sooner discharged by this or a future "Congress." 1
There appears to have been a serious opposition to the adoption of the Report, New York City and Cout- ty leading in the opposition, but it was. nevertheless, adopted;" and, two days afterwards, [June 22, 1776,]
& Gograd Power to the Provincial Congress, " HEADQUARTERS, NEW- "Ya:k, June 3, 1776." A Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Inna, 4 ho., P.M., June 3,
& Jagraul of the Princi Changes, " Wednesday morning. June 19, . 1776;" and the some, " Wednesday afternoon, June 19, 1776." 6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Wednesday afternoon, June 19, "1774.9
I Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Thursday morning, Jun 20, "1772."
& Journal of the Province Congres, "Thursday morning, June 2 "1;74."
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after various manipulations, in a second Committee, !! by " one of the Secretaries,"2 and by the Congres it- "If, the subject was disposed of, in a series of Reso- Itions, which, it is said, "were unanimously ap- ' proved of."
Is that entire subject relates to the local history of Westchester-county, at that period, and to the estah- lishment of a military police force, in thit County, evidently for the more effectual prosecution of the proposed operations of the recently created "Com- " mittee to detect Conspiracies " among the peaceable conservative residents of that County-as no com- plaint had been made, by any one, of the slightest breach of the peace, in that Conaty, and as its local County Committee had made no application for the establishment of such a military police force, for any purpose, there can be no doubt that, as far as the Company in Westchester-connty was concerned, the project was a creation of the Deputation from that County, and for no other purpose than that of assist- ing the "Committee to Detect Conspiracies," of which Committee two members of that Delegation were also members, in harrying the conservative farmers of the County, in the interest of " the cause of America" and that of the leaders of the Rebellion, in New York- for these reasons, the Resolutions may properly tind a place in this narrative. They were in these words:
" WHEREAS, there are sundry disaffected and dan- " gerous persons, in the Counties of Dutchess and " Westchester, who do now greatly disturb the peace "of the said Counties, and will most probably take up "arms, whensoever the enemy shall make a descent "upon this Colony, to the great annoyance of the said "Counties, in particular, and of others the good peo- " ple of this Colony :
" AND WHEREAS, by reason of the several drafts "which have been made in the said Counties, accord- "ing to the late recommendation of the Continental "Congress, the Militia thereof are rendered incapable "of keeping peace and order in the said Counties, "without great inconvenience to themselves and much " injury to and neglect of their private property ; and, "inasmuch as the interest of this Colony may be ma- "terially affected by any di-sentions which may pro- "vail in the said Counties, while the Continental " troops are engaged in the defence of those Counties " more immediately exposed to the inroads of the "enemy : therefore
"RESOLVED, That one hundred men, Officers in. "cluded, be raised in Dutchess-county, and that fifty " men, Officers included, be raised in Westchester- "county, and taken into the pay and service of this "Congress, and confined to the service of those Conn- " ties, and to contintte in pay until the first day of
" November next, unless sooner discharged by this or "a future Congress of this Colony :
" That the one hundred men to be raised in Dutch- "es-county be divided into two Companies, each "Company to consist of one Captain, one Lieutenant, " three Sergeants, three Corporals, one Fifer, one " Drummer, and forty Privates; and that the fifty " men to be raised in Westchester-county consist of "one Captain, one Lieutenant, three Sergeant-, three " Corporals, one Fifer, one Drummer, and forty P'ri- "vates; that the pay of those three Companies be " the same as the pay of the Continental troops; that " the Captains be allowed eighteen shillings each, " per week ; the Lieutenants be allowed twelve -hil- " lings each, per week ; and the Sergeants, Corporals, " Fifers, Drummers, and Privates, eight shillings "each, per week, in lien of all ration- and subsistence : " That Melancton Smith be appointed Captain of " one of the said Companies to be raised in Dutche --- "county ; and that John Durlin be appointed Cap- "tain of the other; and that Micah Townsend be "appointed Captain of the said Company to be raised "in Westchester-county:
" That the General Committees of the said Con- "ties be anthorized to nominate and appoint the "Subaltern Officers to the said Companies, in their " Counties, respectively :
" That the said three Companies be deemed one "Corps; and that Melancton Smith be Captain Com- " mandant ; that Micah Townsend be the second "Captain in rank; and that John Durlin be the " third Captain in rank, in the said Corps :
" That the General Committees of the said Coun- " ties be authorized and requested to appoint a Mus- "ter-master in their respective Counties, to muster " the said Companies; and that they transmit the " names of such Muster-masters to the Committee " appointed to audit the accounts of this Congress, " without delay :
"That the said three Companies be subject to the "order and direction of the General Committee of " their respective Counties or such other person or " persons as this or a future Congress of this Colony " shall direct.
