USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 52
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The Declaration which was thus referred, was a duly authenticated copy of _1 Declaration by the Rep- resentotires of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, of which document mention has been already made; and, with its authentication, in extenso, it was entered at length on the Journal of the Congress.10
A very important letter, concerning prisoners of Monday, the eighth of July, 1776;4 but it was not
1 Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, vi .; 1215, 1216. " Vide pages let 171, nute.
3 Judge Jones, who was, algo, one of those whom the Committee had suunnoned, related the furt that, on the thirtieth of June, Governeur Morris was the only member of the Committee who had not left the City, in the general panic. History of New York during the Revolu- tionary War, ii., 206.)
In view of Governeur Morris's great anxiety to go into the City of Now York, then a military part of the Royal True, very soon afterwards, it will hardly be necessary for us to inquire why he was the only memler of the Provincial Congress who> voluntarily exposed himself to supposed danger from the approach of the Royal Army.
Journal of the (third) Provincia Congress, "Sunday afternoon, Joue " 30. 177i."
5 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Tuesday, 9th July, 1776."
Very singularly, and without the slightest anthority except that of J. Warren Tompkins, Bolton, (History of Westchester county, original edition, ii., 339 ; the same, second edition, ii., 564,) considered the Con- gress which was assembled, at the White Plains, on the ninth of July, 1776, as the same body as that which had been in session, in the City of New York, from the righteenth of May until the thirtieth of Ine, pre. reding. In other words, both these learned historians regarded the third and the fourth Provincial Congresses as one and the same b .- ly 6 Journal of the Prorincin! Congress, " Tuesday, P.M., WHITE PLAINS, " Jisly 9, 1776."
" The Journal of the Congress, July 9, placed Colonel Van Corthatit's Dante at the head of the list of "the new members present" who " took the general oath of secrecy," although the Colonel had headed the Deputation from Westchester county, in the third Provincial Con; gress, as will be seen by reference to the Credentials of that Delegation, in the Jourund of that Congress, "Die Sabbati, IO ho., A.M., May Is, " 1776."
The explanation of that appatent contradiction may be found in the fact that that short lived third Provincial Congress was dissolved before Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt took his seat in it or was qualified to do so, by his taking the oaths of the office of Deputy.
& George Clinton, Houry Wiener, John . Neop William Floyd, and Finance Les, to the Provincial Congress, " Punt betruta, July 2, 1776."
9 Jonerand of the Provincial Congress, "Tuesday, 9th July, 1776." 10 Ioid.
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war and those who were, also, confined in the Jail, in the City of New York, for debt, was received from General Washington, and referred to a special Com- mittee ; 2 and after the transaction of some other busi- ness, the Congress adjourned until the afternoon.
On the afternoon of the same day, [ Tuesday July 9. 1776,] the Committee to whom had been referred the letter from the Delegation from the Colony in the Continental Congress and the Declaration which that letter had covered, made a Report, thereon, in the following words :
"IN CONVENTION OF THE REPRESENTA- "TIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,3 " WHITE PLAINS, July 9th, 1776.
" RESOLVED, UNANIMOUSLY, That the reasons " assigned by the Continental Congress for declaring "the United Colonies free and independent States "are eogent and eonelusive; and that, while we "lament the cruel necessity which has rendered that "measure unavoidable, we approve the same and " will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with "theother Colonies in supporting it.
" RESOLVED, That a copy of the said Declaration "and the aforegoing Resolution be sent to the Chair- "man of the Committee of the County of Westches- "ter, with order to publish the same, with beat of " drum, at this place, on Thursday next," [July 11, 1775]; " and to give directions that it be published, " with all convenient speed, in the several Districts " within the said County ; and that copies thereof be " forthwith transmitted to the other County Com- "mittees within the State of New York, with orders to "cause the same to be published in the several " Districts of their respetive Counties.
" RESOLVED, That five hundred copies of the "Declaration of Independence, with the two last men- "tioned Resolutions of this Congress for approving "and proclaiming the same, be published in hand- " bills and sent to all the County Committees in this "State.
I Joseph Reed, Adjutant general (by the General's order) to the Previo- ein Congress, " HEAD-QUARTERS, NEW YORK, July 5th, ITTf."
