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---BY---
BERTHOLD FERNOW.History is Past Politics; Politics Present History.”—Freeman.
ALBANY
-AND-
Its Place in tlie History of the United States
A MEMORIAL SKETCH
-WRITTEN FOR-
THE TWO-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
--OF ITS-
Birthday as a city.
-BY----
BERTHOLD FERNOW,
Honorary and Corresponding Member oi the Historical Societies of
Hew York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Buffalo,
and Waterloo; Member of the American Historical
Association; Custodian of the Historical
Records of the State.
ALBANY:
CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS.
1886.A- 7*A/ Y 7
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1886,
By BERTHOLD FERNOW,
In the Offipe of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.PREFACE.
The Albany Express of Friday, April 30, 1886, said:
“ The Bi-centennial committee has selected Governor Hill
as the orator, Mr. William H. McElroy, of the New York
Tribune, as the poet, and Mr. Berthold Femow, the custo-
dian of the colonial records of the State, as the historian, of
the Bi-centennial celebration of the founding of the charter
of the city of Albany.
‘ ‘ These selections are all admirable. It is eminently proper
that the Governor of the State should be invited to deliver
the oration on an occasion that has to do so intimately with
the history of this noble Commonwealth. While not a
finished orator, Governor Hill is a strong and practical talker,
and he will deliver an address full of interest and valuable
as a study of American municipal history.
“ Mr. McElroy has been regarded from the first as the only
person to be invited to prepare the poem for this occasion.
He is a native of Albany, and he loves the good old city as
dearly as though he had never left it. He is a bom poet as
well as a bom humorist; and his contribution to our Bi-
centennial literature will be as full of poetry as it is full of
wit, and as full of both as Albany is full of years.
“ Mr. Femow is an expert in the colonial history of this
city and this State. He has studied more into the musty
records of the Dutch and English times, and written more4
regarding them, than any man now alive. His history will
be a finished monograph, and the worthy permanent me-
morial of the Bi-centennial celebration.”
Beyond a conversation with a sub-committee, this was
the only information which the author received of the
selection.
Duly appreciating the honor, although believing that it
should have been conferred upon a native of the city of
Albany, or at least upon a native of the State of New York,
and not upon a foreigner, the author undertook the task and
herewith submits the result to the public.
An attempt to try writing a history of the city from its
earliest settlements could only have resulted in complete
failure, seeing in how short a time it had to be done. This
sketch will contain practically nothing new, but only facts,
already known, considered under a new light.
The same shortness of time must be the excuse for omis-
sions and too sketchy treatment of the matter. The author,
however, has made no statement that he cannot prove by
“ chapter and verse” from the records in his charge.
Albany, J^uly, 1886.“ Grea t oaks from little a corns grow;
Grea t streams from little fountains flow:
HAVE we grown more irreligious than our fore-
fathers, or more tolerant?
In the days when the white race first invaded the
home of the red man, where the capital of the Empire
State now stands, people were ready to fight to the bitter
end for their religious beliefs and their own peculiar manner
of worshipping their Creator. To a conflict of this kind
Albany and the State of New York owe their origin.
“History,” says Bacon, “makes men wise.” He might
have added “and patriotic.” The remembrance of Ther-
mopylae and Marathon makes a brave man of the puniest
Greek; the thought of Waterloo fires the heart of the Eng-
lishman and the German, whose grandfathers stood on that
field fighting against the Corsican whirlwind, then disturbing
the peace of Europe. But history’s field of usefulness ought
to be extended still further. We have learnt from it the right
of self-defense, which admits that no man shall accept pas-
sively the infliction of violence to his person or his family;
and we might learn from it the great lesson of self-respect,
so little heeded by us in America. Many a man is willing
to pass through a slough of the -most abject humiliation in
order to obtain either political preferment or make more
money than his neighbor.
Political preferment was not a motive to the actions of
the Dutch, who planted the Colony of New Netherland, laid6
the “ comer stone of the Empire State,” and prepared the
cement which bound together the fabric of the United States
in after years. Commercial wealth had something to do with
the first settlement of the Dutch on the Hudson river, but
it was secondary to their love of liberty, political and reli-
gious. It were these traits which had induced the Dutch to
fight the Spaniards in the manner of their ancestors, the
Batavians, whom Tacitus immortalized by the saying, “ Other
nations go to battle—they go to war.”
Carlyle says, the Spaniards wanted the Dutch to believe
in St. Ignatius and “went about with swords and guns” to
enforce this belief. “Never made them believe in him, but
did succeed in breaking their own vertebral column forever
and raising the Dutch into a great nation.” It was known
that Spain obtained the means to carry on her wars from the
fabulous gold mines of an equally fabulous Eldorado in the
still somewhat unknown New World. To sap this source of
wealth and destroy Spain’s power to do harm, was the motive
for the first expeditions sent out by the Dutch, of which only
that under Henry Hudson in 1609 concerns us.
On the 4th of September, of that year, he entered with his
vessel of sixty tons burthen, the “Half Moon,” t irough the
Narrows into New York bay, and on the 19th of the same
month, “I landed,” he says, “in one of their boats in com-
pany of an old man, who was the chief there of forty men
and seventeen women; we went to a house of oak bark.”
That is the description of Albany as it appeared to the first
white visitor of whom we have positive knowledge. The
inhabitants dressed in garments made by themselves out of
the skins furnished by the chase, which was their occupation.
Their nourishment was “Turkish wheat,” the Indian com
of our day, made into cakes, “ very good to eat,” quaintly
says De Laet.
