Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 7

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592

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For the purpose of extending its authority and of increasing its power, in whatever might arise, in its evident intent to control not only the great body of the unfranchised masses of every class, in the City of New York, but the Colonial and the Home Goveru-

cal writers, who has inclined to tell the exact truth, on this subject ; and what he said of it ocenpied less than two lines of an octavo page.

3 The .Cancus, at Sain. Francis's, at which the appointment of the Committee was determined on and its Members nominated, defined, in its first Resolution, the purposes for which that Committee was to be appointed and the authority which should be vested in it-" to corre- "spond with the neighboring Colonies on the present important Crisis," excluding all other subjects, (Proceedings of the Meeting, among the Broadsites, in the Library of the New-York Historical Society.)

4 That James Duane and John Jay, to whom reference is here made, were not apt to recognize any fundamental obstruction to or requirement from whatever they should incline to do or not to do, is well known to every one who has closely studied the histories of the duings of those gentlemen, subsequently, in the varions branches of official life to which they were respectively called.

5 In all the political operations of that period, the several Counties of the Colonies were regarded as entirely independent bodies, cach controlling itself to the extent, even, of sending independent Delegates to the Con- tinental Congress -- the centralization of authority, indeed, was the fun- lamental grievance against which all the Colonies were, then, raising their remonstrances atul their opposition to the measures of the H one Government -- and it must not be supposed that, in the instance referred to, in the text, the Committee sought the direct control of the masses, in any other County than in that of New York-it sought no more than to secure the control of those, within the several Counties, who did control those masses, within their several neighborhoods ; and, therefore, it sought to

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ments, at the second meeting of the Committee, on the ' emphatic testimony to the accuracy of what has been evening of Monday, the thirtieth of May, Peter Van stated, concerning the conservation of de farmer- in Westchester-county, as lately as in the spring and Schaack, Francis Lewis, John Jay, Alexander Mc- Dongal, and Theophilact Bache, three rigid conserva- | early Summer of 1774.' tives and two of the revolutionary faction, were ap- pointed "a Committee to write a Circular Letter to " ing them of the appointment of this Committee, and " submitting to the consideration of the Inhabitants " of the Counties whether it could not be expedient for " them to appoint persons to correspond with this " Committee upon matters relative to the purposes for " which they were appointed ; " ' and, at a Meeting es- pecially called for the purpose, on the following evening, [ Tuesday, May 31.] at which thirty-five mem- bers were present, that Sub-Committee reported a Draft of a Circular Letter, for the purpose named, which was duly approved by the Committee. Mr. Lewis was ordered to cause three hundred copies of that Circular Letter to be printed; and it was also ordered that those printed copies of the letter should be transmitted, with all convenient speed, to the Treasurers of the several Counties, with a " line " to each Treasurer, signed by the Chairman of the Com- mittee, requesting his care in the proper transmission of the several letters to the "persons to whom they should be respectively addressed ; and that intimation should be given, through the various Newspapers, that such Circular Letters had been duly sent .?

While the Committee of Correspondence, in New York, was thus engaged in an effort to extend its in- " the Supervisors in the different Counties, acquaint- 'fluence and its authority beyond the limits of its original jurisdiction, the Committee of Correspond- ence and the leaders of the revolutionary populace, in Boston, received and considered its letter responding to the Vote of that Town and to the letters which had accompanied it, to New York; and, as might have been reasonably expected, where the difference, on such a subject, was as radical in its character and as wide in its extent as it was in that instance, there ap- peared to be very little prospect of an agreement, or even of a compromise. Indeed, the Massachusetts- men did not appear to pay the slightest attention to the proposition which those of New York had made, to call a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for the consideration of all the grievances, real or imaginary, of which all the Colonies were, then, re- spectively complaining, preferring, instead, and firmly insisting on, their own proposition to remove the particular case of Boston's recognized contumacy and its consequences from all other matters of disagree- ment with the Home Government, and to enforce a relief of that Town from the penalty inflicted on it, because of its recognized lawlessness, by establishing a Non-Importation and Non-Exportation Association, throughout the entire Continent, for that especial purpose, and for no other purpose whatever. That renewed preference of the Committee of Boston was conveyed to the Committee of New York, in a letter, dated on the thirtieth of May, which, in its terms, was not creditable to the professions of those who wrote it, for either candor, or honor, or genuine patri-

