Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 8

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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At the same time that the House of Representa- tives, at Salem, was thus adding the weight of its of- ficial judgment against the line of action proposed and solicited by the Town of Boston and in support of that proposed and insisted on by the Committee in New York, the former, also, in a duly assembled Town-Meeting, John Adams occupying the Chair, in seeming forgetfulness of its Vote, ou the thirteenth of

the preceding month, willingly or unwillingly, for- mally wheeled into the lin . of the general opposition

The Committee of Correspondence in New York having, meanwhile, received assurances of their ap- proval of its proposition to invite a meeting of Depu- ties from the several Colonies, in a Continental Con- gress, from the Committee of Correspondence of Con- nectieut + and from that in Philadelphia3 -with the knowledge, also, that the "Standing Committee of "Correspondence," which the General Assembly of the Colony of New York had appointed, on the twentieth of January, 1774, had also approved and concurred in that proposition," and, undoubtedly, although in- formally, with information of the action of the Town of Boston and of that of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, on the same subject,-on the twenty-seventh of June, it entertained and " debated "

3 Proceedings of the Adjourned T. un- Meeting, June 17, 1774, reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 423.

+ The Committee of Correspondence for Connecticut to the Committee in New York, "HARTFORD, June 4, 1971," enclosing a letter, to the same effect, which had been sent by the Committee in Hartford to the Cont- mittre in Boston, on the preceding day.

5 Proceedings of a Meeting of the Freeholders and Freeman of the City and County of Philadelphia, Saturday, June 18, 1774, enclosed in a letter from the Contmittee of Correspondence in Philadelphia to the Commit- tee in New York, " PHILADELPHIA, 21st June, 1574."7

" That Committee of the Assembly was composed of John Cruger, Frederick Philipse, Isaac Wilkins. Benjamin Seaman, James Jauncey? Jatues De. Lancey, Jacob Walton, Simeon Boerum, John D. Noyelles, George Clinton, Daniel Ki-sun, Zebulon Williams, and John Rapalje, the names of ten of whom, including that of Frederick Philipse of Westchester-county, are uppetoled toa letter, a.Aires-ed to the Committee of Correspondence of Connecticut, dated "NEW York, June 24, 17:4," in which it "agrees with you, that, at this charming juncture, a general " Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies would be a very expe- "dient and salutary measure." regretting, however, that it was "het "sufficiently emr wered to take any steps in relation to so salutary a "measure."

: The Minutes of the Committee in New York, notwithstanding the carefully made record of the letters which were received by it, mike to mention whatever of its receipt of letters from either the Town of Be - ton of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, on any subject, after its receipt of that, from the former, dated the thirtieth of May ; ail it may, therefore, be reasonably supposed that whatever knowledge the Committee then pose-sol, concerning the political some sandt of the Massachusetts-men, was unofficial and informal.

Despatch from Governor Gage to the Best of Iertauth, " Bo-Tox, 31-t "May, 1774," laid before Parliament, on the nineteenth of January, 1775 -( Parliamentary forgistr, i., 34.)

: Journal of the House of Representatives, June 17, 17:4.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

a Resolution, offered by Alexander MeDougal, con- jected, by a formal vote of thirteen in support of it tersing " which was the most eligible mode of ap- . parking Deputies to attend the ensuing General

