Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886.

The County of Westchester was ably represented on the floor of the Assembly, in the persons of Colonel Frederic Philipse and Judge John Thomas, who represented the body of the County; Pierre Van Cortlandt, who represented the Manor of Cortlandt ; and Isaac Wilkins, who represented the Borough of Westchester. Of these, Thomas and Van Cortlandt were of the minority of the …

Notwithstanding the Despatches of Lieutenant-governor Colden to the Home Government, which are (and have been, since 1775) accessible to everybody, abundantly prove that the Colonial Government possessed no more influence, which it could exerciBe over the Assembly, than was possessed by any other political opponent, -- that, in fact, that body waB not in harmony with the …

were of the majority of that body, which haa been already described; and because of the prominent parts which those Representatives of that County respectively took, in the debates concerning the momentous questions which were considered and determined in that Assembly, and because of the ills which befell three of those Representatives, because of what they had respectively …

Although the Assembly had been prorogued to meet on the tenth of January, 1775, the members from the distant Counties were not present on that day, nor on several succeeding days; and, on the twentieth of that month, a "Call of the House" was ordered to be made on the seventh of February ensuing ; and the Clerk of the House was ordered to write to the absent Members, to …

Journal of the Home, " Die Veneris, 10 ho., A.M., the 20th January, "1775." 2 "It was some Days before asufflcient number of Members got to Town " to make a House, and there are Btil] twelve of their number absent, '* which has occasioned the Ilouse to put off the farther consideration of "their Important Business to the 7th of next Month, at which Time "they have ordered all …

In the Lieutenant-governor'B Despatch to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated on the first of February, 1775, it is stated that the Call of the House referred to was made on a Motion offered by the minority of the House, for what was supposed would be beneficial to its purposes ; and when it is remembered that the majority already possessed the control of whatever was brought forward …

Under any circumstances and in any assemblage, there would be aroused an earnest, if not an angry, opposition to any movement which was covered with as much of bad faith and dishonor as was seen, surrounding the Resolution which Colonel Ten Broeck had thus submitted in violation of the honorable understanding, between the two factions, which had been entered into when the " …

By a vote of ten to eleven, the House determined that the question on Colonel Ten Broeck's ill-timed Resolution should not " be now put," thereby entirely defeating the minority, in its certainly dishonorable attempt to force a consideration of the proceedings of the Congress, on the Assembly, in open violation of its own particular undertaking, and at the expense of its own …

3 Journal of the House, "DioJovis, 10 ho., A.M., the 26th January, " 1775 ; " Lieulenaut-govemor Colden to General Gage, " New York 29th " Jany 1775 ; " the same to the Earl of Dartmouth, " New York 1st Feby " 1775 ; " the same to Governor Tnjon, " New York, 1st Feby, 1775 ; " the " same to Admiral Graves, "New York 20th Feb. 1775." 4 The venerable Lieutenant-governor of the …

that rejection of Colonel Ten Broeck's Resolution was only the prelude, that Vote of the Assembly has supplied a theme on which those who have seemed to play the part of historians of that portion of America's history, have based much of what they have said, unduly commendatory of Massachusetts and Virginia and quite as unduly denunciatory of everything which pertained to New …

Grahame (History of the United States, iv., 360) following Ramsey, and, generally, in his n«- vredited words, repeated the slander which that early writer insinuated. Leake (Memoir of General Lamb, 97) regarded the Vote as unpatriotic and " an important ministerial triumph." Lo3sing (Field Book of the Revolution, ii., 793) made " fifteen of the twenty-four Members of the …

Lodge (History of the English Colonies, 491,) one of the latest specimens of Massachusetts dilettanteism, sneeringly refers to the Assembly of New York as "the close corporation known as the Assembly," as if the General Court of Massachusetts, locked in its Chamber, was not quite as " close ' ' a body, while it was in session, as even he could find. Others, including …

No one, unacquainted with the facts and depending on any of the above-named historians for information, can possibly learn, from them, that the Vote referred to was taken in the interest of the common cause, as a prelude to what the Assembly intended to do, in its own manner, in support of that cause ; that there was not a " friend of the Government," or " Tory," or member of …

the minority of the Assembly, appears to have been well-studied by those who were of that minority ; but it did not prevent it from continuing to hanker after the leadership of whatever movement, in the direction of a redress of the grievances of the Colonies, the Assembly should be inclined to take. Subsequent events very clearly indicated, indeed, that the minority desired …

Immediately after the adoption of the Resolution submitted by the Representative of the Livingston Manor, James De Lancey, of the City of New York, one of the leaders of the majority and the head of that powerful family, moved "that a Memorial to the Lords, and a Representation 11 and Remonstrance to the Commons of Great Brit- " ain may be prepared, together with the Petition …

It was called ' a Memorial : * now, ' Memorials ' are pre- " sented from one crowned head to another ; but as to a ' Memorial ' from '■ an American Assembly, it was unheard of, and ought not to be read." In the same debate, it was said, also, by another Peer, that " the title " given to the paper was suspicious : a * Petition ' from the same Assembly had been presented to the …

Jenkinson, in opposition to receiving the paper addressed to that House, " urged that the House had never re- " ceived Petitions of this nature : that, here, the name of a Petition was "studiously avoided, lest anything like an obedience to Parliament ** should he acknowledged. The opposition of the Colonies was not so " much against the tax which gave rise to the present …

Continuing the commendable work in which it had thus commenced the proceedings of the day, and apparently without any dissent from any one, the House then ordered that James De Lancey, and Benjamin Kissam, of the City of New York, Colonel Philip Schuyler, of Albany-county, George Clinton, of Ulster-county, Dirk Brinkerhoof, of Duchess-county, Samuel Gale, of Orange-county …

No reasonable reason which would be honorable to the minority of the Assembly, therefore, can be given for the eagerness which it displayed, on the sixteenth of February, to disturb the harmony of that body, in which all of both factions appeared to have been united in both purpose and action ; but, on that day, Colonel Philip Schuyler, of Albany-county, in behalf of that …

