%'^ ^ '' ' f- 'A '^ . 4. ^^■ A>' -^ V v3 .-> .00 .0 ■S •^ <^^ ^s^ .<^^' ■-... \c :,0-- •/-- .K^ '. -?^ o 0- '^t^yiy -.J^ .- * >.^^^' rJ" ^' . XT' "^' *" '-■' ■■ :•>% \ Z:^ * -> 'V ' , 'h %.^ '■'^f^^'' I o\' - * • 0- v^- -A " 3 N O -V , 1 1 B , -/- .^^ , ''^.■'~^:3^-''" ' n '^ v^ .^ V vOO. ^^ * 3 H ^ .^ V- * ■"^^ o^ :\. "^.- v-^^ -0' c ^/ ^" ^/- * 3 s o ' A^'' ^ i^-'-i'. .-.V -5^ COUNTIES OF NEW YORK STATE. Name. Ok. Formed from what. Origin of name. County Seat. Popula- tion, 1890. 4 'Albany. o'Allegany. GJ Broome. 1 Cattaraugus. Cayuga. i Chautauqua. S i-'liemung. 1 Chenango. -i Clinton. S Columbia. Cortland. .-5 Delaware. I) Dutchess. :i Erie. 7 Essex. 9 Franklin, ij Fulton. t Genesee. i Greene. ,j Hamilton. 1 Ilerliimer. .i Jefferson. 3 Kings. -1 Lewis. -) Livingston. .V .Madison. II -Alunroe. (J Montgomery* 5 Xew Vork. s Xiagara. •.> I )neida. 4 Onondaga. i; I intario. s < 'range. !t Orleans. J Oswego, d Otsego. 9 Putnam. 2 (Queens. G Uensselaer. I 4 Richmond. 7 liooklaTid. St. Lawrence. I 8 Saratoga. .") Schenectady. 3 Schoharie. 8 Schuyler. I 7 Seneca. 1) Sleul)i-n. 1 Suffoll<. ■.' Sullivan. 7 'i'io','a, !) 'i'oii'iikins. 1 U later. G Warren. 7 Wasliinjjton.t I Wayne. G| Westchester. 4 Wyoming. 6| Yates. 1G83 OriginaL 1800 Genesee. 1806 Tioga. 1808 Genesee. 1799 Onondaga. 1808 Genesee. 1S3G Tioga. 1798 Herkimer and Tioga. 1788 Washington. 1786 Albany. 1808 Onondaga. 1797 Ulster and Otsego. 168;B Original. 1831 ! Niagara. 1799; Clinton. 1808 Clinton. 1838 i Montgomery. 1802 1800 1816 1791 1805 1683 1805 18-21 1806 1821 1772 1683 1M08 1798 1794 1789 1683 1824 181G 1791 1812 1683 1791 Ontario. Albany and Ulster. Montgomery. Montgomery. Oneida. Original. Oneida. Genesee and Ontario. Chenango. Ontario and Genesee. .\lbany. Original. Genesee. Herkimer. Herkimer. Montgomery. Original. Genesee. Oneida and OnoTidaga. Montgomery. Dutchess. Original. .-ilbany. 16831 Or! si nal. 17'98!Onint;-e. 1802 Clhiton. Montgomery I and Herkimer. 1791 Albany. ;il809lAn:.any. 1795 Albany and Otsego. ,1854 stenlicn. Chemung and I I Tompkins. 180i'ravuga. . K'.iG Ontario. liiS3| Original. 18(19' I'lstcr. 1791!. Montgomery. 1H17 f avuga and Seneca. 168.3, Original. 1813 Washington. I772!All)any. 182:3 Ontario and Seneca. 1683 Original. 1841 Genesee. 1823 Ontario. Duke of York. Allegany riter. John Broome. Indian name. Indian tribe. Indian name. Chemung river. Chenango river. George Clinton. Columbus. Pierre Van Cortlaudt Delaware river Duchess of York. Lake Erie. County of England. Benjamin Franklin. Robert Fulton. Genesee river. Nathaniel Greene. .\lexander Hamilton Nicholas Herkimer. Thomas Jefferson. King Charles II. Morgan Lev\is. Robert R Livingston James Madison. James Monroe. Richard Montgomery City and county iden Niagara river. Indian tribe. Indian tribe. Lake Ontario. Son of Duke of Y''oi'k City of Oswego. Indian name. Israel Putnam. Wife of Charles II. Van Rensselaer fam- ily. Son of Charles II. Descriptive. St. Lawrence river. Indian name. Indi in name. Indian name. Philip Schuyler Indian tribe. Baron Steuben. County of England. John Sullivan. Indian name. Daniel I). Tonipkins. Irish Earldom of Duke of York. Joseph Warren. George Washington Anthony Wayni'. Town 01 Westchester Joseph C. Yates. Albany. Belmont. Bingliamton. [Litt^le Valley. {Auburn. Mayville. Elmira. Norwich, Plattsburgh. Hudson. Cortland. Delhi. Poughkeepsie. I Buffalo. Elizabethtown. 'JIalone. iJohnstown. iBatavia. iCatskill. Sageville. Herkimer. Watertown. Bi'ooklyn. Lowville. Geueseo. Morrisville. Rocliester. Fonda. tical. Lockport. Utica. Syracuse. Canandaigua. Goshen, Newburgh. Albion. Pulaski, Oswego. Cooperstown. Carmel. Jamaica. Troy. Richmond. Clarkstown. Canton. Ballston Spa. 57,6C3 Schenectady. 29,797 Schoharie. 29,104 Watkins. 16,711 Ovid, Waterloo. 28.227 Batli. 81,473 Riverhead. 62,491 Monticello. 31.031 owego. 29,935 Ithaca. 32,923 Kingston. 87,062 Caldwell. Argyle. Lyons. White Plains. Warsaw. I'enn Van. 164,t55 43.240 62,973 60.866 65,802 75,2C2 48,205 37,770 46,437 46,172 28,657 45,496 77,879 322,981 33,052 88,110 37,650 33,265 31,598 4,762 45,608 68,806 838,547 29,806 37,801 42,892 189,586 45,699 1,515,301 62,491 122,922 146,247 48,4.53 97,859 30,803 71,883 50,861 14,849 128,059 124,511 51,693 35,162 85,048 27,866 45,690 49,729 146,772 31,193 21,001 River Systems -A.. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE FOK Schools and Families BY WELLAND HENDRICK, A.M FOURTH EDITION, WITH REVISIONS SYRACUSE, N, Y. C. W. BARDEEN', PUBLISHER 1896 COPYKIGIIT, 1890, 1!Y ('. W. BAKDEEN %^ PREFACE. When I began to teach American history in the seliools of New York, I looked for a brief school history of the State. The book had to be written. The study of the history of New York has a place in its schools : 1. The colony in its origin and growth was separate from the other colonies ; for fourteen years after the end of English domin- ion, the State was an independent nation ; and ever since, as a part of the American republic, it has had a distinct life. 2. Pupils commonly have a vague idea of the isolation of the original colonies and of the relation of the States under the confed- eration. During these periods a State history has a unity which a general history lacks. Tlie best point of view for a beginner is the account of some one colony, in which he can trace the colony's earliest connection with neighboring provinces, its decreasing dependence upon the mother country, its consequent chauge from a colony to a State, and the reluctant but necessary giving up of State rights in tlie formation of a strong central government. 3. The study of State history is a study of civil government. It is a common experience tliat pupils, after taking up United States history, cannot distinguish between the duties of the State govern- ment and of tlie national government. It is the State which has to do with the every day life of the citizen ; and what a State is, is best learned in its history. 4. The importance of New York in tlie making of America has been underrated. The Minute Men, Fanueil Ilall and the battle of Lexington are known ; but the Sons of Liberty, the Fields and (V) VI HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE STATii. the battle of Oriskany are uncertain terms even to the loeoi^le of New York. How the colony learned liberty under the Dutch, and held to it through a century of English governors ; how the State, fifth in number of peonle, with almost a third of its men tories, with border open and chief city sure to be the enemy's headquar- ters, with much wealth in perishable shipping, — how such a State was among the first in the war for freedom, and alone of the thir- teen met every demand of congress ; how the commonwealth built a canal which not only develoiied its interior, but also opened up the great north-west ; how all these things were done, ought to be taught with patriotic pride to the pupils of our public schools. It has been my aim to prepare a brief history of New York suitable for general reading, adapted to be a text-book for a short term's work in the grammar or academic grades, and especially fitted for a. reader, either regular or supplementary, in any grade of work after the fifth or sixth year. It might be well for a class to read or study this book after it has bad a primary history of the United States, and before it takes up the advanced study of that subject ; or the history of New York may with profit be studied in connection with United States history. In fact the history of New York properly taught is a history of tlie United States ; and the teacher, who brings out in class the facts here suggested but not detailed, can make the study a unified and graphic story of the republic. Tiie book labors to be a consistent State history ; it does not assume to give an account of national wars, presidential campaign.-; and international affairs ; it refers to such topics only so far as they throw liglit on the story of New York. Men and afPairs learned in United States history may sometimes be found here in changed relations ; Hamilton, who devoted his genius to the nation, receives less attention tluxn DeWitt Clinton, who gave his life to the State. PREFACE. Vll Possibly the book lacks features that may be expected : it is not filled Avith praise of New York to the exclusion of all censure ; it does not insult the intelligence of the bright boys and girls of the junior grades by telling its story in baby-talk ; it does not relegate the gist of a page to fine-print notes at the bottom ; it does not crowd the account of the people, their customs and education, into the end of chapters, as if such matters were not indeed the truest part of all history. While the book is not the result of original research, a wide range of authorities has been consulted, and the main facts selected and briefly put. Mention should be made in this connection of the history of New York by Ellis H. Eoberts in the American common- wealth series, and of Mrs. Lamb's History of Xew Y^ork City. W. H. Saratoga SprixcxS, X. Y., August 21, 1890. A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE. CHAPTER I. INTKODUCTOKY. Three men, Columbus, Cabot, and Hudson, introduce the liistory of New York State. One found the West Indies; another dis- covered tlie mainland and coasting southward may have seen the low-lying land of Long Island; while Henry Hudson, one hundred and seventeen years after the first voyage of Columl)us, sailed into the bay of New York. It is possible that an Italian in the service of France, nearly a century before, found this bay and looked upon the river; it is certain that the Frenchman, Cham plain, two montlis before the arrival of Hudson's Dutch crew, stood on the soil of the State; but the fame of Hudson is none the less. He may well 1)0. called the discoverer of New York ; he first made known to the world the advantages of the ample harbor, — the harbor that makes New "^"ork city the commercial capital of America. The Land and the People. — But it is not upon this harbor alouc that the importance of the State rests; its soil and its geograph- ical position fit it for an empire. Within its boundaries the Avhite man found the Iroquois, the conquering Indians of America. These red men were superior to other Indians; they lived in houses, had fields of corn, beans and tobacco, made earthenware, baskets and ropes, and the five tribes, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas were joined in a rude republic. These people were (9) 10 INTRODUCTOKY. [Introductory known and feared all east of the Mississippi; l)ut tliey chose a place for their corn fields and log houses in central New York, and near the present site of Syracuse they had their council-fire or capitol. From this advantageous centre they could go north l)y Lake Ontario and the 8t. Lawrence, east l)y the Mohawk, south to the Atlantic hy the Susquehanna, south to the inland by the Alle- gany and Ohio, west by the great lakes. "^New York/' says Ban- croft, '^' united richest lands with the highest adaptation to foreign and domestic commerce." The Iroquois occupied the Mohawk valley and central and western New York, while they left the eastern and south-eastern parts to weaker Algonquin tribes, among whom were the ]Mohegans on the east bank of the Hudson and the Delawares along the river of that name. To the north and in Canada were other l)ands of Algonquins ■\\iio long waged unsuccessful warfare with the Iroquois. These Aveaker Indians implored the helj^ of the French; for French adven- turers and traders had built forts along the St. Lawrence seventy years before Hudson's ship anchored off Sandy Hook. Champlain, the "Father of New France," was finally per- suaded by the neighboring friendly Indians to join in an expedition against tlie Iroquois. He went up the Sorel, found the lake to which he gave his name, and on its banks in Fssex county met the Iroquois. Here on a July morning of 1G09 the Indians of New York first saw the white man and heard the noise of his gun. They ran. For Champlain it was an easy victory; but it was a fatal blunder. Without knowing it \ v\ ^^^ - Sa:mi^l Champlain. he had made lasting enemies of the fiercest Avarriors of the conti- Cliaj). I] DIVISION" IISTTO PERIODS. 11 nent. Again Cluimplain tried to penetrate the State from Lake Ontario, and getting as far as Madison connty went back defeated. Again other Frenchmen tried to gain a foothold in New York State and failed because of the enmity of the Iroquois. Thus on the north the French were kept from New York while on the south the feeble colonics of the Dutch and English grew strong and held the land. Periods. — The recorded history of New York, which begins with Champlain's battle on tlie shore of the lake, easily separates into five periods. Period First. — The Ivule of the Dutch, — extending from the discovery by Hudson in 1G09 to the surrender to the English in 1664. In this period the Dutch discover and settle the land about the Hudson and on Long Island. Period Second. — The Rule of the English, — extending from the surrender to the English in 166-i to the flight of the English gover- nor in 1775. In this period the colonists increase rapidly; they drive back the French and find English rule unbearable. Period Third. — New York as a Sovereign State, — extending from the flight of the English governor in 1775 to the inauguration of Washington in 1789. In this period the State joins Avith twelve other States in a war of independence, is one of a Aveak confederacy, and finally becomes part of a strong nation. Period Fourth. — The Development of the State, — extending froui the inauguration of "Wasliington in 1789 to the completion of the Erie canal in 1825. In this period the State builds a waterway of national importance and advances from the rank of fifth to the rank of first in Avealth and nopulation. Period Fifth. — The ±!>ra of Progress, — extending from the com- pletion of the Erie canal tn 1825 to the latter part of tlie nineteenth century. In this period the State maintains its right to the name of the Empire State. ::^E2^ionD i. CHAPTER II. The Rule oe the Dutch.— 1609-1664. Henry Hudson. — It was in July of 1G09, as has been said, that Cliamphiin first entered the State of New York. It was on the tliird of September of the same year that Hudson discovered Xew York bay. Henry Hudson Avas an Englishman who engaged in tlie service of some Amsterdam merchants and set out to find a north- east passage to India. The daring sailor left Holland in the little ship, the Half Moon, and tried to reach India by sailing north of ^"■ V Hudson's Ship, (12) Chap. II] HEIfRT niTDSON. 13 Sweden. He was driven back by tlie ice, but, still unwilling to give up turned straight about to find a westerly way to Asia. He touched first tlie shores of New Foundland, steered south, mended his sails in Maine, saw Chesapeake bay, and turning back to the north entered the river to which others have given his nauie. Knowing nothing of the breadth of the continent, he hoped that the stream would prove a passage to the Pacific; but when lie had followed the river for over a hundred miles and found it growing shallow, he turned back; then having spent about a month inside Sandy Hook, he steered out into the deep, never again to return. On his next voyage, still looking for a north-west passage, he en- tered Hudson Bay. Here with his little son he was set adrift by his rebellious crew and perished. The First Settlements. — Although the Cabots had discovered the continent more than a hundred years before the voyage of the Half Moon, yet the favored spot tiius found by the Dutch was in tlie midst of a vast unclaimed wilderness. Hundreds of miles to tlie south were n. few starving Englishmen at Jamestown; far to the north were camps of French traders among the snows of ISIova Scotia and Montreal; all else was forest and savages. The May- flower had not sailed. When another or perhaps a second summer came around, the Indians, who had watched the sails of Hudson disappear, gladly welcomed the ships of some Dutch fur traders. These men bought and sold and went back. Thus they continued going and coming, ujitil in the fourth year after the discovery the traders built a few huts on Manhattan Island, so that it is said that New York was settled in 1G13. Soon after, a strong building was put up where the foot of Broadway now is, to serve as a store-house and fort. About the same time the adventurous traders made their way nearer the iieart of tlie fur trade and Iniilt a fort on Castle Island, below the present Albany, 14 THE RULE OF THE DUTCH. [Period I But cabins, forts, unci store-liouses did not really make a settle- ment; they were shelters but not homes. %-as The Fiest Wabehousb. Discoveries and Claims. — "While many of the thrifty Dutch 'were busy bartering their brass trinkets and fiery liquor for the skins of otters and beavers, other visitors to the new land were fol- lowing the lead of Hudson and examining the coasts. Caiitain May sailed about Delaware Bay and left his name on its northern cape. Adrian Block, '' first of European navigators steered through ITellgate" and sailed on Long Island Sound; he discovered tlie Connecticut river and found and named Rhode Island and Block Island. From the discoveries of Hudson, Block and others the Dutch laid claim to the land and gave it a name. The Delaware they called the South river; the Connecticut the Fresh river; the Hud- son the North river or the Mauritius (maw-rish-i-us). They called the countr}^ New Netherland, and claimed that it extended from the fortieth to the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. Later on they de- fined New Netherland as lying between the Delaware and Cape Chap. 11] DISCOVERIES AND CLAIMS. 15 Cod, and in later years they wouhl have been ghid to fix the Con- necticut river as the northern and eastern boundary. The First Homes. — These claims were held simply by trading posts until fifteen years after the discovery of Hudson, when thirty families of persecuted French protestants came. They were the first white people who made the land of New York their home. Eight of these families settled on the lower end of ]\Ianhattan island ; and about them grew the town called later Xew Amster- dam, destined to become New York city. Other families went to the New Jersey shore, where the land was called Pavonia. Eastward across the river from Manhattan on Long Island a little company of these people took the name Breukelen (Brook- lyn). A few went to the Connecticut river and some to the Delaware ■£>'' Mort -nietLiv tyiinfterdatrL op de jt'fanhai ati^ UiiDE Sketcu of Nkw Amsterdam. (Made by a Dutch officer iu 1(>1j.} 16 RULE OF THE ijUTCH. [Period I river, while others sailed a short distance above the abandoned fort on Castle Island and built Fort Orange, the beginning of the city of Albany. These families were sent ont by a society of Dutch merchants called the Dutch West India company, an organization wliieh had been chartered a few years before and which had received the entire control of New Netherland. The government of Hol- land still retained supreme authority over the territory; but all the internal affairs of the colony rested with the stockholders of tli West India company. The Patroons. — Beside sending these families, the company further encouraged settlements by the patroon system. They gave the right to any one who would establish a colony of fifty persons, to have and to hold forever a tract of land fronting sixteen miles on the water and running back indefinitely, provided however that tlie rights of the Indians were purchased. These large land owners Avere called patroons. One of the most famous of these jiatroons was Kilian Van Eensselaer (kee-le-Jin van ren'-sel-er) whose land, now in the counties of Albany, Columbia and Eensselaer, Avas known as Eensselaerwick. The patroons brought many people to New Neth- erland; but as they had almost boundless control over their settle- ments, they frequently quarreled with the West India company, with the colonists and with the governors. Tlie Goverment. — The first governor, or rather director-general, as he was called, was Peter Minuet, who was sent by the company and who began his rule in 1G26. Two years before. Captain May had charge of the colony ; but there was no formal government until the arrival of Minuet. He had a council of five to assist him and he apjiointed others to act as secretaries, sheriffs, collectors, and the like ; but in the choice of none of these officers did the people have a part. Later on the colonists secured slight changes Chiip. II] Theik government. Vif in tlie laws of the colony ; but never did they obtain from Dutch rulers that the voice of the people should be heard in their own government. During the thirty-eight years in which the Dutch had a formal government, four director-generals were in turn at the head of tlie colony : Peter Minuet, Walter Van Twiller, William Kieft (keeft), and Peter Stuyvesant (sti-ve-sant). The acts of these men were of little account ; all of them did something for themselves and for the stockholders who sent them; none of them accomplisliod luucli for the people. Says some one rather severely : " Minuet was a self-willed and self-seeking adventurer, Van Twiller a drunken and indolent fool, Kieft a conceited and tyrannical bankrupt, Stuyve- sant a despotic and passionate autocrat.''* The first twelve years of authority was equally divided between ]\[inuet and Van Twiller. The first governor was accused of fav- oring the |)atroons, and was recalled. Van Twiller, who has been made so laughable by Washington Irving, seemed to spend most of his small energy in personal quarrels. He wrangled witli his officers, got into a dispute with the minister of tlie little church, and in turn was denounced from the pulpit. In his place William Kieft was sent. Where Van Twiller was slow and inefficient, Kieft was hasty and rash. To this rashness he added dishonesty, and in the ten years that he was director- general he brouglit the colony to the verge of ruiu. The Indians. — The greater part of Kieft\s violent energy was spent upon the Indians. Tbe decade in Avhich he ruled was a time of Indian warfare. For the most part the colony had used the red men well and in return had received less troul)lo from them than had the neighboring settlQments. The great industry of Xcw Ketherland was the fur trade; and for the success of tliis traffic iieace with the Indians was necessary. So the Dutch were ever on good 18 THE RULE OF THE DUTCH, [Period I. terms witli tlie Iroquois, while the farmers and fishermen of New England were fighting King Philip, and the tobacco raisers of Vir- ginia were suffering from the attacks of the tribe of Powhatan. The Dutch made it a rule to buy the land which they occupied from the Indian owners. One of the first acts of Director Minuet was to jDurchase Manhattan Island for twenty-four dollars, at the rate of one cent for ten acres, paid in gay clothing, beads, and brass ornaments. So from the days of Henry Hudson for thirty years the savages did not trouble the colony. Soon after Kieft's arrival he found cause for dispute with the Earitan Indians on the New Jersey coast. He sent murdering expeditions, offered prizes for their heads, and caused Staten Island to become a slaughter Of round. ^^^^&^^ PUKCHASE OP MaNUATTAN ISLAND. Clliip. II] GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 19 The result of this was a gathering of the river Indians for the de- struction of the settlements. Still war oould have been avoided by prudent means. It luipj^ened at this time that the Mohawks, of the Iroquois tribes, had bought for a rouiid price in furs a few ftiuskets, and were driving before them the Indians of the lower Hudson. The fugitives gathered around the Dutch settlements and asked for protection. Some of them camped at Pavonia ; and while they were there a band of blood-thirsty colonists and soldiers easily got permission of Kieft, rowed across the river in a cold win- ter night, and before sunrise foully butchered eighty men, women, children, and babes. At Corlear's Hook, the foot of the modern Grand street, they murdered forty more. This was in 1643. For two years the red men of Long Island and the Hudson val- ley, thus wantonly provoked and further incited by the brandy sold them, kept up a bloody contest. They drove the whites from the farms and villages until they forced them into Manhattan island. Outside of this retreat only Gravesend, Eensselaerwick, and Fort Orange were secure from attack. Many of the people returned to Holland ; those who Avere left feared the Indians and detested Kieft; the settlements were in ruins and Manhattan could count but one hundred male citizens. Finally when a thousand Indians had been slain, and the very life of the colony was in danger, peace was made with the aid of the friendly Iroquois, and the colony began a new era of prosperity. Grrowtli of the Colony. — The settlements had increased, not rapidly, but sturdily. When Minuet came to be governor. New Netherland had a population of two hundred people. Twenty years later, at tlie close of Kieft's administration, this number had been increased ten-fold. These people, — no more than now are gathered in some of the small villages of the State, — lived on the lower end of Manhattan island ; at Pavonia ; at Brooklyn, which then stood a mile back from the river ; at Fort Orange; at Fort 20 THE RULE OF THE DUTCH. [Period 1 Good Hope, now Hartford ; wliile farms spread over parts of the present counties of Albany, Rensselaer, "Westchester, Eichmond, Kings, and Queens. In the latter days of Dutch rule Esopus (e-so'- pus), now Kingston, was a brisk place on the Hudson; and Schenec- tady, first of the towns in the rich valley of the Mohawk, was begun. By this time it is estimated that the jirovince had eight thousand inliabitants ; wliile the future metropolis had a popu- lation of two thousand people. The People of New Netherland. — These eight thousand peo- ple were by no means all from Holland. No oth.er Amer- ican settlement had so varied a class of inliabitants as had New York. "New York was always a city of the world." The colony by its offers of relig- ious freedom attracted the persecuted from France, Germany, Bohemia, and all countries of Europe. And to the shame of the colony it must be said that African slaves were of its population, brought in during the first year of ]\Iin- uet's directorship, and after- wards greedily bought until the slave element became a source of danger. The most energetic part of the community came from the neigliboring settle- ments of New England, some to seek superior soil, others to es- cape the persecution of the zeal- ous Puritans. Among these were many Quakers and sturdy men most needed in the mak- NEW NETHERLAND. 