In the simple traditional history of the Indians, this first
meeting is described with a little more detail. The River
Indians, of the Mohican tribe, said in their speech to the7
Commissioners of the Colonies assembled at Albany in
1754: “ Fathers, who sit present here, we will just give you
a short relation of the long friendship which has subsisted
between the white people of this country and us. Our fore-
fathers had a castle on this river; as one of them walked
out he saw something on the river, but was at a loss to know
what it was; he took it at first for a great fish; he ran into
the castle and gave notice to the other Indians, two of our
forefathers went to see what it was and found it a vessel with
men in it; they immediately joined hands with the people
in the vessel and became friends; the white people told them
they should not come any further up the river at that time,
and said to them they would return back from whence they
came and return in a year’s time; according to their prom-
ise they returned in a year’s time and came as far up the
river as where the old fort stood; our forefathers invited
them ashore and said to them, ‘ here we will give you a place
to make you a town, it shall be from this place up to such a
stream (meaning where the Patrocm’s mill now stands), and
from the river back up to the hill.’ Our forefathers told them
they were now a small people, they would in time multiply
and fill up the land they had given them. After they were
ashore some time, some other Indians, who had not seen
them before, looked fiercely at them, and our forefathers
observing it and seeing the white people so few in number,
lest they should be destroyed, took and sheltered them under
their arms, but it turned out that these Indians did not desire
to destroy them, but wished also to have the said white peo-
ple for their friends; at this time, which we have now spoken
of, the white people were small, but we were very numerous.”
We have no conclusive proof, that Hudson and his crew
were the first white discoverers of this locality, but we have
indications, that it had been visited by Spaniards or French.
After the failure of Estebau Gomez, in 1524-5, and of the
Licenciado d’Aillon and Matienzo, in 1526, a Spanish writer
is led to exclaim: “ To the South, to the South for the great8
and exceeding riches of the Equinoctial; they that seek gold,
lijust not go to the cold and frozen North.” The part of
North America, now constituting some of the most powerful
and populous States of the Union, was of no value in the
eyes of the Spaniards; they looked upon it only as a barrier
to the richer fields of Cathay.
The report, which Hudson made to his employers in
Holland, after his return, was accompanied by rich and
costly furs, bartered from the Indians. This awoke the
cupidity of the Dutch and led to a number of trading ex-
peditions to the newly explored territory. Our records tell
us, that this trading with the Indians was not quite safe, as
it carried the penalty of occasional captivity of the traders,
at the hands of the red people. The oldest muniment for
the history of the State of New York, is a map dated about
1614 to 1616 and found by Mr. J. Romeyn Broadhead, in
the Archives of the Hague.* This map was made up prob-
ably from information, gathered by three of these unfortunate
traders, while moving about with their captors. On it we
find mention of the first settlement positively known to have
been made in this locality. It was called Nassouw or Fort
Nassau, in honor of the Prince of Nassau—Orange, then
Stadtholder of the United Belgic Provinces, and had been
built on an island, which in 1660 was still called Castle
Island, now Rensselaer’s Island. A few years later, in 1618,
high water and ice injured the fort so much, that it was
thought best to remove from Castle Island to the mainland
at Norman’s kill, where the first treaty with the Mohawks
was made. The map of Rensselaerswyck, made in 1630
and preserved among the records of the Van Rensselaer
Manor, tells us, that at a later date the fort, then called Fort
Orange, stood about where “ Steam Boat Square ” now is.
From the above mentioned map of 1616, we learn, that the
first fort was a “ redoute ” of fifty-eight feet square, surrounded
by a moat of eighteen feet width. The house in the fort
* A certified fac simile copy of it is in the State Library at Albany.9
was thirty-six feet long by twenty-six feet width, and the
garrison consisted of twelve Dutch soldiers. The armament
of this stronghold consisted of two cannons and eleven
swivel guns, throwing stones, for want of better projectiles.
We know nothing of the life led in this wilderness by
the first arrivals. But in 1683 an old French woman, Cate-
line Trico, of Paris, then in her eightieth year, deposed that
she had come to Fort Orange, when twenty years old, in the
ship “ Unity,” the first vessel sent out by the lately chartered
West India Company. After having sent part of his people
to Fort Hope, now Hartford, Conn., and to the Delaware,
the commander of the expedition, Arien Jorise, sailed up
the “ Great River of the Prince Mauritius,” and landed
eighteen families, the balance of the emigrants, at Nassau,
as it was still occasionally called. These new arrivals could
not all find shelter in the fort and were, therefore, compelled
to build huts of bark; probably in a manner learnt from the
Indians, who soon flocked to the settlement, intent to trade
and make a covenant of friendship with the commander.
The charter of the West India Company, given in 1621,
required them 44 to advance the peopling of those fruitful
and unsettled parts.” Little seems to have been done
towards this end until 1627-8, at which time the trade with
the Indians threatened to become unprofitable. The direc-
tors of the Company then took into consideration a plan by
which, through more extended colonization, they might
derive other benefits from their Province, than those accru-
ing from the fur trade alone. Their deliberations resulted
in a new 44 charter of freedoms and exemptions,” which
received the sanction of the States General in 1629. This
new charter provided for the introduction upon New York
soil of the feudal system of land tenure, already in vogue
in Canada. While the matter of this new charter was still
being discussed, several of the directors took advantage of
their position and secured for themselves a share of the new
privileges by purchasing from the Indians (as the charterIO
required) the most conveniently located and fertile tracts of
land. Among these tracts was the present county of Albany.