In submitting that Resolution, which had not re- ceived the imprimatur of those who represented the majority of the Committee, and, for that reason, was not received with any favor by that majority, it is evident that Alexander McDougal acted in behalf of the minority of that body -- of those of its members who had been selected from the revolutionary faction of the Tradesmen, Mechanics, and Workingmen of the City -- and it is evident, als, that the purpose of that minority was to secure to "the Committee of Mechanics," which, notwithstanding its formal acquiescence in the appointment of the Committee of Correspondence, continued to assume anthority to represent the un- franchised portion of the people, in all which related to their political action, a right to concur in or to re- ject any nomination of Delegates to the proposed Congre-s, which the Committee of Correspondence should determine to make. The struggle between the two factions, within the Committee, was continued to an Adjourned Meeting of that body, on the evening of the twenty-ninth of June, when Alexander Mc- Dougal moved "that this Committee proceed, im- " mediately, to nominate five Deputies for the City + It is proper to remind the reader, in this place, of two well-known facts, each of which had an important bearing on the political events of the period now under consideration. "and County of New York, to represent them in a "Convention of this Colony," or in the general Con- "gress, to be held at Philadelphia, on the first of The first of these facts is, the " fri-uds of the Government" took no part whatever, in the formation of the Committee of Correspondence nor in its doings. That boly was denounced by the Colonial Govern- ment, from the beginning, as "illegal"-"it is allowed by the Intelli- "gent among them, that these assemblies of the People without an- " thority of Government are illegal and may be dangerous," (Lieutenant - governor Colden to the Part of Dartmouth, "NEW York Ist June 1774.") "These transactions" the nomination of Deputies to the Congress and the "September next, if the other Counties of this Col- "ony approve of them as Deputies for the Colony ; " and that their names be sent to the Committee of "Mechanics, for their concurrence ; to be proposed on " Tuesday next, to the Freeholders and Freemen of " this City and County, for their approbation." . Proposed modification of the ticket by the body of the people] " are dangerous, Without having reached a vote on that Resolution, however, the Committee adjonrned to the following Monday evening, the fourth of July ;3 at which time, after another severe struggle, the Resolution was re- "my Lord, and illegal, It by what means shall viwerument prevent " them" An attempt by the power of the Civil Magistrate wonbl only "show their weakness, att it is not easy to say upon whit foundation a " military abl -hould in called in. Such a Measure would involve us in " Trunbles which it is thought much more prudent to avoid ; and to shun "all Extream- while it is yet possible Things may take a favourable " turn."-(The same to the sun", " New York, fith July, 1774.">

1 Montes of the Committee, " New-York, June 27, 1974."

It has been said, ble Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 49,) that " the Committee met to con- "-bler " that Res Jutiou. but that would indicate that the Resolution was anbinit al to the previous Meeting, which is contradicted by the Win- med. It is clear, as we understand the record, that Alexander McDon. gal offerel it, for consideration, only at the Meeting on the twenty- seventh of June.

" This portion of the Resolution evilently looked for the establishment of a Provincial Congress or Couvention, in which should be vestedl su- preme and arbitrary power, without limitation, over the persons and

properties and actions and thoughts and convictions of every one within i and during the encoredling half century, as we have already stated (ride the Colony : overthrowing all Government ; cancelling all Rights of ' pages 4, 5, conto,) those who were not Freeholders or Freemen of a

Persons and Properties; and estal-lishing, in their steal, an active Mourging Despotism. Such an one was, soon afterwards, establishe.l ; but. just at the time nuder consideration, the master spirits of the ma- jority of the Committee had not secure the places to which they were aspiring ; and, for that reason, they were not, then, reply to concur in that revolutionary, ultra revolutionary, measure.

3 Minutes of the Adjourned Meeting of the Commitee, " NEW-YORK, June " 29. 1774 "

and twenty-four in opposition thereto. Immediately afterwards, without a division, on the motion of Theophilact Bache, seconded by John De Lancey, the Committee resolved "to nominate five persons, to "meet in a general Congress, at the time and place " which shall be agreed on by the other Colonies ; and " that the Freeholders and Freemen of the City and " County of New York be summoned to appear at a " convenient place, to approve or disapprove of such "persons, for this salutary porpose; also, that this " Committee write Circular Letters to the Super- " visors of the several Counties, informing them what " we have done, and to request of them to send such " Delegates as they may choose, to represent them in "Congress "-a Resolution which was so general in its terms, that, in a body which was composed, ex- clusively, of those who, politically, were in opposition to the Home Government, there was no room for op- position to it, notwithstanding its silence concerning the Committee of Mechanics and the claim which had been made in its behalf :' but it was, also, one which laid the foundation for further and very important action, in which the bitterness of feeling, concerning the distribution of the propo-ed offices, which con- tinned to exist between the rival factions of the con-

The party of the Government-subsequently called "Tories "-in- cluded only the members of the Colonial Government, in its various de- partniente, and its dependents ; it was, anwillhaly, only a passive spec- tator of what, then, took place, in the political doings of that period ; and it was wholly powerless to suppress the rising spirit of Revolution, which it would have ghi lly June. The party of the Opposition to the Government-subsequently called "White "-included the great body of the inhabitants, aristocratic as well as democratic, the patrician- as well as the plebeians. It was cut up into factions, based on social and fi- nancial standings; but, in its opposition to the Government, it was united and determined.

