USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 49
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"John Jay was not in bis -ent, in the Provincial Congress, during that entire day ; and, therefore, he had no hand in it. John Morin Scuit was present ; but no one will pretend that such a sturdy sycophant of the popular element as he, would have ventured to have written such a paper, so contemptuously disrespectful of that great class of generally aufran- chisel Working me 1. The President of the Congress, General Woodhull, of Suffolk, was not hatidy with the pen; and he possessed no such ani- musity against " the lower olives," as isseen in this . Invert. It remained, therefore, to the high toned, "well born" Deputy from Westchester. county, Gouverneur Morris - the same who had stand in the window of the Coffee-house, on the nineteenth of May, 1771, and, thence, bad stud- iel the rising power of the democracy, whom he loathed * - to write the Answer of the Congress ; and it was, noquestionably, he who did it.
3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 9 ho., A. M., June 4. " 1776 .**
* Vi-le page 12, aute.
" Jourwet of the Provincial Congress, "Die Martis, 9 ho., A. M., June 4, " 1:76."
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ment of a new form of Government, but in words and in terms which entitled the Artisan-author of it to the highest honors, the generally unfranchised Working- men of the City of New York manfully declared their Rights, as a portion of that body of the People, throughout the Colony, in whom, they considered, were vested the original power and the source of all political authority, within the Colony ; denounced the assumption, by either of the Congresses or any of the Committees, of an authority over and beyond that which had been delegated to them, as illegal and de- structive of the ends sought to be secured by the ercation of those several bodies; and warning the Provincial Congress of the necessary consequences of such an usurpation. That Reply, most respectful in its tone while it was most overwhelming in its facts and in its argument, was evidently not permitted to be presented to the Provincial Congress; and, without the slightest notice on the official Journal of that body-probably, without the slightest official action by the Congress-it was buried in the files of that "oligarchie" body, to await a resurrection in these later days.1
On the following day, [June 5, 1776,] the Provincial Congress was pestered, again, with that obnoxious subject of Independence; but, on that occasion, the aristocratic Colonial Convention of Virginia was the unwelcome claimant on its attention; and, con- sequently, it was constrained to be more eivil in its words and more respectful in its demeanor than it had been, on the day before, when the plebeian Working- men of the City in which it was seated had addressed it, respectfully, on the same subject.
The message which the letter of Edmund Pendleton had conveyed to the Provincial Congress was the celebrated and well-known Resolutions of that Con- vention, adopted on the fifteenth of May preceding, through which the Delegation from Virginia, in the Continental Congress, was instructed " to declare the " United Colonies free and independent States, ab- "solved from all allegiance to or dependence upon "the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; and " that it give the assent of this Colony to such Decla- "ration, and to whatever measures may be thought " proper and necessary, by the Congress, for forming " foreign alliances and a Confederation of the Colonies, "at such time and in the manner as to them: shall seem "best ; PROVIDED, That the power of forming Govern- " ment for and the regulation of the internal concerns "of each Colony be left to the respective Columnial "Legislatures ; "" and the Provincial Congress ordered
This admirable Reply to the .tweeer of the Provincial Congress, which was more esjurially devoted to the proposal of that Indly to impre a new form of Government on the Colony or State, without having submitted it to the body of the People, for ratification or rejection, was in these words :
* *
* : Journed of a Convention of Delegates from the Countries and Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, held at the Capital, in the City of Will ausburgh, " Wednesday May 15, 1776."
" that John Jay and Gouverneur Morris be a Commit- "tee to prepare a draft of an answer to it, and to "report the same "3-withont the usual injunction. " with all convenient speed," however, since the Pro- vincial Congress was not in a hurry to consider the subject of Independence ; and it would not be so, at least until what it evidently preferred, the question of Reconciliation, should have been met and finally dis- posel of.