1609-1664. wvth, Con'TLtC/^t.ou^. ing of a state. Chap. II] TROUBLES OF THE COLONY. 21 Stuyvesant. — Such citizens could not tamely submit to be mis- ruleel; they sent to Holland many bitter complaints, and welcomed with joy the recall of Kieft and the appointment of Peter Stuyve- sant. This man, whose fame preceded him, was perhaps the best as he was the last of the Dutch governors. He had lost a leg in valiant service in the West Indies, and as he landed on a May day of 1047 at the port of New Amsterdam he stumjjed proudly along on his wooden leg, determined to conquer the huge difficulties which confronted him.* The Swedes. — Four dangerous elements surrounded the new ruler, — the Swedes on the Delaware, the English on Long Island and on the Connecticut river, the Indians, and the rapidly growing party in New Amsterdam who wanted a voice in making tlie laws and the rulers. The Swedes early claimed the attention of Stuyvesant. About the time that Kieft became director, a party from Sweden, led by Peter Minuet, smarting under liis dismissal from the director- stuyvesant-s Seal. ship. Settled ou the south bank of Dela- ware bay. Here on land claimed to belong to New Netherland they built Fort Christiana (kris-te-ah'-na), on the site of Wil- mington, defied Kieft, and captured the Dutch fort, Casimir. They gave up however both strongholds to Stuyvesant on his ar- rival in the bay with a fleet and six hundred men ; so that land now in the state of Delaware was for a time under the government at New York city. Further Indian Troubles. — Wliile Stuyvesant was attending to these matters on the Delaware, the Indians took the opportunity * His portrait fares the title-page of this volume. 23 THE RULE OF THE DUTCH. [Pcriod I to raid Hobokcii and Pavonia ; tlicy killed a hundred settlers, and threatened another general outbreak. The governor on his return checked the slaughter, and by his prudent efforts to defend the colony rather than to kill off the Indians soon secured lasting j^eace; so never again was Manhattan in fear of savage Avar. Tlie English. — When the governor turned his attention toward the English on the Connecticut he found thrifty colonies. In the days of Van Twiller the Dutch had bought of the Pequod Indians a tract of land Avhere Hartford noAV stands, and had there built Fort Good Hope. A few weeks later some people from Massachusetts sailed up the river, defied the guns of the little fort, and settled Windsor. Soon the Dutch fort was surrounded by the farms of tiie energetic Puritans. Van Twiller sent a company of seventy men to take an English fort at Weathersfield ; they started with much noise of drum and with boasting ; they came back Avithout making an attack. These Dutch on the eastern outpost of New Netherland Avcrc traders and soldiers; they grcAV discontented and died off. Their Eng- lish neighbors Avere farmers; they took large harvests from the soil, brought up increasing families, and Avere content. They filled eastern Loj.g Island; tliey crept into Westchester; they Avere likely to occupy the upper valley of the Hudson, cut off the fur trade of the Dutch, and hem them in on a narroAV strip. When Stuyve- sant took the colony in hand he saAV that the best that he could do Avas to agree on a favorable boundary and give u}) all claim to the A'alley of the Connecticut. He conceded to the English all of Long Island that is noAV Suffolk county, running the dividing line soutli from Oj'ster Bay, and gained a promise that on the main land ib.Q Connecticut boundary should not come Avithin ten miles -cf tlie Hudson riA'er. This treaty was never ratified by the English government ; it Avas not respected by the colonists Avho made it. On Long Island they Chap. II.]. DISSATISFACTION" OF THE PEOPLE. 23 over-stepjDed the dividing lines. Stuyvesaut sailed around to Bos- ton to protest ; but he only showed his weakness. " Connecticut/' said her agents at another time, *'by its charter extends to the Pacific."— "Vv' here then is New Netherland?" asked the Dutch envoys. — '^That/' said the English coolly, **we do not know." Dissatisfaction of the People. — But the danger fatal to Dutch interests was neither the Swedes, the Indians, nor the Eng- li. to believe in tlie town meetings of New England ; and at an assembly called to meet at Hempstead, thirty-four dele- gates appeared and asked for the right to elect their officers. This they were refused by. the governor, and, having nothing else to do^ obediently agreed to a code of laws made out by the Duke and known as *'The Duke's Laws." Neighboring Colonies. — The grant to the Duke of York was, as has been said, of the land between the Connecticut and the Del- aware ; and the same paper gave him a claim to all of the islands between Ca])e Cod and Cape May. Connecticut, however, had no more intention of giving her settlements on eastern Long Island and on the west bank of the Connecticut river to an English colony than to the Dutch; but rather than quarrel with Nichols, her people agreed to leave the disputed boundary to a commission. The men thus apj)ointed gave to New York all of Long Island, much to the disgust of its eastern towns, and to Connecticut a favorable boun- dary on the main land, about indeed as it now remains. When Governor Nichols saw such a considerable portion taken from the eastern side of his province, he turned to the western boundary, and found there a still larger part gone ; for the Duke, unknown to Nichols, had given to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret the land lying between the Hudson and the Delaware. To this caprice of the Duke is due the fact that there is a State of New Jersey, and that New York is not bounded on the south by Delaware bay. For some years still the present State of Delaware was a part of New York until bought by William Penn ; and for a long time tribute was exacted from Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Change of Governor; Condition of the Colony.— What was left of the Duke's grant was quite enough to worry the well- meaning Nichols. The work was hard, the honor and pay small; and he obtained his recall. A little later while fighting the very Chap. IV] NEW YOKK AGAIN A DUTCH COLONY. 37 nation from whom he had stolen a colony, he was killed. His four years' rule must in the main be called creditable, and was espe- cially acceptable to the Indians, the importance of whose good will he clearly saw. In his place came Lord Lovelace, a favorite of the English court, who soon incurred the dislike of the people. Ten towns sent in a petition against unjust taxation, only to have their paper burned by the common hangman and to be told by their governor that " the people should have liberty for no thought but how to pay their taxes." Still the colony was not entirely mismanaged. The Hollanders were encouraged to mingle with the English and to adojit the customs of their rulers. The Indians were kept on friendly terms and their lands fairly bought. But in the decade following the surrender of Stuyvesant the col- ony did not prosper. The trade with England did not equal the interrupted traffic with Holland ; wars in Euroi3e prevented immi- gration and interfered with commerce. A letter to the Duke described Long Island as ^"^ very poor and inconsiderable, and besides the city of New York," said the writer, *' there are but two Dutch towns of any importance, Esopus and Albany." New York city contained less than four hundred houses ; though it appears as a sign of progress that a line of post messengers was at this time established between that city and Boston, along paths marked by blazed trees. New York again a Dutch Colony.— The Dutch Republic was now at war witli England. Holland had already by treaty given up her claims to New York in return for Dutch Guiana (ge-ii'-na), and other territory much more profitable in those days than New Neth- erland had been. A large Dutch fleet coasting off Gliesapcake bay in tlie summer of 1073 captured a vessel carrying some passengers from Now York to Virginia. From these the Dutch learned of the dilapidated condition of Fort James, that the fort had but about 38 NEAV YOKK UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. [Period II thirty cannon and a garrison of seventy-five men, and tliat Gov- ernor Lovelace was visiting his neighbors at New Haven. Tlie fleet of twenty-three ships with sixteen hundred men aboard anchored otf Sandy Hook and was joyfully visited by some of the Dutch citizens of New York. In a few days the ships passed through the Narrows and approached the city. Captain Manning, who had been, under Nichols, the first English commander at Albany, was now in the absence of Governor Lovelace in charge of New York city. He called upon the citizens for help ; but many of them were now as anxious to go back to Dutch authority as they had been to leave it nine years before. They spiked all the cannon within their reach and gathered militia to help the invaders. Manning demanded of Cornelis Evertsen, the admiral in com- mand of the fleet, " Why do you disturb his majesty's subjects in this place ?" and received in rejilj^ "'The place is our own and our own we will have." Manning asked for a day to think about it ; he was given half an hour. When the sands of Evertsen's hour glass showed the half-hour, the Dutch gave the fort a broadside, killed some of the garrison and in return received some damage from the guns of the fort. Meanwhile some of the ships moving above the city landed six hundred men at the foot of the modern Wall street. This number was swelled to a thousand by eager citi- zens, and with Anthony Colve at their head they began their march down Broadway. The gutters of the street would soon have run with the blood of citizens capturing their own city had not Captain Colve met a messenger from Manning with an offer of surrender. After nine years of English rule. New York, taken fairly in time of war, was again in Dutch possession. The Last of Dutch Rule. — The other settlements surrendered at once, and New Jersey readily came back under the sway of the troops at New York citv, or rather at New Orange, as the place was re-named. The victorious admiral i)ut the ])rovince under Chap. IV] ADMINISTRATIOI^ OF ANDROS. 39 military law and appointed the rough and pompous Captain Colve as governor. He was planning a government for the colony when he received important orders from Holland. That nation had, six months after the capture of New York, made a treaty of peace with England. In this treaty each country agreed to deliver to the other all territory captured during the war. So when Colve had cared for the colony for fifteen months, he quietly gave it up on the arrival of the English officers sent to receive it. The Reason for the Dutch surrendering a colony unfairly taken away and honestly regained, does not plainly appear ; either they had so promised before aware of the complete conquest of Admiral Evertsen, or they feared that they could not hold tlie territory against the encroachments of the neighboring English, or, as is most prob- able, they did not know the full value of a colony which had already cost them more than it had returned. At least, true it is that England thus secured an uninterrupted coast line from Maine to Georgia and made a United States possible. '' Our country ob- tained geographical unity." Administration of Andres. — In November, 1074, New York finally passed from the hands of the Dutch to remain for one hundred years an English prov- ince. The Duke of York tightened his grasp on tlu colony; to cover all doubt lie secured a new grant from the ^ king ; he gave again New Jer- ^ sey to Carteret and sent to New York as governor. Major Ed- mund Andros, who, he doubt- ed not, would be thoroughly alive to his master's interests. GovBBNoK uuKoa For ten years Major Andros 40 KEW YOKE UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. [Period II was busy with the affairs of the colony ; now he was penetrating into tlie far west of the nnsettled Mohawk valley, viewing the fertile fiats and making friends of the Indians ; now he was sending to Martha's Vineyard to assert the claims of the Duke. He assumed that New Jersey was still under his control, and went so far as to arrest Governor Carteret. He renewed the old contest with Con- necticut, landed in force at Saybrookand demanded tlie surrender of the fort. Being refused he read the grant of the Duke and his own commission ; and when these selections did not soften the hearts of the Connecticut Puritans, Andros sailed sadly home. View op tue Watek Gate (Wall Street) in Aiuirus Administration. Condition of the Colony. — In 1G78, Governor Andros while visiting England left on record an account of his colony. New York since Stuyvesant's surrender had doubled its eight thousand inhabi- tants ; about three thousand of these were in New York city. This place was built up at the expense of the rest of the province by the bolting act, which for many yeai-s gave the city the sole right of bolting and exporting flour from the colony. But its growth was slow compared with its progress in the nine- teenth century ; at the close of the seventeenth century the north- CluiJ^. IV] CONDITION" OF THE COLONY. 41 ern limit of tko city was a palisade wall, the present Wall street. Beyond this were a few honses here and there;, a burying ground, and a few huo^e Dutcli wind-mills ; further on, farms, and then a rocky wilderness. A mile from the town, the law allowed wood to be cut ; in tlio numerous ponds, fresh water fish conld Ijo taken ; the liunting too was good, probably, for a visitor tells of treeing a bear in an orchard where Maiden Lane now is. In the city itself, the fort Avas the first object that greeted the sight of the ships coming up the bay; within this was a church ; and leading from it was a ''Broadway." Within the corporation were numerous swamps, ponds and creeks, and there had been ill- smelling tanneries and slaughter honses, which were then ordered out of the city limits. North of the city, where the Tombs prison is now, was a lake known as the Fresh Water pond. Six public wells were dug in the middle of the streets, not so much for the bad-tasting water as for a protection against fire. Long Island. — Two English visitors at this time tell how they were rowed across East river in the ferry boat ; upon landing they went ''up a hill, along open roads and woody places, and through a village called Breuckelen, (Brooklyn), which has a small ngly cliurch in the middle of the road." They slept in the house of one Simon Deliart, a liousc still standing, and supped on oysters, veni- son, and wild turkey. They were surprised at the apples, joeaches, grapes, and "great heaps of Avatermelons." All kind of fish abounded ; oysters were plentiful ; drift whales were frequently cast upon the beach of the island ; while off the coast, whalers could cap- ture their huge gamso The Civilization. — In the eastern part of Long Island schools were well sustained ; but elsewhere the children of the colonists were no bettor educated than under Dutch rule. Some of the peo- ple could afford to have private teachers ; some sent their children 42 NEW YOKK UNDER THE DITKE OF YORK. [Period II to New England schools ; but the mass of the people were ignorant and superstitious. As a result many of the laws were barbarous ; stealing might be punished with death ; or the thief Avas branded with a T on the cheek ; stocks, 2:)illories, placards and oflier means of exciting derision were common punishments. The Sunday laws were strict ; the Connecticut blue laws were scarcely more so. " No youths, maydes or other persons," said the law, " may meet together for sj^orte or play." Trade and Money. — No pedlers were allowed to compete with the regular tradesmen of the place, except tliat Indians might bring in wood and long strijjs of bark for gutters or eaves-troughs. These neighboring Indians, in the great lack of servants, were often en- slaved until a law of the colony forbade : but the traffic in negroes thrived and the common price paid for a slave was one hundred and fifty dollars. Dollars and cents were of course not known ; and al- though large sums were reckoned in English pounds and shillings, yet Dutch guilders, Indian wampum and beaver skins were the com- mon money in business. The bare necessities and a few comforts contented the people ; a little ready money went a long ways ; five thousand dollars was. a fortune, while half that sum made a rich man. The colony shipped from its ports, wheat, tar, lumber, tobacco and especially pelts and furs. On goods brought to the port of New York there was a duty of two per cent, if they came from England; while goods from other countries paid ten per cent. These rates were not so burdensome as were the taxes on property and produce ; which duties were established in the early days of English rule and still continued. The Dongan Charter. — That these taxes and laws did not please the people their protests and petitions leave -no doubt. Even Indros, ever a friend of arbitrary power, counseled the Duke to give the«people a voice iu the government. When William Penn Chap. IV] dongan's administration. 43 added Jiis advice, the proprietor yielded and promised an assembly. He did not trust this Avork to Andros, but giving him other duties, sent Thomas Dongau to be governor. Of Thonnis Dongan it can be said, that he was the first governor of New York Avho had the GOVEKNOR DoNGAN'S HoUSE. breadth of brain and the trueness of heart which make a statesnuni. Ho first accorded to the common man of the colony liis rights ; ignoring petty quarrels at home and with neighboring colonies, he disclosed and combated the encroachments of the great enemy to English rule in New York and in America, — the French. According to liis instructions his first act was to call an assem- bly of seventeen from New York city, Long Island. Staten Island, Esopus, Albany, Rensselaerwick, Pemaquid, and Martha's Vine- yard to act with the council of ten in forming a constitution. On the seventeenth of October, 1G83, some seventy-five years after the discovery of New York, the representatives of the citizens adopted a charter for their own government. Other colonies had charters brought from England ; this constitution was the product of 44 STEAV YORK UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. [Period II America. By its terms, " Supreme power shall forever be and reside in the governor, council and people met in general assem- bly.*^ It secured the right to vote, trial by jury, taxation by the assembly, and complete religious freedom. By its order an assem- bly of twenty-one representatives was to meet once in three years ; and in order to apportion the members the colony was divided into The C'oi^cNr of llz\\ Yqrp, pHowraa the OraciNAi, Ten Counties, Chap. IV] DlVISIOJr INTO TWO PARTIES. i5 ten* counties : Suffolk, Queens, Kings, IS'ew York, Richmond and Westchester, Avhich remain nearly as first constituted, and Oi-ange, Ulster, Dutchess and Albany, which have since been divided. The Charter Revoked. — Although this charter was ratified by the Duke, it was a matter of bargain ; for he stipulated that the assembly should in return vote heavy taxes. Soon he openly disre- garded his pledge by levying taxes Avithout the consent of the peo- jile. Two years after he agreed to the charter, by the death of his brother, Charles II., he became king with the title of James II. lie then began to plot the complete subjection of all the American colonies to his will. He undertook to unite all the northern colo- nies except Pennsylvania under one governor. For this purpose he chose Edmund Andros and stationed him at Boston. Kot finding Governor Dongan a fit tool he sent to New York one Nicholson, as lieutenant-governor under Andros. Two Parties. — This quick destruction of their long sought liberty stirred uj) a rebellious feeling more fierce than the spirit which in earlier days prompted petitions and protests. But the people no longer were united in their action; they were slowly divid- ing into two parties. One class known as aristocrats or tories Avas made up of the soldiers and the many royal officers stationed in the colony ; to these were added many of the settlers, Avho groAvn rich Avere aping the customs and ideas of the aristocratic party of Eng- land. Against the combination of tories, governor and king, the party of the people, the democratic party, Avaged a long and deter- mined contest. Bitterness Avas added to the struggle at this time by religious troubles. James II. was a catholic ; and he had ordered Governor Dongan to introduce that religion as the estab- lished form. But Dongan, himself a catholic, Avould do nothing * There 'were twelve counties in the colony as'thcn claimed. Duke's county included Martha'3 Vineyard and Xanfiicket; Cornwall county was P. nmriuid, tiic land between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers, granted the Duke with New "ork. 46 NEW YORK UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. [Period II that was iiitolerunt or illiberal. Still the protestants of the colony Avere too ready to imagine '' Popish plots/' some of them having suffered many things for the sake of their religion in the old countries. The English Revolution of 1688. — While the colonists were thus stirred up about matters of religion and politics, they were more excited by the news that the English people after enduring for three years the reign of James II., had welcomed to their shores William of Orange, stadtholder of Holland, with his army, and had forced James to flee into France. This was the Revolution of 1G88, a revolution without a battle, a victory of parliament over king ; for from this time parliament was sui)reme and the power of the king decreased. The peoj)le of 'New York heard of the crowning of William with joy, the more because he was a protestant and a Dutchman. When they learned that the citizens of Massachusetts had put the unpop- ular Andros in prison they were undecided whether or not to obey Nicholson, he being the officer of the deposed monarch. All things were unsettled and the weak-willed Nicholson was not the man for the time. Such a man, however was found. Jaeoh Leisler. — X^ere lived in the colony a certain man, a native of Germany, a zealot in religion, of little learning, rich, brave, and an intense lover of liberty. His name was Jacob Leis- ler. To him, being a captain of colonial troops, came the dissatisfied l)and of militia which then happened to be on duty. They persuaded him to lead them in an effort to take the fort from the control of Nicholson. Wlien Nicholson proved himself too weak to force an issue and sailed for England, Leisler entered the stronghold and took upon himself the duties of governor. He was the first man who came from the people to rule the peo- ple. Eebel, fanatic and usurper he may have been ; patriot, hero Chap. lY] JACOB LEISLER. 