The second of the facts referred to is, at the time under consideration

Municipality, were not vested with the right of suffrage, in any of the : Colonies ; and it noel not be a matter of surprise that. at that early day, the great body of the Freeholders aml Frermen, in New York, was not inclined to permit any interference, in political affairs, by those who were not, I-gilly, entitled to Iske part in themt. Indeed, the rule of universal suffrage is not, tu-lay, ceterally recognized ; and one State, in New England, if no more, continues to make a division of her citi- zen-, at the Polls.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

federated party of the Opposition, notwithstanding their apparent harmony on other questions, Was promptly and very energetically displayed.

The Resolution offered by Theophilaet Bache had no sooner been declared to have been carried, than Isaac Sears, seconded by Peter Van Brugh Living- ston, representing the minority of the Counmittee, of- fered another Resolution, providing "that Messrs. "Isaac Low, James Duane, Philip Livingston, John " Morin Scott, and Alexander McDougal be nomi- " nated, agreeable to the question now carried ;" but it was not the intention of the aristocratic, conserva- tive majority of the Committee that the plebeian, revolutionary minority of that body should have the slightest representation in the proposed Delegation ; and, notwithstanding its seeming fairness, the Reso- lution was promptly rejected, by a vote of twelve to twenty-five. The subject was subsequently disposed of, as it then appeared, by a Resolution, offered by John De Laucey and seconded by Benjamin Booth, providing for the nomination of the Delegates by the body of the Committee, of which the conservative aristocrats held the entire control, which resulted in the nomination of Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane, and Jolm Jay, of whom John Alsop and John Jay, who had been substituted for the two candidates of the minority, John Morin Scott aud Alexander MeDougal, by reason of their known peculiarly conservative tendencies, were espe- pecially obnoxious to that revolutionary minority, as well as to the revolutionary portion of the unfrau- chised masses whom that minority indirectly repre- sented. Another Resolution, requesting "the Inhab- "itants of this City and County to meet at the City- " Hall on Thursday, the seventh of July. at twelve " o'clock, to concur in the Nomination of the fore- "going five Persons, or to choose such others in their " stead as in their wisdom shall seem meet," was then adopted ; and, the majority, probably, being well-con- tented with its apparent success, the Committee then adjourned.1

The minority of the Committee and those with whom it sympathized and acted. in political affairs- the "Bellwethers " and the " Sheep" of Gouverneur Morris's metaphor-were not inclined, however, to submit, tamely, to the arbitrary dictation of their " Shepherds," composing the majority of that body ; and they promptly determined to carry the contest into a new field, and with heavy reinforcements. For that purpose, anonymous handbills were posted throughout the City," on the day after the Commit-

tee's Meeting, calling a Meeting of "the good People "of this Metropolis," to be held in the Fields' on the following day, [ Wednesday, July 6 ] at six o'clock, "when Matters of the utmost Importance to their "Reputation and Security, as Freemen, will be com- " manicated." At the appointed hour, it is said, "a "numerons meeting " was collected, with Alexander MeDougal iu the Chair, forming what continues to be known, in history, as "the great Meeting in the " Fields," at which several Speeches were made,' and nine Resolutions adopted, expressing the popular will.

One of the Resolutions adopted by that notable as- semblage of the inhabitants of the City of New York, was almost identical, in words and sentiments, with that voted by the Town of Boston, on the thirteenth of Mas, of which mention has been made herein; another "instructed, empowered, and directed" the Deputies from New York, in the proposed Con- gress. "to engage with a majority of the principal "Colonies, to agree, for this City, upon a non-impor- " tation, from Great Britain, of all Goods, Wares, and " Merchandises, until the Act for blocking up the " Harbour of Boston be repealed, and American "Grievances be redressed ; and, also, to agree to all "such other measures as the Congress shall, in their " Wisdom, judge advancive of these great Objects, "and a general Security of the Rights and Privileges " of America ;" and another pledged the Meeting to abide by all that the proposed Congress should " come into, and direct or recommend to be donc, " for obtaining and securing the important ends men- "tioned in the foregoing Resolutions." It also re- solved " that it is the opinion of this Meeting that " it would be proper for every County in the Colony, "without delay, to send two Deputies, chosen by the "People or from the Committees chosen by them, in " each County, to hold, in conjunction with Deputies " for this City and County, a Convention for the "Colony, on a day to be appointed, in order to elect " a proper Number of Deputies to represent the Col-

3 What were then called, sometimes, "The Fieldis, " and, at other tintes, "The Common, " on which has occurred so munch of public inter- est, in later as well as in earlier days, have been called, during more that halt a century past, "The Park ;" aud by that name it is still known, notwithstanding the greater attractions which, for some years past, have been presented to merely pleasure seekers, in the new pleasure-grounds known as " The Central Park."