The proviso of the charter, requiring the purchase of the
land from the Indians, is a prominent and important feature in
the history of the Dutch occupation. It said, “ Whosoever
shall settle any colony * * * shall be obliged to satisfy the
Indians for the land they shall settle upon.” How different
from the Massachusetts statute of 1633, which confirmed to
the Indians the little patches of land around their wigwams,
where they raised their com and beans, and which declared
on the authority of chapter 1, Genesis, and “the invitation of
the Indians, the rest of the land to be the property of the
whites.” Persecuted by Spain and France for their religious
convictions, the Dutch had learned to tolerate the supersti-
tions and even repugnant beliefs of others. Not less reli-
gious than the Puritans of New England, though actuated by
a policy based upon Christian virtue, commercial morality
and the true ethics of civilization, the Dutch set up no re-
ligious pretexts for tyranny and cmelty to the aboriginal
owners of the soil, such as mar the records of our Eastern
neighbors. They treated the Indians as a man with rights
of liberty, life, opinion and property like their own. The
strict adherence to this policy ensured to the settlers at Fort
Orange and Rensselaerswyck a freedom from Indian war-
fare not enjoyed by their English neighbors. Fort Orange
was in the country of the Five Nations, whom Jesuit mis-
sionaries, living among them, called the most enlightened,
but also the most intractable and ferocious of all the Indians.
They had first met the French about the time of Hudson’s
arrival in these parts. Hudson introduced them to “ fire-
water,” the French, under Champlain, to “fire arms.,,
They liked the former and more insidious, destructive wea-
pon of civilization better than the latter, and transferred
their liking to the introducer. Hence they always remained
friends of the Dutch and enemies of the French.II
Fort Orange with Beverwyck.
The history of the settlements out of which Albany grew
diverges so much, although closely interwoven, that it is
necessary to devote one part of this chapter to the Com-
pany’s settlement, Fort Orange with the village of Bever-
wyck growing up around it, and the other to the Patroon’s
colony, Rensselaerswyck.
Fort Orange had, in 1623, been removed from the Nor-
man’s kill to the place mentioned above. The dimensions
of this last fortification, erected by the Dutch in this local-
ity, have not been handed down to us. But we may sup-
pose that the stockade, put up for its defense, covered more
ground than the first. For we know that Wouter van Twil-
ler, while Governor or Director-General of the Province,
had caused to be built in the fort “ a handsome large house
with a flat roof and trestlework, also eight small houses for
the soldiers.” The record says, the small houses were
“ voort Volck /” including evidently, in the term “volck,
or soldiers,” all the servants of the Company.
The location, close to the river, was not a favorable one.
Though it gave to the occupants a quick chance of escape
by water, if pressed by a superior force of enemies, a con-
sideration of moment under the circumstances, perhaps;
yet it also exposed the structure to the ravages of that same
river, as our fellow-citizens of to-day living in that vicinity
can testify. A freshet in 1648 having nearly carried away
Fort Orange, the Director-General, Stuyvesant, with his
Council of New Netherland, resolved that for the mainte-
4	....
nance of the Company’s jurisdiction and territory it was
highly necessary to repair the injury. ijhe West India
Company and its representatives on New York soil were
not financially able to foot the bills. So the Director and
Council concluded to allow “ any decent inhabitant of New
Netherland ” to build a house in the fort twelve feet high
and of stone, such as the former Director, Keift, had al-
lowed to be erected. The soil occupied by such building12
to remain the Company’s property, and if the owner of the
house wished to sell the building, the Company was to have
the preference.
In order that to-day we should fully understand how a fort
could be destroyed by the waters of the placid Hudson it is
necessary to remember that Father Isaac Joques, a Jesuit
missionary among the Mohawks, saw this fort in 1643, and
described it as “ a miserable little fort built of logs.” Brant
von Slechtenhorst, the Manager of the Patroon’s colony,
says of it, shortly after the above resolution of director and
council, “ So far as regards the renowned fort, men can go
in and out of it by night as well as by day.” He continues,
that “ he had been more than six months in the colony and
the nearest resident to the fort, and yet had never been able
to discover a single person carrying a sword, a musket or a
pike, nor had he heard or seen a drum beat, except when
the Director-General himself visited it with his soldiers.”
To the military man of to-day, especially if he has served
in the Indian territories of the United States, such a fort
with such a garrison must appear ridiculous and useless.
Yet it has for us a wide-reaching signification. The follow-
ing account of the Indians, with whom he and his country-
men came in contact, is given us by David Pieterson de
Vries, “ Ordnance-Master of the Most Noble Lords, the
Committed Council of the States of West Friesland and the
North Quarter.” He had traveled extensively in the then
known parts of the now United States, and says of the
Mohawks: “ Though they are so revengeful towards their
enemies, they are very friendly to us. We have no fear of
them.”
The above account of De Vries, who had been here
shortly after the purchase and beginning of Rensselaers-
wyck, is confirmed by the first clergyman called to preach
the Word to his countrymen on Albany soil, and who was,
if possible, to convert the Indians to Christianity. “We
live,” he says, “ among both kinds of the Indians (Mohawksi3
and Mohicans), and coming to us from their country or we
going to them, they do us every act of friendship.” Need
we wonder that the people of Fort Orange felt safe from
Indian attacks, knowing full well that they had nothing to
fear from the more distant French, so long as the Mohawks,
their neighbors, had not become the allies of the Canadians.