It has suited those who have preferred to traduce New York and her General Assembly, however, to regard both the General Assembly and its papers as only favorable to the Home Government and antagonistic to the common cause. 1 Journal of the House, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A.M., the 31st January, " 1775." 2 111 the language of that period, the word " State," as it was used in this …

On the following day, [February 17], Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull, of Suffolk-county, also a prominent member of the minority, continued the factional strife, by offering a Resolution of Thanks to those gentlemen who had represented this Colony in the recent Congress, " for their faithful and judicious dis- " charge of the trust reposed in them, by the good " people of this …

Speaker signify the " same to the President of the Chamber of Commerce " in this City, at their next Meeting, and order a copy " of the same to be published in the public Prints." Like the other Resolutions of the series, which had preceded it, this peculiarly inappropriate Resolution, before such a deliberative body, after it had been amply discussed, was promptly rejected by …

in the negative, among whom were Colonel Philipse and Isaac Wilkins. 1 On the twenty third of February, Crean Brush, of Cumberland-county, from the Committee which had been appointed to prepare a State of the Grievances of this Colony, presented a Report from that Committee ; which was " referred to the consideration of a Com- " mittee of the Whole House, and be proceeded on …

Immediately after the Report on the Grievances of the Colony had been thus referred, Judge John Thomas, one of the Representatives of Westehestercounty, and a leading member of the minority, offered a Resolution providing that " the sense of this House " be taken on the necessity of appointing Delegates "for this Colony, to meet the Delegates for the other " Colonies on this …

The well-considered and, under the circumstances, the judicious determination of the majority of the General Assembly, to unite in the general opposition to the Colonial policy of the Home Government, in the general demand for a redress of the assumed grievances of the Colonies, and in the generally expressed desire to restore the harmony between the Colonies and the Mother …

"Speeches, made by Brush and Wilkins, on that occasion, may be seen in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 1200-1297, the former reprinted from Rmngtont New-York Gazetteer, No. 98, New-York Thursday, March 2, 1775 ; the latter from the same paper, No. 103, New- York, Thursday, April 6, 1775. Students of the history of the Revolution in the Colonies will be well paid …

But it was clearly shown that " the common cause," which was so loudly talked of, was only a secondary matter ; that personal and factional interests were, in fact, regarded as superior to the interests of the country ; that it was the purpose of the minority and of those with whom it affiliated, for the especial advancement of their individual and factional interests, to …

Having fully accomplished its preliminary purpose in securing from the legally constituted Legislature of the Colony a rejection of the several revolutionary Resolutions which it had submitted, and in, thereby WESTCHESTER COUNTY. affording a pretext to those of its confederates, not of the General Assembly, for the assumption, by them, of authority, nominally in the name of …

On the appointed day, [March 1, 1775] the Assembly, in Committee of the Whole House, Colonel Benjamin Seaman, of Richmond-county, occupying the Chair, commenced the consideration of the State of the Colony's Grievances, which had been reported by the Special Committee which had prepared it ; l and after having spent the entire day thereon, as well as the whole of the following …

In the Committee which had been appointed for the preparation of the Slate, in which every member brought forward whatever he regarded as a Grievance, and not in the body of the Assembly, as is meanly insinuated, Colonel Schuyler introduced the Act of 4th George III., Chapter XV., as such a Grievance, which was approved and accepted by the Committee, with only two dissenting …

The Stale of Grievances which was thus adopted by the General Assembly of New York included not only all those Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, relating to or affecting the Colony of New York, for which Colony only the Assembly presumed to legislate, which the Congress of the Continent had included in the Bill of Bights and Grievances which that body had adopted and …

Chapter LXXXIIL, "so " far as it may be construed to establish the Roman " Catholic Religion in the Province of Quebec," . and " so far as it imposes Duties upon certain Ar- " tides of Merchandise imported into that Province," " which by another Statute of the same year, Chapter " LXXXVIII., is so extended as to comprehend all the " Indian Country, from Hudson's Bay to the …

if not in words, as that, on the same subject, which the Congress of the Continent had recently adopted -- and he glorified his grandfather, because of that gentleman's labors in opposing it, and in endeavoring to qualify the Assembly's recognition of that Right, through an Amendment, which the Committee had rejected ; without, however, alluding to that other fact that, in all …

Philip Schuyler needed no such fictitious praise, even from his grandson ; and, although he was willing to promote the interests of his faction, he does not appear to have been thus employed, in what he did as a member of that Committee for preparing a State of the Grievances of this Colony, nor in any proceedings thereon, either in Committee of the Whole House or in the …

action of the Continental Congress, moved by James Duane and supported by John Adams, and nearly in its words, 1 recognizing the Right of the Parliament " to regulate the Trade of the Colonies, and to lay " Duties on articles that are imported, directly, into " this Colony, from any foreign Country or Planta- " tation, which may interfere with the Products or " Manufactures of …

The Assembly promptly went into a Committee of the Whole House, with Colonel Benjamin Seaman, of Richmond-county, ant-goveriwr Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, " New York, let March, " 1775,") 1 Bmcvoft's History of thr United States, original edition, vil., 139, 140; the same, centenary edition, iv., 401, 402. 2 In a letter written by Alexander McDougal, the well-known …

The first of these Resolutions, following the general sentiment of the Colonists, acknowledged the Faith and Allegiance to the King which were due to him from " the people of this Colony." The second acknowledged that the Colonists " owe obedience to all " Acts of Parliaments calculated for the general weal " of the whole Empire and the due regulation of the " Trade and …

The politicians of New York, those of later as welt 4 As the action of the Committee which resulted in those Amendments was not generally noticed on the Journal or iu the Report, it is very evident that they were, generally, only verbal corrections, unimportant in character, and involving no distinguishing principles. But there were two amendments, proposed by Colonel …

as those of earlier periods, have always been unlike those of any other Colony, or State, or Country ; and in the matter of these declaratory Eesolutions, the spirit and terms of which were quite as radical in their character as could have been desired by the most advanced republican who was not an anarchist, the well-established reputation of those politicians was amply …

