5 Nathaniel Woodhull appeal's to have been a Colonel of the Suffolk Militia, who was "reconunended or nominated to our Deputies in Pro- "viucial Congress for a Brigadier-general," by the Committees of the western Tow ns in Suffolk, in a meeting held at Smithtown, on the seventh of .Sei)tember, 1775, {Hiytorical Manuscripts^ etc.: MUituri/ lietnnis, xxvi., 216 ;) but a very careful examination of the JonrimU of the Provinci^d Conijre^s and of its Committee of Safety^ from that date until the earliest mention of him as a " Brigadier general " which we have seen, has failed to produce the slightest evidence of his election to that or any other military authority, beyond his Colonelcy. We incline to the opinion, therefore, that, although he commanded the Suffolk and Queens I^lilitia, it was only as the senior Colonel, or ftolonel-comraandant; and that he was only a "Gejieral," " by courtesy," as it was called.
Congress. The canvass was evidently conducted, as we have already stated, with spirit ; but the influence of the Counties of Westchester, New York, Tryon, Charlotte, and Albany, in behalf of Scott, was too great to be overcome by that of the Counties of Orange, Suffolk, Duchess, and Ulster, for Woodhull, the Counties of Richmond, Kings, Queens, Cumberland, and Gloucester having been absent ; and the former was thus elected,* admirably filling the political demand, but not, in the slightest degree, promising to make the Brigade efficient or useful, as soldiers -- like other lawyers, some of them within our acquaintance, the uniform of a General wa.s attractive to him ; he secured an office of distinction ; and he continued to occupy it, until, on the establishment of the new form of Government, after having been defeated in his canvass for the office of Governor, he was transferred into the more comfortable, if not the more profitable place, of Secretary of State, which he occupied until 1789, and was succeeded by his son, who held the place until 1798.