On the afternoon of the day succeeding that on which the Resohitions from Virginia had been re- ceived, [June 6, 1776,] the Committee to whom those Rohitions had been referred, reported an answer to the letter of Edmund Pendleton which had covered them -an answer which was just as iey cold and for- mal as the _Insier to " the Mechanics in Union," two days before, had heen; and which told, as distinctly as the other had told, how entirely obnoxious to the aristocratic leaders of the Rebellion, in New York, the proposition for Independence from Great Britain had been. It simply acknowledged the receipt of the Resolutions and that of the letter which had covered them, saying, also, that they had been communicated to the Provincial Congress, by whom "they would be "considered with all the deliberation due to the im- "portance of the subject ; " that the Congress thanked the Convention of Virginia for its attention ; and that the latter was " assured that the Congress of this Col- "ony will invariably adopt and pursue every measure "which may tend to promote the union and secure "tlre rights and happiness of the United Colonies."
Four days after the Resolutions of the Convention
3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., Jana "5, 1776."
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., June 6. " 1776."
With this simple record of one of the coldest specimens of polite disa- greement with another, on record, before him, the reader will har lly be prepared to read what Baticroft has written of the reception of the Res- olutions from Virginia and of John Jay's treatment of them. His words were the-e : " But early in June, the New York Congress had to pass "upon the Virginia proposition of Independence. This was the moment "that showed the firmness and the purity of Jay ; the darker the hour, "the more he stood ready to cheer; the greater the danger, the more "preaptly lo stepped forward to guide. He had insisted on the doubt- " fal measure of a second Finition to the King with no latent wake of " purpes . or cowardier of heart. The hope of obtaining vedress hal "gone; he could, now, with perfect peace of mind, give free sempe to the "e mistress of his convictions. Though it had been necessary for him "to perich as a martyr, he could not null he would not swerve from his "sense of duty."-History of the United States, original edition, viii., 430 ; the same, centenary edition, v., 305.)
The entire reply to the Convention of Virginia, exclu ling the date and the signature, occupies twelve lines of a narrow column, including the half-lines of two paragraphs All which it contained, concerning Inde. perlence, was a formal acknowledgment of the receipt of the letter an 1 of the Revolutions, " which were immediately communicated to the Con- "gress of this Colony, and will be considered by them with all the de- "jitwration due to the importance of the subject." Nothing more than that was said or done, on the subject of Independence, in connection with the Resolutions from Virginia, nor in connection with anything else, relative to that subject, until they. Congress was crowded into a considera- tion of it, by an entirely different azeney, several days afterwards.
Yet this is "history," as Bancroft nudlerstands the meaning of that Irri.
ยท
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of Virginia had been thus quieted, [June 10, 1776, ] | effort to make haste slowly, in spending "some time, the Provincial Congress was further veved. on the , " in the consideration of the letter " of the Delega- tion, without, however, taking any action whatever,
growing subject of Independence, by the receipt of the following brief note from those of the Delegates | ou it or on the subject to which it referred. of the Colony who were, then, in Philadelphia:
"PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 1776. - DEAR SIR :
" Your Delegates, here, expect that the question of " Independence will, very shortly, be agitated in "Congress. Some of us consider ourselves as bound "by our instructions not to vote on that question; "and all of us wish to have your sentiments thereon. "The matter will admit of no delay; we have, "therefore, sent an express who will wait your "orders.
"We are, Sir, with the greatest respect, " Your most obt. hum. servts. " WILLIAM FLOYD, "HENRY WIESNER, " ROBT. R. LIVINGSTON, "FRANS. LEWIS. "To NATHANIEL WOODHULL, ESQ., PREST. "OF THE HON. THE CONVENTION OF NEW-YORK."1
This letter was received, early in the morning, and the Provincial Congress, very -leisurely, read it, in secret Session ; and, notwithstanding the urgeney for speedy aetion which accompanied it, that was all which was done, concerning Independence, at that Ses- sion .? Late in the afternoon, the Congress very lei- surely returned to the subject ; and, then, it indulged itself by hearing the reading of the letter, a second time; by listening, while the Clerk read the powers of the Provincial Congress, which were very briefly presented in the Resolutions calling for the election of its members ;? and by hearing the same stately official read the powers of the Delegates of the Colony in the Continental Congress,+ closing its desperate