Of those Circular Letters, inviting a correspondence with the Committee, in New York, it is recorded that thirty copies were sent to the Treasurer of West- chester-county, with a note from the Chairman of the Committee, requesting him "to direct and forward " them to the Supervisors of the several Districts, " 3 the first attempt, which was made, by any one, to draw the farmers of that County into the unrest of discontent and disaffection ; but we have failed to find, in any portion of the Minutes of the Committee, the slightest evidence that any one, within that County, paid the slightest attention to the Com- mittee's iusidious invitation, or that, at that time, any one to the northward of Kingsbridge, either within or without the limits of that County, seemed to possess the slightest interest in the Committee, or in the gen- eral purposes for which it had been appointed, or in those ill-concealed purposes for which it had covertly solicited the co-operation of the leaders, where there were any, throughout the Colony-certainly a very

circumvent and secure the control of the entire Colony, under a mask of " patriotism," as it had already circumvented and secured the control, in political affairs, of the County of New York.

1 Manter of the Committee, " NEW-YORK, May 30, 1774 ;" Lieutenant. governor Colden to Governor Tryou, "NEW YORK, June 2, 1771."

" Munter of the Committee, Special Meeting, "NEW-YORK, May 31, "1774;". Lieutenant governor Colden to Governor Tryon, "NEW-YORK, "June 2, 1774."

a Memorandum, appended to the Minutes of the Committee, "New- "YORK, May 31, 1774."

+ It appears that a similar temper prevailed in all the Counties of the Colony, except New York and Suffolk.

In a despatch from Lieutenant-governor Colden to the Earl of Dart- month, dated "NEW York, 6th July 1774." it is stated, "The present " political zeal and Frenzy is almost entirely confined to the City of New " York. The People in the Counties are noways disposed to become ac- " tive or bear any part in what is proposed by the citizens. I am toll " all the Counties but one have declined an Invitation sent them from " New York to appoint Committee of Correspondence. This Province " is everywhere, except in the City of New York, jwrfestly quiet and in " good order ; and in New York a much greater freedom of Speech pre- " vails than has done heretofore."

In a letter written to Governor Tryon, dated " SPRING HILL, 6th July. "1774." the same careful observer sull, further, "Except in the city of " New York, the People in the Province are quite Tranquile, and have "declin'd takeing any Part with the Citizens. An Opinion is spread very " generally in the Country that if a non-importation agreement js' " forin'd, Government will restrain our Exportation ; a Measure which "the Farmers clearly see will be ruinous to them."

In a Despatch written to the Eart of Dartinouth, dated " NEW YORK, " 2nd Angust, 1774," the venerable Lientenant-governor stated, " Great " Pains has been taken in the several Counties of this Province to induce " the People to enter into Resolves, and to -end Committees to join the "Committee in the city; but they have only prevailed in Suffolk County, " in the East End of Long Island which was spitled from Connecticut, "and the Inhabitants still retain a great similarity of Manners and " Sentiments."

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

.ism ; ' and, in a letter dated on the seventh of June, " latter replied, disclaiming the slightest approval of the proposed " suspension of Trade," to which, very singularly and without the slightest reason, the Boston Committee had attempted to commit it ; and saying, concerning that proposition. " We apprehend you have "made a mistake, for on revising our letter to you, so " far from finding a word mentioned of a 'Suspension "'of Trade, theidea is not even conceived. That, and " every other Resolution, we have thought it most pru- " dent to leave for the discussion of the proposed gene- " ral Congress."" It continued, in these very emphatic words : " Adhering, therefore, to that measure, as " most conducive to promote the grand system of " polities we all have in view, we have the pleasure " to aequaint you, that we shall be ready, on our part, " to meet, at any time and place that you shall think " fit to appoint, either of Deputies from the General " Assemblies or such other Deputies as shall be " ehosen, not only to speak the Sentiments, but also to " pledge themselves for the Conduct of the People of " the respective Colonies they represent. We can " undertake to assure you, in behalf of the People of " this Colony, that they will readily agree to any " measure that shall be adopted by the general Con- " gress. It will be necessary that you give a sufficient " time for the Deputies of the Colonies, as far south- " ward as the Carolinas, to assemble, and acquaint " them, as soon as possible, with the proposed " measure of a Congress. Your letters to the south- " ward of us, we will forward, with great pleasure." 3