2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Theslav, 9th July, 1976."
1 3 In view of the fact that the body of which that Committee was a part and by whom it had been appointed and to whom it was to report, was, specifically, "a Provincial Congress for the Province of New " York ;" and beranse, at that time, there had been no change in the status of the Deputations composing the Congress, who represented nothing else that certain specified Counties, each Deputation represent- "ing only a single County ; and because, at that time, the Colony of New York, could not be possibly regarded as a " State, " the caption of thal Report displayed nothing of historical or legal precision, nothing of accuracy of statement, and nothing of good taste.
The band which wrole it could not be concealed ; and if the form of the writing answered the present purpose of the writer of it, in certify- ing his new-born zeal for Independence to his astonished constituents, it would probably answer an equally good porpose in invalidating the in. strument of which it was the head, in case that " Reconciliation " for which the writer of the Report did not cease to hope and to pray and to labor, should be ffected.
" RESOLVED. That the Delegates of this Suite, in " Continental Congress, be and they are Jerdy "authorized to consent to and adopt all such mra- "stres as they may deem conducive to the happiness "and welfare of the United States of America."
It is said that the Report which was thus made by the Committee was unanimously adopted by the Congress ; and. further, that an Order was made by the Congress directing that copies of the Resolutions which constituted the Report should be transmitted to the Continental Congress.4
The reader need only to be reminded that the evident author and the known supporters of this series of Resolutions were the same author who, twenty- eight days previously, had written, and almost entire- ly the same individual Deputies who, at the same time, had voted, that the authority of "the good "people of this Colony" was, then, necessary to ena- ble the Provincial Congress or the Delegates of the Colony in the Continental Congress "to declare this "Colony to be and continue independent of the Crown "of Great Britain : " that, in the absence of any sneh authority already delegated to themselves or to the Colony's Delegates in the Continental Congre -- , it was, at that tique, considered proper and necessary to ask for authority to do so, if it should be subsequently considered expedient and proper to make such a declaration of Independence, in behalf of that " good " people " of whom they, then, acknowledged them- selves to have been only agents or deputies ; that, for reasons which will be remembered, no such authority, then nor subsequently, had been delegated to either themselves or to the Colony's Delegates in the Con- tinental Congress; by that "good people" whose servants and representatives both they and the Dele- gates referred to acknowledged themselves to have been ; and that, on the later occasion, which is now under notice, themselves having been the witnesses, they were quite as much without authority, legal or revolutionary, "to declare this Colony to be and " continue independent of the Crown of Great "Britain," as they had been, on the former occasion, of which mention has been made. If it had been an act of usurpation to have declared the Independence of the C lony, without the "consent " of the Colony, previously given, on the former occasion, how much less flagrant was the act, also without having obtain- ed that "consent," on the later occasion, which is now under consideration ? Were John Jay and those whom
Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Tuesday, P.M., WHITE PLAINS, " July 8th, 1776."
The Journal of the Continental Congress, of Motalay, the fifteenth of July, stated that a copy of the first, second, and fourth of these very it. portaut Resolutions had been enelomul, with a number of other papers, tata letter dated on the elevruth of that month, and sent to that Congress : that the letter and the papers which were en closed in it were received by the Continental Congress, on Monday, the fifteenth of July ; that the three Resolutions manuel were entreed at length, on the Journal of that Congress; and that " the letter, with the papers enclosed," was referred to the Board of War.