47 and martyr, lie surely was. The council refused to act with him and withdrew to Albany, where they resisted the force under Leis- Icr's son-in-law Milborne, until forced by fear of the invasion of the French from Canada, to admit the troops of the usurper. Administration of Leisler. — The head of the uJony styled himsell: lieutenant-governor and was earnest and active in carrying out the perplexing duties of the position. He sent an army against the French who were invading the Mohawk valley and liad burned Sclionectady ; he joined with the men of New England in an expe- dition by sea to Canada ; he improved the fort at ISiew York, planting about it a battery of six guns, which marks the place and gives the name to the modern park, the Battery ; he sent evidence of his faithfulness to King William and of his readiness to give up the colony to the governor sent by his majesty. His mind saw beyond the bounds of one colony and took in the needs of the colonial brotherhood. He was the first man to propose a conven- tion of the American provinces. But he was a century ahead of the people. Arrest of Leisler. — Meanwhile nearly two years of Leisler's rule were past aiul the year 1G91 came before Sloughter, the gov- ovnoY ai)pointed by the new king arrived in New York. It hap- pened that Captain Richard Ingoldsby, in charge of Sloughter's troops, reached New York long before his commander. IngoUlsl:)y demanded the fort and was refused on the ground that he had no authority to govern the colony. Leisler resisted a siege and defended his post even to the shedding of blood ; but at tlie sariie time he declared himself ready to give up his position v/hen Slougli- ter should appear and present his credentials. And so he did. But no sooner was Sloughter in office than the enemies of Leisler caused his arrest, and in their bitter hatred secured a sentence of deatli. When they seemed likely to be baffled by Sloughter's dislike to sign 48 NEW YORK UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. [Period H tlie death Avarrant^, tliey called to their murderous design the ready lielj) of liquor, plied the governor with wine at a party, and from the drunken man obtained his signature. Two days later, on a Saturday morning of May, 1691, as most accounts say, Sloughter lay in a drunken slumber. AVithout the rain fell and through its beating, Leisler and Milborne Avere led to the gallows. • About them the people crowded ready to rush for- ward at their death and seize some memento. To the sheriff asking " if he were ready to die,^" Leisler answered '* Yes." As the hand- kerchief was put about his face, he said, " I hope these eyes shall see our Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven, I am ready." Thus died the champion of a cause, which by his death was aroused to victory. With Bacon of Virginia, he was in spirit the ancestor of the EevO' lutionary heroes. Before tlie waning century was gone, his bod}' was raised to lie in state, a royal governor did honor to his mem- ory, and the parliament of England relieved his family and exon- erated his administration. lr|^ AuTooKAru OF Leisleh. CHAPTER V. The Fren-ch m New York.— 1642-1713. New York and New France. — For seventy years New York stood in the front rank of tlie English colonies struggling with the French for the possession of North America. New Franco, a name given to Nova Scotia, New Foundland, Canada and the valley of the J\Iississippi, embraced also, as the French would have it, that j3art of the present State of New York, from which the water flows into the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. On the other hand the New York colonists claimed that those lakes and the river themselves were their northern boundaries, using the i^oor argument that Charles II. had thus specified in his grant, and giving as a much better reason that the land in dispute was occupied by their allies, the Iroquois. French Missionaries among the Iroquois. — In 1G42, some twenty-five years after Champlain failed to establish the arms of France in New York, Isaac Jogues, (zhog), a Jesuit priest, scholar and traveller, Avas dragged from his canoe on the St. Lawrence l)y a band of Iroquois and carried to their towns on the Moliawk. lie ran the gauntlet and suffered the keenest tortures ; he finally reached New Amsterdam, Avent back to Canada and returned as a missionary to the Indians. With woods for a chapel and a cross cut in the bark of a tree he was the first preacher of Christ^s gospel among the red men of Now York. Condition of the Iroquois.— The tri])e among Avhom Joguos preached and soon suffered death was the Mohawk. I'heso wore the fiercest of the Iroquois and the triljc most friendly to the Dutch (49) 50 THE FRENCH IX NEAV YORK. [Period II and English. Tliey lived nearest the whites, westward from Albany, along the river named from them. The Iroquois, however, had no lixed location, changing their villages as the soil was impoverished. A general idea of the situation of the Five Nations may be had from the five bodies of water and the four counties named from the tribes. The Mohawks long dwelt on the land of Montgomery county. At the extreme west of the " Long House," as the Iroquois termed their territory, were the Senecas, by far the most numerous of the tribes. Tlie total number of the Iroquois at that time could not have been much over ten thousand.* Of these, about two thousand were warriors, who might be found now on the banks of the 8t. Lawrence, and now sailing in birch bark canoes to the mouth of the Ohio. The old men, the women and the children remained in vil- lages called castles ; these were composed of long, bark or framed houses, each holding many families and all surrounded with a palisade. Progress of the Jesuits. — These towns soon after the death of Jogues were visited by many French Catholic priests, anxious to convert the savages, if might be, intent, at all events, on making the Iroquois friendly to Canada. One of the missionaries. Father Le Moyne (moin) visited the Onondagas, there tasted a well which they said was infested with evil spirits and thus discovered tlie great salt springs of central New York. Le Moyne, at the deceitful invitation of the Indians, brought up the Oswego river a colony of fifty Frenchmen, who on the shore of Onondaga lake made the first French settlement in New York. This happened in the administration of Stuyvesant. But the adventurous band soon saw the murderous purpose of their pretending friends and fled. Yet * There were in 1880, according to the census, about tlie same number of their descend- ants in various parts of tlie United States and Canada. The number, contrary to the general idea, is not decrea-sing. Chap. V] THE JESUITS IN" NEW YORK. 5l on tlie wliole the Jesuits made progress ; they met craftiness with greater craftiness and gained converts while Dutch and English preachers, who could not adapt themselves to the savage ways, made little headway. Invasion of New York.— The Jesuits were finally defeated in their efforts to ally the Indians to the French by the fickle and deceitful miture of the Indians and by the interference of the French soldiers impatient of the slow progress of the priests. A foolhardy company of daring men, in dead of winter of 1666 came uj) the frozen Sorel and Lake Champlain ; but upon hearing that the wide-awake English and not the slow-going Dutch then held the fort at Albany, they quietly returned. 8till again in pleasanter weather of the same year thirteen hun- dred Canadians and Indians came over the same route and destroyed the Mohawk towns. These were the first of the score of like expe- ditions, which made the name of the French a terror to the child of New York, which undid the work of the priests, but which extended little the borders of New France. The French in Western New York. — After the expeditions of 166G, there were twenty years of peace. Meanwhile the French coveted New York ; and so much did the rulers of Canada value the position of the English in the Hudson valley that they proposed i?o their king to purchase the territory, '^ which," as they wrote, ''would render His Majesty master of all North America." Not able to buy the Hudson valley the French governors determined to try force once more upon the Five Nations. One governor on pretense of making peace enticed to Fort Frontenac* (fron-te-nac), a band of Iroquois and thereupon murdered some and sent others to France as slaves Thus to break a truce was the blackest of crimes to an Indian, and henceforth it Avas war to the knife. * Fort FroTitoiiac, the first htiildiii},' on Lake Ontario, had been i)ut up l)y a {rovernor of fcat name to catch the trade of the western Indians. The city of Kingston now stands on the spot. 52 THE FREN"CH IK N"EW YORK. [Period II Soon after, the Canadian governor landed at Irondequoit bay and defeated the Senecas in Ontario county, near tlie town of Victor ; then sailing to the mouth of the Niagara river, he landed on the New York side, and built Fort Niagara. Thereupon Governor Dongan, unwilling to see the French hold this passage to the Avest, sent a protest, claiming the land to be ''within my ]\[aster's terri- toryes without question.'*" The Five Nations were more excited by the encroachment than Dongan, and without his aid they so harassed the little garrison that they were glad to escape from the new fort. The terrified fugitives did not stop at Fort Fronteiiac but blew up that stronghold and witlidrew to the island of ^Montreal. Even here they were besieged by tlie Indians and all Canada shivered before the avenging fury of the Iroquois. Fronteiiac. — At this critical i^eriod. Count Frontenac, once before governor of Canada and now an old man, returned to redeem the colony. Since Champlain, he was the most notable figure of New France. He could assume the paint and fury of a savage and yell Avith them in the war dance ; he could lead his troops thi-ough tangled woods, when from the weakness of years ho raust be cari-ied in a chair. He now made peace with the Iroquois as best he could, and since war had broken out between England and France, known in tlie colonies as King William's war, he made ready to strike a blow upon the English. Burning of Schenectady. — In the winter of 1G90 he sent an army of two hundred, half of Avhom were Indians, over Lake Cliamplain. In the midst of a driving snow they came to the most westerly town of New York, Schenectady. It was eleven o'clock at night, and the Dutch inhabitants slept in the fifty or more liouses liuddled within jialisades. The gates of the weak fortification Avere open, and no guards were there except sentinels of snow put up in play by the boys. Tlie black forms moved silently until distributed through the place. Then there Avas a yell, the crashing of doors and horrid butchery. A feAv escaped in niglit clothes and froze Chap. V] QUEEN anne's wak. 53 their feet in an attempt to reach Albany ; some were spared ; some were kept for torture ; Avhile sixty, among them twelve children, were fortunate enough to meet a speedy death. By noon the city of Van Curler was in ashes, and the victors were hurrying on snow shoes to Montreal. Raids of the French and English. — Three years later a like expedition frightened even the people of New York city, but suc- ceeded simply in burning a few Mohawk towns and then returned. After another three years Frontenac changed his course, entered New York by Lake Ontario and destroyed the castles of the Onondagas and Oneidas. The Indians took to the woods at the invasion of the immense force, and but one warrior, a man of eighty or more years, was caught. Him the Indians with Frontenac tied to a tree and tortured with knives. "You had better," said he, 'Het me die by fire, that these French dogs may learn to die like men." This Indian was the only one killed by an invasion designed to extermi- nate the Iroquois. The small armies sent by New York and l)y some of the near col- onies to beat back the French and to enter Canada accomplished little. They cither found the difficulties of march too great, or quarreled about their loaders and disbanded. The most notable leader of New York forces at the time was the mayor of Albany, Peter Schuyler. He penetrated to the banks opposite Montreal and gave the French a long remembered whipping. These excur- sions back and forth were stopped by the death of Frontenac and by the treaty of Ryswick (riz'wik) between France and England. Queen Anne's War. — The treaty fixed no boundaries between the colonies, and as the mother countries were soon at war again, the children in America were quick to take up the quarrel. This time it was resolved to drive the French entirely from Canada. In 1709 and again two years later large parties well equipped gathered 54 THE FRENCH IX NEW YORK. [Period II at Albany to march into Canada and to meet- another party sailing from Boston up the fSt. Lawrence. The exjoeditions by sea were disgraceful failures^ and the armies from Albany did not reach the head of Lake Champlain ; the result was a burdensome debt upon the colony. As the other colonies were shiekled by New York, they were asked to help pay the expenses of the war ; but with a few exceptions they neglected to send money or men. New York's Weakness and Strength in War. — The sepaiate- ness and mutual jealousies of the English colonies were a source of weakness. The French, less in number, won by unity and push. New York was furthermore at a disadvantage in the contest on ac- count of the quarrels with the governors, into whose hands the assembly feared to jmt a strong force. The farmer colonists too v/ere not easily aroused to war ; but in the long run they were more than a match for traders, hunters and professional soldiers. Their families and harvests gave a steady increase to New York ; while the Canadian colony, depending largely for recruits and for bread upon the slow-coming ships from France, grew little in iiopulatiou and was at times on the point of starvation. New York, moreover, was strong in the help of the Iroquois ; in fact the English presumed too much on their red allies and often, after promising help and supplies, left the Indians to fight alone. How the struggle would end was not then decided, for the war, known^ as Queen Anne's war, was closed by the treaty of Utrecht (d-trek). By this treaty the French acknowledged that the Iro- quois owned the land south of the St. Lawrence and of the G^e^^t Lakes. And with this comfort New York turned to arrange her neglected affairs at home. CHAPTER VI. A Half Centuky of Exgusu Rule. — 1091-1744. The Successors of Leisler. — Intenuil strife had been bitter '•uring tlie early struggles with the French. The two parties wiiich had grown up in the colony were known as the Leisleriaus and' the anti-Leislerians ; of these the Leisleriaus or deniocriitic faction was the larger ; while the aristocratic party had the active support of the government of the colony. The managenunit of atfairs was not long m Sloughter's hands, for his drunken habits brought his death within a few months after the hanging of Leis- ler. He was followed by Benjamin Fletcher, a man of little ability but of strong passions, a poor governor but a good soldier. He moved his troops so swiftly up the Hudson to oppose the Frencli that the approving Indians named him '' Ca-yen-gui-ra-go," — "Great Swift Arrow.'' He placed the enemies of Leisler in office and made offensive efforts to establish the English church in the colony. It was through him that Trinity church was at this time (1G06) estab- lished. He was intent too on introducing the English language more completely ; for although it was now thirty years after the surrender of Stuy vesant, the Dutch were still in the majority and their speech was the language of business. New York Surrounded with Dangers.— During the seven years following ItiOO. the colony had its hands full with the war with France and the management of the Five Nations. These affairs Governor Fletcher was wise enough to trust largely to the skilful management of Peter Schuyler. New York seemed beset witli dithiiilties ; for about this time bands of pirates became a (55) 56 A HALF CSKTUEY OF ENGLISH RULE. [Period II terror along tlie American coast. Tliey were so bold that they even entered the bay and in sight of New York city caj^tured merchant vessels and made safely off. Probably the pirates were in league with officers of the govern- ment^ perhaps with the governor himself. Captain William Kidd, a well known shipmaster, was sent against them. He took his well equipped ship, ran up the black flag and became the prince of pirates. He Avas afterward hanged and his fabled treasures have been often dug for deep down in the soil of Long Island. The First Democratic Gofernor. — It was to suppress these robber crafts that the English government recalled Fletcher and sent in his place an Irish gentleman, the Earl of Bellomont. This change Avas however more important to the colony because Bello- mont as a member of parliament had defended the deeds and character of Leisler ; so that upon coming to the colony he joined himself to the Leislerian party. During his administration, which occupied the very last years of the seventeenth century, the assembly was dismissed and a new one called ; for the act creating an assembly first granted and then recalled by James II. was restored under King William. The members, then nineteen in number, were elected by the people for no definite time but held office at the will of the governor. The assembly might remain for years ; it might any day be dissolved. Over its acts the governor had an absolute veto. There was also a council of seven to twelve men, api^ointed by the king or governor, who had something of the power of a modern State senate, or as Governor Fletcher said, ''they are in the nature of the House of Lords." The lev' assembly, elected in Bellomont's administration, was largely democratic showing that the sentiment of the colony favored the friends of Leisler. All things seemed favorable to the security of the common citizen of Xew York, when Bellomont died. Chap. VI] cornburt's administration. 57 Cornbury. — After an interval in which the senior member of the council as lieutenant-governor had charge of the colony. Lord Corn- bury, in the second year of the eighteenth century arrived at New York as governor ; soon after, he became governor also of New Jersey. * Tyrannical in his rule, loose in morals, dishonest in busi- ness, he was the first of the grasping, insolent governors of New York who drove the peace-loving people to join in a war against the gov- ernment of England. The Assembly versus the Governor. — All the disputes be- tween the people of the colony, represented by the assembly, and the government of England, represented by tlic governor, centered in the question of taxation. As the Revolution of 1688 in England had established the principle that the people can be taxed by their New York City in 1704. *The proprietors of New Jersey at this timesunenclorerl their claims to the crown, and for thirty- six years that province, although keeping its own assembly, was under the governor of Wew York. 58 A HALF CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE, [Period II representatives only, so tlie assembly of Xew York, chosen by the citizens, assumed and maintained that they alone could tax the peo2)le of New York. They submitted to the Navigation Laws which exacted revenue from the ocean trade, but they themselves imposed all internal taxeso Here lay the advantage of the colony in the struggle against the despotic power of the rulers. No fixed amount was paid the governor but bountiful sums were voted for a year or for a term of years for his support. As Cornbury, like many other governors, took the place for the money in it, if the assembly wished his signature to a bill or his order to carry out any project, they withheld the revenue until he came to terms. "^Y^i must surrender once a year," said a disgusted governor of New York. The Assembly Takes Control of the Revenue.— Then the people took another step toward freedom. They had at first given money to the governor to lay out as he thought best ; later they named the items and the amounts to be apjilied to eacli object. At one time the assembly voted seven thousand dollars* to erect forts at the Narrows, where Forts Hamilton and LaFayette now stand. The money disappeared in Cornbury's pocket. Then the assembly appointed a treasurer ; and thenceforth the governor could get but the sums voted him. These amounts were not small ; the salary of a governor was generally from five thousand to ten thousand dollars. This was a small part howevc of his revenue ; since appro- priations for various items were lavishly given, Cornbury receiving nine thousand dollars for his expenses in crossing the ocean. Dur- ing this man's administration the people advanced more rapidly toward freedom than under the favorable rule of Bellomont. The two warring political factions united in one party of opposition to the governor. * Money was raised largely hy poll tax ; this tax was not equal for every man, hut about as follows, chariKinir EnRlish money to a similar amount in United States currenoy :— Every freeman between sixteen and sixty, 18 cents ; baclielors over tweiitv-tive years of afre &i cents ; a man wearing a wis $1-10 ; a lawyer, $5 ; a member gf assembly $10, Chap. VI] SOME OF THE LEADING MEN. 59 The leading men of the colony a,t this time were Peter Schuy- ler*, William Smith, Lewis Morris and liobert Livingston. Three of these men, Schuyler, Morris and Livingston, were of families renowned in American history; two, Morris and Livingston, were the grandfathers of signers of the Declaration of Independence. Peter Schutleb. * I'eter Schuyler, a Dutchman, w;is the Kfeat man of early Enj^lisli rule. He was made mayor of Albany by Donjjan, and for a Inw^ time was in charjju of tli(5 Indian affairs of the colony. Like Van Curler he h:id uiibounilod ioflucnco over the Iroquois l)y whom he was f,Teatly admired. He wa.s known amon;; them as T'.rother " Quidder," that heinff as nearly a.s they could pnmounce Peter. lie married in the Van Rensselaer family, took a promi- nent part in colonial politics and for a time was actintj governor. Ilis family was to gam greater renown during the devolution from liis nephew, General Philip .S(;huyler. William Smith, an English immigrant, was long a leader of the party of the people. His 60 A HALF CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE. [Period II The Last of Cornbury's Rule. — The administration of Corn- bury is a chapter of unjust deeds. At one time the small pox and yellow fever raged in the city and drove him and his officers to Jamaica, Long Island. The Presbyterian minister of the place offered him his house. The governor managed to turn the parson- age over to the church of England together with the only meeting house of the village, one built by the Presbyterians. For such acts he was heartily detested by the people. He was in debt to many of the store-keepers of New York city, and when removed from office by his cousin Queen Anne he Avas thrown into prison until released by a timely legacy. Governor Hunter. — This was about the beginning of Queen Anne's war and after one or two others had for a short time tried tlieir hands at tlie helm, Eobert Hunter came to govern the colony. In learning and in polished manners he was the ablest of the Eng- lish governors ; but he was unfit for the unpleasant tasks before him. The failure of the exjjeditions of 1709 and the following years angered the Iroquois and threw the colony into debt. To meet the obligations paper money was for the first time issued, and this soon became worth but a third of its face value. The assembly refused to grant revenue but for a single year, and withal Governor Hunter had little heart for a contest with that obstinate body. He took in the situation at once and wrote home, — " The colonies are infants at their mother's breasts, but such as will wean themselves when they become of age." son wrote the first history of New York, but deserted the cause of the people during the Revolution. Lewis Morris, of Welsh parentage, was a native of Now Yorli. llis father, a soldier in Cromwell's army, bought a tract of land near Harlem, calling it Morrisauia, (sa), now a part of New York city. Lewis Morris befriended New Jersey and was in 1733 the first separate royal governtjr of that colony. Robert Livingston was a Scotchman who bouglit a tract of land south of the estate of the Van Rensselaers on the east bank of the Hudson and became one of the rich patroons or lords of the manor. He was appointed by Governor Andros secretary of the first board of commissioners of Indian affairs. He led the opposition to Leisler but later joined the cause of the people against the corrupt and knavish Corubury. Chap. VI] The Indian trade. 