+ Among the speakers at that Meeting, it has been usual, for some years past, to give a prominent place to Alexander Hamilton, then a mere lad, who had been thrown into this City, a few years previously, by those, in the West Indies, who, for domestic if not for social reasons, had desired his removal from the place of his nativity. As there is no contemporary authority for such a favor to the previously questionable reputation of that " young West Indian," however, an I because the only modern authority for the statement is the young man's son, John C. Hamilton, (Life of Alermaler Hamilton, by his son, New York: 1549, i., 22, 23,) in whose misupported testimony, in historical subject-, we have no confidence whatever, we prefer to leave that portion of the history of " the " great Meeting, " ifit is truly such a portion of it, where those who were present and who recorded the doings of the great assemblage then left it, entirely untold.

1 Minutes of the Committee, Adjourned Meeting, "NEW YORK, July 4, ** 1774."

See, also, Lieutradyt-governor Colden to the Earl of Duurtmonth, " NEW "YORK, July 4, 1771;" the same to Governor Tagen, "SPRING HILL, 6th " July. 1774."

# One of those handbills has been preserved and may be seen, among other broadsides of that period, in the Library of the New York Histori- cal society.

---

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"ony in the general Congress. But that, if the "Counties shall conceive this mode impracticable or " inexpedient, they be requested to give their appro- " bation to the Deputies who shall be choseu for this " City and County, to represent the Colony in Con- " gress ;" and it "instructed " "the City Committee of "Correspondence" "to use their utmost Endeavours "to carry these Resolutions into execution." After ordering the Resolutions to be printed in the public Newspapers of the City, and to be transmitted to the different Counties in the Colony and to the Commit- tees of Correspondence for the neighboring Colonies, the Meeting then adjourned ;1 but its great influence was continued to be felt, long after the circumstances which had caused it to be assembled had passed from the memories of those who were present and who par- tieipated in its doings.

Inspired by the strength and the spirit of the Meet- ing in the Fields, and led in their opposition to the majority of the Committee, by all the old-time ex- perienced popular leaders, the " Inhabitants of the City "and County," ofevery elass, met, agreeably to the pub- lished request of the Committee of Correspondenee, at the City Hall, at noon, on the day after those Inhabit- ants had assembled in the Fields; but they did not con- firm the Committee's Nominations, for Deputies to the proposed Congress; and the utmost bad feeling, between the aristocratie majority of the Committee and the great body of the plebeian Tradesmen, Arti- sans, and Workingmen, whom it had betrayed, pre- vailed throughout the city.2

It is not within the purposes of this work, however, to present a narrative of the various movements and counter-movements of the rival factions of the con- federated party of the Opposition, again disunited, in their determined struggle for supremacy-nominally, for the establishment of their respective principles, in opposition to or in support of a general "Suspen- "sion of Trade," but, really, for places on the ticket for Delegates to the proposed Congress of the Con- tinent -- which was continued, without ceasing, from the seventh until the twenty-seventh of July ;3 and

which was terminated, on the last-mentioned day, only after Philip Livingston, Isaac Low, John Ahop, and John Jay, four of the nominees of the aristocratic and conservative Committee of Correspondence, had inconsistently and venally declared, in direct con- tradietion of the constantly declared policy of that Committee, previously eoneurred in by themselves, that "a general Non-Importation Agreement, faith- "fully observed, would prove the most efficacious " Measure to proeure a Redress of our Grievances," + which had been the peculiarly distinguishing feature in the declared policy of the revolutionary faction, in the City of New York, as well as in that of the shin- ilar faction, in Boston ; and after those four of the nominees of the Committee had thus practically abandoned their aristocratie and anti-revolutionary associates; withdrawn from the Committee which they had largely assisted in organizing and by whom they had been nominated; and united with those whom they personally despised and by whom they were quite as earnestly distrusted and despised-when, after the fashion of such corrupt politieal allianees, then andsince-the way was prepared for a peaceful Elee- tion of the nominees of the Committee,' four of whom no longer represented the declared policy of the Committee; and one, if not more of the number was more of a Spy, in the service of the Colonial Government, than anything else.

It will be seen that James Duane did not disgrace himself or his name by placing the latter, with those of his four aristoeratie associates on the ticket for Delegates to the proposed Congress, on the letter through which those four bartered the little of politi- eal and personal integrity and the modicum of unsel- fish principles which they respectively possessed, for a small mess of very thin official pottage ; and, in that instance, his baekwardness was honorable and timely, siuee there is every reason for the belief that, at that time, he was not master of himself; that he had, al- ready, been purchased by another ; and that, then, he was, in fact, only the servant of his master.