After the freshet of 1648 had so injured the fort, and
after the Governor had fallen upon the strange expedient of
having it repaired by private enterprise, he seems to have
changed his mind and directed that these needed repairs
should be made by the representative of the Company. It
was to be “ put into a proper state of defense,” and the an-
nual expenses of repairing were to be deminished, by build-
ing a stone wall around it, instead of the previous wooden
pallisades. The result of this order was the widening of the
breach between the Company and the agent of the Patroon,
already opened by the attempt of the latter to build a house
under the walls of the fort. Van Slechtenhorst, the agent,
forbade, 44 in an imperious manner,” the digging of stones
or cutting of trees, and urged the people living in the neigh-
borhood not to do any carting for the Company. From
this time, we may suppose, that a village—Beverwyck—was
formed around Fort Orange, under the jurisdiction of the
Company, which the Director-General and Council asserted
to extend in a half circle at the distance of a pistol or a
goteling* shot, in another place it is said 1,000 rods, around
the fort. (The name of Beverwyck is not found before
1652, but Then we learn that it had already, in conjunction
with Fort Orange, an “inferior bench of justice,” a court,
authorized to take cognizance of cases, such as would now
come before a court of sessions. The three judges sitting
on this 44 inferior bench,” were nominated by the inhabitants K
to the Director-General and Council, two names being se- D
lected for each position, and from these the Govetfncfr
appointed the three thought to be the most fitting men. )| As14
they were people who had to earn their living by farming, by
trade or by day-labor, they were authorized in May^ 1654,
to pay to themselves out of the revenues from taxes and ex-
cise on beer, wine and liquor, the munificent sum of 150
florins, or $60, yeariyT\
rIn the year 1654, Beverwyck is mentioned as one of
wr^places, which with money raised by the taxation of
land, had to assist the government of the Province in bear-
ing the increased expenses, caused by the then raging war
between Holland and England. Houses and lots granted
for building purposes, were to pay the hundredth penny of
the real value. A member of the Provincial Council and two
impartial persons from the court of the village were to make
the valuation. The vacant lots were ordered to be sold, in
case the present owners neglected or refused to erect build-
ings on theinTT Th£ village, which was to be one of the
corner-stoneSTTfAlbany, had evolved from the obscurity of
a backwoods settlement to the prominence of a factor in the
life of the Colony. With the neighboring Rensselaerswyck,
the other corner-stone, it could show to have the means for
religious and school education: an element in their lives,
which the Dutch never forgot to carry, where they intended
to make permanent settlements. This is a point, which has
never been thoroughly recognized. Prince John of Nassau,
the brother of William the Silent, the Stadholder of the
Netherlands, had recommended as early as 1582, that the
States General should establish free schools, where children
of wealthy and of poor families, for a very small sum, could
be well and Christianly educated and brought up. “ This,”
he says, “ would be the greatest and most useful work you
could ever accomplish for God and Christianity and for the
Netherlands themselves.” There the Puritans, who settled
in New England, learned the blessings of popular educations,
which according to many a writer is the invention of New
England spirit. Our great historian, Motley, in a letter to
the St. Nicholas Society of New York, points out that the!5
New England colonists gained their educational impulses
more from the Netherlands than from their own country.
Another eminent American writer says on this point: “ Edu-
cation came with them [the Dutch]; the free schools, in
which Holland had led the van of the world, being early
transplanted to these shores.”^J
Rensselaerswyck.
On the 13th day of August, 1630, the Director and
Council of New Netherland signed for Kilian van Rens-
selaer the deed by which the Indians transferred the land
on part of which Albany has been built, for and in consid-
eration of “ certain parcels of goods.” The failure to ex-
clude from this conveyance the territory on which Fort
Orange proper and the huts of previous settlers stood, led
to endless quarreling between the owners of Rensselaers-
wyck and the officers of the West India Company, who, no
doubt, in like mannerjaad acquired their land from the
Indians by purchase. TThe Patroon, Kilian van Rensselaer,
was not the sole purchaser of this tract of land; he repre-
sented one of the several associations formed under the
new charter, and held two shares of their common stock ;
De Laet, the historian, one; Godyn, one, and Blommaert
with associates, the remaining fifthN By proceedings in par-
tition before the Court of Holland, in 1650, it was decided
that he or his successors should account for the rents and
profits, and pay to the partners or their heirs their just quota.
Under this judgment Mrs. Johanna Ebbingh, the daughter
of De Laet, who had come to New Netherland with her
first husband, Johannes de Hulter, received $2,304.00 for
her share, including the “ Weyland ” or pasture, between
the third or Rutten and the fourth or Fox creeks. Blom-
maert’s share was $1,440.00. His land adjoined the De Laet
lot on the north, and reached from Fox hill (Columbia street
of to-day) to Patroon’s creek. Godyn’s share was beyond the
present city limits, and therefore does not concern us here.16
These were the foundations, to which, on the 2 2d of
July, 1686 (old style), or 2a of August (new or present style),
Governor Dongan granted a municipal charter as a city.