Those of the revolutionary leaders, in Boston, who had assumed the role of a Committee of Correspond- ence, in that Town, could not long conceal from the world the reckless falsity of what they had written to the Committee in New York, when they stated to the latter that, " certainly all that can be depended upon "to yield any effectual relief" to the Town of Boston, "is, on all hands, acknowledged to be the Suspension "of Trade." The letters which were received by the Committee of that Town, in answer to the Circular Letters, which had been sent to the seaport Towns of

1 The contents of that letter and the spirit of those who wrote it can be ascertained from the extracts from it which were copied into the letter, and evidently referred to in the action of those who wrote it, when, on the seventh of June, the Committee of New York replied to that second letter from: Boston.

" The Resolution of the Committee in New York, on which that reply was based, is in these words: "ORDERED, That the Committee of Rostoll " be requested to give this Committee the Names of the Persons wito " constitute the Committee of Correspondence at Boston ; that they have ". made a mistake in answering this Committee's letter, which mentioned " nyt a word of a suspension of Trade, which they say we have so " wisely defined, as we leave that measure entirely to the Congress, and " we shall really agree to any measure they shall adopt."

It is very evident that the suspicions of the Committee of New York Were aroused by the evident trickery of the Committee of Boston, pre- sented in its reply to the letter of the former, dated the twenty-third of May ; ail that, for that reason, it desired to learn the names of those with whom it was correspoiling -- their characters and stamling could, then, be ascertained through other means

3 Copy of the letter, appended to the Minutes of the Committee of Cor- respondence of New York, " NEW-YORK, June 6, 1771."

Massachusetts ' and to the Committees of Correspond- ence in the several Colonies, " since the reception of the Boston Port-Bill, were not, as is now well known, really as unanimous, in favor of a "Suspension of "Trade," as the Committee had unblushingly pre- tended-indeed, with a few unimportant exceptions, the proposal to make Boston the only subject of con- sideration, throughout the Continent, and to suspend all the internal industries and, with the exception of Smuggling, all the Commerce of all the Colonies, only for the special benefit of that one Town, regardless of the more direct and substantial grievances which were sustained by other Towns and other Colonies, and re- gardless, also, of the very serious consequences, throughout the entire Continent and elsewhere, of such a general and indiscriminate "Suspension of "Trade" as had been proposed, and that, too, at the expense of a Congress of the Continent, which the Committee in New York had proposed and insisted ou, in which all the grievances of all the Towns and Colonies could be considered, and remedies therefor be duly provided, had met with no favor whatever ; and the andaeious leaders of the revolutionary popu- lace, in Boston, as well as the Town itself, were not slow in receding, with more agility than candor. from that high and untenable position which they had oc- cupied, in the proceedings of the Caueus held at Fan- cuil-Hall, on the twelfth of May, in the proceedings of the Town of Boston, at the same place, on the fol-

+The Counmittees who had been sent to Salem and Marblehead, " to communicate the Sentiments of this Metropolis to the Gentlemen, "there ; to consult with them ; and to report at the adjournment," (Minutes of the Town-Martiny, of Boston, May 12, 1771,; did, indeed, go to those Towns, and report the results of their visits, to the Town, at it+ Adjourned Meeting, five days subsequently ; but those results were so discouraging to the violently thisposed leaders of Boston-including sam- nel Adams, Joseph Warren, and their associates-that they contented themselves with ostentatiously "recommending to their fellow-citizens, 'Patience, Fortitude, and a firm Trust in God, " without making record of the formal Reportsof the Committees, if any such formal Reports were really muale, ( Minutes of the Adjourned Meeting of the Town, May 18, 1774, ) and with adjourning, a second time, until the thirty-first, " by which " time it is expected we shall have encouraging News from some of the "sister Colonies," to recompense them for the disappointment they had experienced from the results of their conferences with the Merchants of Newburyport and Salem.

The substance of the Reports from the Committees sent to the seaport Towns of the Province, all mention of which was this suppressed by the Town-Clerk, was saved to the world. however, in a Despatch from Gor- ermor Gage to the Earl of Dortmonth, dated " BOSTON : May 19, 1771," and laid before the Parliament, of the nineteenth of January, 1775, in which it was said the Town-Meeting " appointed Persons to go to Marblehead "and salem, to communicate their Sentiments to the People there, and "bring them into like Measures; which Persons were to make their " Report at the Adjourument, on the Isth, when the Meeting was again "hell, and, I am told, received little encouragentent from salem and "Marblehead, and transacted nothing of consequence."-( Parliamentary Register, i., 36.)