1 Jourand of the Provincial Congress, " Die Luna, 9 ho., A.M., June 19, @ Ibid.
3 It was stated in the Credentials of the Deputies from Orange-county that the Resolutions of the second Provincial Congress, providing for the election of the third Provincial Congress atri defining its anthority, were nopted on the twelfth of March preceding ; but there is no mention of the wioption of any Resolutions whatever, on that subject, ou that or any otherday, on the publicland Journal of the word Provincial Congress,
Again : we have not found on that Journal, any definition of the au- thonty of the third of those Congresses -that anthority which, in the trat, the Secretary is said to have read, on the afternoon of the tenth of June-but the Credentials of the Deputies from Kings-county, compared with those of the Depolies from Orange county, indicate that the author- ity sought to be delegated to that third Provincial Cougtess by its cou- Austuent Counties, under the Resolutions providing for their election, Included " full powers, iu behalf of the said County, to appoint Delegates "to represent the Colony in the Continental Congress, and to makesuch " orders and take such measures as they shall judge necessary, not repng- ' nant to or inconsistent with any Rules or Orders of the Continental "Congress, for the preservation of the Rights, Liberties and Privileges of " the inhabitants of this Colony."
These, or their equivalente, were, undoubtedly, what the Secretary read tothe Provincial Congress, as stated in the text.
4 .The powers of the Delegates at Continental Congress," which until 1: lenme convenient to refer to them in order to promote a selfish end.
19
Nothing whatever was done by the Provincial Con- gress, concerning the letter of the Delegates nor con- eerning Independence, on the following morning, [.June 11, 1776;]6 but, during the afternoon of that day, with that peculiar disregard for those with whom he was associated which invariably distinguished John Jay from all others, that Deputy presented "several Resolutions on the subject of Independ- "enee," which were seconded by .Colonel Henry Reisen, of the City of New York, "again read by "paragraphs, amended, and agreed to, and are in the "words following, to wit :7
"RESOLVED, UNANIMOUSLY, That the good people "of this Colony have not, in the opinion of this "Congress, authorized this Congress or the Delegates "of this Colony in the Continental Congress to de- "clare this Colony to be and contine independent of "the Crown of Great Britain.
"BUT WHEREAS the perseverance of the British " King and Parliament, in an unjustifiable attempt to "subjugate and enslave these United Colonies, may " render a determination on that and many other im- " portant points highly necessary and expedient, and " a reeurrence to the people at large, for their senti- "ments on every great question that may oceur in "the course of the present eontest would be very " inconvenient to them, and probably be attended "with dangerous delay :
" RESOLVED, UNANIMOUSLY, therefore, That it be "and it is hereby earnestly recommended to all the " Freeholders and other Electors in this Colony, at "the ensuing Election to be held in pursnanee of a " Resolution of the Congress of the thirty-first day of " May last past, not only to vest their Representa- "tives or Deputies with the powers therein men- "tioned, but also with full power to deliberate and "determine on every question whatever that may "coneern or affect the interest of this Colony, and to " conelude upon, ordain, and execute every act aud "measure which, to them, shall appear conducive to " the happiness, security, and welfare of this Colony ; "and that they hold and exercise the said powers until " the second Tuesday of May next, or uutil a regular "form of Government for this Colony shall be estab-
had remained nunotice 1, were recited in their Credentials, in the follow- ing few words : * * * "To meet the Delegates from the other Colo- " nies, and to concert and determine upou such measures as shall be "jutged most effectual for the preservation and re-establishmen: of "American rights and privileges, and for the restoration of harmtuby "between Great Britain and the Colonies," (Journal of the Provinces) Contention " Die Sabbati, 11 hon, A. M., April 22, 1975; Journal of the Continental Congress, "Thursday, May 11, 1723.")
3 .Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Monday, 5 P.M., June 10, 1776." 6 Journal of the Provincial Congress," Tuesday morning, New York, June "11. 1774."
Journal of the Proctored Congress, " Tuesday, P.M., June 11, 1776."