Kilian van Rensselaer and his associate had purchased,
through their agent, the territory, afterwards known as the
Manor of Rensselaerswyck, on part of which our city now
stands. This was done on the 8th of April and 28th
of July, 1630. In the same year, but in the month of
February, the said agent paid to Gillis van Schendel,
for “ one map on parchment (still preserved in the records
of the Manor), and four ditto on paper, of the islands and
other tillage grounds situate in the Colony,” the sum of fifteen
florins, or $6.00. This map tells us that Godyn’s Burg had
already been erected, in 1630, in the southern part of the
present city, near Cherry Hill. Bloemmert’s Burg stood in
the northern part, above the Manor House. The popula-
tion of the Colony numbered at that date about thirty to
forty people, sgnt over at the expense of the directors of
the Colony. (They had early discovered that the emigra-
tion agents besfaAted to induce others to emigrate to a for-
eign land, were emigrants who had gone before and done
well in their new home. Some of the first arrivals came as
paid servants or emyloyes of the directors, others to take
up land under leases. Very little objection can be made to
the stipulations of the first leases on the ground of feudal
characteristics. Later, when English customs had come to
supplant the simplicity of the Dutch, we find leases which
had the tendency of introducing European feudalism on
American soil. To understand the difference, copies of
some are given here^
“This day, the'‘"7m of September, 1646, the presiding
officers of the Colony of Rensselaerswyck, on one side, and
Thomas Chambers* on the other, have agreed and con-
sented about a certain parcel of land, lying opposite the
bouwerie, called the Flat, on the east bank of the river,
* Afterwards prominent in the settlement of Kingston.*7
between the two kills, which land he, Thomas Chambers,
shall occupy as a bouwerie for the term of five successive
years, commencing the 15th of November, anno 1647, on
the following conditions:
“ Thomas Chambers shall build, free of all cost and
charges and without claiming a penny in return from the
Patroon, at his own expense, a farm house [dimensions of
this and other buildings given.] On condition of receiving
two mares and two stallions, and, moreover, two milch cows,
the increase being on halves, *	#	*• the rest is also
half and half, except such as Indians may kill, which shall
be at the sole risk of the Patroon, on sufficient proof being
brought thereof. *	*	*	*	* From the summer sow-
ing of 1647 he shall give the tenths, and then be quit. The
last seed which he shall plant in the bouwerie he is at liberty
to thrash without payment. *	*	*	* The risk Qf the
houses, barns and fences remains at the charge of Thomas
Chambers. *	*	*	* And the said houses, bams and
fences shall be the Patroon’s rent for the aforesaid five years.
“ In case it should happen, which God forbid, that war
should break out between us and the Indians, and Thomas
be obliged to fly from the bouwerie, the time that he shall
be absent shall be allowed him and his time begin again
from the date of his return.
##****#**
“ Thomas Chambers shall yearly pay, as an acknowledg-
ment, twenty-five pounds of butter during his lease. He
shall make use of his pasture above and below the bouwerie
without let or hindrance.
“ Their worships agree that he, Thomas, at the expiration
of the above five successive years, shall cultivate the said
bouwerie still three years more, provided he pay in addition
to the tenths five hundred guilders yearly from the produce
of the said bouwerie.”
Another early lease reads:
“ We, the guardians of Jean van Rensselaer, esq., have
2i8
leased and farmed unto Arent van Curler,! *	*	*	*
under the following conditions, the bouwerie named the
Flat, and the hereafter mentioned appurtenances for the term
of six successive years:
I.	The Patroon retains for himself the tenths of all grain,
fruits and products which shall be raised off the bouwerie.
II.	This bouwerie contains *	*	* morgens, etc.
III.	The lessee shall be entitled to so much pasture as he
shall require for his cattle without paying any extra rent
further than only one guilder for every swine ranging in the
woods.
IV.	For the cultivation of the said bouwerie there shall
be delivered to him for his use six cows, two heifers, six mares
and two stallions or oxen *	*	* and that on halves, that
is to say, one-half of the increase shall be for the Patroon
and the other half for the lessee.
y.	###*#*##
VI.	For the use of which bouwerie and occupancy of the
house, the lessee shall pay yearly to the Patroon the sum
of five hundred guilders, but for the first year a deduction
of one hundred and fifty guilders shall be made, because he
conveys his laborers thither at his own expense.
VII.	The lessee shall be obliged to keep the house and
buildings on the bouwerie in good repairs. *	*	*	*
VIII.	The lessee is to cut oak or fir for the Patroon and
haul it to the river; also every year give three days’ services
to the Patroon with wagon and horses, and further deliver
yearly to the director of the colony two bushels of wheat,
twenty-five pounds of butter and two pair of fowls.