History has revealed" what, otherwise, would have remained, concealed, in the files of the Colonial Land Pupers, in the Secretary's Office, in Albany, concern-

I Proceedings of the Meeting, appended to the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, " NEW YORK, July 7, 1774."

See, also, Holt's New- York Jouron, No. 1614, NEW YORK, Thursday, July 7, 174; Gaine's New-York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1185, NEW- YORK; Monday, July 11, 1574; Birington's Som-York Gesetter, No. 65, New-York, Thursday, July 11, 174 ; Lieutenant governor Colden to Gor- ernor Tryon, "SPRING HILL, 2nd August, 1774;" Hamilton's Life of Alexander Hamilton, 1 , 21-23 ; Dawson's Park and its Vicinity, 31-37; Dunlap's History of New- York, 1, 453 : Bancroft's History of the Cuiful Statex, original edition, vii, 72, 50; de some, centenary edition, iv., 3.5, 356 ; de Lancey's Votes to Jones's History of Nie York during the Revolutionary War. i., tal.

1 " Minutes of the Committee. July 7, 13, 19, 25, and 27, 174 ; Dunlap's History of New York, i., 433 ; Hildreth's History of the United States, First Series, ill., 39; Bancroft's History of the Cuded States, original elition, vii., &1, 81"; the same, centenary edition, iv., 366, 357 ; Lenke's Memoir of General Lama, 9% ; de Lancey's Notes on Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary Nur, i., 451-100.

3 Decidedly the must complete narrative of that notable factional struggle may be seen in de Lancey's Note ric, on Joney's History of Spice

Fork during the Revolutionary War, (i., 449-467,) which has been prepared with great labor, and which contains carefully-made copies of miany of the original handbills and placards which were, then, scattered through- out the city.

4 Philip Livingston, John . Hoop, Issue Lov, and John Jay to Abraham Brasher, Theophilus Anthony, Francis Van Dyck, Jeremiah Platt, and Christopher buy. Sinck, " NEW York, July 20, 1774."

Proceedings of " a Meting of a member of Citizens convened at the " House of Mr. Marriner," at which the nominations by the Committee of Correspondence were acquiesced in, by those who assumed to repre- sent the unfranchised inhabitants of the City, "NEW YORK, 27 July, " 1774."

G ". Duane, justly emitent as a lawyer, was embarrassed by large -pec- "ulations in Vermont lands, from which he could derive no profit, but "through the power of the Crown."- Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 79 ; the same, centenary .lition, iv., 335.1

i Non York Coloured Manuscript indurved " Land Papers," in the Foo of the Secretary of State, at Albany, xviii., 100 ; xix., 18; NN., Tor, 169 :

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ing In- speculations in the Crown lands, in New York and Vermont, to secure entire success in which the countenance of the Colonial Government was needed and had been secured ; and the intimacy of his personal relations with the head of that Govern- ment, the venerable Cadwallader Colden,' and the ! remarkable similiarity of his views concerning the leading politieal questions of the day, among which the demand for a suspension of the trade of the Colonies with the Mother Country was one of the most prominent, and those, on the same questions, which were maintained by that unusually zealous servant of the King, are also well known to every careful reader of that portion of the political history of the Colony. Indeed, in the latter connection, it is known that, subsequently to his election as a Dele- gate to the Congress, and before he left New York, to take his seat in that body, as the trusted Envoy of all the inhabitants of that City, nominally charged with the great and honorable duty of seeking, in their behalf, a redress of the political grievances which had been imposed upon them by the Home Government, he visited and confidentially compared notes, on political subjects, with, if he did not also communicate information to, the official representa- tive of that Government, in New York ;? and, with that fact established, even in the absence of direct and positive testimony thereon, it would not be un- reasonable to suppose or to say that specific lines of action, in the interest of the Crown, which were sub- sequently followed, within that Congress, individually and in concert with other Delegates, were, also, con- sidered, and canvassed, and determined on, during that interview. In harmony, also, with that evident connection of James Duane with the Colonial Gov- ernment,-in support, also, of the suspicion that par- tieular lines of action, in the interest of the Crown, to be taken in the Congress, were considered and deter- mined on, in advance of the meeting of the Congress, by that particular Delegate and the venerable Lieu- tenant-governor of the Colony-reference need be

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Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 8

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