" The first responses from other Colonies which the Committee received were those, carried by Paul Revere, from Philadelphia and New York, which were anything else than "encouraging " to such as composed that Clanmittee ; and there can be very little doubt, in the light of what Was done, very soon afterwards, in Connecticut and Rhode Island, that levere carried back, from Hartford and Providence, tohens of wirit might be expected from those Colonies, also, in opposition to the remarkable propositions of the Cancus of Town-Committees, in Fanenil-Hall, and of the Town of Boston, on the following day.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

lowing day, and in the letters from the Committee of Correspondence, covering the proceedings of the Town, which were sent to the Committee in New York, on the following Saturday, as has been, herein, already stated.

The world of historical literature has been favored, in this connection, by one of the most painstaking and accurate of Massachusetts' historians, with areve- lation of the trickery and double-dealing of at least one of those who, in the matter now under considera- tion, have been justly regarded as the leaders of the political elements, within that Colony, which were antagonistic to the Colonial and the Home Govern- ments.

Samuel Adams was the Chairman and master-spirit of the Committee of Correspondence in Boston : he was the Chairman of the Caneus of the nine Town- Committees, assembled in Faneuil-Hfall, which had confirmed the line of action, concerning the Boston Port-Bill, which he and the men of Boston, had al- ready contrived : he was the Moderator of the Town- Meeting, at Faneuil-Hall, continued through three days, in which that line of action was adopted and pursued and insisted on : and he inspired, if he did not personally write, those letters, describing and in- sisting on that line of action, which were sent from" Boston, to the Committee in New York, in the saddle- bag of Paul Revere, of which mention has been made herein -- all of them, Committees, Caucuses, Town- Meetings, and Letters, being radically in favor of the Boston plan of a "Suspension of Trade," especially for Boston's benefit, and quite as radically resisting the proposal to call " a general Congress," for general purposes. He was the Chairman and master-spirit of that local Committee of the Town which, on the thirtieth of May, addressed that letter to the Com- mittee of Correspondence in New York, adhering to the plan of a Non-Importation Association which Boston had previously proposed, instead of the con- vention of a federal Congress which New York had previously proposed; and attempting, by indirect means, to commit the Committee in New York to the support of the Boston plan of Non-Importation, at the expense of its own plan of calling a federal Con- gress, of which letter and insidious attempt to commit the New York Committee to the Boston scheme, men- tion has been made. Besides all these. he was the Chairman and the master spirit of that Committee, in Boston, which, as lately as the eighth of June, sent Circular Letters from that Town to every Town in the Commonwealth, in which it was stated that "there is " but one way that we can conceive of, to prevent " what is to be deprecated by all good men, and ought, " by all possible means, to be prevented, viz: The " horrours that must follow an open rupture between "Great Britain and her Colonies, or, on our part, a " subjugation to absolute Slavery ; and that is by af- " fecting the Trade and Interest of Great Britain so " deeply as shall induce her to withdraw her oppres-

" sive hand " 1 -- which the Committee proposed to do by means of an Association providing " that, hence- "forth, we will suspend all commercial intercourse "with the said Island of Great Britain, until the said " Act for blocking up the said Harbour " [of Boston] " be repealed, and a full restoration of our Charter "Rights be obtained."" But we are told by that gen_ erally trustworthy historian," that that same Samnel Adamis, who was this inspiring and leading and con- trolling the men of Boston, in their carnest opposition to a general Congress for a general consideration of the grievances of all who were aggrieved, and whose convictions were supposed to have been in harmony with his pretensions before the world, was really in favor of such a Congress and, consequently, really op- posed to the principles which were presented and urged by the Committees, by the Caucus, and by the Town-Meeting, all of whom he had controlled, in the Resolutions, the Letters, and the Address and Associa- tion of which mention has been made, all of which he is known to have inspired and some of which he wrote; that, as early as the twenty-sixth of May, he " was about to introduce Resolves for such a Congress," into the House of Representatives, of which he was the Clerk ; and that he was prevented from doing so, only by the prorogation of the House, by the Gov- ernor.