/"The leases, made in English times, were different and im-
ptf&ed heavy burdens on the tenants as the following shows:
This Indenture, made the	day of	one
thousand	between	proprietor
of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck, in the counties of Albany
t One of the founders of Schenectady.*9
of the first part, and
of the second part, witnesseth, that the said
for and in consideration of the yearly rents, covenants and
conditions hereinafter contained, on the part of the said
part	of the second part,	heirs,
executors and administrators, to be paid, kept and performed,
hath granted, bargained, sold, remised, released and con-
firmed, and by these presents doth grant, bargain, sell, re-
mise and confirm, unto the said part of the second part,
and to	heirs and assigns, all that farm, piece or parcel
of land, situate, lying and being in the town of
in the county of	within the said Monor of
Rensselaerwyck
Excepted always and reserved out of this present grant, unto
the said	, his heirs and assigns, all mines
and minerals that now are, or hereafter may be found in and
upon the said farm, piece or parcel of land; and also all
creeks, kills, streams and runs of water in and upon the said
premises, together with the soil under the water; and the
right, privilege and liberty of erecting upon any part of the
said hereby granted premises, such and so many mills and
milldams, and such other works and buildings, for the con-
venient working of the said mines, and for the use of the
said mills as he, the said	, his heirs and
assigns, shall and may think proper: And also all such part
of the said land as may, by the said dams be overflowed with
water; and also all such wood, fire-wood and timber as the
said	, his heirs and assigns, may find
necessary for building, repairing and accommodating the
said mills, and for working and carrying on the said mines;
and also free liberty to dig, trench or use the ground for
either of the said purposes: and also free ingress, egress and
regress, way and passage, with his or their horses, cattle,20
carriages and servants, to, from, in and out of the said hereby
granted premises; together with liberty to lay out roads in
any part or parts thereof, for the purposes aforesaid: The
said	, his heirs and assigns, making such
abatement for the land occupied or employed for all or any
of the purposes aforesaid, in and out of the rent hereinafter
reserved as shall be judged reasonable and proportionate to
the rent of the whole, by any two indifferent persons, (one
of whom to be chosen by the said	, his heirs
or assigns, and the other by the said part of the second
part, heirs or assigns,) or by such third persons as the
said two persons in case of disagreement between them, shall
choose for umpire: To have and to hold the said farm, piece
or parcel of land, with all the appurtenances, (except as here-
inbefore excepted,) unto the said part of the second
part,	heirs and assigns, to the only proper use and be-
hoof of the said part of the second part, his heirs and
and assigns forever: Yielding and paying therefor, yearly
and every year, during the continuance of this grant unto
the said	, his heirs and assigns, the yearly
rent of	of good clean merchantable winter wheat,
in and upon the	day of	in each
year; and the said part of the second part, for
heirs, administrators, executors and assigns, do covenant,
grant and agree to and with the said	, his
heirs and assigns, that	the said part of the second
part,	heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, will
from time to time well and truly pay or cause to be paid
unto the said	, his heirs and assigns, the
yearly rent above reserved, at the days and times and in
manner aforesaid; and will also well and truly discharge and
pay all taxes, charges and assessments, ordinary and extra-
ordinary, taxed, charged or assessed, and which may be here-
after taxed, charged or assessed to or upon the said hereby21
granted premises or upon any part or parcel thereof, or upon
the said	, his heirs, executors, administrators or
assigns, by any act of the Legislature, or by county rates or
otherwise howsoever, for or in respect of the said premises or
any part thereof, and indemnify the said	, his heirs,
executors administrators and assigns, of, from and against any
damages, costs and charges which he or they, or any of them
may sustain or be put to by reason of any neglect in the due
and punctual discharge and payment of the said taxes,
charges and assessments: And the said	doth hereby
further save and reserve unto himself, his heirs and assigns,
the one equal	part of all purchase or consideration
moneys, or other things in lieu thereof, arising or that may
arise by or from the selling, demising, assigning, or any how
disposing of the premises hereby granted, or any part thereof,
other than dispositions by devise and last will and testament
by the said part	of the second part,	heirs,
executors, administrators or assigns; and when and as often
as the same shall be sold, demised, assigned or otherwise
disposed of, other than dispositions by devise and last will
and testament as aforesaid: And the said part	of the
second part,	heirs, executors, administrators and
assigns, do covenant, grant and agree to and with the
said	, his heirs and assigns, that he and they will
well and truly pay or deliver unto the said	, his
heirs or assigns, the said one equal	part of the said
moneys or other things in lieu thereof, arising or which may
arise by, from or out of every such sale, demise, assignment
or other disposition aforesaid, other than dispositions by de-
vise and last will and testament as aforesaid; and further, that
prior to any such sale, demise, assignment or other disposition
aforesaid, other than dispositions by devise and last will and
testament as aforesaid, the said part of the second part,
heirs or assigns, shall and will make an offer in writing unto
the said	, his heirs or assigns, of the said premises, or
of such part thereof, and for such estate therein, as the said22
part	of the second part,	heirs, or assigns,
shall intend to dispose of, specifying the same, and the price,
value or consideration which	the said part of the
second part	heirs or assigns, is or are willing to take
for the same ; and if the said	, his heirs or assigns,
on his or their part, shall within twenty-one days after such
offer made as aforesaid, agree to take and accept the said
premises, or the part thereof so offered at the price, value or
consideration specified in such offer, and shall within the
same twenty-one days pay or deliver such price, value or
consideration, (after deducting thereout the said one equal
part thereof,) and the arrears of rent (if any there be)
unto the said part of the second part	heirs or
assigns: then and in such case the said part of the second
part,	heirs or assigns, shall and will forthwith, after
such payment or delivery made, well and sufficiently convey
and assure unto the said	, his heirs or assigns, the
said premises or the part thereof so offered, and for such
estate therein as shall have been in that behalf specified:
Provided always, that if the said	, his heirs or assigns,
shall not within the said twenty-one days for that purpose
limited, agree to take and accept the said premises or the
part thereof so offered as aforesaid, at such price, value or
consideration as aforesaid, and shall not within the same
twenty-one days pay or deliver such price, value or con-
sideration (after such deduction thereout as aforesaid) unto
the said part of the scond part,	heirs or assigns,
•then it shall be lawful for the said part	of the second
part	heirs or assigns, to sell, demise, assign, or
otherwise dispose of the said premises or the part thereof so
offered, unto any person or persons whomsoever: Provided
nevertheless, and these presents are upon this express con-
dition, that every sale, demise, assignment or other dispo-
sition, other than dispositions by devise or last will and
testament as aforesaid, of the said premises hereby granted,
or any part thereof, by the said part of the second part,23
heirs or assigns, to any person or persons other
than to the said	, his heirs or assigns, or other than
by process or compulsion of law, for the consideration of
money or other things in lieu thereof, shall be utterly void
and of no effect in law or equity, unless such offer thereof
shall have been made and not accepted and complied with
as aforesaid, and unless the said part of the second part,
heirs or assigns, or the person or persons to
whom such sale, assignment or other disposition shall have
been made, except dispositions by devise or last will and
testament as aforesaid, shall, within twenty-one days there-
after well and truly pay or deliver unto the said	,
his heirs or assigns, the said one equal	part of the
said price, value or consideration, for which the said premises,
or any part thereof, as the case may be, shall have been
offered to the said	, his heirs or assigns, together
with all arrears of rent which may be then due: Provided
further, and these presents are upon this further condition,
that every sale of the said premises, or any part thereof, by
process of law against the said part of the second part,
heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, shall
also be void and of no effect, unless the purchaser or pur-
chasers thereof shall, within twenty-one days after such sale,
pay unto the said	, his heirs or assigns, a sum of
money equal to one	part of the sum for which the
said premises or the part thereof so sold, shall be struck off or
sold by virtue of such process, to the said purchaser or pur-
chasers.