Livingston and Nathaniel Woodhull, by George Clinton and Philip Schuyler, in the instance under consideration, when they voted against the Resolutions which have been fully described and, consequently, against the great political principles which were asserted and maintained therein, for no other reason which is now discoverable than the peculiar fact that those Resolutions …

1 Tlie official record of the votes of the several Members of the Assembly, of both factions of the party of the Opposition, as it may be seen in the Journal of the House, is one of the most curious and most unaccountable, within our knowledge. and quite as boldly sustained the Home Government, in what it had done, as any open and avowed " friend of the Government " could have …

During the same day, Crean Brush, from Cumberland-county, Colonel Benjamin Seaman, of Richmond-county, and Samuel Gale, of Orange-county, were appointed a Committee " to prepare the Draft of a Memorial to the Lords;" and Daniel Kissam, of Queens-county, and James De Lancey and Jacob Walton, of the City of New York, were appointed a Committee " to prepare the " Draft of a …

It will be seen that on neither of these Committees was there a single member of the minority of the House, notwithstanding the Resolution on which the first-named of those Committees was appointed originated with a leading member of that faction, and notwithstanding, also, both the Resolutions pursuant to which all the Committees were appointed, had been adopted in the …

On the sixteenth of March, Isaac Wilkins, from the Committee appointed to prepare it, reported " the " Draft of a Petition to the King ; " and, immediately afterwards, Crean Brush, from the Committee appointed to prepare it, reported " a Draft of a Memorial to the Lords." During the same day, James De Lancey, from the Committee appointed to prepare it, reported " the Draft of …

Another Amendment, concerning the Judiciary of the Colony, and entirely cancelling the paragraph, on that subject, which the Committee had reported, was submitted by George Clinton, of Ulster-county, and agreed to, by an unanimous vote of the House ; and another Amendment, submitted by Colonel Frederic Philipse, by striking the words " seem to,'' from one of the paragraphs …

On the same day, [March 24<A], the Memorial to the House of Lords and the Bepresentation and Remonstrance to the House of Commons, after several Amendments, none of them possessing any importance whatever and only three of them having called for a division of the House, had been negatived in the Committee of the Whole House, were successively reported to the House ; and, in …

In each instance, also, the Speaker was ordered to sign the document, in behalf of the House ; and, after having ordered the Speaker to transmit these three several petitions to the King, the Lords, and the Commons, " with all convenient speed, to Edmund " Burke, Esquire, Agent of this Colony at the Court '" of Great Britain ; and that a Letter be prepared, to " be approved by …

& The original Jvumah vfthe Assembly which included the proceedings of the entire Session which is now under consideration, were lost during the troublesome times of that period ; and the only known copy of the original printed edition of those Journals wanted four pages, in this portion of it. Those missing pages contained the closing portion of the proceedings of the House …

w Journal of the House, "Die Sabbati, 4 ho., P.M., the 25th March "1775." ' 11 Ibid. WESTCHESTER COUNTY. the rise of this House as conveniently may be, copies of the State of the Grievances, of the Resolutions of the House, of the Petition to the King, of the Memorial to the Lords, and of the Representation and Remonstrance to the Commons, requesting those several Speakers to …

On the following day, [April lst.~\ the Assembly appointed " a Standing Committee of Correspondence," composed of the Speaker, [John Oruger^] James De Lancey, James Jauncey, Benjamin Kis3am, and Jacob Walton, all of them from the City of New York, Benjamin Seaman, of Richmond-county, Isaac Wilkins, of the Borough of Westchester, Frederic Philipse, of Westchester-county …

They have been the themes, sometimes, of ignorant and unscrupulous bigots and, sometimes, of intelligent and unscrupulous tricksters ; sometimes a personal and sometimes a local end has been served by either a falsification or a concealment of the truth, concerning them ; and, sometimes, fragments of useless and glittering rhetoric, strung together, as farmers string fragments …

Individual members of that Assembly, men of honor and unimpeachable integrity, have been stigmatized as " wretches," and as " the veriest reptiles on earth " and charged with " corruption " and every kindred vice -- some of them were driven from their families and their homes ; others of them were lawlessly seized and carried from their families and their homes, exiled, and …

Measures which were sincerely intended for the promotion of the common cause of the Colonies, in their struggle with the Home Government, -- measures which presented nothing else than political principles or recitals of facts which no one, of any sect or faction, pretended to dispute -- were opposed, vehemently and without measure, within as well as without the Assembly, only …

A candid and carefully-made comparison of the terms of those several State of Grievances, and declaratory Resolutions, and Petition, and Memorial, and Representation and Remonstrance, which were prepared, and agreed to, and presented, and published by that much-abused General Assembly of Colonial New York, with the several Resolutions, and Declaration of Rightu, and …

It will be seen, also, by every careful and candid reader of the published proceedings of that Congress to which reference has been made, that, notwithstanding the gravamen of the declared Grievances of the constituent Colonies, of that notable body, consisted of sundry Acts of Parliament, all of which were considered as oppressive, it had made no attempt whatever, either by …

On the other hand, the General Assembly of Colonial New York, the legitimacy of whose organization and the entire legality of whose action, in behalf of the common cause, no one has ever presumed to question ; without compromising its dignity, as a General Assembly; with that common sense which, in Europe as well as in America, was, then, so pe- 1 Credentials of the Delegation …

culiarly uncommon ; without entangling itself with any questionable alliance ; and without belittling its legitimate influence by expressing its official sympathy with any other body, even in relation to those measures which were similar, in character and purpose, to those of its own enactment -- that General Assembly, quite as clearly and quite as energetically as the …