If this statement is well-founded, and the name of its author affords a reasonable guaranty that it is so, the world of historical literature will be taught by it, how much the personal character of Samuel Adams has been unduly enlogized ; and every careful reader will also be taught by that new revelation, how much the Clerk of the House of Representatives, in Colonial Massa- chusetts, while he was only an employe of the House, presumed to dictate, in matters of legislation, during that critical period ; with how much of insincerity the leader of the excited people, in that Colony, acted, in all that he said and did, before that people and in their behalf; and, in connection with the recognized " art" and duplicity with which the leaders in New York were, also, then conducting, or endeavoring to conduct, the political affairs of the Continent, how little of real personal integrity, of unqualified unsel- fishness, and of unalloyed patriotism, really controlled or even existed among those, in Massachusetts and New York, who, sensibly or insensibly, were, at that time, conducting the Continent in open insurrection, toward a successful rebellion.

The letters of disapproval and discouragement,

1 Address sent by the Boston Committee to every Town in the Province, dated " Bustos, June s, 174," re.printed in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 397.

" Form of a Covenant, wand to every Born in Massachusetts, by the Con- mitted in Boston, with the above-mentioned Address, Section 1-t.

3 Richard Frothingham of Charb stown, in his Rise of the Republic of the United States, Benton : 1572, 223, where words are as follows:

"The Massachusetts Assembly convened on the twenty-fifth of May. "Samuel Adams was about to introduce Resolves for a Compress when "the Assembly (26th) was udjourued by the Governor to meet in Salem "on the seventh of June."

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

against the line of action proposed and solicited by | the Town of Boston, in its formal Vote, on the thirteenth of May, of which Samuel Adams was the ; to the Home Government, under the guidance of that originator and by whom, as the Moderator of the | foreign Committee; and, without making the slight- Town-Meeting, its passage had been seeured, con- est allusion to her ill-conceived and fujudicious ac- tion, in her adoption of that Vote, the Town "en- "joined" the Committee of Correspondence, " forth- " with, to write to all the other Colonies, acquainting "them that we are waiting with anxious expectation "for the Result of a Continental Congress, whose "Meeting we impatiently desire, in whose Wisdom "and Firmness we can confide, and in whose Deter- " mination we shall cheerfully acquiesce " -- a change of policy which was, in the highest degree, remark- tinued to flow into that Town, from all directions,' carrying with them an influence, with that shrewd politieian, which was more potential than all the enactments of the Parliament and all the power of the Home and the Colonial Governments had pro- duced ; and he was not slow in accepting the alterna- tive which those letters and the evident danger of a more complete isolation of the Town of Boston than he had supposed to have been possible, had sternly thrust upon him. Accordingly, on the seventeenth | able, and which would be entirely unaccountable were the capabilities of Massachusetts-men, of every period, for making remarkable changes of policy and of action, whenever their material interests have seemed to call for such changes, less known to the great world in which we live. of June, the House of Representatives, assembled at Salem, more or less under the guidance of it: Clerk, adopted a Resolution declaring that "a Meeting of "Committees from the several Colonies on this Con- "tinent is highly expedient and necessary, to con- "sult upon the present State of the Colonies and " the Miseries to which they are and must be reduced "by the operation of certain Acts of Parliament re- "specting America ; and to deliberate and determine "upon wise and proper Measures to be by them "recommended to all the Colonies, for the recovery "and establishment of their just Rights and Liber- "ties, eivil and religious, and the restoration "of Union and Harmony between Great Britain "and the Colonies, most ardently desired by all "good Men." At the same time, five persons, of whom Samuel Adams was one, "were ap- "pointed a Committee, on the part of this Province, "for the Purposes aforesaid, any three of whom to be "a Quorum, to meet such Committees or Delegates " from the other Colonies as have been or may be ap- "pointed either by their respective Houses of Bur- "gesses or Representatives, or by Conventions, or by "the Committees of Correspondence appointed by "the respective Houses of Assembly, to meet in the " City of Philadelphia, or any other Place that shall "" be judged most suitable by the Committee, on the "first Day of September next ; and that the Speaker "of the House be directed, in a Letter to the Speakers "of the Houses of Burgesses or Representatives in "the several Colonies, to inform them of the sub- "stance of these Resolves." ?

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Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 7

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.] Number of Pages: 592

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592