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be controlled really honest and sincere, when, on the | was seen in the immediate abrogation of all the formis „teenth of June, preceding, they made the confession of Law and Government which had previously been of their legal incapacity to make such a declaration seen throughout the Colony, from the earlier period of Independence, unless with the previously-obtained . of the settlement by Europeans within its territory; "consent" of that " good people" whose servants and the substitution, in their stead, of nothing else and deputies they then acknowledged themselves to than the government of unrestrained force, the Law of the stronger. A general Jail-delivery, in the City of New York, signalized the "new departure"-where have been ? If so, what possible ground is there for consistently regarding them as either honest or sincere, when, on the ninth of July, the occasion which ' there was no longer any Law, there could not be any is now under notice, while they were yet without that : breaches of the Law, either in the matter of pecuniary "consent" of their principals and constituents which had been previously regarded as essential to ensure validity to any such action, they actually, on their own motion, made such a declaration ; severed the political connection which had previously existed between the Colony and Great Britain; abrogated all the Laws under which the Colony had been pre- viously governed; deposed the previously existing Colonial Government ; and usurped, to themselves, without the slightest limitation, the absolute and despotie control of every thing relating to the Civil, the Ecclesiastical, and the Military concerns of all who were within the Colony, not sparing even the eon- sciences, the opinions, the properties, the liberties, .or the lives of those who presumed to say to them, "What doest thou?"
We shall see, hereafter, how much of honesty and integrity there were, in either of these, when the series of Resolutions, on the subject of the Colony's in- dependenee, which is now under consideration, was written and adopted ; how little the writer of them honestly and sincerely regarded those Resolutions as being, really, what they appeared to have been ; and how little foundation in truth there is for the greater portion of what has been written concerning that writer and what he did, on the ninth of July, 1776.
Having disposed of the subject of Independence in the eurt and crispy Resolution which headed the series which was reported by the Committee, the Provin- cial Congress turned to other subjects of vastly less importance; and, two days afterwards, on Thurs- day, the eleventh of July, very probably, no record of the fact. having been found, the publication of the Declaration was made, officially, at the White Plains, in conformity with the second Resolution of the series, on that subject, which had been adopted by the Congress.1
The great importance of that Resolution which gave the sanction of the Colony of New York to the Resolution for Independence which the Congress of the Continent had adopted on the second of July,
obligations or in that of any other obligation -- and as every civil Commission was cancelled by that Resolu- tion of Independence from the Crown of Great Britain, on the authority of which royal authority every such Commission was based, every Court of Justice was closed, every fimetion of Government was paralyzed, and because no new form of local Government and no new system of Statutes had been provided to take the places of the others, which had been thus vio- lently set aside, there was nothing but confusion and uneertainty ; and had not the general conservatism of the Colonists prevailed and preserved the general peace, the advent of Independence, throughout the Colony of New York, would have been signalized by many a local scene of terrorism and of bloodshed. It was not so in the other Colonies; and had not the ina-ter-spirits of the revolutionary faction, in New York, in the interest of Reconciliation, obstructed the work of ereating a new form of Government, quite as effectively as, at the same time, they were ereating a necessity for such a new system-at least for a Pro- visional Government, if not for a permanent one -- New York might, also, have been fully prepared for the great changes, in all her governmental arrange- ments, which were thus crowded on her. A very competent writer, a witness of the great changes of which he wrote and of which we write, thus accu- rately and graphically described them: "The Deela- "ration of Independence, published by Congress on "the fourth of July, 1776, was the first act that put "an end to the Courts of Law, to the Laws of the " land, and to the administration of Justice, under "the British Crown, within the thirteen Colonies. "The revolt was now complete. Upon this event, "the Law, the Courts, and Justice itself ceased: all "was anarchy : all was confusion. A usurped kind "of Goverment took place: a medley of Military "Law, Convention Ordinances, Congress Recommen- " dations, and Committee Resolutions." 2
It is proper that we shall say, however, that, not- withstanding the Declaration of Independence was thus nominally accepted and approved, and notwith- standing New York was thus formally obligated to stand or fall with her sister States in the support and defense of the eause in which they were engaged, Independence had not been, as we have already seen, what the revolutionary faction of the great party of
1 Bolton stated, in his History of Wielchester county, (original edition, ii., 30, 360; the same, second edition, il., 564.) that, on the occasion referred to, "the Dalmation was read by John Thomas, For, and " srcouded by Michael Varian and Samuel Crawford, two prominent ' Whigs of Scarsdale." But he has given no authority for the statement ; and unless by " Jolin Thomas, Esq," the reader of the Declaration on the Decision referred to, he meant the younger of the two who bore that name, we must be excused for doubting the arenrary of the state- Inent. .