61 The PopulatiOH; Number. — A sturdy infant the colony was already. The opening of the new century found 20,000 inhabi- tants. At the quarter, (1725), the number was twice as many, — 40,000 ; at the half century the number was again doubled, and when another twenty-five years brought 1775 and the close of Eng- lish rule, the population, doubled again, was 1(30,000.* Distribution. — The people were filling tlie Hudson valley, spreading over Orange and Ulster counties and further north they were looking longingly to the land where the Mohawk would easily carry them. In this valley Schenectady was long the last town ; the land beyond, which remained unsettled from fear of the French and tlieir Iiulian allies, Avas known as the Indian country. But nothing could long keep the settlers from tilling this rich low-lying land. They planned to possess the hunting grounds of the Iroquois, they cheated and maddened the savages at times, but they got the land. A fort was built at the mouth of Schoharie creek and named from Governor Hunter. This officer with a visionary and costly scheme of colonization brought to America three thousand Germans from the persecuted district of the Palatinate (pa-lat'-i-nate). Some of these people, disappointed in the places provided for them along the Hudson, j)ushed westward from Schenectady and marked their settlements with the names Palatine Bridge and German Flats. Occupation; the Indian Trade. — The colonists were in these times largely farmers ; still sailors and fishermen were a consider- able part of the people of Xew York city and of Long Island; while many trappers aiul traders made Albany their headquarters and carried their dangerous business as far as Lake Superior. In tliis Indian trade the French had the advantage of position ; but the English at Albany could afford to give the Indiaus nearly twice as ♦The exact figures are, in 1703, 20,005; 1733, 40,504; 1749, 73,348; 1771. 1^,337.— Ai/iefk'm Cydopaidia. 62 A HALF CENTUEY OF ENGLISH RULE. [Period 11 much powdei", rum and woolen cloth for a beaver skin as they could get at Montreal or Fort Frontenac. The colony of New York planned to fortify a position on Lake Ontario in order to compete with Fort Frontenac for the trade with the western Indians ; and after a long delay, in 1722, at the mouth of the Oswego river, a store- house and later a fort were built where now is a populous city. Governor Burnet and the French. — This important step was taken by Governor William Bur- net, who two years before received the place of the gifted but dis- contented Hunter. The name of Burnet may be added to the short list of liberal-minded and public- spirited foreign governors of New York. He perceived that the de- sign of the French was to secure North America ; he attempted to unite king and colonists in pre- occupying the banks of the Ohio and Mississip2^i with a line of English forts. But the king, three thousand miles away, did not Oo\ blunet realize the situation; Avhile the colonists, intent on scraping and hoarding, were so fearful of tax- ation tliat tliey would not permit a saving outlay of colonial money. Burnet, himself, as French writers confess, left no stone unturned to defeat tlie projects of France. He called a council of colonial governors at Albany, the first of the many conferences held at tliat place Avith the Six Nations.* He attempted to pass beyond Oswego *The Iroquois a short time sinoe had rpccivcd the Tiiscaroras, the tribe of Powhatan and PocalKjntas, from A'irfrina, and liad s:\von tiu^n land on flie south east end of Oneida lake. The confederation was henceforth known as the Six Nations. Chap. VI] COLOKEL WILLIAM COSBY. 6B and fortify the deserted French position at Niagara ; but he was dis- appointed and was compelled to see the French a third time, in 1T2G, build Fort Niagara. The French Trade. — Still nothing more than sharp letters between the governors disturbed the peace of New York and Can- ada. The traders of Montreal had found that they could buy at Albany cheaper than they could import from France ; so a brisk trade was going on between the two colonies by means of Indian carriers over the Champlain route. It was profitable business for tlie merchants of New York, but it promised evil to the colony ; for in tlie path of the traders the French were creeping up the Sorel, u]) Lake Champlain ; soon they would be on Lake George and a step would take them to the upper Hudson valley. Governor Burnet saw the danger and induced the assembly to prohibit the trade. For this act he was disliked by the merchants of New York and London who used all means to secure his removal. He further lost popularity by continuing the court of chancery, a court of supreme authority, instituted by Hunter, which encroached upon the power of the assembly. The governor also unfortunately incurred the displeasure of Peter Schuyler and of Stephen Do Lancey ;* and thus a combination of influences brought about the removal of the efficient but indiscreet Burnet to Massachusetts ; and following this the trade with Canada was soon renewed. Coshy. — When the next governor died after a term of a few months. Hip Van Dam, the oldest member of the council, took the ottlee of acting governor until the arrival of Colonel William Cosby, in 1733, a year memorable for the birth of Washington. As Corn- bury stands in contrast with Bellomont, so Cosby is odious in com- parison with tlie high-minded Burnet. When allowed to have his own way, Cosby exercised his tyranny with offensive overbearance ; * St(?i)hon DoLancey was ihu loading man anionir a (company of Fnuicti niiRueiiots, who to escape persecution in France settled in New York city and at New Kochclle. 64 A HALF CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE. [Period II when thwarted by the assembly, he bowed servilely before them He at ouce sued the popular leader, Eip Yau Dam, and tried to force him to give up half of the salary of the year when he acted as governor. He deposed Lewis Morris from tlie office of chief jus- tice ; he quarreled with William Smith, the principal lawyer of the colony. He had cunningly induced the assembly to vote taxes for five years and so placed himself partly beyond the reach of public displeasure, except as it might be talked in the tavern or published in the newspaper. The First Printer. — The press was then a new force in secur- ing the popular rights of New York. Forty years before and two years after the death of Leisler, Governor Fletcher, feeling the need of printed laws and other legal papers, persuaded one William Brad- ford, a printer of Philadelphia, to bring to Xew York his rude printing j)ress. He took this first machine of its kind into the province and for fifty years did the public printing.* In 1725 he began the first newspaper, the New York Gazette, a weekly paper about the size of a sheet of foolscap. Zenger ; His Arrest. — Naturally the paper of the public printer supported the governor ; and quite naturally too an opposition paper was started ; it was conducted by Peter Zenger, a former workman of Bradford. His paper, the New York Weekly Journal, was filled with criticisms and jingling rhymes aimed at the hated governor. Cosby fumed at the hard hits given him and arrested Zenger for libel. Tlie publisher then edited the paper in his cell and sent for William Smith and another lawyer to defend him. The governor thereupon caused these lawyers to be deprived of the rights of attorneys. Zenger's next move was to engage Andrew Hamilton, a lawyer of Philadelphia, one of the ablest advocates in * One day a boy of seventeen, a runaway apprentice from Boston, came to his office. Bradford did not have work for anotlier hand, and so directed the younR man to liis .son, a printer in Philadelphia. By this chance, Pennsylvania and not New York became the home of the statesman and scientist, Benjamin Franklin. Chap. VI] A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 65 America. The case rapidly became famous. In the city a society of men, among wliom were William Smith, William Livingston and John Morrin Scott, was formed under the name of 'SSons of Lib- erty ; " and in other colonies the inhabitants were intently watching the result. The TriaL — Hamilton in opening his client's case made it plainly the cause of the whole j)eople, declaring to the jury that they were to decide the question of freedom of speech and of the press against the will of a dictator. The judge, the tool of Cosby, charged the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. Their verdict was, — 7iot (juilty. Amid uncontrollable applause Hamilton was borne from the room, given a banquet and placed on the barge for Phila- delphia with firing of cannon. It was a great victory for New York and her sister colonies. Thereby the press became free and continued to be a most important aid in securing the rights of Americans until men laid down the pen to put an end to the con- test with the sword. Change of Governor. — The trial of Zenger was in 1735 ; Cosby died the next year, after providing that Rija Van Dam should not act as governor during the usual interval preceding the appoint- ment of a chief officer. By this arrangement, George Clarke, a favorite of the aristocracy, became acting governor, and, by repre- senting to the powers across the ocean that the place was ill-paid and beset with troubles, he kept charge of the government for seven years. A Declaration of Independence.— At the beginning of his administration tiie assembly met him with a firm front. When they received from him tlie customary address or message, they re- turned a reply as was usual. They used none of the fulsome praise often found in those response., ;:;:t put the case to Clarke in i)lain terms: *' You are not to expect that we either will raise sums unfit 66 A HALF CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE. [Period II to be raised, or put what we sliall raise into the power of a govcruor to misapply. " Tliey determined that henceforth they would not raise a revenue '• for any longer time than one year; nor do we think," said they, "it convenient to do that until such laws are i)as3ed as we conceive necessary," To these words the politic Clarke bowed, bargained to support certain measures of the assembly and secured an ample revenue. Public Plunder. — The revenue seemed to bo his main concern. He came from England to be secretary of the colony ; he returned worth $500,000, — a fabulous sum in those days. Nor does it ap- pear that some other governors were far behind him in getting rich. They took large fees for land grants and titles ; they appropriated broad tracts of land and sold it or distributed it among favorites ; they took pay from merchants and from other interested persons in return for favoring some regulation of trade. Many of these trans- actions, which to-day would be thought scandalous, were then looked upon as the rightful income of the governor's office. One great political job of that time was the bringing of five hundred highbinders from Scotland to people the land about Lake George as a protection against the French. The project failed ; but the Scotch mingled with English, Dutch and Germans, making for New York a broad-minded population. The Negro Plot.— During the administration of Glarke, the colony 2)assed through affliction. The winter of 1741 was severely cold and was accompanied with suffering. The citizens of New York city expected each day to see a war ship of Sj^ain, with which nation England Was then at war. The city was now a place of ten thousand people, — a fifth of whom were negro slaves. As summer followed the cold winter, rumors of a slave riot filled the air. It was no new sensation ; thirty years before, the negroes were charged with combining for the burning of the city, and on very poor evidence nineteen of them were hanged. Since then the peo- Chap. VI] THE NEGRO PLOT. 67 pie had lived in fear of a conspiracy of slaves, and according to law when thev found three negroes together they might give them forty lashes on tlie bare back. In the fateful year of 1741 a few small fires occurred aboiTt the same time, probably set for the sake of plunder ; and in this the fear- ful citizens saw a bold ''negro plot '' to burn the city and murder the white people. Eewards for information were freely offered ; and the Dutch taverns were filled with gossiping, tale-inventing men, who manufactured a childish fear and foolish hatred of the negro. The people were seized with a panic and many fled from the city as from a pestilence. After much search for the guilty persons, an ignorant girl, Mary Burton, was arrested in a drunken den on the suspicion that she knew tlie secret of the plot. In her fright she invented wild stories which Avere eagerly believed. Others in turn Jicknowledged a plot, and soon this was found to be the easiest way of escape. Informers became plentiful ; sheriffs and hangmen were busy ; the people grew more frantic and less sensible ; but not one reasonable fact was found concerning the origin of the fires. Finally the fury spent itself after nearly two hundred people, mostly negroes, had been put in prison. Of the black men many were hanged, more W' ere transported to the West Indies, while four- teen suffered the bar])arism of a death by burning. Four of the white prisoners were also hanged, — among them one John Ury, a Catholic priest, whose religion seemed to deny him the consider- ation of his fellow citizens. The disgusting negro panic of New York city is a parallel to the witchcraft delusion of Salem. Admiral Clinton. — Soon after these events Lieutenant-Gover- nor Clarke closed his seven years' administration and gave way to Cosby's successor, Admiral George Clinton. With him the assem- bly began the old fight ; they were told to place a revenue and the 68 A HALF CENTtJRY OF ENGLISH RULE, [Period II militia unconditionally in the hands of the governor, since Avar with France was threatening. They flatly refused. Tliey further declared that an assembly should hold office for seven years at the most, — a term then and now the limit of the English parliament. But soon these quarrels were overshadowed by the strife with France. The time had come to decide Avhether the French or the English were to govern North America. CHAPTER VIL The Fixal Struggle with Fran"ce. — 1744-1760. Kmg George's War. — From the treaty of Utrecht to the year 1744, there were thirty years of nominal peace ; then broke out the struggle known as King George's War. It was the same story: raids by the Canadians over the Champlain route, great expeditions planned and equipped by the English and never carried through. This time the French entered Massachusetts, came within forty miles of Albany, burned the northernmost settlement, Saratoga,* murdered many and carried terror to the entire frontier. That the advance posts in New York were ill protected was due to the jealous fears of the assembly, rather than to any inactivity of Governor Clinton. The suspicion that he would misuse their men and money was their only excuse for failing to ward death from the hardy set- tlers and for breaking faith with the Indian allies. The French West of New York. — Peace came in 1748 when no peace was possible. The French read the treaty to suit them- selves ; they built a fort south-west of the site of Dunkirk on Lake Erie, they strengthened Fort Niagara, they fortified a post at Og- densburg, they extended the long dreamed of line of works down the Oliio and the Mississippi ; soon they would creep over the Alleghanies and threaten the narrow coast strip of scattered Eng- lish settlements. The time was critical for the exposed State of New York ; the Mohawk valley was not safe ; Albany was threat- ened ; the harbor of New York would be the first great prize. *The settlement contained about thirty houses and was on the Hudson uear the present Schuylerville. The Saratoga of this war and jf the Revolution was about twelve nulea east of Saratoga Springs. (69) 70 THE FINAL STRUGGLE WITH FRANCE. [Period II The Albany Convention. — To consider these matters and to confer with the Iroquois a congress of the colonies was called by the English government to meet in Albany in 1754. Hither came representatives from the four New England colonies, from Penn- sylvania, and from Maryland, to meet William Smith, Colonel Johnson and others from New York, together with Lieutenant- Governor DeLancey, who since the departure of Clinton was in charge of the colony. Here came the Iroquois to chide the colony for their neglect ; and among them was their great chief Hendrick,* Western New York anb Pennsylvania in the whoSC Speech luiS COme down to French and Indian War t i j. , tt US as a model or oratory. Jlere Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for a union of the Ameri- can colonies. The proposal did not please the king ; it seemed at the time to awaken no re- sponse from the colonies. The French and Indian War : First Year,— The next year, 1755, the war opened in earnest. Troops began to gather at Albany. At the oppo- site end of the State was Fort Niagara with its gar- rison of thirty disheartened Frenchmen. Against them Shirley, the royal governor of Massachusetts, led two thousand men to capture the fort and to join Braddock marching from Virginia. Shirley heard of Braddock's disastrous failure to take Fort DuQuesne (du kane), reached Oswego, built ships, waited for fair weather, and leaving re-en- Oswego went disgracefully back to the Hudson. forcements at * Soi-en-ga-rah-ta, or Kinj? Heudriok as he is kno'\\ni to history, held the sway of a mon- art-n over the Iroquois. Tie was a Mohawk, and at this time an old man; in his earlier days he went to England with Peter Schuyler and was there received by Queen Anne as one of royal blood. He was killed the next year after his speech at Albany, in the battle near Lake George. Chap. VII] FKENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 71 Here fifty miles above Albany, where the river turns westward to catch the torrents of the Adi- rondacks, Fort Edward was built as the advance guard of the English settlements. Thence it is but a short distance over a gentle rise to water flowing into tlie St. Lawrence. In the Cham- plain valley the advance post of the Frencli had been for twenty years at Crown Point. With this point in view William Johnson, with over three thousand men, started north from Fort Edward, met the enemy at the head of the water, to which he gave the name of Lake George, and defeated them.* Without attempting to go further he loitered away the summer erecting Fort William Henry, the first building on Lake G-eorge. At the same time the French were pushing south- ward and building Fort Ticonderoga. Second Year. — The much vaunted and uidy success of the first year was no real gain ; and the campaign during the next year was directed to keep what was already held. Oswego was threatened. A force to relieve the garrison was criminally delayed along the way by the com- mander, Webb, a royal officer. Meanwhile a new leader, Montcalm, had brought courage to the French. One day he reviewed his troops at Fort Frontenac, the same evening ho landed before Oswego, and in ten days he had the forts, many vessels and rich stores. Then to show * A Skirmishing party under Colonel Williams of Massachusetts was defeated and KinfrUendrickand Colonel Williams were killed. The latter made a will at Albany leaviuR money to found a school. Northern Is'f.w York in . .^ French anu Inuun War That school is Williams College, Massachusetts. 72 THE FIKAL STRUGGLE WITH FRANCE. [Period II the Indians that the French did not wish their land, he utterly destroyed the well-placed fortifications. A Time of GIoodi. — It was a politic move ; the Iroquois were already looking with suspicion upon the English people who were fast occupying their land. The Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas had already been to Montreal to promise to be neu- tral. It was a time of gloom in the colony of New York. Three thousand English regulars were in the province, mostly at Albany and New York city. There at any moment a family might be compelled to feed and shelter English soldiers. The colonists kncAV that such acts were illegal ; but in their fear of the French they submitted. New York levied taxes, raised money and fitted out comjDanies of militia capable of doing efficient service. But they were despised by the English, and their highest officers were made to obey the lowest officer of the regular army. Third Year. — Johnson's fort on Lake George now became a death-trap. The garrison was surrounded by French and Indians under Montcalm. Forced to surrender, tlie men gave up their arms and were allowed to go to Fort Edward on parole. As the defenceless men started, they were attacked by the Indians, some were stripped of their clothes, some scalped, and those who escaped ran panting into Fort Edward. Here, resting contentedly, was the imbecile Webb with four thousand unused troops. Four til Year. — During the following winter the length of the Mohawk valley was open to the French and Indians. Palatine Vil- lage was burned, forty j)eople were murdered and a hundred and fifty carried to a fearful captivity ; while the English officers enjoyed their snug winter quarters. During the summer, (1758), 17,000 men, more than half colonists, the largest body of men that had ever gathered in New York State, assembled at the site of the destroyed Fort William Henry, under the English general, Aber- crombie. The army sailed gaily down the lake to the short, swift Chap. VII] THE RESULT. 73 stream which carries the water to Lake Cliamplaiu. There, Avhile Abercroinbie skulked iu a saw-mill, his misdirected men fell before the walls of Ticonderoga. The Chain Broken. — Final defeat now seemed the fate of the colonies and their king. At that moment a captain of New Eng- land and a force all American got reluctant permission to do their best. They hastened up the Mohawk, down the Oswego, across Ontario and took Fort Frontenac without a blow. The chain of French forts was broken. The storehouse of the west was destroyed. Tliere were already other signs of success. Pitt, the friend of America, had become prime minister of England ; he had sent out General "Wolfe, who had captured Louisburg, the great naval fortress of the French. There w^ere other successes outside of New York ; soon after the fall of Fort Frontenac, Fort Du Quesne, in Penn- sylvania, was abandoned by the French. The Fifth Year. — The end was near. The French, few and starving, successful by unity and dash, suddenly collapsed. In 1759, Sir William Johnson captured Niagara and the way to the west was open. The French deserted Ticonderoga and Crown Point to concentrate about Quebec ; and when on the Plains of Abraluim the brave Wolfe conquered the brave Montcalm, and both died, New York and her sister colonies had needed rest. The Result. — There was no question now as to the northern boundary of New York. But the war Avhich made the decision broke up many families and left tlie colony with a debt of one and a half million dollars. On the other hand the farmers of New York had found friends and brothers in other colonies ; they learned the unbrotherly feeling of the English ; and in their marches they had viewed fertile fields in unknown regions of the State. The fear of the French and their savage alh'os could no longer keep them from the lands north and west of Albany. The very forts became centers 74 THE FINAL STKUGGLE WITH FRANCE. [Period II around which future cities and vilhiges were to gather. About Fort Schuyler Utica was to grow ; Fort Stanwix was the nucleus of Rome. Fort Presentation nourished the germs of Ogdeusburg. The war with its terrors had yet many helpful lessons for the English colonies in America. CHAPTER VI 11. Condition of the Colony touakd the Close of English KULE. The New York of IIGO and 1770 Avas no longer a collection of settlements ; it was fast taking on the form of a IState. The shape of its ];eopled territory was that of a letter Z ; the Mohawk valley and Eong Lsland are the upper and lower lines of the letter ; the Hudson valley is the connecting bar. The Island Counties. — Long Island was divided into counties as now, with Suffolk at the eastern end. The inhabitanis here were largely from New England ; they preserved their Puritan ideas and manners and much preferred to be a part of Connecticut.