Without the loss of any of that dignity which legitimately belonged to it, and without sacrificing any of that respect for its constituents which its duty required it to maintain, it recognized the sovereignty of the King, as the Congress had also done; and, consistently with that dignity and that respect, but with a boldness which was peculiarly its own, at the same time, it …

Notwithstanding all that has been said in depreciation of that particular Colonial General Assembly, it did not consider it necessary, nor even expedient, to override the minority of its members without even recognizing their existence on its Journal, under cover of the subsequently notorious "unit-rule," in recording the votes of its members, nor in any other manner ; nor did …

On the contrary, what it did was done honorably, and openly, and in conformity with the requirements of parliamentary, as well as of constitutional, Law ; not by unanimous Votes, actual or fictitious, but by a majority of its members, duly and courteously exercising the authority with which that majority was duly and legally vested. It was not done by the action of the …

It was not done because of any popular influence, present or prospective ; but only from the personal knowledge of its members, concerning the great wrongs to which, it was said, the Colonies had been subjected, concerning the rights and the interests of the Colonists which had been invaded, and concerning the measures which were necessary for the protection of those invaded …

Colonists, in New York, including every class, and sect, and political party -- and it possessed no authority to represent any other, and made no pretension to do so -- than either the Congress of the Continent or the fragmentary revolutionary faction within the Colony had done or possibly could do ; and there is very great reason for the belief that its orderly, and …

A few words only are required to complete the record of the results of that much-slandered General Assembly ; and the space which they will occupy cannot be better occupied. The Petition which was officially sent to the Agent of the Colony, the celebrated Edmund Burke, for presentation to the King, was duly laid before the Sovereign ; ' but, inasmuch as the General Assembly …

1 " Mr Burke having delivered to me the Petition to the King, I had " the honour to present it to His Majesty, who was pleased to receive " it with the most gracious expressions of regard and attention to the "humble request of his faithful subjects in New-York, who have, on "this occasion, manifested a duty to His Majesty and a regard for the " authority of the Parent State …

He commenced by asking the Clerk to read the official record of the proceedings of the House, in December, 1768, on a Petition of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and what was known as the Declaratory Act; and he continued by saying that he was " greatly in favour of " New York ; and that he would gladly do everything " in his power to shew his regard to the good …

Burke's Motion " for leave to bring up," making it read thus : " That " the said Representation and Remonstrance (in which " the said Assembly claim to themselves Rights derog- " atory to, and inconsistent with, the legislative " authority of Parliament, as declared by the Declara- " tory Act) be brought up." By a vote of one hundred and eighty-six to. sixty -seven, the …

The only objection raised against the reading of the Memorial was the bare suspicion that " it contained " matter derogatory to the supreme legislative power " of Great Britain ;' ; and on that suspicion, alone, the Memorial not having been even described, the House sustained the Minister, and declined to allow the Memorial to be read, by a vote of twenty-five to fortyfive …

It is a reasonable case, in such instances as those cited and in those of the earlier historians of the American Revolution who lived and wrote in Europe, that no more than the rejection, by the Parliament, of the two papers which were sent to that legislature by the General Assembly of New York, was mentioned in the writings of those gentlemen ; but there is no valid excuse …

Bancroft, after having consolidated the Remonstrance and the Memorial, making them one paper, obliged Uurke to offer both, on the same day, and in the same House, all of which were described in the narrow compass of four lines, without even a hint how such an Assembly as he had previously described, could have produced such a paper -- his silence serving to screen his …

Lossing, (Field Book of the Revolution;) Frothingham, (Rise of the Republic ;) Ridpath, (History of the United States ;) Lodge, (History of the English Colonies in America;) Morse, (Annals of the American Revolution;) Warren, (History of the American Revolution ;) and others, although abounding in facts and fictions concerning Massachusetts, have not spared a line for the …

Except those matters to which we have already referred, nothing which requires especial notice in this narrative, occurred until, in February, 1775, the General Assembly of the Colony rejected the Resolution, submitted by Judge Thomas, of Westchester-county, which provided for the election, by that General Assembly, of Delegates to the proposed Congress of the Continent, to be …

1 See page 52, ante. 2 Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for the City and County of New York, at its Adjourned Meeting, February 27, 1775. ^'Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for the City and County oLJfew York, at its Adjourned Meeting, 1st March, 1775. /^Jlolt's Jfejf -York Journal, No. 1678, New- York, Thursday, March 2, purpose of joining issue with the …

The conservative faction, strengthened by " some Officers of the Army- "and Navy, several of His Majesty's Council, and "those Members of the House of Representatives " who had refused taking into consideration the Pro- " ceedings of the Congress, together with the Officers- " of the Customs and other Dependents of the Court, " &c." -- the Governmental Party, as far as there …

5 That organization was effected at a' public Meeting of the Inhabitants who disapproved the ' request" of the Committee, which was held at the Widow De La Montagnie's, in Broadway, opposite the Fields, on Friday evening, March 3, John Thurber presiding.-- (^1 Broadside, signed by John Thurber, in the Library of the NeW York Historical Society.) 8 The Committee of Observation …

posed the following question : " Whether a certain "Number of persons shall be appointed and authorized to meet such Deputies as the Counties may "elect, and join with them for the sole object of ap- " pointing out of their body on the 20th of April next, " Delegates to the next Congress ?" Those who were opposed to the question, the conservative faction and its governmental …

The second question which was proposed : " Whether " this Meeting will authorize the Committee to nomi- " nate Eleven Deputies for their Approbation ? " being of secondary importance to those who had opposed the first, a Poll of the Voters was not demanded thereon; and, of course, like the preceding question, it was adopted "by a very great Majority of the Peo- " pie," …

1 Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1679, New-York, Thursday, March 9, 1775 ; Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, No. 99, New-York, Thursday, March 9, 1775 ; Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for the City and County of New York, 6th March ,1775, into which the record of the proceedings of the Meeting at the Exchange, in the Morning, was officially copied ; Jones's History of …