2 Jones's History of Your Your' during the Revolutiony War, i., 115.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
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the Opposition, in New York, had desired and aise1 for; nor, since it had been crowded through the Con- tinental Congre-s without the approval of the master- spirits of that revolutionary faction of the party and in the face of the determined opposition of those who represented or who, in other Colonies, were affiliated with that faction, although the Declaration and Inde- pendence itself had been acquiesced in by the Pro- vincial Congress, did the same faction regard either with the slightest favor; nor, as the subsequent con- duet of its leading members, those of its number from whom the character and disposition of the whole may be fairly estimated, in postponing the establishment of a new form of Government for the young State and leaving it during more than nine months without the slightest semblance of a Govern- ment of any kind, clearly indicated, did that remark- able faction, then, intend to respect either the Rose- lution for Independence or the Declaration of it any longer than would be necessary to enable it to effect a reconciliation with Great Britain, and, thereby, to secure to that family of whom all the faction were either members or hungry followers, all those official places, within the Colony, which were then occupied by their hereditary rivals, and all that influence, for like purposes of aggrandizement, within other C lo- nies aud within the Congress of the confederacy, to which that horde of miscellaneous office-seekers des- perately aspired, and to which, it was fondly con- sidered, it woirtd become reasonably entitled.
On the afternoon of the ninth of July, immediately after the Provincial Congress had adopted the Report of the Committee to whom the Declaration of Indepen- dence had beeu referred, and, thereby, as far as it could do so, had abrogated every Law and every Commission which had rested on the sovereignty of the King of Great Britain, with singular coolness but entirely consistent with the absolutism which had thus been inaugurated and with the disposition and desires of those who then controlled the Congress, the Sheriff's of the several Counties were " authorized " and directed" [not by Law, but only by the oligarchic will and the consequent ipse dixit of the Congress.] "to "retain and keep in their custody all prisoners, of " whatever kind, which are or may be in their cus- "tody, until the further order of this Convention, "or until such of them as may be confined for " debt, on civil process, shall be released by the "Plaintiff's so brought against them ; "1 and thus pro- vision was made for the safekeeping not only of the victims of earlier lawlessness but of subsequent abso- lutism, the latter, by the ternis of the Resolution, concentrated within the Provincial Congres> itself."
I Jornada of the Provincia Congress, "Theslay, P.M., WHITE PLAINS, "July 9th, 1776."
? It is very evident that James De Lanrey, the Sheriff of Westchester- county, or the Deputy who represented him, obeyed the Resolution of the Provincial Congress by holding in confinement, in the County Jail, those " Prisoners of State" who, for political reasons, had been or who
Immediately after the provision of depositarios for the victims of its absolutism, as stated in the Rest- tion above referred to, the Provincial Congress revised the notorious Committee to detect Conspiracies, which had ceased to exist by reason of the dissolution of the Congress who had created it;3 united it to the Committee on Prisoners of War, which had been ap. pointed during the morning session ; withdrew the authority to interfere with those who were suspected of disaffection, which had been vested in General Washington, by the preceding Provincial Congress, puring the panie occasioned by the arrival of the Royal Army ; + vested the consolidated Committee, this created, with authority to " carry int , execution "all such Resolves of the Continental Congress and "comply with all such necessary regnisitions of the "General" [ Washington,] " as require so much de- "spatch as to render an application to this Congress "impracticable or attendel with dangerous delay : " appointed John Sloss Hobart, of Suffolk, Gouverneur Morris and Colonel Lewis Graham. of Westchester- county, Leonard Gansevoort, of Albany-county, and Thomas Randall and Colonel Henry Remsen, of the City of New York, or any three of them, for such Committee ; "permitted " the Committee " to proceed "in the business under" [unto ?] " them committed. "ia such a manner as to them shall appear to be most "agreeable to the dictates of justice aud humanity "and most advancive of the public good : " $ and so set in motion, again, that concealed instrumentality of despotism, which, under the same plea of " necessity," had stamped the records and the history of the third Provincial Congress with everlasting shame; and, in this later instance. with such an increase of authority as made it, practically, an absolute power which was greater in its ability to oppress the State than even the Provincial Congress itself. 6
were, subsequently, sent to him, (P.fition of Joshua Party and fourteen others, " WHITE PLAINS GOAL, August the 18th, 1776 ; " Petition of Jou- then Purdy, Junior, " Warre PLAINS GYAL, August 30th, 1776 ; " P Afin of H ary Chase, " WIGHT PLAINS GOAL, August 30, 1776;" etc.) is well as those Prisoners of War who, also, were sent to him, for safe-keeping, (Examinations of John Sampson, Jones Auchmitg, and vera others, Prisoners rf Ffer, " WHITE PLAINS IN WESTCHESTER CHAANTY, July with, 1776. com. pared with the Petition of William Meinned, one of the unmber ; whi the Berobs of Jactes Aus Korty and John Simpe , and William Methey ! date October 20. 1176; and with the LIdava of John Simpson, Milwas M. Derinal, William Eller, and Joseph Wolle and, "Ochr., 1776;"', the Mal- tor of which Petitions is also interesting because of the information which it bringsof the treatment of Prisoners of War, at the White Plains, by those who were in authority. under the "Convention of the Representa- " lives of the State of New York ; " etc.