" ORDERED, That a certified copy of the aforesaid " Resolutions be transmitted to the General Connait- " tees of Dutchess and Westchester-counties. And " ORDERED, That Commissions be immediately " issned to the Captains, and that blank Commissions "be sent to the said Committees, to be by them issued " to the Lientenants."
It will be seen that no provisions were made by the Provincial Congress for either the recruiting, or the equipment, or the quarters, or the transportation of these men; and there will be some among the readers of this narrative who will say that if fitty un- armed, scattered men, on foot, could surely ensure the peace of so large and so widely extended a community as Colonial Westchester-connty-and if those men
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Friday afternoon, June 21, 1776." 2 Thid.
3 .Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Saturday morning, June 22, "1776."
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could not surely preserve that peace, their rest oggat land for dressing due Pay which was legitimately clue Wrre useless-the inhabitants of' that Comes . a. : 8 4 : . it. have been as " dangerous " and its prace could not have Another instance of the spirit of partisan bitter- ness which prevailed, at that time, in Westchester- county, and of the unholy zeal with which the Town Committees urged forward the work of persecution and plunder, among their conservative neighbors, may be seen in the following note which was addressed by the Chairman of the Committee of the Town of Salent. in that County-that Committee which, a short time previously, had laid an embargo on Cattle intended for the supply of the inhabitants of the City of New York 6-to the Provincial Congress : been as "greatly disturbed" as the authors and pru- maters of these Resolutions had falsely pretende, among the recitals of their Preamble: others will suspect, not without reason, that the entire movement was a purely political job, gotten up for the purpose of affording political sop, at the expense of the Cul- ony, for hungry adherents of the Bensons and the Morrise-suspicious which would be well-founded, since neither of the Duchess-county Companies were subsequently known in history, exceptthrough the re- quisition on the Treasurer of the Cidony, for their Pay "TO THE HONBLE, THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, " NEW YORK : and Sulasistence;' while the Westchester-county Com. pany, without having become known to history, in its capacity of an armed police, is known, in the military annals of the State," for having done nothing che than changed its Lieutenant," for asking for greater Pay,+
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Veneris, Novr. 1, 1776. 4 "o'clock, P.M."
" The only allusion to military duty discharged by this Company. which we have found, is that finder of the Provincial l'ongers, on the twenty-fifth of .Idy, " that Captain Towuseml of West hester-county "return tu daty, with his Company, at the mouth of Croton river att " ench places adjacent as the Offer or Officers commanding the Ameri
- " can troops or Militia, there, shall direct," (Journal of the Provincial Con- gress, " Thursday morning, July 25, 1776 ;") which was certainly le. yond the line of duties for which it had byen specifically raised.
3 The County Committee, agrerably to the Resolutions of the Provin- cial Congress, presented in the text, appointed Samuel Townsend tu the Lieutenantcy of this l'onmany. Subsequently, Lieutenant Tow trend was promoted to the ecramand of another Company ; and, on the sixteenth of August, Zaphania Miller was appointed to the surast Lieutenantcy,. (The General Comomatter of Westchester county to the Contration of the State, "August 1G, 1776;" Jourand of the Provinceid Convention, " Die Veneris, "49 ho., A. M., August 16, 1776.")
4 The following, copied from the original manuscript, ( Historical Man trips, etc .: Petitious, xxxIii., 103, 104,) will be interesting to our readers, in this connection : .