* Hunt- ingdon, Brookhaven, Southampton and Southold were the princi- pal towns. Passing into Queens county the Hutch element became noticeable. Further on, Kings county also had its present limits, but its cities were hardly begun. Lower New York Avas not so crowded nor ferry passage so safe and rapid as to give an impetus to the growth of Brooklyn, so that it was still a village smaller than neighboring towns which are to-day enclosed within its spreading boundaries. The Dutch element prevailed in Kings county and grew ri;di in market gardening. Staten Island composed the Richmond county of those days also ; but there were few settlers, except here and there a Dutch or French farmer and ''one poor, mean village," Tiichmond. * Xew F,t)>i1and tiustoms prevail on the east end <{ l.on^ Island to-day ; and indeed it would be moro convenient for the peopl-^ tri spjl np the Connecticut than np the Hudson to theircapital c-itv. Kejul, " A New Enj^laud Colony in New York."— Harjiri's iMcir/azine, Vol. 71, (75) 76 coxDiTiOiN- OF THE C0L0N"Y. [Period II New York County. — Turning northward, the island of Manliat- tan, with Bedloe's, Governor's, Blackwell's and other islaiids of tlie bay and East river comprised the city of New York. The city itself was then about a mile long and a half-mile Vv^ide; and its crooked streets extended to the jJresent city hall. Beyond, the '' Broad way " passed straggling liouses and then stretched away as a country road among the farms which have since been given up to the great retail trade of the continent. The business centre of those days was Hanover Square ; while the place for a fashionable residence was lower Broadway or Wall street. '"In the city,"' says McMaster. ''scarce a street was paved, and these feyv were so illy done tliat Franklin observed that a New Yorker could be told by his walk as he shuffled over the smooth pavements of Philadelphia." The streets were crooked ; Pearl street had been extended along the line of the cow-path to the coui- mon pasture. Where City Hall park is, was a much larger common known as the ''Fields/' and further north, now without a trace, was a large fresh water pond, where the city fisherman often tried his luck. Population and Importance. — The number of people then iu the city "was from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand, being a seventh or an eighth of the population of the entire jn'ovince; whereas in later years the population of the city has been to that of the State as one to four or five. Then, New Y^ork county had but half the number of j^eople of Albany county and no more than Westchester county. Yet the city, compared with the rest of the State, was more impoi'tant than now ; it was the capital during colonial times, the centre of all trade, — except the Indian traffic of Albany. — and it was the social metropolis. The brilliant events of society wore not excelled by those of London, testifies a royal gov- ernor ; while a local writer says that the ])eo|)le aped all the absurd customs of the English capital about the time they had died out in Chap. VIII] RELIGIOHr. 11 that city. Dutch manners, however, largely prevailed and a knowl- edge of that language as well us of the English was necessary for doing business. Religiou. — The Dutch ministers still preached in their language , -^gj^^^^^^^ to diminishing congre- gations, who were be- ginning to prefer the English preachers. Yet the descendants of the old settlers clung to the mother tongue, and in one of the Dutch I?c- formed churches the services were in Dutch imtil the year 18()o. This denoniinuiion, since Englifh occupa- tion, had given way to i^X^E^lffi^'tt I. "^ — the Episcopalian as the ^JlQ favored church of tlie °^ royal oi^cer?; and tlie Presbyterians had ^si^F 1 grown stronff from Xew Dutch Cnuncn Built in 1G9;J. Engl a U d r C r U 1 f S. These denominations had two or three churches each. The ]^ap~ tists and ]\rothodi4s, who had been worshiping in upper rooms in William street, built their first churches soon after the Frcuch war. A Quaker and a Lutheran meeting house and a Jcav's synagogue went to nuike up tlie eighteen places of worship in the city whioh now contains nearly five hundred church buildings. There was no Catholic cliurch ; in fact at one time in Enn^lisl) rule it was a crime of death for a Catholic priest to be found in the ts COXDITION' OF TITE COLONY. fPeriod II province. For a while Quakers and Jews Avere not allowed to vote; McKeniie, a minister, was nnsuccessfully prosecuted for using other services than those of the prayer-book. The early English governors had as a rule been more intolerant in religious matters than the Dutch rulers ; but the spirit of religious freedom Avas growing, and was soon to be fully recognized in the State constitution. Public Buildings aud Schools. — Beside the churches, New York had few public buildings. There was an alms-house, a city hall two stories high, an exchange, and a hospital. Just begun and completed in time to be used as barracks for the English soldiers. These were the beginning of the vast array of public and charitable buildings which now abound in the great city. One other notable King's College. building there was, however, — King's College, now Columbia Col- lege. This institution was organized in 1754, at which time there were said to be but about fifteen college graduates among the hun- dred thousand people of the province. Princeton and Yale on each Chap. VIII] EDUCATION-. 79 side had long prompted the colony to found a school for higher education. As the complaint was made that the New York boys returning from Yale were filled with advanced notions on political subjects, the friends of the king took care that King's College should teach a sentiment of submission to England. So the college officers were from the aristocracy ; but among their first pupils were such boys as Gouverneur Morris and Alexander Hamilton. In educating the mass of the people the colony under English rule made no progress compared with its material growth. In 1702, the assembly awoke to the need of a grammar school and sent to England for a ''native born English teacher, of good learning, pious life and conversation and good temper." But the governors gave the matter of education little thought. Another step was taken in 1732, when a free school was established in which Latin, Greek and mathematics were taught. The Southern Hudson Counties. — Leaving New York by the Bowery Lane, or the Boston road, the traveler passed through the Dutch village of Harlem and then crossed the Spuyten Duyvil (spi't'n di'vil) creek to Morrisania, the manor of the Morris family, — since 1S73 a part of New York city, but then in Westchester county. Westchester was widely settled in those days, mostly by the descendants of the advance guard of Connecticut Yankees. Across the Hudson lay Orange county, then including Rockland and reaching back to the State line. Even in those days it was noted for producing ''the best butter made in the colony." In the southern part of the county the Dutch a])ounderl and Tappan was the principal village. In this vicinity there was great uncertainty where the New Jersey line would finally run. The Middle Counties of the Hudson.— Northward Ulster county was an immense tract joining Albany county on the noiih and runninor back to the Delaware river and tlio Indian country. 80 COKDITIOK OF THE COLONY. [Period II Along the Hudson were typiciil New York settlements of Dutch, Irish, French, English and Scotch. The principal village was Kingston with its hundred and fifty stone houses. The county furnished the colony with flour, millstones and beer. On the other side of the Hudson, Dutchess county began at Westchester, included tlie present Putnam county and reached to the modern Columbia line, then the southern limit of the Livingston manor. Pough- keepsie and Fishkill* were its two villages, though they were said to ^'scarce deserve the name.'' Allbany County. — The rest of the State of New York, settled up to 1770, was known as Albany county. The city of Albany showed by the shape of the three hundred and fifty brick houses that the people clung tenaciously to the old Dutch customs. To the west, Schenectady was another thoroughly Dutch town, with a wonder in the shape of a town clock. The fertile land here on the river sold for two hundred dollars an acre, and without manure produced full crops of wheat and peas. Further west settlements continued to the centre of what is now Herkimer county. But the traders pressed on up the Mohawk, at the modern Eome currying their goods over an easy portage to the lake and stream which conveyed their wares to Oswego ; for at this time there was no road connect- ing Schenectady with Port Oswego. Northward from Albany the withdrawal of the French was followed by another stream of settlers ; Hoosac, Schaghticoke (skat-i-kook), and Saratoga were the villages in 1760. Distance and Trayeling. — From this end to the other ex- treme of the colony was then as far, counting the time taken for a letter or a traveler, as it is now across the continent. If one did not care to trust the uncertain winds and unfavorable tides, he could count on getting from New York to Boston by land in a * Kill means in the Dutch, ehaniit'l or river; lience Kill van Hull or the Kills between Staten Island and Bergen Neck ; also Schuylkill and Catskill. Chap. VIIl] CUSTOMS AND DRESS. 81 week. Letters for a long time were carried no farther south than Philadelphia ; but later the mail service was extended through forest paths to Charleston. Then a weekly nuiil to Philadelphia was started ; and finally a wonder appeared in the shape of a stage running between the cities in two or thi'ee days, advertising itself as a '• flying machine/' with all the comforts of a canvas cover l)ut with no suggestion of springs. In wet weather the cramped and jolted jiassenger could find exercise by helping to lift the wheels from the mud holes. Customs and Dress. — More often the citizen of New York traveled on horse back. On horse back he went to church, witli his wife perhaps riding behind him. In church they sat without any heat in winter excei^t that of a foot warmer. Indeed, what a stove is, few in those days knew. Many other household articles now found in the poorest home were then known only to the rich. The workingman had no carpets, no pictures, no books and papers, except the bible and an almanac, which in those days was sold aiul not given away, and which might serve his children for a reading book ; he had no glass or earthenware, simply pewter plates. lie received for a day's work less money than fifty cents now amounts to; and if with these wages he could not pay for his coarse food and leath- ern breeches, he stood in fear of being thrown into prison for debt.. The clothes of the common people were largely homespun, cotton cloth being an expensive luxury. The elaborate style of dress shown l)y the portmits of the day was worn by the few rich. The huge wigs hanging down upon the shoulders were worn by men and sometimes even by boys ; but they went out of fashion about the close of the French war. The men rivaled the women in bright colors. The following description is given of a runaway slave, dressed probably in the cast off clothes of his master : — ''Wore a light wig, a gray kersey jacket lined with blue, aliglit pair of drugget breeches with glass buttons, black roll-up stockings. square-toed shoes, a white vest with yellow buttons, and red linings." 8^ CoistditiotnT of the colony. [Period II The Great Families. — The many negro slaves and tlie lordly families who kept them made the social life of New York before the Revolution far different from that under the republic. The lords of the manors had vast tracts of land, which, like the Dutch patroons, they rented to their farmers and over which they had almost kingly power. Among them were the Livingstons with their 100,000 acres in the present Colund)ia county, the De Lanceys and the Morrises. In the winter the feudal lords betook them- selves to New York city, where they mingled with the families of the rich merchants and of royal officers. New Y'ork city was " a nest of families; "" many of their names, as Beekman, Van Cort- landt, and Lispenard, are given to streets of the city. They were all intermarried, but were not prevented thereby from having fre- quent family quarrels. Such aristocratic families were found in no other American colony, except in Virginia ; and in Virginia the great planters were Englishmen, while the lords of New York were of various nations ; the Schuylers and Van Reusselaers wore Dutch, the De Lanceys were French, the Livingstons were Scotch. As a result these families were often found siding with the people against the royal governors of England. The (xOVernors. — Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the feeling toward the governors became such that the people liud no regard for one who tried to do as nearly right r.s he could. The position was little sought for ; the changes were frequent. *' TVhile Virginia had twenty governors in the century before the Revolu- tion, ]\Iassachusetts twenty-one, and Pennsylvania twenty-five, the executive authority in New York underwent thirty-three changes." Many of these were lieutenant-governors. From the administra- tion of Admiral Clinton to Tryon, the last English governor, the colony was most of the time in charge of Lieutenant-Governors James De Lancey and Cadwallader Golden. Eight governors died in office ; one, of a despondent mind, finding after a few days rosi- Chap. VIII] SIR WILLIAM JOKN"SO"N". ^3 deuce ill the colony how the assembly M'oiild oppose him, hanged himself to his garden wall. The Ruler of Interior New York. — While the governors Avere losing ground, tliere Avas in the Mohawk valley a feudal lord who was coming to be, in his iutluence over men, the most powerful m;ui of New York. Sir William Johnson, who obtained fame and his title of Sir from his victories in the French and Indian war, came to New York when a young man, to look after his uncle's lands along the Mohawk. He gained the love of the Iroquois, learned their ways, was made a chief, bought their land by the square mile, built a stone house, called his settlement Johnstown and became the monarch of the Mohawk. In tliis favored valley the making of the Empire State went rapidly on. For it was the farmers of the State, the great middle class, who gave us the New York of to-day. It was indeed the very countrymen of this j\Iohawk valley, who in the critical moment of the lievolution turned back the tide of British invasion. Sandy IIooK I,i(;iiTiii)i sK. (liist Imilf in ITC:}.) CHAPTER IX. The Begin"I!J"I]S"g of a Revolution. — 1760-1775. As the first century of English rule in New York drew to a close, the people were beginning to think of themselves as Americans. The English, too, began to treat the colony as part of one great province. Heretofore they had adopted but one important meas- ure bearing upon all their American possessions, — that is the navi- gation laws. But these acts, which were intended to compel the colonists to bring and send all their goods in Englisli ships, had long been a dead letter ; at the end of the French war, however, they were revived and enforced, greatly to the hurt of New York's growing commerce. Eng- land was determined to have a fixed revenue from the colonies, partly to pay the war debt, but especially in order to pay tlie salaries of the judges and the governors and thus render these officers independent of the assembly. A Stamp Act. — Parliament, no longer under the influence of Pitt, went further : They decided to levy an internal tax uiDon the colonies and selected, as the easiest tax to col- lect, a stamji duty. Accordingly early in 1705, they passed an act requiring the colonies to buy stamps, varying in value from three cents to thirty dollars, and put them on newspapers, almanacs and pamphlets, on marriage licenses, mortgages and other legal papers. (84) I SHILXINGJ Stamps. Chap. IX] THE STAMP ACT. 85 Tho people of Xew York had already sent in their protest. '' The spirit of resistance," sajs Bancroft, '• was nowhere so strong as in Xcw York." They declared upon the authority of the con- stitution that to vote away by taxation the property of one who has no voice in the vote is to deny him the very right of property. Not only dill they assert that the tax was illegal, they declared that they would not pay the duty. But the English had little doubt of easily compelling payment ; and in order to meet any possible re- sistance, they had left, on pretense of further trouble with France, a standing army in the colonies with headquarters at New York city. Moreover at the time of the passing of the stamp act, they liad enacted a quartering act requiring the colonies to furnish the soldiers with quarters, candles, wood, soap and drink. The News of the double insult came up New York bay with the first days of summer. Men talked excitedly in streets and in pub- lic places ; they gathered in secret societies and planned desper- ate deeds, they paraded the principal streets with a copy of the stamp act fastened to a death's head with the words, " The Folly of England and the Ruin of America." The press of the city, free since the days of Zenger, had much to do in moulding senti- ment. " From denying the right of parliament to tax tlie colo- nies," the papers fell to doubting "'its legislative authority altogether." The Constitutional Courant appeared with the motto, ''Join or Die." These watch-words were echoed from Mas- sachusetts to Georgia. Organization. — The Sons of Liberty, the leading patriotic soci- ety of New York, suggested committees of correspondence with similar committees in other colonies. The se2)aratene.ss of the thirteen colonies was the great hinderance to union. New York city and Boston were then as far from each other as those cities are now from San Francisco. The colonies at once fell in with this idea of the Sons of Liberty and were soon united by a system of 'orrespondence. 86 THE BKGINNING OF A DEVOLUTION. [Period II One of the first results was the calling of a colonial congress to meet in New York city. The hated stamp act was to go into effect on the first of November ; the congress met in October, and the representatives of New York and of eight other colonies adopted a firm declaration of rights, a candid statement to parliament of the situation, and a respectful jietition to George III., the new king of England. The thirteen colonies were now of one mind. November 1, 1765. — When the morning of the first of Novem- ber came, the streets of New York city had the look of Sunday. Shops were shut ; bells were tolling ; flags were at half-mast ; bills were posted, saying .• V People early came pouring in from the surrounding country ; the increasing throng frightened the stamp distributor §o thut he hast- Chap. IX] REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 87 ily resigufd ; then the crowd gathering courage determined to seize the stani]ts. But here they were baffled ; for acting Governor Colden* hud lauded the stamps under guns and put them in the fort. As even i tig came on, a solid column of citizens nuirched quietly from the Fields down Broadway carrying efiigies of Colden ami of the devil, which they burned on the Bowling Green. Then they broke open the governor's stables, seized his carriage of state and burned that. There upon getting bolder, the people marched uji before the loaded cannon of the fort and Yainly demanded the stamps. At this a few Cadwallader Colden. Violent ones who could not keep ■within bounds broke open and pillaged the house of a certain Major James, an English officer who had said that he would " cram the stamps down the throats of the people with the end of his sword. " Repeal of the Stamp Act. — When the next morning came, the governor thought it best to proclaim that he would not allow the stamps to be sold and then turned them over to the mayor of the city, a man in whom the people had confidence. By the time that a second stamp distributor had resigned in fear, and ten packages of the stamps had been found and burned, the excitement cooled * Duriiifr the frequent chanp:cs and absences of governors, Cadwallader Colden was five times called to take charKO of the government. Ho was now over seventy years of age, a Scotchman, and had lived in the colony for over half a century. He is to he remembered as the most distimruished of the early writers of the colony, his principal work being a his- txjry of the Iroquois. In political matters he favored the aristocracy. 88 THE BEGiXNixG OF A REVOLUTION. [Period T I down into a quiet determination. If newspaj^ers were to be sent out, a marriage to be performed, or a sliip needed clearance papers, the citizens sometimes delayed proceedings for a while, but finally ignoi'cd the duty altogether. When parliament heard of these things and learned at the same time of similar events in twelve other colonies, they knew that the tax was a failure, and in the following March they repealed the famous act. The Liberty Pole. — The news of the repeal, coming back by the slow five to ten weeks' voyages of those days, turned the peo])le to the extreme of joy. On the king's birthday in June the men of the city gathered in the Fields, erected a liberty pole, and inscribed on it — "The King, Pitt and Liberty.*' To the king they were thoroughly loyal; Pitt a.s the eloquent opposer of the taxation of America by England was their idol ; but liberty had as yet no suggestif)n of independence. A reaction soon set in. While the stamp act liad been indeed repealed, the right to tux the colonies had been expressly declared. The quai'tering act remained and was offensively suggested by insolent bands of soldiers strolling about the streets of the city. On an August morning early risers discovered that some of these troops had cut down the liberty pole in the Fields. Crowds soon gathered, and in a fight between some citizens and soldiers Isaac Sears was wounded. But the pole was put up, and when a few weeks later it Avas found again on the ground, it was promptly restored. Finally after one more successful raid by the soldiers the Sons of Lil)erty put up an iron-banded pole which stood for years as an expression of their sentiments. Non-Importation. — While a pole or no pole was the question in the colony, parliament was preparing to place duties on the tea, glass, paper and paints brought to America. Thereupon non- importation societies were formed to discourage the i^j^e of all Chap. IX] susPE]srsiO]sr of the assembly. 