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"lished, in case that event shall sooner take place. " And it is further recommended to the said Free- " holders and Electors, by instructions or otherwise, " to inform their said Deputies of their sentiments "relative to the great question of Independencey and "such other points as they may think proper." !
1
It needs very little of knowledge in the science of polities to distinguish, in these Resolutions, a pro- posal that those of the Colonists, in New York, who were not already proscribed and enslaved by the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress adopted on the fifth of June, six days preceding the adoption of these Resolutions,2 should debase themselves and voluntarily become nnqualified serfs, before, and en- tirely subject to, as absolute and unbridled a despot- ism as ever existed ; and that knowledge will serve, also, to distinguish the author and supporters of such Resolutions, notwithstanding the gauzy masks which ill-supported their shallow pretensions to personal and political integrity, as nothing else than monarch- ists of the most pronouneed school of absolutism, provided, always, they should, themselves, be seated very near to the throne. There was an appendage to those Resolutions, which rendered the entire move- ment still more remarkable ; and the facts are not the less significant because those who have written of the Resolutions and of those who wrote them and pro- moted their passage through the Provincial Congress, have studiously concealed not only the license for a despotism which they contained, but, also, that secret `appendage which made entirely inoperative all the provisions which they contained on the subject of the proposed Independence of the Colouics from the Mother Country.
The controlling appendage, to which we allude and which has not been heretofore noticed by any histori- eal writer, was an Agreement which was made be- tween the members of the Provincial Congress who were then present, John Jay having been of the mimber and unquestionably the leader in the move- ment, "That the publishing of the aforegoing Resolves
1 By inuendo, if not directly, Bancroft, by making no meution of the letter of the Delegation of the Colony in the Continental Congress, leads his readers to suppose that these Resolutions were the outcome of the Resolutions of the Convention of Virginia, which had been disposed of, ns we have seen, several days previously and in a lever number of words.
The same writer describes these Resolutions, after the rhetorical flour- ish, concerning the author of them, which we have elsewhere quoted, as " calling upon the Freeholders and Electors of the Colony to confr " on the Deputies whom they were about to choose full powers of wlmnin- " istering Government, framing a Constitution, and deciding the great " question of Independence," (History of the Failed States, original edition, viii., 440; the same, centennial elition, v., 305.)
The Vellerable author saw nothing of that absolute despotism, involy. ing "every question whatever," civil or ecclesiastical or military, affect- Ing not only individuals but the aggregate body of the inhabitants of the entire Colony, which those Resolutions clearly and definitely establishel: ) action, by a parliamentary body, which was unknown
and his eyes saw nothing whatever of that Agreement which was appended ! to them, which entirely dispose of his rhetoric, and, as we shall present. ly see, present John Jay in a somewhat different light.
: Vide pages 167-171, ante.
" be postponed until after the Election of Dopratie- "with powers to establish a new form of finvers- "ment "3 -- that is to say, they were not to be made known to the Frecholders and other voters, until after ! the Election at which the subject of the propoed Independence, was, by virtue of these Resolutions, to be submitted to the Electors, at the Polls, should have been held.
A reference to the Resolutions will show to the reader that, although the question of Independence formed the basis as well as the top-stone of the struc- ture, they were so contrived that, notwithstanding that question seemed to have been submitted to the judgment of the Electors, at the Polls, that grave sub- ject was really made dependent, among the various other matters of government of which the Electors were audaciously asked to divest themselves, on the unre-trained, despotie will of the Provincial Congress itself; and, at the same time, the entire subject was made " a rider," as parliamentarians call such motions, which was to be " saddled " on an Order which Had been already made, for an Election, and for an entirely different purpose. All these, because they were open and intelligible to every sensible Elector, were well enough; and every such Elector, under the closing paragraph of the last Resolution, might be reason- ably expected, " by instructions or otherwise, to in- "form his Deputy of his sentiments relative to the " great question of Independency and such other "points as he might think proper," the aggregate of which " instructions " might be regarded as a reason- able indication of the will of those who had given them, on the great questions of a new form of Gov- ernment and of Independence, without, however, possessing any controlling power over the oligarchic Provincial Congress, who mnight, nevertheless, regard or disregard that expressed will of its constituents whenever and to whatever extent it own unrestrained will should determine, the Resolutions themselves, meanwhile, affording a license to those Delegates who remained in the Continental Congress, to continue to withhold the assent of the Colony of New York to whatever action should be taken, relative to Inde- pendence, in that body. We sty, all these were well enough, because they were open and intelligible ; and if the question of Independence had been, thereby, submitted, even indirectly and insufficiently, to the arbitrament of the Electors, there would have been an appearance, at least, of fairness and consistency ; but John Jay had no such intention -- he aimed, mainly, to hoodwink those, in the Continental Congress, who were anxiously desiring the support of New York in their effort to crowd the question of Independence through that body, by a seeming fairness on that subject ; while, at the same time, by a secret Agreement (an to parliamentary law, and without a precedent,) all
3.Jenend of the Provinced Congress, " Tuesday, P. M., June 11, 1776."