Having thus disposed of the main question, apparently to its entire satisfaction, the Committee then proceeded to nominate, by ballot, eleven persons, " for the Approbation of the Freemen " and Freeholders, for the City and County of New " York, to serve as Deputies to meet such other Deputies as may be appointed by the remaining " Counties in this Province, for the sole …

It will be seen that, in this last performance, the Committee of Inspection, (or of Observation, as it was pleased to call itself,) notwithstanding the peculiarly aristocratic elements which entered into its composition, had accepted, if it had not resorted to, that questionable element which had been so frequently employed, on former occasions, for the performance of acts …

2 Proceedings of Vie Committee of Observation for the City and County of New York, at its Meeting, "Monday Evening, 6th March, 1775." 3 Card, signed by Mr. Low and addressed to " The Respectable Pub- "lic." dated "New York, March 9, 1775." * Gouverneur Morris to Mr. Penn, "New-York, May 20,1774," pages 11. 12, ante. WESTCHESTEK COUNTY. evidently regarded as an undoubted …

It seems, however, that, notwithstanding all that apparent success, at the Exchange, the machinery of selfishness did not move without a jar, within itself, as the very decided testimony and dissent of Isaac Low, the Chairman of the Committee as well as that of the Meeting, against whom some underhanded antagonism had been detected, have clearly shown ; ' and it is equally …

It is a notable fact, however, that,, notwithstanding the Committee repudiated the first Resolution which the miscellaneous crowd, at the Exchange, was said to have adopted, it rigidly maintained the equally questionable validity of the second Eesolution, nominally authorizing the Committee to nominate eleven persons i Cavd; signed by Mr. Low and addressed to " The Respectable …

as candidates for the places of Delegates to the proposed Provincial Convention -- the opportunity to obtain place and authority, no matter how ill-founded that opportunity might be, was an object so vastly more important to those aristocratic place-seekers, than all others, that, whether promising or unpromising of success, those who controlled that Committee could not …

8 Proceedings of the Committee of- Observation for t?ie City and County of New York, at an Adjourned Meeting, 8th March, 1775. «HoltV New-York Journal, No. 1880, New- York, Thursday, March 16, 1775; Rivimgton's New-York Gazetteer, No. 100, New- York, Thursday, March 16, 1775;* Gaine's New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1223, New-York, Monday, March 20, 1775. . 6 …

* Holt and Gaine stated the vote to have been eight hundred and twenty-live in favor of the appointment of Deputies, and one hundred and sixty-three in opposition : ltivington stated the vote was nine hundred and twenty-nine, in favor, and one hundred and forty-three in opposition. They all agree that many voters declined to vote -- Holt and Gaine said, because their votes …

There is an abundance of evidence, of unquestionable truthfulness, showing that what has been represented to have been a conflict of rival parties, patriotically representing antagonistic political principles, on the occasion referred to, was, in fact, like all the political contests which had preceded it, during the preceding twelvemonth, only personal, factional, and local …

It was conceded, by contemporaneous writers of both factions, that there was, really, no difference of opinion, among the .various classes and sects and factions of which the City was composed, concerning the existing necessity for the redress of what were said to have been the Colonial Grievances, and that, if the Parliament should not interpose and indicate a willingness to …

That it might become expedient and proper to assemble the proposed Congress, if the Parliament should not, meanwhile, have indicated an inclination to redress the alleged Grievances of the Colonies, was not only conceded but freely acknowledged, even by those more earnest conservatives who had assembled at the Widow De La Montagnie's, on the preceding Friday evening; but they …

But those who were anxiously seeking places and influence were not ignorant of the well-known fact that a sparrow in the hand is worth more than a dove on the roof; and, consequently, they were not willing to postpone the immediate action which would surely secure those desirable advantages to themselves ; and they acted accordingly, marshaling their irregular allies, posting …

On the sixteenth of March, 1775, in conformity with the Resolution adopted by the Committee, and under its authority, Isaac Low, the permanent Chairman of the Committee of Inspection, prepared the following Circular Letter ; and, very soon afterwards, copies of it were sent to the several County Committees, where such Committees could be found, throughout the Colony : " New …

The opponents of the Meeting who assembled at the Widow Be La Montagnie's, on the third of March, issued a handbill, in which reasons for a postponement of the question were stated ; on the morning of the day on which the Meeting, was held, [March 6] a calm appeal, signed " A Freeman," and addressed " To the Inhabitants or New York," very forcibly urging a postponement of the …

" Influenced by these Considerations, this City "and County conceive it highly necessary that a " Provincial Convention should, without Delay, be " formed of Deputies from all the Counties, for the " sole Purpose of appointing, out of their Body, Delegates for the next Congress, and therefore have " already chosen their Deputies : They prefer this "Mode to any other, as it …

It is a very significant fact that, when the Committee's Circular Letter was written and made ready for transmission to Westchester-county, there was no appearance whatever, within that County, of the slightest organized opposition to either the Home or the Colonial Government; and that, among the debris of what had been conveniently regarded as a Convention of the County …

usual indoor and outdoor recreations, during the preceding Winter ; and to return to the labors of the season, on their farms or elsewhere, during the earlier weeks of the Spring, as they had done, before, year after year and generation after generation, knowing little and caring less concerning that bitter struggle for commercial gain, no matter how lawlessly conducted, or …

It is not now evident, if it ever was, that these honest, hard-working, contented men, in any portion of that unceasing and undisguised indifference to the clamor and the unblushing immorality and the audacious lawlessness of politicians, of high or of low degree, beyond the borders of the County, which they had steadily and consistently presented, were really offenders …

They were not political in their aims or inclinations ; they had very clearly manifested, over and over again, their disinclination to be associated, in any degree, with those who were inclined to become, if they had not already become, politicians ; and, as will be seen, in their action, during the Winter, and in their subsequent actions, under similar circumstances, they …

fare of those farmers or for that of the Colony, dissevered from all other considerations, in the Committee of Inspection, alias the Committee of Observation, for the City and County of New York-- a merely local organization, vested with no more than the barest local authority, and that confined, exclusively, to an entirely different service -- when it thrust itself, unasked …