89 imported nrticles. The idea originated in 'New York city, already the chief commercial city of America, perhaps excepting Boston ; and soon many letters were going from colony to colony securing unity of action. The colonists, especially the Dutch of New York, were noted tea drinkers ; but they even denied themselves this seeming necessity. The people encouraged the wearing of homespun ; they looked with suspicion upon one dressed in fine clothing, but considered a man in a seedy suit with much favor. By such means the importations from England largely ceased, and the London merchants clamored to parliament for help. Suspension of the Assembly. — But parliament was growing angry under the refusal of the New York assembly to provide sup- plies for the troops in the city. Finally the English law-makers voted to suspend the power of the assembly to pass any law until it voted a supply bill. But the assembly declared the action of par- liament unconstitutional and went on with its business. Then it was dissolved by the governor ; but a new assembly elected in 1768, in which were George Clinton and Philip Schuyler, was no more inclined to yield. It was about this time that the names whigs and tories began to be used for the two parties in the colonies. Indian Lands. — Meanwhile there were serious difficulties in the interior. The Iroquois were restless at the sight of the long trains of immigrants, who, no longer fearful of the French, Avere moving rapidly up the Mohawk. The boundaries of the lands bought of the Indians were vague ; the titles were generally obtained after filling the owners with rum ; the settlers claimed much that the Indians declared had never been purchased. The Iroquois were with difficulty restrained by Sir William Johnson from joining in the war with Pontiac, which Avrought havoc in the cf)loniestothe south of New York ; but finally they wore quieted with new and more accurate surveys, and were paid for the contested land. 90 THE BEGixxixG OF A REVOLUTION. [Period II Boundary Disputes. — Not even at that time had the dividing lines between the colonies been fully determined. "When Xichols agreed with Connecticut that the boundary should run twenty miles from the Hudson, by some Yankee trick, it is claimed, the line was run out to a point on the sound but ten miles from the river. The boundary, after a hundred years of contention, was put back to the twenty mile limit, except that the little strip, which to-day indents "Westchester county along the sound, remained to Connecticut. The Contest with New Hampshire. — Following the lead of Connecticut, Massachusetts claimed land west of the Connecticut river, and by virtue of actual settlement secured a boundary as far west as Connecticut's line. Then New Hampshire claimed terri- tory as far west as Massachusetts held, and, about the time of the French war, settlers with grants from New Hampshire began to occupy land up to Lake Champlain. After a time families from the Hudson valley came into the jiresent State of Vermont, armed with deeds from New York. Settler strove with settler, and the two governors sent vigorous protests back and forth ; until finally, coming to no terms, the two colonies sent the question across the ocean for settlement. The English government was inclined to favor the claims of New York, perhajjs because the grant to the Duke of York gave a clear title up to the Connecticut river, but more likely because the Eng- lish preferred to see the disputed territory under the royal governor of New York rather than under the chartered privileges of New England. At any rate the king decided that the New Hami^shire grants, now known as the State of Vermont, were the property of New York. A Tory Assembly. — For a while after this favorable considera- tion of the colony of New York, the contest with England was less bitter. The assembly of 1768 was soon dissolved ; reaction set in. Chap. IX] BATTLE OF GOLDEN" HILL. .91 and the next year, when a new assembly was chosen, the strife was one mainly of families and religions. The Livingstons and Presby- terians were arrayed against the De Lanceys and Episcopalians. The latter party was successful and soon showed its sympathy for England by voting supplies for the standing army. This action called a storm of indignation from the people and led to a mass meeting in the Fields. The citizens, presided over by John Lamb, denounced the assembly for "betraying their country." It was a new experience for the assembly to find tliemselves opposing the will of tiie people, and they showed as little discretion as governors and councils had in like situations. They summoned Lamb before them, but could make nothing of his bold avowal. They then took satisfaction in putting Alexander McDougal in prison for libel. On his way to jail he said, " I rejoice that I am the first to suffer for liberty since the commencement of our glorious struggle." But he suffered little ; he was daily visited by crowds bringing flowers and presents, and soon was released. Battle of Golden Hill. — Shortly after this, the soldiers added their part to the ill-feeling by throwing down the iron-banded pole of some three years' standing. This time they sawed it up and piled the lengths in front of Montague's tavern, a resort of the Sons of Liberty. The usual mass meetings followed ; knots of citizens and bands of soldiers gathered in the streets, and knock-down fights were common. At last the tumult culminated on a January day of 1770, on Golden Ilill, now John street, where a body of soldiers and another of citizens happened to meet. A battle of fists, canes and cart-stakes on one side, and of bayonets on the other ended in no immediate deaths, but caused blood to flow freely. This fight did much to take away regard for the mother country ; it happened two months before the Boston Massacre and has been called the first bloodshed between American patriots and the British soldiery. 92 • THE BEGINHIXG OF A REVOLUTION. [Period II Importation Resumed. — These exciting events did not please tlie farmers and merchants, v.ho tlirived better in qniet times. To tliem it was good news that parliament had taken off all duties on imports to America, with the exception of tea. Accordingly the merchants of New York city met and agreed to renew the trade in all other goods. New York had proposed the non-importation agree- ment, and alone, says the historian of America, ''had been true to its agreement." In so doing the colony had lost five-sixths of its trade, while the New England colonies and Pennsylvania had lost but a half of their traffic, and other colonies had even increased their importations. Still the people of these colonies were angry at the action of New York. " Send us your old liberty pole, as you can have no farther use for it," said the men of Philadelphia. The Sons of Liberty joined in the same strain ; but when men went around from house to house to take the vote of the citizens of New York city, they found that 1180 to 300 favored the action of the mer- chants. Royal Gorernors. — This was in 1770. In that year Lord Dun- more, another of the oft-changing magistrates of tlie colony, arrived. His short administration is noticeable for the fact that, according to instruction, he would accei)t no salary from the province, but received his pay from the quit-rents and colonial duties which went into the English treasury. When William Tryon, destined to be the last English governor of New York, succeeded Dunmore, the fol- lowing year, he too took no salary from the assembly. Still Tryon did not rule offensively but rather was successful in quietly carry- ing out the requirements of the despotic parliament. The Tea Tax. — The quiet times which followed were interrupted in 1773 at the news that the tax on tea M'as reduced to six cents a pound. As tea could thus be bought cheaper in the colonies than in England, parliament thought that an ingenious plan had been found to induce the Americans to buy the tea and pay the tax. Chap. IX] I'ARTlES 11^ NEW YORK. 9?i But tliG colonists saw the trick. At New York city they organized a society of '' Mohawks/* to prevent tHe lauding of the tea-shiiJ then coming to tliat port ; and while a like party at Boston were throw- ing a ship-load into the harbor, the Mohawks of New York waited in vain for their storm-driven vessel. When the ship finally anchored in the bay, it was not allowed to land ; but another boat succeeded in getting eighteen chests to the dock, which were found and in broad day dumped into the harbor. Thus in all tlie colonies the final attempt of England to enforce taxation failed ; then parliament, changing its tactics, determined to reduce one colony thoroughly by force, and afterward to proceed to the rest. Accordingly it singled out Massachusetts, and closed the port of Boston. The other colonies Avere awake in a minute. Again in New York city the Fields held another crowd of excited men led by Lamb, McDougal, and Sears. This was known as the ''Great Meeting." One of the eloquent speakers was a slight, girlish-looking boy, seventeen years old, a student of King's college. The listeners said to one another, " Who is he ?" and the word was passed around, "Alexander Hamilton." Parties in New York. — New York sent words of sympathy to Massachusetts, but was much divided about what to do. 'Jliere were three parties in the province. First tories who wisliod fair terms witli England, but were intent on obedience at any price ; such were Golden, tlie DeLanceys, many of the church of England and those holding office under the crown. At the other extreme was the party headed by the Sons of Lib- erty ; such were Lsaac Sears, Alexander ]\IcDougal, John Morrin Scott, the workingmen and not a few of tlie rich. These men were bound to resist to the last ; tliey even talked of independence ; they collected arms, drilled, and were to New York v/hat the minute men were to Massachusetts. 94 THE I?ECTl2SrNING OF A REVOLUTION. [Period II Between these two factions was a third party, the leading men of whom were merchants, lawyers and farmers ; they were determined not to yield the main point, yet hoped and sought for reconciliation with England ; such were John Jay and the Livingstons. This party was the strongest, as was shown by the meetings held in 1774 to appoint delegates to the congress at Philadelphia. Indecision. — When this congress, sometimes called the first Continental Congress, took a firm stand in opposition to England, the assembly, which had long misrepresented the people of New York, refused by a vote of eleven to twelve to endorse the proceed- ings at Philadelphia. To add to the uncertainty of the time, the Sons of Liberty, joined by Massachusetts, bitterly attacked the moderate party for lack of zeal. Thereupon the king, getting his ideas through the royal officers and hearing of the action of the assembly, came to expect tliat New York would be loyal during the coming struggle. He had forgotten the New York of the stamp act time. There were indeed many tories in the colony, since there were so many royal officers. But at the same time there were many Dutch, Irish and French, with no ties to bind them to England. The merchants, too, were thought more desirous of money getting than of risking their property in opposition to England. But while they hoped strongly for peace, they had an unshaken determination to maintain their rights to the last. More- over, Sir William Johnson was relied upon to carry the interior for the king ; but he was hesitating, and while he hesitated, he died. Of the final action of the mass of the people there was no doubt ; occasion only was needed. Decision. — The occasion came on one Sunday morning, the twenty-second of April, 1775. As the people were going to church, swift riders flew past with the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, three days before. Tlie tory assembly never dared to meet again. Governor Tryon remained with what little authority Chap. IX] SrMMARY OF PERIOD TI. 95 he could hold until October and then l)etook himself to the man-of- war Asia, which hovered about the bay. English rule iu the city might for a time be restored; iu the new-born State of New York it was ended forever. SUMMARY OF EVENTS, — PERIOD II. 1GG4. Nichols the first English governor. 1673. Surrender to the Dutch fleet. Colve military governor. IGTi. New York restored to the English by treaty. Andros governor. 1G82. Deiavvare purchased by William Penn. 1G83. Dongan governor. Assembly called ; a charter formed ; the colony divided into counties. 1G85. The Duke of York becomes James II. 1G8G. New York and New England consolidated as one colony. 1C88. English revolution of 1G88. 1G89. Union with New England dissolved. Leislcr usurps control. 1G90. Burning of Schenectady. IGOl. Death of Leisler. 1G0.3. First printing press in the colony. 1G98. Bellomont governor. 1709-11. Failure of the expeditions against Montreal. n'-iO. Burnet governor. 1722. Settlement of Oswego. 1731. The French build a fort at Crown Point. 1732. Public Fi'cc School organized in New York city. 1735. Trial of Zenger. 1737. Kevenue granted for one year only. 1741. Negro panic. 96 THE BEGINNING OF A REVOLUTION. [Period II 1745. Saratoga destroyed in King George's war. 1754. The Albany congress. 1755. Beginning of the French and Indian war ; battle of Lake George. 1756. Capture of Oswego by Montcalm. 1757. Surrender of Fort William Henry to the French. Massacre at Palatine Village. 1758. Defeat of regular and provincial troops at Ticonderoga. Ca2)ture of Fort Frontenac. 1759. Capture of all French posts in New York. 1760. Navigation laws revived and enforced. 1765. Stamp Act, November 1 ; Congress at New York city. 1766. Stamp Act repealed. The liberty pole. 1767. Duties on imports. Vermont decided to be part of New York colony. 1770. Battle of Golden Hill. 1771. Tryon governor. 1774. Arrival of the ta:xed tea. Great meeting in the Fields occasioned by the Boston Port Bill. First Continental Congress. 1775. lyron, the last oingiish governoi-, ;eaves tne colony. I=»EISIOr5 III. CHAPTER X. New York ik the Revolutiok. — 1775-1781. Tlie Revolutionary war was simply the last of a long series of contests for j)olitical freedom, — a series in which were the first peti- tions for a charter, the Leislerian uprising against the aristocracy, the contest for an honest use of the revenue, the Zenger trial, the defeat of the Stamp Act, the non-importation agreement. The Green Mountain Boys. — The men who first gained a vic- tory over English soldiers in New York were a baud of despised out- laws. The present State of Vermont had been declared to be part of New York. The New York government, however, had unwisely attempted to exact from the settlers of the New Hampshire grants a second price for their improved farms. Sheriffs were sent to enforce the claims ; these New York ofiicers met armed resistance and in a skirmish at Westchester killed a man and wounded others. In defense the inhabitants raised a band of militia called the Green Mountain Boys. They were led by such men as Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, for whose capture as outlaws the assembly of New York offered a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars each. Just as a war between colonies seemed probable, news of Lexing- ton came ; and brave bands organized to fight colonists turned against a common foe. On the night before the tenth of May, 1775, Ethan Allan took eighty-three men across Lake Champlain from tho Vermont side, surprised the English garrison, took them (97) 08 NEW YORK IX THE REVOLUTION. [Period III prisoners ''In the name of the Great Jehovali and the Continental Congress/'' and thns easily possessed himself of great stores and of that fortress for Avhieli large armies had fonght. The next day Crown Point snrrendered to Seth Warner ; and in a few days Lake Champlaiu was in the hands of the patriots. Choosing Sides. — The entire State was active. On the day of Allen's victory, John Jay, Eobert R. Livingston and George Clin- ton, of New York, were assembling with the delegates of other colonies in the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia ; com- panies of volunteers were drilling ; British troops were leaving New York city for Boston, the seat of action. Colonists could no longer remain neutral ; citizens found papers thrust before them upon which to declare which side they chose. Then it was evident that a majority of the people of New York wished to resist illegal tax- ation. Western Long Island did for a time seem to be under the control of the tories ; and in the valley of the MohaAvk, John John- son, son of Sir William Johnson, was collecting a company of royal militia. But even there the patriots outnumbered them, and at Scho- harie put to flight a comjDany of men wearing red cockades and in the affray killed an Indian. This was an unfortunate incident ; for the Iroquois were already inclined to side with the English and in the end a part of the Oneidas only aided the patriots. Military Events of 1775. — The patriots of New York were called upon by the Continental Congress to furnish for the war three thousand men. By that congress George Washington, of Virginia, had been chosen commander-in-chief of the forces to be raised, and on the twenty-fifth of June, eight days after the battle of Bunker Hill, he passed through the city of New York on his way to take command of the crowd of armed men hovering about Boston. Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery of 2\ew York Avere also appointed generals ; Schuyler was put in command of the army of the north with orders to protect the Canadian frontier. Further Chap. X] ORGANIZATION OF A STATE GOVERNMENT. 99 on ho ^va^! directed by congress, contrary to the advice of wise gen- erals, to invade Canada. But Schuyler falling sick turned over the command to Montgomery, a brave young Irishman, who," after gain- ing renown ia Europe, had married a daughter of Robert R. Liv- ingston and adopted New York State as his home. Montgomery, leading his men over the oft tried Lake Champlain route, took Montreal, joined Benedict Arnold marching from Washington's camp at Cambridge, and on the last day of 1775, in the vain charge upon Quebec, fell mortally wounded. New York the Centre of Action. — With the failure of the Canadian cxjjeditiou the first year of the Revolution ended. As the next year opened Washington held the English tightly in Bos- ton, and independence was boldly talked throughout the land. When in March Washington drove the English from Boston, he knew well that they would next attempt to land in the large harbor of New York. So hastening his troops he arrived in New York city in April and began to fortify the poorly defended island of Manhattan. The city became a camp ; powder and muskets were made ; the awkward farmers were drilled ; tories were ridden on rails ; families who were able to get away packed what they could carry and fled. Washington had little hope of keeping Howe's 25,000 veterans from New York city with his 17,000 raw militia, poorly clothed, fed and armed ; but he intended to make the capture as costly as possible. The Beginnings of a State Government.— Although armies were gathering, the organization of a State government was not to l)e neglected. The fu-.st step was a mass meeting at which a com- mittee of a hundred was appointed ; the committee called for a convention of the representatives of the people; the conveutioii ordered a more permanent assembly to be elected. The first busi- ness of the assembly was to appoint a committee of its members to draft a State constitution, .LofC. 100 NEW YORK IN THE REVOLUTION. [Period III On the ninth of July this assembly met at White Plains to con- sider the Declaration of Independence, which a few days before the Continental Congress had published to the world. The news of the declaration was welcomed with delight at Xcav York city ; and the statue of the king was melted into bullets. The new State of New York gave assent to the declaration and was the first thereafter to receive in its borders the hostile army of England. The English occupy New York City. — Before July was gone, Howe landed on Staten Island ; thence he crossed to Long Island ; late in the month of August he met and defeated the patriot army in the battle of Long Island and following them across the river, in Sep- tember, took possession of the city of New York. Washington did not at once leave the island but successfully fortified himself on Harlem Heights and at Fort Washington. This fortress was between the present One Hundred and Eighty-first and One Hundred and Eighty-sixth streets, ^'the highest point on the island and completely commanding the navigation of the river.'* Washington, however, finding that he was likely to be surrounded, left a garrison at the fort and retreated into Westchester county. Here he was The Lower Hud- defeated in an attempt to make a stand at White SON Valley in the t^, . , , <> i j. tvt ,1 n n Revolotion. Plains, but was more successiiil at JNorth Castle. When he learned, however, of the loss of Fort Washington and all Manhattan island, he determined to lead his army toward Phila- delphia ; so crossing the Hudson at King's Ferry, he turned south to begin the terrible retreat through New Jersey and closed the year with the brilliant capture of a thousand Hessians. AYashing- ton never again led the main army into New York State for battle. Yet he himself and his officers frequently returned to the Hudson to cross into New England. Chap. XJ burgoyne's invasion. 101 The Hudson RiTer never completely fell into the hands of the English ; and thus that valley was ever a connecting link between New England and the other States. Indeed this river was, us in the Frencli and Indian war, the key to success. The failure of the English to connect Montreal and New York city left the thirteen States a geographical unit. The English entrenched themselves at New York city, not merely because they had been driven from Boston, but because this was a great strategic point, a first step in securing the Hudson valley and tlius in cutting the colonies in two. Burgoyne's Invasion. — In accordance with this j)lan General Burgoyne was sent from England to Canada, thence to march over the Champlain route to the Hudson ; a second force under St. Leger was ordered up the St. Lawrence, over Lake Ontario and through the Mohawk valley ; while the English general at New York city was to move up the Hudson and meet Burgoyne and St. Leger at Albany. In the early spring of the year Burgoyne's ten thousand regulars, Hessians, tories and Indians were sailing up Lake Champlain. They easily captured Fort Ticonderoga and drove General Schuyler with his little army of the north back to Fort Edward. By this time St. Leger had made his way to Oswego and was ready to lay waste central New York. With him was John Johnson and his company of tories from Tryon and Schoharie counties ; and there too was Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawks with his band of Iroquois. This army, alwut two thousand in all, was soon at Fort Stanwix (Rome) besieging the little garrison. It was time for the farmers of tlie Moluiwk to awake. Battle of Oriskany. — The owners of the farms in the path of the English were mainly Germans, descendants of the Palatinates. Their commander of militia Avas General Herkimer. He called for all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, and taking eight 102 NEW YOKK IX THE REVOLUTION. [Period III hundred men, armed with muskets and rude spears, set forth to help his countrymen at Fort Stanwix. The band of farmers passed the site of Utica and within six miles of the fort, at Oris- kany, fell into an ambush. After the first murderous volley from the hid- den guns, the patriots sprang behind trees or turning back to back loaded and fired ; though outnumbered they had no thought of retreat. Men fought with knives hand to hand ; tories and their patriot neighbors were in deadly com- bat. For five hours the slaughter continued. There was no battle array to give confidence to the men ; no beating of drums or floating of banners infused the inspiration of war. At last the In- dians having lost their bravest chiefs fled, and the English retreated to the camp about Fort Stanwix. The field was left to the men of New York to bury their two hundred dead ; for a fourth of their number had fallen in this the bloodiest battle of the Revolution.* Herkimer himself was mortally wounded. Soon after this battle a rumor that Arnold was coming with help from the Hudson terrified the shattered invading army, and starting back to Oswego, they fled so hastily as to leave their arms behind. Burgoyne's expedition was doomed ; its fate was largely decided at Oriskany. This bat- tle " of all the Eevolution " brings glory to New Bukgotne's Invasion. York State. Here her farmers stopped the tide of invasion ; freed from fear on the west they turned eastward to defeat Burgoyne. * The number killed at Oriskany compared with the number engaged was larger than in any other battle of the war. Cliap. X] A STATE CONSTITUTION. 