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that he and the Provincial. Congress had done or pre- I entered into an Agreement with other persons, by leaded to have done, thereon, was made inoperative, - by withholding from the Electors, until after the Election at which the Resolutions were ordered to be submitted to the judgment of those Electors, all knowledge of the existence of any such Resolutions!
If the Provincial Congress possessed no authority, legal or revolutionary, "to declare this Colony to be "and continue independent of the Crown of Great " Britain," as both common sense and history, as well as the first of John Jay's series of enabling Resolu- tions, unquestionably determined, those enabling Res- olutions, carefully concealed and rendered entirely inoperative by the Agreement which was subsequently appended to them, assuredly did not supply nor pro- vide for a supply of that peculiar authority which John Jay and the Provincial Congress, then, regarded as necessary, for a warrant for such a declaration ; and, consequently, that Congress was, and would ne- cessarily continne to be, as it had previously been, without the slightest authority, legal or revolution- ary, to take any action whatever, which tended to- ward a separation of the Colony from the Mother Country. The carefully concealed Agreement accom- plished the evident purposes of its treacherous au- thors, however; and the Delegation of the Colony in the Continental Congress, at the same time, was en- abled, by it, to make its opposition, in that body, to the Resolution and the Declaration of Independence, less offensive to the majority of that Congress and to the revolutionary elements throughout the Continent; but, notwithstanding these successes, those Resolu- tions, as well as the Agreement which was appended to them, were deceptive and fraudulent in their char- acter, and intended by their author and promoters for nothing else thau for the advancement of decep- tive and fraudulent purposes. The reader will see, very soon, with what little respect the declaration which formed the basis of those Resolutions, as well as the Resolutions themselves, was regarded by the same John Jay and by nearly the same Provincial Congress-then as deficient in authority " to declare " this Colony to be and continue independent of the "Crown of Great Britain," as it had been, twenty- eight days previously-when, on the ninth of July succeeding, they actually did declare this Colony to be and continue independent of the Mother Country, their acknowledged want of authority, from any source, to do any sneh action, to the contrary not withstanding.
Were there any doubt, in any mind, concerning John Jay's entire capability of practising the most refined deceit and of being most unqualifiedly treacherous, whenever his own selfish or partisan purposes could be most successfully promoted by deceit and treachery, such a doubt would be surely removed by a knowledge of that remarkable transaction-the adoption of a series of Resolutions, for the seeming promotion of a specific purpose, while, secretly, at the same time, he
means of the provisions of which Agreement, secretly executed, the Resolutions were made inoperative, and the seeming support which they appeared to extend to the question of Independence, at the same time, was converted into an illusion and a cheat-which we have described. John Jay and all those with whom he was associated, in the great political questions of that period, were aiming at something else than Inde- pendence, at something which was directly antagon- istic to Independence; and he and they felt at liber- ty, under the license of that unholy ambition which controlled them, to resort to and to employ whatever means, of whatever character, which would promote their controlling purpose of keeping the Colony of New York out of the current which was evidently setting toward Independence, and in a continued po- litical and commercial dependence on Great Britain. Whether others will justify either the fraud or those who perpetrated it, is a matter in which we have no concern.
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