It is not, now, known, beyond a peradventure, just what means were thus employed ; but the copies of that insidious Circular Letter which were intended for residents of Westchester-county were evidently sent to a leading Westchester-county politician ; and, by him, whomsoever he may have been, they were so manipulated that they reached only those residents of the County who …

Not one of the number was from Towns lying northward from the White Plains ; not one had come from all the country lying westward from the Bronx-river ; there was not present either a Van Cortlandt or a Thomas, already well-known popular leaders, either of whom would have been formidable, as a rival, against any new aspirant for the leadership of the movement and the spoils of …

On the twenty-eighth of March, Theodosius Bartow, Esq., James Willis, and Abraham Guion, Esq., all of New Rochelle ; William Sutton, Esq., of Mamaroneck 2 ; Colonel Lewis Morris, Thomas Hunt, and Abraham Leggett, of Westchester ; Captain Joseph Drake, Benjamin Drake, Moses Drake, and Stephen Ward, of East Chester; and James Horton, Junior, Esq., of Rye, 2 all of them, it said …

Neither Yonkers, nor Greenburgh, nor any of the Towns to the northward of them and of the White Plains, were in the slightest degree represented in that important assemblage; and every one who had previously appeared as a leader of the farmers of the County, in their very unfrequent political doings, regardless of party associations, appears to have been, also, very carefully …

In all that had previously been said or done, in behalf of the Colony, in its dispute with the Home Government, not a Morris had been heart, except in that instance when one of them described the unfranchised masses of the Colonists as ■■ poor reptiles " (vide Page 12, ante); but the fragrance of the distant emoluments and influences of office, more fully developed than ever …

" A number of gentlemen from different districts in "the county of Westchester having this day met at " the White Plains to Consider of the most proper " method of taking the Sense of the Freeholders, of " the Said County, upon the Expediency of choosing " Deputies to meet the Deputies of the other Coun- " ties, for the purpose of Electing delegates to repre- " sent this …

There can be no good reason for supposing that that Caucus failed to employ the best means which it could control, to secure the attendance, at the appointed place, on the appointed day, and at the designated hour, of all those of the farmers of the County of Westchester, whom it supposed to have been friendly to the Morris family, and who were willing or who could be induced …

the Manor of Morrisania, were aroused ; and, especially in the Borough Town of Westchester, within which the ancestral home of the Morrises was situated, the ambitious purposes of that gentleman and of his family were empathically snubbed, by a Meeting of his townsmen, duly summoned to take into consideration " whether or not they should choose Deputies " to represent them at …

" The consequences that may arise from your ne- " glecting to attend at the White Plains, on Tuesday " next, to declare your sentiments relative to the ap- " pointment of deputies to meet in Provincial Con- " gress, may be very fatal to this county ; the friends " of goverment, and our happy constitution, are there- " fore earnestly invited in person, to oppose a measure " so …

2 "A Correspondent acquaints us, That, on Monday the 3d of March, "the Inhabitants of the Borough of Westchester met, in Consequence of " a Summons, to give their Sentiments upon a Question, whether or not "they would choose Deputies to represent them at a Provincial Conven- "tion in this City; when they declared themselves already very ably "and effectually represented in the …

It is reasonable to suppose that many of the farmers of Westchester-county, whatever their political opinions may have been, were more than usually excited by these extraordinary appeals and by others which have not been preserved, addressed to them by those whom they had hitherto regarded as leaders in political aifairs; but it is equally clear that not even those …

Reasonably enough, the two Taverns which were, then, prominent within the limits of the Village, were made the stopping-places of those rural incomers unto whom no Village householder had extended a Village welcome, Captain Hatfield, the landlord of one of those Taverns, entertaining those who were opposed to the Morrises and to the proposed election of Deputies, while those …

Captain Hatfield's Tavern stood almost due South from the old Courthouse, and nearly half a mile distant, on the North side of the old stageroad to New York, -- the line of that road has been changed, 6ince 1775-- on property more recently owned by Samuel B. Lyon, Esq., and now by the heirs of the late Alfred Waller, Esq. The old building has been removed from the place on …

Notwithstanding the hour of ten had been named in the Notification through which the assembled farmers had thus met, it was nearly noon before any attempt to organize a Meeting was made -- probably, some whose presence was desired and expected, had not arrived ; probably, those leaders of the movement who were present were, meanwhile, " comparing notes," and arranging plans of …

It was done quietly, if it was not done secretly : it was done quietly, without inviting any others than those of their own faction, to assemble with them: it was done quietly and in a manner which clearly indicated that something else than an untrammeled and unbiased expression of the will of all those who were present-- carrying with it, also, the assumed acquiescence of all …

those who had originated and promoted it, secretly and rapidly, without alarming those who were assembled at Cap'tain Hatfield's, and before they could be brought to the Courthouse, to defeat those purposes and to relegate the Morrises to that political obscurity in which, very ungraciously, they had so long and so ingloriously rested. It was, in short, nothing else than a …

Freeholders and others ; and there is evidence that quite as large a number, Freeholders and others, walked down to the Courthouse, from Captain Hatfield's Tavern, and stripped all the novelty and all there was of what was said to have been integrity from the exposed and unsuccessful coup-de-main. 1 The individual respectability of none of these, of either faction, appears to …

Philipse at their head, then appeared." In the Protest of the Inhabitants and Freeholders, subsequently published, it is stated, specifically, that when those from Captain Hatfield's Tavern entered the Courthouse, ",the numbers on each side seemed to be nearly " equal ; and both together might amount to two hundred or, at most, ' ' two hundred and fifty. ' ' Nearly a month …

not of his supporters, by saying there were among them " many tenants who were not entitled to vote," etc., -- they were recognized as respectable farmers, even by that particular Morris who aimed to belittle them; but, in the presence of such as he, with nothing but what he had inherited, to ensure to him even a nominal respectability, they were evidently expected to be no …