103 Surrender of Burgoyne- — He had already blundered. From Ticonderoga choosing the route by Wliitehall and Fort Ann rather than over Lake George, he sjient a full month climbing over the trees which Schuyler had left in his path to the Hudson. By that time militia had gathered increasing the American army to ten thousand men. At last on Bemis Heights the armies met and in the two battles, called the battles of Saratoga, the forces of Burgoyne Avore first checked and then crippled. The credit of these victories was not to go to Schuyler, for Congress in a fit of impatience had put in his place the inefficient Gates ; he simply carried out the plans of Schuyler and closed in upon Burgoyne. The English general held out in holies of help from General Clinton at Xew York. But Clin- ton contented himself with going up the Hudson as far as Kingston, and after wantonly burning that town sailed back to New York city. Burgoyne, at last, cut off from supplies on the north, disap- pointed in help from St. Leger and Clinton on the Avest and south, and beaten back at Bennington on the east, surrendered. The crisis of the Revolution was passed ; the States were still a unit. France saw the evidence of a strong people and offered her aid. From this time success in war, if not certain, was yet probable. The joy which filled American hearts at the defeat of Burgoyne could not be dispelled, during these last days of 1777, by Washing- ton's misfortune at the Brandywine and at Germantown, by the loss of Philadelphia, or by that winter's sufferings at Valley Forge. A State Constitution. — The same year marks the beginning of an organized State government. During the two years following the fall of the colonial government in 1775, the provincial congress meeting at various places along the Hudson had conducted civil affairs. One stern duty of those days was the expulsion of citizens hostile to the cause of freedom. Xor is it to be supposed that the toriea were few and scattering ; they were especially numerous in 104 NEW YORK IlSr THE REVOLUTION. [Pei'iod III the south-eastern counties. There were more tories in New York tlum in any other State. Such persons, if they were not thought deserving of harsher treatment, were banished to the English lines about New York city or were sent for safe keeping to New England. The temporary State congress early in 1777, having assembled at Kingston, adopted a constitution largely the work of John Jay. This constitution called for the election by the people of a gov- ernor and of a legislature of two branches ; and though it allowed human slavery and required the voter to be a property owner, it provided fully for the civil and religious liberty of the common citizens. The people now proceeded to elect George Clinton to be the first governor of the State of New York. Thus a territory governed for a hundred and fifty years by lawgivers from Amster- dam and London came under the control of rulers chosen by its own inhabitants. 1778. — In the following year the English changed their plan of war ; they withdrew from Philadelphia and on their retreat to New York city were attacked and defeated by Washington at Monmouth. This was the last general engagement at the north ; henceforth the English directed their activity toward the southern States ; and while their army there was overrunning Georgia and the Carolinas, the force at New York city was content to plunder the towns of the coast during the summer and to sj)end the winters with the tory inhabitants in feasting and gaming. Washington with his little army on the heights of New Jersey kept the enemy close to their headquarters. But the latter half of the war, in which many of the northern States were free from disturbance, brought to New York widespread loss of life and property. The operations in the State during these four years were of two kinds : — the Indian warfare west of the Cats- kills and in the Mohawk valley, and the incursions of the regular English army about the lower waters of the Hudson. Cliup. X] TIIOUBLE WITH THE INDIANS. 105 Indian Warfare. — Early iu the season of 1778 the Iroquois, eager to aveuge their loss at Oriskany, burst upon the settlements. Joined with them were many New York tories who, expelled from their homes, hacked down their former neighbors with more than Indian brutality. The settlements about Otsego lake were de- stroyed, Cobleskill and German Flats (Ilion) were burned ; the Schoharie valley was laid waste ; at Cherry Valley death and de- struction culminated. There a fort had been built and a company of troops stationed. The little town of three hundred inhabitants was the most important of the scattered settlements along the upper waters of the Susquehanna, settlements extending then to the present limits of Broome county. Up this river in late November, when further attacks were not feared, hastened a band of seven hun- dred Indians and tories fresh from the Wyoming massacre in Penn- sylvania. Walter Butler, son of John Butler, the rich and cruel tory of the Mohawk who led the raid into the Wyoming valley, headed this band of butchers. They cut down nearly fifty persons, mostly women and children, outside the fortifications ; and while they did not capture the fort, they destroyed the village and car- ried forty prisoners away.* Sullivan's Expedition, 1779. — The next year the patriots made a united effort to punish the Iroquois. From Fort Stanwix a com- pany marched westward to destroy the Onondaga towns. Another expedition under General Sullivan was sent by Washington himself up the Susquehanna. To join this force General James Clinton, a brother of Governor Clinton, set out from Al])any with a company of militia. They marched from the Mohawk to Otsego lake, and, damming the outlet of this for a while, floated down on the flood ♦ Fate had a fittin;? end for Walter Butler. When fleeing from defeat at Johnstown he was pursued hy an Oneida Indian who "with a rifle ball brought hira to the srround." " Butler now piteously begged for merry. The Oneida brandishing his tomahawk replied in broken English 'shcnv V;,i|iv i<.iii,.ii,hEUI01) J II. 117 SUMMARY OF EVENTS, — PERIOD 111. 1775. Tcin[)oniry Stutc government established. Capture of Ticonclerogu ; exjiedition to northern New York and Canada. 177(1. Capture of New York city by the English. New York ratifies the Declaration of Independence. 1777. Burgoyne's expedition; battle of Oriskany ; battles of Saratoga ; surrender of Burgoyne. State constitution adopted ; Clinton governor. 1778. Cherry Valley massacre. 1779. Sullivan's expedition ; Wayne's capture of Stony Point. 1780. Arnold's treason at West Point. 1781. Washington's army leave New York for the last cam- paign at Yorktown. Articles of Confederation take effect. 1783. Evacuation of New York city. 1784. Board of Regents formed. The legislature and congress meet at New York city. 1787. Formation of the constitution of the United States. 1788. New York adopts the constitution. 1789. Inauguration of Washington at New York city. CHAPTER XII. In the Last Decade of the Eighteenth Century. — 1790-lSOO. jSTew York city in 1789 aud 1790 was a lively place ; it; had recovered from the effects of the war ; it was the capital of the Slate aud of the United States. Its citizens were among the lead- ers of the new government. Alexander Hamilton, as the secretary of tlie treasury, was the foremost man of "Washington's administi-a- tion ; his plans for n national revenue put the government on a sornd foundation. In order to get a majority of congress to sup- }io:*t his measures he had to agree with Jefferson, of Virginia, to fix the permanent capital of the nation on the Potomac river. When this was decided, congress, after being at ISTew York city for a little over a year, adjourned to Philadelphia, there to remain until the new city of Washington was ready. The removal of the capital was no loss to the business interests of ISJew York city. Parties and Politics. — About the two men, Hamilton and Jefferson, the people of the nation were gathering into two parties. The party of Hamilton, who kept the name of federalists, Avere for so enforcing the constitution as to make a strong national gov- ernment. Among the men of this party in N'ew York State, were John Jay, then chief justice of the United States, and Schuyler and King, the United States senators. (118) _ Chap. XIIJ jonis" jay govekkok. 119 Tlie followers of Jefferson, most of whom hud been uuti-feder- alists, took tlie name of republicaus. They were suspicious of the new constitution and still fearft.l of a return to a monarchy. In New York the republicans were led Ijy the governor, George Clin- ton, and by Aaron Burr. This Ihirr was a young and able num ; ho was rapidly growing in popular favor, and after Schuyler's short term of two years lie took his place in the senate of the United States. Clinton had in 1702 been for fifteen years governor of the State. lu that year the federalists endeavored to defeat him and took John Jay for their candidate. In a vote of 1G,000,* Clinton was declared elected by a majority of one hundred and eight, after throwing out the votes of three federalist counties on account of some mistake in reporting the returns. There was a contest at once; the State was in a turmoil ; party spirit ran high. Jay, who had a plain majority of the votes, submitted calndy to the decision, and Clinton took the oflice for another term of three years. In the same year Washington and Adams were reelected for their second terms. Adams was not chosen vice-president without opj)o- sition ; for George Clinton received fifty of the one hundred and thirty-two electoral votes. John Jay Governor. — At the following election for governor, in 1795, the federalist party again nominated John Jay, as if to test the decision of three years before. Geoi'ge Clinton wisely refused to be a candidate and Jay was elected by a large majority. At the time of his election. Jay was coming from England, where he had just made the famous treaty, known as the Jay treaty, by which America gave up much in order to keep peace with Eng- land. While time has shown that such a course was best, Jay's iK'tion was then bitterly denounced. Hamilton, attempting to * The vote was, f 'linton S.MO; Jay. 8..'«.2. Tliis vote of lC.rr'2 was but, five ])cv cent of the population. At the present time fifteen to twenty per cent of the population vote at the election of governor. This shows how few men were voters when there was a property qualification. 120 FROM 1790 TO 1800. [Period IV address a meeLiiig iji Wall street in favor of the treaty, was pelted with stones. At this time the Livingston famil}', among them Brockhoist, the brotlier-in-law of Jay, joined the growing party of repul)licans. Still the federalist party was strong enough in the State to eou- trol the legislature the next year and thus to choose electors who voted for John Adams to succeed Washington as jiresident. At that time and for many years afterward the legislature selected the electors of j^-esident. so that there was no presidential election by the voters of the State. The Case of Veriiiout. — While national matters were taking so much attention, the State had important questions to decide. SoOn after the formation of the union, the long-continued Vermont trouble was settled. It had broken out more than once since the days of Allen and Warner ; the right of New York over the land between the Connecticut river and Lake Champlain had never been enforced. During the Revolution, Vermont had declared itself independent of New York under the name of New Connecticut. So matters went along until after the constitution Avas adopted, when New York consented to Vermont's coming in as a separate State. Thus the long struggle was ended, and Vermont had the honor of being the first member of the union received after the original States. Counties. — There was quite enough territory left in the State to busy the law-makers. Vast tracts in the central and Avestern parts were sold to speculators. Atone time five and a half million acres of State land were sold either fraudulently or foolishly at an average price of twenty cents an acre. New counties Avore fast being formed. Fornearly a hundred years after the organization of the original ten counties, there Avas no change in the number. A few j^ears before the ReA^olution two counties, now called Montgomery and Wash- ington, were set off'. No further division of the State was made until about 1790 when Clinton county in the north, Ontario in the west, and Columbia and Rensselaer counties east of the Hudson Chap. XII] WATEK WAYS. 121 were formed. About the same time, parts of Montgomery, formerly Tryou county, ouce so overrun by the ludiaus, were laid out as Her- kimer, Otsego, Saratoga and Schoharie counties, and along the Pennsylvania border Tioga was the first county established. Just before the close of the century a number of interior counties with Indian names, Cayuga, Chenango, Delaware, Oneida and Onondaga, were formed by the legislature. Steuben then marked the limit of settlement along the southern tier ; Essex was laid out by the side of its northern neighbor, Clinton, and from the large original counties along the west bank of the Hudson Eock- land and Greene were set off. Thus the number of counties at the beginning of the nineteenth century had increased to thirty. Water Ways. — It is noticeable that counties lying along water ways were first settled ; that the western lands of Ontario county were taken up before the central territory of Cortland county. The net-work.of lakes and rivers which covered the State rendered its ■settlement rapid. The 300,000 inhabitants of 1700 had become almost 600,000 ten years later. The people had already taken up the best farms along the upper Mohawk, the Genesee and Lake Chamj)lain. Many plans were proposed for improving the navigation of rivers and for cutting canals. Even before the Revolution the importance of connecting the waters of the Hudson river with Lake Champlain and with Lake Erie or Lake Ontario had been seen. lu 1792 two companies were formed to make the Mohawk river navigable by cutting canals around the impassable places. Four years later a private company dug a canal three miles long around Little Falls, and made shorter cuts at German Flats, and from the head waters of the Mohawk to Wood creek, which flows into Oneida lake. But the canals were poor and costly ; along the rivers boats had to be moved against the stream by sails and poles ; so that wagons were still used largely in the central parts of the State to get produce and goods to and from Albany. 122 FROM 1790 TO 1800. ' [Period IV Roads and Mails. — The country roads were for tlie most part mere wagon tracks over roots and trees and through mud-holes ; bridges were almost unknown. The road from Whitestown through Geneva was before 1800 continued to Buffalo. To the northward another road led from Albany to Clinton county, along the old Indian trail to Canada. A post rider in these days took the mails once in two weeks from Albany to the Genesee valley. Few letters were written in those days of few mails, no envelopes, no stamps, high postage and costly paper. The New York city post-ofiice was in part of a private house and a few boxes were enough for the city of fifty thousand inhabitants. There were but four newspajiers in the city a dozen years after the close of the Revolution, three at Albany, and outside of these places not more than ten newsjiapers were published in the State. The City of New York was now growing faster than any other city in America. A writer of the time says, ''The houses are gen- erally built of brick and the roofs tiled ; there remain a few houses after the old Dutch manner, but the English taste has prevailed almost a century. The j)rincipal part of the city lies on the east side of the island, although the buildings extend from one river to the other. The length of the city on the east side is about two miles, but falls much short of that distance on the banks of the Hudson. Its breadth, on an average, is nearly three-fourths of a mile, and circumference may be four miles." The water supply of the city was a problem ; the wells in the lower part of the city gave bitter Avater ; and lines of wagons carried better water in hogsheads from wells then in the upper part of the city, — places now called ''down town." The fresh water pond, where Canal street now is, was still a considerable body of water, and there John Fitch was working with a curious boat which he hoped to move witli steam. The lack of good water was charged as the cause of the frequent ej)ideniics of yellow fever which visited the city, carrying off in one year over two thousand victims, Chap. XII] PROGRESS ijsr the state. 123 Along the Hudson Riyer new life was infused by the growth of New York city and the development of the interior ; Hudson and Troy, places unknown at the close of the war, were outstrip- ping the older towns. Hudson was made a port of entry in 1 795, and at one time rivaled New York city in the amount of its ship- ping. Troy which was not settled until 1789 had before the close of the century nearly a million dollars of taxable property. " Grain and lumber were the source of this wealth." Just south of Troy, at Albany, the capital of the State was per- manently fixed in 1797 ; and that city has since remained the centre of the political warfare for which the State of New York has ever been noted. Progress. — The year 1800 saw the log cabins of the settlers along the south banks of the St. Lawrence, along the river banks of the Pennsylvania border, while Elmira, Bath and Canandaigua were little huddles of houses which had just been left behind by the advance guard of settlers. By 1800 New York had passed from the fifth to the third in population and wealth among the States of the union. The laboring men were still for the most part farmers ; but they were beginning to find other work. Iron had been discovered in the State and was being mined and made up into various forms ; the tanning of leather and the manufacture of clocks and hats were then infant industries. Among cloths, woolen, linen and even silk were made. The Schools of the State, in the rush of this rapid progress, fared poorly. The first college organized by the Board of Regents was Union college, at Schenectady, in 1795, The next year the Ecgents reported fourteen academies under their charge. One of these schools was founded by Samuel Kirkland, the missionary to the Oueidas, a school which has grown into Hamilton college. 124 FROM 1790 TO 1800. [Period IV The year 1795 is to be remembered as the time of the beginning of schools far more important than colleges and academies ; the com- mon j^ublic schools of New York date from that time. The legis- lature then voted the sum of fifty thousand dollars yearly for five years for the schools of the State ; and an equal amount was raised by the local taxation of the counties which chose to share in the distribution of the State money. Thus a hundred thousand dollars was spent on the common schools, the yearly cost of which a cen- tury later is twenty millions of dollars. Slavery. — A fact which agrees well with the little attention paid to schools is that human slavery still existed in New York. There were at this time about twenty thousand negro slaves in the State, or one in every twenty-five or thirty of the people. This ratio was not so large as in early colonial times ; the climate of New York did not foster slavery as did that of the southern States. John Jay had tried without success to prohibit slavery in the first constitution of the State ; and as governor he renewed his efforts. When he was a candidate for reelection in 1798, his opposition to slavery was used as an argument against him. But he was successful at the election and the next year partly successful in his efforts against slavery, and secured a law for the gradual freeing of the negroes. The Council of Appointment. — Governor Jay found himself hampered by a council of four senators elected by the assembly to act with the governor in appointing officers. The governor thought that the senators should merely advise him ; the council held that they with tlie governor had the actual power to appoint, and that a majority of the five, that is any three, could act even in opposition to the governor. This view of the matter was taken by a State con- vention called to settle the question. The number of appointed officers was large under the first constitution ; such officers as mayors of cities, sheriffs of counties and justices of the peace were then ap- Ciiap. XII] DOWNFALL OF 'JllK FFDEUALISTS. 125 pointed by the governor and his councih Not even the veto power was given to tlie governor under the first constitution, but it was vested in another council, called the council of revision. The Trouble with France. — State politics now gave way to the excitement caused by the threatened war with France. When, a few years before, Genet (zheh'na) came from France to excite sym- pathy for his country, he Avas heartily received by the republicans of New York and married a daughter of George Clinton. But in 1798 there was less sympathy for the French government which so basely insulted the United States. It was decided to fortify New York city, which had fallen an easy prey to the English army, at a cost of over a million dollars ; and Hamilton was under the aged Washington to be the real leader of the army. But the army never was needed ; and the mistakes of President Adams in dealing with the trouble with France helped to bring about the defeat of the federalist party at the next national election. Defeat of the Federalists. — The year 1800 marks the downfall of tlie federalist party. The death of Washington and the ill-feel- ing between the federalist leaders, Hamilton and Adams, hastened the defeat. New York, as has happened so often since, was the State which decided the presidential election. When the legisla- ture chose electors favorable to Jefferson, the defeat of Adams was certain. The next year John Jay refused to be again a candidate for gov- ernor ; and George Clinton, after six years of private life, was elected for a seventh term governor of the State of New York. OSAPTER XIII. Party Strife and National War. — 1801-1815. When in the opening year of tlie centnry George Clinton again became governor, he at once discharged all office-holders not of his party. This was the beginning of tlie spoils system in tlie politics of New York. Jay refused to remove competent officers, whom Clinton had left in office ; but henceforth party allegiance rather than ability was to be the first test of the public service. Leaders and Factions. — The republican party was now in full control of the State. Among the party leaders were Aaron Burr, Robert R. Livingston and DeWitt Clinton. Burr had reached the high office of vice-president of the United States ; but he was looked upon with distrust ; since he had been willing that a defect in the constitution should give him the presidency, an office to which the people had elected Thomas Jefferson. Chancellor * Robert R. Livingston was appointed min- ister to France by President Jef- ferson and there negotiated the GEORGE ciJXTON. purchaso of Louislana. Another distinguished citizen of New York had represented the nation at the court of France, Gouverneur Morris. Just before the federalist * The chancellor was the chief .iudpe of the court . Tell about the first schoolmaster and his duties. 16. Wliat provision was made for education? 17. Name some modem customs wliich wen' derived Ciiuu the Duteli. 18. AVhat else have we obtained from them? PERIOD II. CHAPTER IV. 1. Where did the Puritans at first wish to land? 3. What title had the Duke of York to New Netherland? 3. What means did he take to secure it? 4. Did the English drive out the Dutch? 5. What changes were made in the names of i>laces and of officers? 184 HISTORY OF THE EMPIKB STATE. 6. Did the colouists have the same rights under English rule that the New England colonics possessed? 7. Who was the first English governor? 8. IIow did his power compare with that of the Dutch governors? 9. What characteristic did he have whicli they lacked? 10. What difficulties did he meet? 11. How was the boundary between Connecticut and New York settled? 13. What was done with what are now the States of New Jersey and Delaware? 13. What became of Nichols? 14. Who took liis place, and how was he regarded? 15. How were the Indians treated by the first English governors? 16. Tell something of the condition of tlie colony under Lovelace. 17. What led the Dutch to make an attack on New York city? 18. Did the Dutch residents help defend the city? 19. In what ways had the rule of the English disappointed them? 20. Who was in command of the Dutch fleet? Of the city? 21. Describe the attack. 23. Why was the capture l)y the Dutch fairer than that by the English nine years before? 33. Who was put in command of the colony ? 24. Why did the Dutch give New York back to the English? 25. Who was the next governor, and liow did he show his activity ? 26. What was the population of the colony at this time? Of New York city? 27. What act had built up this city at the expense of the others? 28. Give a description of the city. 29. Tell something of Long Island and Brooklyn. 30. How did their education compare with what it had been under Dutch rule? 31. Tell something of their punishments. 