3 Vide p ge 171, ante.
+ Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Sunday Afternoon, June 30th, 1756." 5 Journal of the Precisei Congress, " Tuesday, P.M., White Plains. "July 9th, 1776."
6. Although the Provincial Congress was seated at a distance from the City of New York, this Committee preferred to hold its meetings in that City ; and, with the unlimited authority with which it was vested, with nothing to control its own estimate of a "necessary." and with the strong arm of the military power to support that estimate, that Committee was, in fact, an oligarchy of absolute power. p.es.s.in. greater means for oppression and outrage that was held by the Provin- Fiat congress which had created it and by whose warrant it acted.
. 1
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
On Wednesday, the tenth of July, the Provincial " agress " resolved and ordered that the style or "title of this Hou-e be changed from . THE PROVIN- ". CIAL CONGRESS OF THE COLONY OF NEW-YORK', "which it had previously borue, to that of 'THE ".CONVENTION OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE "'STATE OF NEW-YORK ; '"! and, theneeforth, there was no open pretension that the King of Great Britain was the Sovereign of that portion of America or that those who were within the bounds of her territory owed the slightest allegianee to him or obedience to his commands.
The fourth Provincial Congress, notwithstanding the momentous events which were evidently rapidly approaching, was immediately zealous in continuing the remarkable poliey which had distinguished the preceding three of the series and which had served to keep alive and to intensify the feuds of former days, separating the Colonists into factions, bitterly antag- ouistie in feelings and in actions, instead of seeking to conciliate those who differed ; to pacify those who were discontented ; to bring into harmony, the thoughts and opinions and desires which were discordant and jarring ; and to secure concert of action, for the pro- motion and support of "the common cause," among those who had previously differed only on the means which should be employed for the accomplishment of the common purpose. But the revival, with largely increased authority and without any diminution of malignancy, of the notorious political Inquisition-the Committee to deteet Conspiracies-afforded abundant evidence of the purpose of the master-spirits of the new-formed Convention to keep apart those who might have been united, had a redress of grievances been the only purpose of the movements; and to drive over into the ranks of the Royal Army or into the service of that Army, those who, under a more judicious policy, would not have become enemies, eager for retaliation, even if they had not become very active friends. The outlawry of Richmond and Queens-counties and the terrible outrages which had been inflieted on their peaceful inhabitants, under the authority or with the permission of the earlier Provincial Congresses, had already produced their legitimate resul-, in the cagerness with which the persecuted and outraged inhabitants of each of these Counties had accepted the protection of the Royal Army and taken up arms for retaliatory action ;2 and
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Wednesday morning, WHITE "Puxixs, July 10th, 1776."
Doctor Sparks erroneously stated, (Writings of George Washington, iii., 470, note, ) that that change in the title of the Provincial Congres was made on the ninth of July, and cited the Manuscript Jourant of the Com- gress, of the nigth of July, as his authority : we have preferred to dopetid ou the official copy of that Journal, as it was printed by order of the Legislature, in 1942, which clearly indicates that the change was made on the following day.
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