They then fur- " ther declared their determined resolution to continue " steadfast in their allegiance to their gracious and " merciful Sovereign, King George the Third ; tosub- " mit to lawful authority ; and to abide by and sup- " port the only true representatives of the People of "this Colony, the General Assembly." They then gave three cheers, and returned to Captain …

After the protestants had thus peacefully left the Courthouse, the Meeting returned to the business for the transaction of which it had been convened and organized ; and the question was submitted, by the Chairman, " Whether they would appoint Depu- " ties for this County, to meet the Deputies of the " other Counties, at the Cily of New York, on the "twentieth of April …

"the tenth day of May next." By an unanimous vote, it determined to do so ; and it then appointed, also without opposition, Colonel Lewis Morris and Doctor Robert Graham-- the latter a kinsman of the former-- both of Westchester; Stephen Ward, of Eastchester; Colonel James Holmes and Jonathan Piatt, of Bedford; John Thomas, Junior, of Rye; and Samuel Drake and Philip "Van …

" Resolved : That the thanks of this country is " due to the Delegates who composed the late Con- " gress, for the essential services they have rendered " to America, in general ; and that this Resolve be " forthwith published." We are told, also, by the Chairman of the Meeting, that, "after the business of the day was thus con- " eluded, the people gave three huzzas for our …

2 The practice of all, at that period and subsequently, on all such occasions as that referred to in the text, will sufficiently indicate to the reader, that the enthusiasm for the King which was displayed, as much by one faction as by the other, at the White Plains, on that eventful April day, was due quite as much to what had been drunk at the two TavernB, before either of …

Only culprits " confess" a wrong-doing ; and with this "confession " of one of the principal offenders, on the occasion referred to, the reader will be enabled to understand how small an amount of genuine patriotism there was, in such a crowd, no matter for whom it hurrahed ; and how small the price was with which that crowd had been purchased, to further the purposes of …

Although no action, on that subject, appears to have been taken by the Meeting, its master-spirit and Chairman, in his official capacity, appears to have continued the work for which the Meeting had been convened, completing it before he left the White Plains, by preparing an official narrative of the origin of the Meeting ; of the Caucus which had " recom- " mended " it ; of …

"On the 28th day of March last, the following " Gentlemen having received letters from the Chair- " man of the Committee of the City and County of " New-York relative to the appointment of Deputies. " for this County, met at this place for the purpose of " devising means for taking the Sense of this County " upon the Subject, viz : " Col. Lewis Morris, Theodosius Barlow, Esq …

A number of gentlemen from different dis- " ' tricts in the county of Westchester having this " ' day met at the White Plains to Consider of the " ' most proper method of taking the Sense of the " ' Freeholders, of the said County, upon the Expedi- '' ' ency of choosing Deputies to meet the Deputies of " ' the other Counties, for the purpose of Electing has ever been engaged …

♦Although the name was thus written, in the original manuscript, there can be no doubt that reference was made to Theodosius Bartow, second son of the Rev. John Bartow, the first Rector of the Parish of Westchester. Mr. Bartow subsequently held the comfortable and profitable place of a " Commissary at New Hochelle ; " and his son, (subsequently Rector of St. Matthew's Church …

" ' As this County is very Extensive we take thelib- " ' erty of recommending the meeting to be held at " ' the White Plains on Tuesday the 11th day of April " ' next at ten o'clock in the forenoon at the Court " ' House, and therefore do desire you, to give notice " ' of the Same to all the freeholders in your district, " ' without exception, as those who do not appear and " …

Philipse at their " head, then appeared, and Mr. Wilkins in their be- " half as he said, declared that they would not join " in the business of the day or have anything to " do with Deputies or congresses, but that they came " there, for the sole purpose of protesting against " such illegal and unconstitutional proceedings, after " which they departed. " The following Question …

"Resolved, that the thanks of this Body be given to " the virtuous minority of the general Assembly of " this Province, and particularly to John Thomas and "Pierre Van Cortlandt, Esqrs., two of ourrepresenta- " tives for their firm attachment to and zeal, on a late " occasion for the preservation of the Union of the " Colonies and the rights and liberties of America ; "and …

In the proceedings of the revolutionary faction, after its Meeting was organized, probably because of a consciousness of its own relative weakness within the County, there was an evident attempt to appear, at least, to be fair and honest in whatever was said or done -- no personalities or harsh words, of any kind, appear to have been used against those who entered its Meeting …

While the Meeting at the Courthouse was thus quietly engaged in the continued discharge of " the " business of the day," those who had protested, before it, against the call for the Meeting as well as against its proposed proceedings, returned to Captain Hatfield's Tavern, where they were joined, during the afternoon, by " many of their friends ;" and "they 1 In some of the …

" proceeded to draw up and sign a Declaration, which " they seemed to do," it is said, " with as much pat- " riotic zeal as ever warmed the hearts of true and " faithful Subjects ; and, afterwards, they dispersed to "their different habitations. 1 " A narrative of the events was subsequently written, probably by Isaac Wilkins, and, with the Declaration affixed, it was printed …

About 12 o'clock word was brought to "the gentlemen at Captain Hatfield's that the oppo- " site party had already entered upon the business of "the day. Upon which they immediately walked " down to the Courthouse, although not half of their " friends who were expected, had yet appeared ; where " they found the other company collected in a body. "The numbers on each side seemed …

They then declared their determined "resolution to continue stedfast in their allegiance to " their gracious and merciful sovereign King George " the Third-- to submit to lawful authority, and to " abide by and support the only true representatives " of the people of this colony, the General Assembly. " Then giving three huzzas, they returned to Captain " Hatfield's, singing …