" TO THE HONORABLE THE CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
" The Petition of the Lieutenant non-commissioned officers & Private " belonging to Capto Micah Towneud's company raised to be under the " Direction of the Committee of Westchester County, Hutaldy Stoweth, "That the Honoralde the Provincial Congress of this Colony when " they gave Instructions for raising Captu Townsend's Company allowed " the Lieutenant 12s. per week, and the non condaissioned officers and "privates Ss. per werk in lieu of Bations and Suldistance.
" That at and near the White Plains (which is the head Quarters of "the Company) the allowance for their substance does fost amount to " near enough to support them, they bring voable to get vietnals lot "ho than Is, per Meal, in to hire their Board at any tolerable rate but " by the werk ; That your Petitioners entered the Company & bid duty " in the most busy season of the year Before & during Harvest time & " have had a harder share of duty than the Troops who were allowed by "your honorable House 20 Dollars Bounty & who have generally "received near 40 Dollars.
" Your Patitisters therefore handy pray that your honorable House " will be pleased to increase the Pay for their Subsistance so far as tu " enable them when they live with Fingality to support themselves by it " in the part of the County where they may resile, or be ordered. And "your Petitioners as in duty boond shall ever pray, &c. " Zeplewish Miller, Lieutenant, William Fredeuborough,
" Jacob Travis, Sprjent, " William Muitiu,+ Serjent, Robert Bloomer, Jun',
* The Deposition of John Martine, " of the Main of Philipsburg mar "the White Plains," (Historical Manuscripts, etc .; Marcellanous Figure, xxxv., 273,) shows that this was William Martine, his son.
" The Committee of Salem, in Westchester-county, "have the unhappiness of having a large number of " the inhabitants very much opposed to the measures "of the United Colonies, and numbers of them are "determined not to comply nor adopt the doings of " the Congress, which makes a great deal of trandde " for said Committre. Said Committre has adver- " tised some, obliged others to give bonds, some of "one or two hundred poumls, some of which have " forfeited their bonds and run off, and have made " considerable costs, one in particular, in sending "after lim. We desire to know what shall be done "with the forfeitures, and likewise how to proceed in " taking of it, and how to turn it into money if taken " in stock or whatever else, or whether or no the Con- "gress want take the forfeitures and pay the eust ; " we desire you would give us some rules and direc- "tions how to proceed. And likewise, those mien "that still behave inimical, and put the Committees "to so much trouble, whether or no we might not "take cost of them to pay us what is reasonable for
" Joelina Mead, Serjent, Samuel Howell,
" Panden Bloomer, Corp!, Uriah Travis, In.,
" Thomas Brooks, Corps,
Jouatlewn Finch,
",James Strolely, Corp",
Jolm Travis,
" Anthony Miller, Fifar,
Juines Miller, Juut,
"James Carpenter,
Zechras Fille,
" William William4,n,
" Elven Hyot,
Sheilua Hut hius, Daniel Dran, Jeremiah Rozelle,
John Mills,
" Julin Beaks,
Jerediah Owen,
" William Seama!, Benjamin Tretenborough,
"Ebjach Millor, .hunt,
"Nathon Holeo's, Jolin Bruulstreet,
"Sandel Lyon, Jant,
"Steph : Mauday.
Suanel Miller, Robert Merritt.
"Frederick Datin,
"IN COMMITTEE OF SANITY THE THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER "At THE WHITE PLAINS, Seper end 1576.} "RESOLVER, that this Committer re commend to the houlle tla Con- "vention of this state the reasonalden's of increasing the Subsistance " Money for Cape Townsend's Company as they are of opinion that "s "per week por Man is not a sufficient provision for theto.
" By order of the l'ontuittre,
"Jons Theusa, sest, c'haimes." & Journal of the Committee of Safety, "A los., P.M., Deer. 7, 1776." 6 Vide pages 119, 10, aute.