32. What was generally used for money? 33. What were the chief exports? 34. What were the duties on imports? 35. Wliy was Andros recalled and who succeeded him? 36. How did Dongan compare with former governors? 37. What was his first act? 38. What was the date of the first charter of New York, and what were its chief provisions? QUESTIONS. 186 39. What did the Duke require of the assembly in return for this charter? 40. How did he keep his pledge with them? 41. What union of colonies was formed? 42. Who was sent as governor of the colonies, and who as lieutenant-gover- nor of New York? 43. Wliat two parties were growing up in the colony? 44. What change took place in England at tliis time, and how did this affect the colonists? 45. AYho assumed the duties of governor and how did he come to do so? 46. Tell something of his administration. 47. What governor was appointed by the new king? 48. Wliat led to the arrest of Leisler, and how was his death warrant obtained ? 49. Give an account of his death. 50. How was he afterwards regarded? CHAPTER V. 1. What was the disputed territory between New France and New York? 2. What claim Iiad each to this? 3. Give an account of Isaac Jogues and La Moyne. 4. Tell something of the condition of the Iroquois. 5. What progress did the Jesuits make? 6. Describe the French invasion of New York. 7. Why did the French covet the Hudson Valley? 8. What expedition did they m;ike into Western New York? 9. What fort did they build and with what result? 10. Tell what you can of Count Frontenac. 11. Give an account of tlie burning of Schenectady. 12. Mention other raids of the French in the folk^wing years. 13. Who was the most notable leader of New York forces, and what did he do? 14. What was done in Queen Anne's War? 15. What were the strong and tlie weak points of tlie French asid English as shown in these wars? CHAPTER VI. 1. What names were given to tli/j two political parties in New York, and why? 186 HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE. 2. Tell something of Fletcher. 3. Give an account of the trouble with the pirates. Who was Captain Kidil? 4. Who followed Fletcher, and which party did he favor? 5. How was the assembly chosen at this time and of how many did it cou- dst? 6. Who came as governor after Bellomont's death iiud how did he compare with Bellomont? 7. How did the dispute between the people and the government of England arise? 8. What power did the assembly hold over the governors? 9. Tell about the salary of the governors. 10. Name the fom* leading men of the colony. 11. Illustrate the way in which Cornbury made himself disliked. 12. Who is the next governor mentioned? 13. Give the population of the colony during the eighteenth century. 14 What i^arts were settled ? 15. Give an account of the the colonization scheme of Governor Hunter. 16. What advantage did the English have over the French in tlie trade with the Indians? 17. What governor followed Hunter and what can you say of him? 18. What steps did he take to defeat the attempts of the French ? 19. How was he hindered and in what ways did he become unpopular? 20. Give some account of Governor Cosby. 21. Tell about the first printing press and the newspaper published in the colony. 22. What was the cause of starting an opjDOsition paper? 23. On what charge was Zeuger arrested? 24. Give an account of his trial. 25. Name an important result of the verdict of this trial. 26. Who became acting governor after Cosby 's death? 27. What did the assembly say to him? 28. How did he and other governors become wealthy? 29. About how many negroes were there in New York city ? 30. What charge had been made against the negroes years before? 31. Give an account of tlie Negro Plot of 1741. 32. Were any white persons implicated? 33. Wlio succeeded Clarke? 34. What did the assembly refuse him and what did they demand? QUESTIONS. 187 CHAPTER VII. 1. Give some account of King George's war, 2. Why were not the advance posts of New York better protected? 3. How did the French break the treaty made after this war? 4. Why was the Albany convention called ? 5. "Wliat colonies were represented? 6. AVhat proposal was made by Benjamin Franklin? 7. In what year did the French and Indian war begin? 8. Tell what you can of the cause of this war? 9. Give an account of Sliirley's Expedition. 10. Name the two forts held by each side in north-eastern New York. 11. What was the one victory of the English in 17.j;j? 13. What ifew leader was sent to the French the next year and what did he do? 13. How did this affect the Iroquois? 14. How were the soldiers of tlie colony regarded by tlie English troops? 15. Describe the surrender of Fort William Henry. 16. How was the following winter spent? 17. Give an account of Abercrombie's attack on Fort Ticonderoga. 18. How was Fort Frontenac taken and with what result? 19. What general was sent out by the English and what fortress did he capture? 20. How was the war finished? 21. AVhat was the result of the war? 23. In what ways had it helped the colonists? 23. Name some of the cities which grew up around forts. CHAPTER VIII. 1. Name the counties of Long Island. 2.„ How did the settlers of tlie eastern jiart of the island differ from those in the rest of the colony? 3. What can you say of the settlement of the western part of Long Island? 4. Describe New York city. 5. AVhat was its population? 6. How did it compare in importancewilh the rest of tlie State? 7. What had been the established chureli during Dutch rule? 8. AVhat was the favored cinircli under English rule''' 9. Name some other denominations found in the colonj 188 HISTOKY OF THE EMPIRE STATE. 10. Tell about the public buildings of the city. 11. "What and where was the tirst college of the State? 12. What was the condition of education under English rule? 13. Tell something of the southern Hudson counties. 14. Describe the counties along the Hudson. 15. Give some idea of the extent of Albany county, and name some (jf the villages. 16. Tell something of the ways of traveling, of the mails, the life of the common people and the manner of dress. 17. Name some of the great families of the State and tell how they lived. 18. How many acting governors did New York have in the century before the Revolution? 19. Give some reasons for the frequent changes. 20. Tell what you can of Sir William Johnson. CHAPTER IX. 1. What were the navigation laws and their effect upon the colonies? 2. What is meant by the Stamp Act, and when was it passed? 3. AVhat effect had this on the colonists? 4. Why was it so strongly opposed? 5. How were the colonies xmited? 6. What did the colonial congress of 1765 do? 7. Give an account of November 1, 1765. 8. Was the Stamp Act ever enforced ? 9. What was the Quartering Act? 10. Give an account of the liberty poles of New York city. 11. What were non-importation societies, and why were they formed? 12. What bill did parliament wish the assembly to pass? 13. How did the Englisli try to force the assembly to do this, and with what result? 14. What were the names given to the two parties in the colony? 15. Give some account of the troubles with the Indians. • 16. Why would a general uprising of the Indians of the State have been especially dangerous at this time? 17. How was the boundary between Connecticut and New York decided? 18. What led to the contest between New Hampshire and New York? 19. By whom was it settled and in whose favor? QUESTIONS. 1 89 20. Wliat reaction was there, and what kind of an assembly was chosen? 21. How did the new assembly displease the people? 22. How did the soldiers irritate the people, and what celebrated tight occurred? 23. Under what circumstances was trade with England resumed? 24. "Wliy had New York suffered more than the other colonies fioin non- importation? 25. For what is Lord Dumnore's administration noticeable? 26. Who was the last English governor? 27. What was England's last attempt to enforce taxation? 28. What was tlie plan of parliament after the failure with tlic tea tax? 29. "WTiat port was closed? 30. Tell of the three parties in New York. Which was the strongest? 31. Did the New York assembly endorse the action of the first Continental Congress? 32. Tell something of the feeling of the people. 83. What was the effect of the news of the battle of Lexington? PERIOD III. CHAPTER X. 1. Give an account of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. 2. How did the Green mountain boys happen to 1)e organized? - 3. ^VTiat congress met on the same day? d 4. AVhich side did most of the Indians support? , 5. How many men was New York called to furnish at first? ; 6. What two men of the State were appointed generals' 7. Tell what you can of ]\Iontgomery. 8. After the English were driven from Boston, where were they expected? i 9. Did Washington hope to keep them out of the city? j 10. What steps were taken toward a State government at this time? '] 1 1 . How was the Declaration of Independence received ? * 12. What battle was fought before the English took possession of New York . city? ' 190 HISTOEY OF THE EMPIRE STATE. 13. Give some account of Washington's retreat. 14. Why was the possession of the Hudson important? 15. How did the English plan to get possession of it? 16. What successes did Bvirgoyne meet? 17. What was the plan of St. Leger's expedition and who were with him? 18. Describe the battle of Oriskany. 19. Why was the defeat of St. Leger's troops especially important? 20. How was the march of Burgoyne hindered ? 21. In what battles was he defeated? 22. Who was in command of the American army ? 23. What were some of the effects of this victory ? 24. How were the tories of the State treated ? 25. In what year was the first State constitution adopted? 26. Give some of its provisions. 27. Who was the first governor of the State? 28. What did the English force in New York city do during the last years of the war? 29. What kept them from making further incursions into the State? 30. In what two ways did New York suffer? 31. Describe the massacre of Cherry Valley and otlicr raids of the Indians and tories. 32. Give an account of Sullivan's expedition. 33. Why was this undertaken and with what result? 34. What other places suffered from the Indians? 35. Tell something about the capture of Stony Point. 36. What events happened at West Point, Tarrytown and Tappan? 87. Compare the treatment of Nathan Hale and that of Major Andre. 38. How did the English treat their prisoners ? 39. Describe the last campaign of the war. CHAPTER XI. 1. In wliat year were the Articles of Confederation adopted? 2. How many States had ratified them? 3. State their chief provisions. 4. Name some powers, now belonging to the United States government, which were then lield by the legislature of the State. 5. What was the extent of the United States at the Ton H., 162 Clarke, George, 65, 66, 07 Clermont, 129, 130 Cleveland, Grover, 172, 173 Clinton, Admiral, 67, 69 Clinton, Dewitt, 113, 114, 115, 131, 132, 137, i:38. 140, 141. 143-146. 148, 149, 154, 159, 161 Clinton, Gen. (English), 103, 107, 108 Clinton, George, 89, 98. 104, 113, 114, 119, 125-127, 131, 139 Clinton, James, 105 Clintonians, 137 Golden, Cadwallader, 82, 87, 03, 1.39 Columbia College, 78, 113, 1.35 Columbus, 9 Colve, Anthony, 38, 39 Commerce. See trade. Confederation, jVrticles of, 109, 114 Congi'ess, Colonial, 86 Congress, Continental, 94, 98, 100, 109, 110, 113, 114 Conkling, Roscoe, 173 Connecticut, 22, 36, 40, 75, 90, 112 Constitutions, 103, 104. 114-116. 141, 142, 160 Cooper, Fenimore, 107 Cooper, Peter, 156 Cornbury, Lord, 57, 58, 60 Cornell, Alonzo B., 172 Cornell University, J70 199 200 HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE. Comwallis, Gen., 108 French, 10, 11, 15,47 -^5, 61, 69-73, 108 Cosby, Gov., 63-65 Frontenac, Count, 52,53 Council (colonial), 56 Frontenac, Fort, 51, 52, , 62, 71, 73 Council of appointment, 124, 142 Fulton, Robert, 129, 140 Council of revision. 125, 142 Counties, 45, 75, 79, 80, 120, , 121, 146, 163 Criminals, 18,129 Gates, Gen., 103 Crown Point, 71, 73, 98 Geddes, Joseph, 140 Customs, 30, 32, • 42,81,83,163 Genet, German Flats, Grant, Gen., 125 61, 105 170, 173 De Lancy, Stephen, 63,70 Greeley, Horace, 156, 166, 173 Delaware, State of. Democrats, 36 143, 151, 168 Greenback Party, 173 Dunmore, Gov., 92 Dickens, Charles, 158 Half Moon, the, 12, 13 Dickinson, Daniel S., 163 Hale, Nathan, 107, 108 Dix, John A., 159, 172 Hamilton, Alexander, 79, 93, 112, Dongan Charter, 43, 44, 45 114, 115, 118 , 125, 127, 128 Dongan, Thomas, 43, 45, 52 Hamilton, Andrew, 64,65 Draft Riots, 168, 169 Hamilton College, 123, 135 Draper, Andrew S., 177 Harrison, William Henry, 152 Dress, 31,81,82 Hawley, Gideon, 143 Duke of York, 34, 39, 44, 45, 46 Hendrick, King, 70 Duke's Laws, the 30 Herkimer, Gen., Hill, David B., Hoffman, John T., 101, 102 172 170, 172 Education, see schools. Houses, 29 Edward. Fort, 71, 72, 101 Howe, Gen., 99, 100 Embargo, 1.30, 131 Hudson, Henry, 0, 10, 11, 12, 13 Erie Canal, 11,130,139-146,155 Hudson, river, 10, 11, 14, 51. , 101 ,10 7, 108, 123 Esopus, 19, 24, 37, 43 Hudson (city). 123 Evacuation Day, 110 Hunt, Washington. 162 Evarts, William M., 173 Hunter, Robert, 60, 61, 62 Evertsen, Cornells, 38 Falls, Niagara, 175 Federalists, 115, 118, 119, 120, 125, 126, 131, 132, 137 Fenton, Reuben E., 169, 170 Field, Cyrus W., 156 Fish, Hamilton, 162, 163 Fitch, John, 122, 130 Fletcher, (Jov., 55, ,56, 04 France, 9, 103, 125 Franklin, Benjamin, 70 Fremont, John C. 166 Ingoldsby, Richard, 47 Irondequoit Bay, 52 Iroquois, 9. 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 37. 49-54, 70, 73, 83, 89, 98, 101, 102, 104, 106, 110, 112, 1*S, 139 Irving. Washington, 17, 139, 158 Jackson, Gen., 149, 151 James II., see Duke of York. Jay, John, 94, 98, 104, 115, 118, 119, 134-126, 138, 148 Jay, Peter, 139 IKDEX. 201 Jay, William, 139 Jeffeison, Thomas, 118, 119, 1-,'5.12G, 157, 131, 148 Jesuits, 49-51 Jogues, Isaac, 49 Johnson, John, 9S. 101, 106 Johnson. Sir William, 70-73. S3, sn, 91 Kent, James, Kidd, Captain, Kieft, William Kin;;, John A. Kins, Piufus, King's College, see Columbia. Kingston, Kirkland, Samuel, Kossuth, 14C 5G 17-19, 21, 24, 27 162, 166 116, 118, 112 80, 103, 107 123 158 Labor Parties, 173 Lafayette, 5& Lamb, John, 91, 93 L e Moyne, 50 Lansing, 114, 115 Lee, Ann, 164 Lee, Gen., 168 Leisler, Jacob, 46-48 Leislerians, 55 Lewis, Morgan, i2r, 128, 131 Lincoln, Abraham, 166, 167. 169 Lind, Jenny, . 158 Livingston, Brockholst, 120, 127 Li^-ingston, Robert, 59, 60, 98 Livingston, Robert R., 115, no, 126, 129, 140, 149 Long Island, 9, 11, 15. 22, 37, 41, 43, 60, 61, 75, 100 Lovelace, Lord, 37, 38 Lundy's Lane, 133 Mac donough. Commodore, Madison, President, Mails, Manhattan Island, Manning, Captain, Manufactures, iii, 135 131, 132, 138 81, 122 13, 18. 19 •■iS 183, 129, 176, 177 Marcy, William L., Martha's Vineyard, May, Captain, McClellan, Gen., McDougal. Alexander, Megapolensis, John, Mexican War, 3IilI)orne, driller, William, Mining, Minuet, Peter, Mohegans, Money, Monroe, President, Montcalm, Montgomery, Richard, Montreal, Morgan, Edwin D., Morgan, William, >Iorris, Gouverneur, Morris. Lewis, Morse, Samuel F. B., Nantucket, Navigation Laws Negro Plot, New Amsterdam, see New York City. New France, New Netherland, Newspapers, New York city. 143, 151, 163 36, 40 14, 16 168 91, 93 27 165 47,48 164 123 16-19, 21 10 42, 60 138, 143, 148 71. 72, 73 98, 99 13, 52, 53 166 150 126, 127, 139, 140 59. 60, 04 156 36 84 66, 67 15, 20, 25. 28. 49, 51 14, 19 64, 84, 85, 122, 129, 156 37,51,01,66,76-78,82, 85-88. 91-93. 99, 100, 104, 111, 113, 110, 118, 122, 125, 129, 132, 131, 145, 140, 151, 155-158, 167-169, 174, see New Amsterdam. Niagara, Fort, 52, 63, 69, 70, 73, 112. 132 Nichols, Richard, 34-37 Nicholson, 45, 46 Non-importation, 88, 89 Normal schools, 160, 170, 177 Noyes, John H., 164 Ogdensburg. 69, 74, 112, 133 Oriskany, battle. 101, 102 Orange, Fort. 16, 19, 35 Oswego, 62. 70, 71, 73, 80, 101, 102, 112, 1:33- 203 HISTOKY OF THE EMPIRE STATE. Palmyra, 164 Sandy Hook, 10, 13, 134 Panics, financial, 151, 173 Saratoga, 69, 80, 103 Parties, 45, 119, 125, 137, 143, 166, 172, 173 Schenectady, 20, , 27, 51, 52, 61, 80 Patriot war, 153, 154 Schools, 32,41. 79, 123, 124, 128, Patroons, 16,82 135, 136, 143, 148, 159-162,170,171, 177 Pavonia, 15, 19, 22 Schuyler, Peter, 53, .55, 59, 63 Pemaquid, 43 Schuyler, Philip, 89, 98, 99, Penn, William, 43 101, 10.3, 112, 115, 116, 118. 119 People's Party, 143, 144 Sears, Isaac, 88. 9;j Physicians, 139 Seward, William H., 151, 153, 163, 105, 166 Pirates, 55, 56 Seymour. Horatio, 102, 168, 170 Pitt, 73, 88 Shakers, 160 Plattsburuh, 134 Slaves. 20, 67. 124. 138, 165-174 Population, 19, 20, 40, 01, 76, Sloughter, Gov., 47, 48, 55 112, 113, 121, 123, 146, 155, 169, 174, 175 Smith, Joseph, 164 Poughkeepsie, 80, 115, 175 Smith, Melancthon, 115 Prisons, 128, 163 Smith, William, 59. 60, 64, 65, 70 Produce, 41, 163, 176 Sons of Liberty, 65, 8.5, 88, 91-94, 112 Prohibition, 162, 173 Spencer. Ambrose, 142 Puritans, 34 Stamp Act, Stanwix, Fort, Steamboats, 84, 85, 87, 88 101, 102, 105 129 Qualiers, 20, 78, 139 Steuben, Gen., 112 (Quartering; Act, 85, 88 Stewart, Alexander T., 156 Quebec, 73, 99 St. Leger, Gen., 101-103 Queen Anne's War, 53, 54 Stony Point, 107 Queenstown Heights, i;?3 Stuyvesant, Peter, Sullivan, Gen.. Sunday Schools, 17, 21, 23-25, 27 105, 106 135, 136 Railroads, 154 Swedes, 21 Randall, Samuel S., 160 SjTacuse, 10, 151 Raj-mond, Henry J., I.-5O Regents, 113, 123, 170, 171 Religion, 81, 45 ,49, 55,' 77,78, 91, 104 Tammany, is: Rensselaerwicli, 16, 19. 43 Throop, Enos T., 149, 150 Republicans (democratic-republ ican party). Ticonderoga, Fort, 71-73, 98, 101 119, 125, 126, 127, .see anti -federalists. Tilden, SamuelJ., 172, 173 and democrats. Tompkins, Daniel D. , 131, 137 , 138, 141, 142, 149 Republican party (modern). 166, 169 Tories, 45, 89, 93, 94, 103,105, 111, 112 Rice, Victor M.. 162 Trade. 17, 37, 42, 61, 63 , 92, 112, 1.58, 176 Roads, 122, 1.54 Travel. 80, 156, 174 Robinson, Lucius, 172 Troy, 123 Rochester, 144, 145, 151 Tryon, Gov., 92,95 Roelandsen, Adam, 32 Tryon (county). 106 Rome, 74, 139, 141 Tweed, William H., 174 Sackett's Harbor, 133 Underbill, John, Union College, Ury, John. Utica, Van Buren, ^Nfartin, Van Curler, Van Dam, Rip, Van Kensselaer, Kilian, Van Rensselaer, Stephen, Van Twiller, Walter, Vermont, Virginia, Vries, de. Warner, Seth, Washington, Fort, Washington, Geo., 108. 110, 111 Water\-liet, Wayne, Anthony, 107 INDEX. •203 13.3, 1.35 Webster, Noah, 127 67 Weed, Thurlow, 1.5G V4. 141. 151, 165 West Indian Company, Dutch, 10 West Point, 107 Wheeler, William. A., 17? 1-37, 143, Whigs, 151. 152, 160 143, 149, 151, 153, l.>4 White, Hugh, 113 27 ^^hitest(>wn, 113, 122 63, CA Wilkiuiion, Jemima, 164 16 William TTeury, Fort, 71,72 2, 143 \Villiam, King, 46 17 Wolfe, Gen., 73 90, 97, 130 Wright. Silas, 153,162,163 11.5, 138 ar Yates. 114, 115 Yates, Joseph <^., 1.34 97,98 York town. 108 100 Young, John, 153, 162 11, 98- -100, 103-105, 116, 118, 119, 13.5, 139 164 Zenger, Peter, 84,65 GOVEENOliS OF KEW YORK. COLONIAL. Cornelius Jacobsen May, 1634 Earl of Bellainont, 1C98 William Verhulst, 1035 Peter Minuet, 1626 Wouter Van Twiller, 1633 William Kieft, 1038 Peter Stuyvesaut, 1647 Eichard Nicolls, 1664 Francis Lovelace, 1668 Cornells Evertse, Jr.,* 1673 Anthony Colve, 1673 Edmund Andros, 1674 Anthony Brockholles,t 1677 John >"anran,i 1699 Earl of Bellamont, 1700 Eldest Councillor pres- ent,§ 1701 John Nanl'uu,:!: 1701 Lord Cornbury, 1703 Lord Lovelace, 1708 Peter Schuyler,§ 1709 Eichard Ingoldesby,t 170 Peter Schuyler,§ 1709 Richard InKoldesby.J 170 Sir Edmund Andros, Knt., 1678 Gerardus Beeckman,g 1710 Anthony Brockliolles.t 1681 Eobert Hunter, 1710 Thomas Dongan, 1683 Sir Edmund Andros, 1688 Francis Nicholson, 1 1688 Jacob Leisler, 1689 Henry Sloughter, 1691. Eicliard Ingoldesby,t 1691 Benjamin Fletcher, 1693 '•■ And a Council of War. t Commander-in-Chief. Peter Schuyler,? 1719 William Burnet, 1780 John Montgomery, 1728 Eip Tan Dara,§ 1731 William Cosby, 1733 George Clarke,§ 17'.36 George Clarke.t 1736 t Lieutenant-Governor. § President of the Council. George Clinton, 1743 Sir Danvers Osborne, Bart., 1753 James De Lancey,^ 1753 Sir Charles Hardy, Knt., 1755 James De Lancey.t 1757 Cadwallader Colden,§ 1760 Cadwallader Colden,i 1761 Eobert Monckton, 1701 Cadwallader Colden,$ 1761 Eobert Monckton, 1763 Cadwallader Colden,t 1763 6ir Henry Moore, Bart., 1765 Cadwallader Colden.i 1769 Earl of Dunmure, 1770 William Tryon, 1771 Cadwallader Colden,t 1774 William Tryon, 1775 James Eobertson,] 1780 Andrew Emott,t S 1783 Military Governors during the Eevolution, not recognized by the State of New York. PEESIDENTS OF THE PEO\^NCIAL CONGEESS, Etc Peter vari Brugh Livington, 1775 Nathaniel Woodhull,* 1775 Abraham Yates, Jr.,* 1775 ♦ Pro-ternpore. GOVEENOES George Clinton, 1777 John Jay, 1795 George Clinton, 1801 Morgan Lewis. 1804 Daniel D. Tompkins. 1807 John Tayler,* 1817 DeWitt Clinton. 1817 Joseph C. Yates, 1833 DeWitt Clinton, 1835 Nathaniel Pitcher.* 1838 Martin Van Buren, 830 Enos T. Throop.* j,S39 * Lieutenant-Governor Nathaniel Woodhull. 1775 John Haring,* 1776 Abraham Yates, Jr.,* 1776 Abraham Yates, Jr., 1776 Peter E. Livingston, 1776 Abraham Ten Broeck, 1777 Leonard Gansevoort,* 1777 Pierre Van Cortlandt,t 1777 \ President of the Council of Safety. SINCE ADOPTION OF THE Enos T. Throop, 1831. William L. Marcy, 18;« William II. Seward, 1839 William C. Bouck, 1843 Silas Wriglit, 1845 John Young, 1847 Hamilton Fish, 1849 Washington Hunt, 1851 Horatio Seymour, :;853 Myron II. Clark, 1855 John .. King, 1857 Edr,-in D. Morgan, 1859 acting as Governor. (204) CONSTITUTION. Horatio Seymour, 1803 Eeuben E. Fenton, 1805 John T. Hoffman, 1869 John A. Dix, 1873 Samuel J. Tilden, 1875 Lucius Robinson, 1877 Alonzo B. Cornell, 1880 Grover Cleveland, 1883 David B.Hill,* 1885 David B. Hill, 1886 Eoswell P. Flower, 1893 BUUlv8 OiN KEW YOEK STATE HISTORY Without atteinptiiis: to gi\e a bibliography of New York State history, a classified list of the most helpful books is appended. State Histories. New York, American Commonwealth Series, 2 vols, (to 1885), Ellis II. Roberts. Empire State (to 188T), Benson ... Lossing. History of the State of New York, 2 vols, (to 1G91), John U. Broadhead. History of New Y'ork, 2 vols, (to 1 1'89), William Dunlap. Documentary History of New York, 4 vols., E. B. O'C'allashan. History of the Province of New Y'ork (to 17G2) William Smith. (See p. 59, note, supra). Political History of New York. 2 vols. (1788-1841), Jalwz B. Hammond. History of Political Parties in the State of New York (1783-1844), J. S. Jenkins. The Natural, Statistical and Civil History of the State of New Y'ork, 3 vols, (to 1800"). James ilacauley. History of New Netherland, E. B. O'Callaghan. New York during the Kevolutionary War, 2 vols., Thomas Jones. History of New York State (to 1870), S. S. Randall. New Y'ork City. History of the City of New York, 2 vols, (to 1878), Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. Shorter works under similar titles by ISIary L. Booth (to 1859), William L. Stone (to 1870), D. T. Valentine (to 1853), and Benson J. Lossing. New York, Historic Towns Series, Theodore Roosevelt. Story of the City of New York, Charles Burr Todd. Memorial History of the City of New York (to be completed in four volumes to 1892) -Gen. J. G. Wilson. Indians and French in New York. History of the Five Nations, Cadwallader Colden. Notes on the Iroquois, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. League of the Iroquois, Lewis Henry Morgan. Parkman's Works, especially. Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America, The Old Regime in Canada, Gaunt Frontenac and New Fiance under Louis XIV., Montcalm and Wolfe. Biographies. The f ollo\sing biogi-aphies are in the American Statesmen Series : Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge. C;ouvernenr Morris, Theodore Roosevelt. ^lartin Van Buren, Edward M. Shepard. John Jay, George Pellew. In the -Makers of America Series, Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations, William Elliot Griffis, is a recent and valuable contribution to New York history. Biographies of Johnson, Branr and Red Jacket, William L. Stone. Lives of the Governors of .\ew York, 1 vol. (to 18.50), J. S. Jenkins. Life and Times of Philip Schuyler, 2 vols., Benson J. Lossing. J. Fenninore Cooper, American Men of Letters Series, Thomas R. Lounsbury. This \\, , , '/' ^--- A .^^^^ A ' ^^' %. .0 ;^ >?> •<:*. 'o , , ■* ,■• ,.^' , , ^ e.. * .0 K ' ^0 ■ \^ ,, - - •? •;^ "% < ■5^ %. ^i. ^, V^ ,•0' LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 107 323 %