" ' "\T7"E the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants VV of the county of Westchester, having assem- "'bled at the White Plains, in consequence of certain " ' advertisements, do now declare, that we met here to " ' express our honest abhorrence of all unlawful con- " ' gresses and committees, and that we are determined " ' at the hazard of our lives and properties, to sup …

" ' Benjamin Fowler, Esq. ; Benjamin Brown, " ' William Davids, Esq. ; Isaac Keed, " ' William Anderson, Esq. ; Aaron Buis, " ' William Barker, Esq. ; Moses Weymen, " ' Capt. Abra. Hatfield.Esq.; Israel Underhill, '' ' Natha Underhill, Mayor, John Baisley, " ' George Cornwell, Esq. ; David Oakley, jun. '" Philip Pell, Esq. ; Isaac Smith, " ' Joshua Pell, John Hyatt, " ' James …

" ' Bartholomew Hains, Joseph Purdy, " ' Gilbert Hains, Ezekiel Halstead, " ' John Hains, John Hunt, jun. WESTCHESTER COUNTY. " 'Elijah Hains, Isaac Purdy, " ' Lieut. Daniel Knap, Roger Purdy, " ' Lieut. Solomon Fowler, Elijah Purdy, " ' Solomon Dean, James Hart, jun. " 'Isaac Williams, Abraham Losee, " 'Charles Vincent, sen. Jonathan Purdy, jun. " 'John M'Collum, Isaac …

" ' John Ruflin, Alexander Haines, " ' Henry Leforge, Abraham Storm, " ' Nathan Osborn, Benjamin Ogden, " 'Evert Brown, Thomas Berry, " ' Philemon Halstead, Thomas Meritt, " ' Benjamin Beyea, Lancaster Underhill, " ' Daniel Purdy, Gilbert Bates, " ' Bartholomew Gidney, Charles Merit, "'John Crab, John Gidney, " ' Josiah Brown, Benjamin Underhill, ' ' ' Izariah Whetmore …

" 'Joshua Hunt, William Field, " ' Elnathan Taylor, Jacob Schureman, -v ' ' ' Betts Chatterdon, Joseph Purdy, " ' Gilbert Theal, Joseph Appleby, •' ' William Landrine, George Storm, " ' William Saxen, John Tomkins, jun. " ' Enoch Hunt, Jacob Vermiller, 1 ' ' Thomas Champenirs, Job Hadden, jun. " 'Peter Corne, Samuel Heusted, " ' John Champenirs, Patrick Carey, •' ' Dennis …

" ' Gilbert Purdy, David Davids, " ' James Chatterton, Elijah Purdy, jun. " ' John Dusenburgh, Elijah Tomkins, '• ' Thomas Cromwell, Daniel Jerow, "'Solomon Horton, Charles Lawrence, " ' Peter Busing, Joseph Purdy, jun. " ' Peter Busing, jun. James Sniffen, jun. " 'James Kniffen, Thomas Valentine, " ' Nathaniel Underhill, jun. Gilbert Valentine, " ' Philip Fowler, Abraham …

"proven by the testimony (or if necessary by the affi- " davits) of a number of persons, of the most unques- " tionable character in this county. What then must " we think of such persons as have propagated a report, " that the friends of government were upon this occa- " sion out-numbered 5 to 1, and that many of the " persons whose names were subscribed to the fore- " going …

" It is well-known here, that two-thirds at least of " the inhabitants of this county, are friends to order " and government, and opposed to Committees and all " unlawful combinations l ; and it will be made ap- " parent to the world, that they are so, as soon as "certain resolves now signing freely by the people, " shall be ready for publication.-- And one principal " reason …

" The Committee that was chosen, may, with some " kind of propriety, be said to represent those partic- " ular persons who chose them : But how they can " be denominated the representatives of the County " of Westchester,'who in general abhor Committees " and Committee-men ; and are determined to take " no steps that may have the least tendency to lead "them into Rebellion, we …

" number, to determine that there should be no Com- " mittee, than the opposite party had to appoint one, " and might with much greater propriety be said to " shew the sense of the county, than the few who " acted without authority, and in direct opposition to "government, and to the determinations of our worthy "Assembly. And we doubt not but the impartial " public will …

But the majority, very correctly, considered that were it to assert its undoubted power, within the Meeting, and to participate in the proceedings of that Meeting, no matter for what pupose, it would be a tacit acknowledgment of the authority to do so, of those who had called the Meeting ; and it confined itself, therefore, to simply protesting against the entire proceedings …

The Provincial Convention duly assembled at the Exchange, in the City of New York, on the twentieth of April, 1775, the Counties of New York, Albany, Ulster, Orange, Westchester, Duchess, Kings, Suffolk, and two Towns in Queens, being, more or less, represented by Delegates-- of the Delegation which had s This very important paper was published in mriugto,,; Xm-York Gazetteer …

Livingston, Junior, of Duchess county ; and Francis Lewis, of the City of New York ; as Delegates from the Colony of New York to the second Congress of the Continent ; and, on Saturday, the twenty -second of April, after the Credentials of the Delegates-elect had been signed by every member of the Convention, 2 that body having been called for the single purpose of electing …

They were these ..." were unanimously elected Delegates to represent " this Colony at such Congress, with full power to them or any five of "them, to meet the Delegates from the other Colonies and to concert " and determine upon such measures as shall be judged most effectual " for the preservation and re-establishment of American Rights and " Privileges, and for the …

Bancroft, with all the authorities before him. (History of tlie United States, original edition, vi., 283 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 513,) made all " the ru- " ral Counties," without exception, " co-operate with the City," in electing the Deputies, although Richmond, all of Queens except two Towns, Tyron, Cumberland and Charlotte-counties, made no pretension so send …

The intelligence of that conimencement of military operations, in the field, was received in the City of New York, on Sunday, the twenty-third of April ; * and, at a Meeting of the Committee of Inspection, on the following Wednesday, that body, among other proceedings, resolved that " this Committee is further " unanimously of opinion, that, at the present alarm- "ing …