Jonathan Ferris,
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war time, for we grow weary of being called together sleal with tories. That has been our what It-i- ` m > ever since we have been formed as a Commit- "!e; it has cost me, in particular, not less than six " hundred miles riding, and I believe, at a moderate " gurss, twenty or thirty dollars in cash, and I never "we expected pay ; but I find I cant live so, and if " the tories make all the trouble, why ought they not " to pay all the cost. Gentlemen, we only want or- "ders from you to take it. We have sent Mr. Ben. " Chapman to you, praying of you to -end us some di- " rections on this important affair, one of the mem- " bers of this Committee.
"By order of the Committee, . " EZEKIEL HAWLEY,' Chairman. " June 5th, 1776."
That letter was laid before the Provincial Cou- gress, ou Saturday evening, the eighth of June ; and . the Journal of that body states that it was " read and "filed,"2 the Congress itself, as will be seen in its subsequent proceedings in the matter, hesitating, in view of its atrocious propositions, to give the authority which its writer had so unblushingly solicited.
With the fart before him, that the " large number "of the inhabitants" of the Town of Salem which was referred to, in that letter, was composed of --- -
farmers, neighbors of the writer of it, and peacefully and industriously pursuing their usual vocations; and, with the additional fact before him, that none of these were even pretended to have committed any other offense, against either the King or the Congress, than the entertainment of political opinions which were different from those entertained by Ezekiel Hawley and his handful of " patriotic " confederates, thereader will be enabled to judge, with some de- gree of accuracy, concerning the really diabolical character of the letter and that of him who had written it.
The number of those who were thus proscribed and whose properties were so eagerly hankered for, was said to have been " large ;" the proposed victims were "inhabitants" of Salem, and neighbors of Hawley and his confederates ; they were quietly pursuing their usual rural occupations, doing no harm to any one, and violating no law, although their opinions, on
1 Mr. Bolton said this Hawley was a grandson of Rev. Thomas Hab . ley, Pastor of the Congregational-church at Ridgeliebl, Connectiont ; that he was one of the proprietors of the Đương ; that he held a Commission in the Continental Army ; and that he was taken off by death, suddenly. in 1758. (History of Wish Master -county, original edition, i., 171 ; the solar, second edition, i., 75%.)
The "Continental " Commission referred to, by Mr. Bolton, was nothing else than that of First Lieutenant in Captain Truesdale's Com jony of Colonial Militia, "for the North End of Salem"-a local Com- tany of notoriously very little account, ( Kuturus of Election of Officers, December 18, 1775, in the Hidbread Mounscripts, etc. : Military Returns, verdi., 215.)
: Journal of the Provinced Congress, " Die Saltati, 6 ho., P JI , June &, " 1776."
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partisan political questions, were not in accord with those which the latter professed to hold ; both, at the same time, concurring, however, in the recognition of the King of Great Britain as their legitimate Nove- reigu; both professing to be equally and entirely good and loyal subjects of that reigning Monarch ; both owing obedience to the Laws of the Land; aml both, alike, recognizing the duty of that obedience,3 although only one of the two discharged that duty, in its every day practice. Against those nnoffending farmers -- as their accusers have shown, they were nothing else -- with a malignant zeal which betrayed its selfish, puritanie origin, the writer of that letter prayed that they should be arrested; that their prop- ertics, real and personal, should be seized, and co- cheated, and confiscated ; that " costs" should be paid, therefrom, into the willing hands of those who shouhl have thus invaded their individual Rights-Rights which had been guaranteed to each of them, by the Con- stitution and the Laws of the land-that their homes should be violated and destroyed ; that their families should be made beggars, al be cast penniless on the world : and that, except among those who thus sought warrants to become local despots, nothing else than individual and domestic misery and general devas- tation and ruin should be aimed at and obtained. Can anything more atrocious be conceived? Can- those who could calmly and deliberately devise such outrages, to be inflicted on a peaceful community, and that community their own immediate neighbors and townsmen, be regarded as anything else than monstrosities, in human form, in which only the baser and most brutal passions had found places? But, after all, these-the letter and the passions which had inspired it and the hand which had written it- were only the legitimate outcome of the barbarous propositions which John Jay and Gouverneur Morris and their partisan associates, taking advantage of a short period of peculiar anxiety and of labors of more than usual variety and importance, had led the jaded and almost exhausted Provincial Congress, it may
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