Provided also, and these presents are upon this further
condition, that	the said part	of the second
part,	heirs or assigns, shall not, at any time here-
after, erect, or permit or cause to be erected any mill or
mill-dam, or any other work or building whatsoever, upon
any kill, creek, stream or run of water, in or upon the pre-
mises hereby granted; and further, shall not, at any time
hereafter, commit any waste of any kind or nature whatso-24
ever: And the said part	of the second part, for
heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, do
covenant, grant and agree, to and with the said	,
his heirs and assigns, that neither	the said part
of the second part, nor	heirs or assigns, shall
or will give or cause to be given, any manner of let, hindrance
or obstruction whatsoever, to the said	, his heirs
or assigns, to the prejudice of any or either of them in the
full enjoyment of all the rights, titles, privileges and ease-
ments, saved, reserved and excepted unto the said	,
his heirs and assigns, by the savings, reservations and excep-
tions in these presents contained: And the said
for himself, his heirs and assigns, doth hereby covenant, grant
and agree, to and with the said part	of the second
part, heirs and assigns, that he, they and each of them,
paying the rents aforesaid, and performing, fulfilling and
keeping all and singular the covenants, conditions and agree-
ments herein contained, on his, their and each of their
parts, to be performed, fulfilled and kept, shall and may
lawfully, peaceably and quietly have, hold, possess, occupy
and enjoy the premises hereby conveyed, and every part
thereof, with the appurtenances, (except as before excepted)
unto the said part	of the second part,	heirs and
assigns, without any suit, trouble, eviction, hindrance, inter-
ruption or disturbance, of, by or from the said	,
or of, by or from any person or persons whomsoever law-
fully claiming or to claim, by, from or under him, the said
; and that he the said	, and his heirs,
shall and will hereby Warrant and Defend, the said prem-
ises, to the said part	of the second part,	heirs and
assigns, against any person or persons lawfully claiming the
same. Provided always, nevertheless, that if it shall so hap-
pen that the rent above reserved, or any part thereof, shall
be behind and unpaid by and for the space of twenty-eight
days next after the said days of payment, that then, and in
every such case, it shall and may be lawful to and for the25
said	, his heirs and assigns, or any of them* at the
option of the said	, his heirs or assigns, either to
prosecute for the recovery of the same, in some court of
record, or in person, or by his or their servant or servants,
bailiff or bailiffs, into the whole or any part of the premises
to enter, and there to distrain, and the distress so taken, to
lead, drive and carry away, and the same to expose to sale
at public vendue, and out of the moneys therefrom arising
to deduct the rent then due and in arrear, together with the
costs and charges of distress and sale, and to return the
overplus, if any there be, unto the said part of the second
part,	heirs and assigns: And provided further, and
these presents and every thing herein contained are upon
this express condition, that if it should at any time happen,
that no sufficient distress can be found upon the premises,
to satisfy such rent due and in arrear as aforesaid, or if
either of the covenants and conditions herein before con-
tained, on the part of the said part of the second part,
heirs and assigns, to be performed, fulfilled and
kept, shall not be performed, fulfilled and kept, or shall
be broken, then and in each, and every such case,
and from thenceforth and at all times thereafter, it shall be
lawful to and for the said	, his heirs and assigns, or
any of them, into the whole of the hereby granted prem-
ises, or into any part thereof, in the name of the whole, to
re-enter, and the same, as in his and their former estate, to
have again, re-possess and enjoy; and the said part of
the second part,	heirs and assigns and all others,
thereout and from thence utterly to expel, put out and
amove; This Indenture, or any thing herein contained to
the contrary hereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. In wit-
ness whereof, the parties hereunto their hands and seals
have subscribed and set, the day and year first above written.
Sealed and delivered, )
in the presence )
l. s.26
Reservation of the Extra Rent Instead of the
Quarter Sales.
Provided always, that if the said	, his
heirs or assigns, shall not within the same twenty-one days,
for that purpose limited, agree to take and accept the said
premises, or the part thereof so offered as aforesaid, at such
price, value or consideration, as aforesaid, and shall not
within the said twenty-one days, pay or deliver such price,
value or consideration, as aforesaid, after deducting thereout
as aforesaid, unto the part	of the second part
heirs or assigns; then and in that case, the said part
of the second part, for	, heirs, ex-
ecutors, administrators and assigns, do covenant and agree,
to and with the said	, his heirs and assigns,
that	the said part	of the second part
heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, or some or
one of them, shall immediately pay or cause to be paid unto
the said	, his heirs or assigns, all the arrears
of rent then due; and also, in addition thereto, a sum of
money equal to the amount of one year’s rent; which sum
of money last mentioned, shall be exclusive of and over
and above the yearly rent hereby reserved, and the arrears
of rent then due, and not in satisfaction of such arrears of
rent or any rent thereafter to become due; and such arrears
of rent and sum of money being so paid, when and as often
as the said premises or any part thereof shall be so sold,
assigned or disposed of, in manner aforesaid, it shall then
and not before, be lawful for the said part	of the
second part,	heirs or assigns, to sell, demise, as-
sign, or otherwise dispose of the said premises, or the part
thereof so offered, unto any person or persons whatsoever.
Provided, nevertheless, and these presents are upon this
express condition, that every sale, demise, assignment or
other disposition whatsoever, other than dispositions by
devise or last will and testament, and other than sales or
dispositions by process or compulsion of law for debts con-27
tracted without intention to forego the payment of the said
one year’s rent, of the premises hereby granted or any part
thereof, by the said part	of the second part
heirs and assigns, to any person or persons, other than to the
, his heirs and assigns, or to any of them,
shall be utterly void and of none effect; and the premises
so sold or assigned, shall revert to and become the property
of, and be immediately thereafter vested in the said
, his heirs or assigns, unless such offer shall have
been made and not complied with as aforesaid; and unless
the said part	of the second part	heirs,
executors, administrators or assigns, shall have paid such
arrears of rent and sum of moneys as aforesaid, and unless
also his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, or the
person or persons purchasing the said premises or any part
thereof, shall within twenty-one days after every such sale,
demise, assignment or other disposition, so to be made, except
dispositions by devise or last will and testament as aforesaid,
and except also sales or dispositions by process or compul-
sion of law as aforesaid, cause the same to be recorded in
the office of the said	, his heirs or assigns.
With the increase of population in the Colony, the value
of land rose and the conditions of these leasehold-tenures
became so oppressive that disturbances of a serious character
broke out in 1757. These troubles of 1757 were the forerun-
ners of the anti-rent war of our times, which mapy a reader
may recollect, and in which they may have taken a part on
one side or the other. To the unbiassed mind the occur-
rences then witnessed are somewhat of a puzzle. The tenants
being men whom we must suppose endowed with some intel-
ligence, entered into the leases and knowingly took upon
themselves obligations which their self-respect ought to have
told them they must live up to under any circumstances. The
condition of the country required that these leases should be
for a long term, for had the landlords of that day endeavored
to let their lands for from one to ten years they could hardly28
have found tenants for the uncultivated portions. But they
were willing to part with it forever in consideration of a very
low rent, giving the land free from any dues for the first five
to eight years and relieving the tenant from the care-erTfincP
ing a purchaser for the produce by agreeing t^tklce it in lieu
of money. If there had beep an objecjidn to these terms,
how is it then that the lessees came iptduiem with eagerness
instead of going outside of the boundaries of the Manor
and settling upon wild lands purchased from the Indians ?
“ In 1789, the constitution of the United States went into
operation; New York being a party to its creation and con-
ditions. By that constitution, the State deliberately deprived
itself of the power to touch the covenants of these leases,
without conceding the power to any other government;
unless it might be through a change of the constitution itself.
As a necessary consequence, these leases, in a legal sense,
belong to the institutions of New York, instead of being
opposed to them. Not only is the spirit of the institutions
in harmony with these leases, but so is the latter also. Men
must draw a distinction between the “ spirit of the institu-
tions ” and their own “ spirits; ” the latter being often noth-
ing more than a stomach that is not easily satisfied. It would
be just as true to affirm that domestic slavery is opposed to
the institutions of the United States, as to say the same of
these leases. It would be just as rational to maintain,
because A-does not choose to make an associate of B, that
he is acting in opposition to the “ spirit of the institutions,”
inasmuch as the Declaration of Independence advances the
dogma that men are born equal, as it is to say it is opposed
to the same spirit for B to pay rent to A according to his
covenant.”
So writes an actor and eyewitness of the occurrences of 1846.
The public generally, but more especially the lawyers of the
country know what effect these anti-rent troubles had upon the
politics of the State and of the United States. They might be
called a foretaste of the anarchism of which we suffer to-day.HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.
As already stated, the 4‘Freedoms and Exemptions”
granted by the West India Company to all Patroons, Masters
and Private Persons who intended to plant colonies in New
Netherland, on the 7th of June, 1629, contained the follow-
ing paragraph : “ Whosoever shall settle any colony out of
the limits of Manhattan Island, shall be obliged to satisfy the
Indians for the land they shall settle upon.”
This rule was obeyed in the settlement of Albany, as in
all other cases, and as the Mohawks had made their first
treaty with the Dutch at an early date near the present site
of Albany, this place having been fairly purchased from
them, it continued to be one for which they always cherished
friendly feelings. We may safely assume, that the social
and political system, then in vogue among the first settlers,
attracted the Indians because of its similarity to their own.
An eminent American writer, whose family is now numbered
among the inhabitants of Albany, says in regard to this
point: “In all the tribes of this part of North America
something very like a principle of democracy was the pre-
dominant feature of their politics. It was not, however, that
bastard democracy which is coming so much in fashion
among ourselves, and which looks into the gutters solely for
the “people.” * * * * The Indians understood, that
the chiefs are entitled to more respect than the loafers in
their villages. # # # While there was no positive her-
editary rank, there was much hereditary considerations, and
we doubt if a red man could be found who was so much of
a simpleton as to cite among the qualifications of any man
for a situation of trust and responsibility, that he had never
been taught how to perform its duties.”3°
History informs us, how truly democratic the Dutch peo-
ple, like all others of the same race, had been from the
earliest days of their political existence. Now it proved to
be a bond of union between them and their red neighbors,
and kept the latter always well inclined to their brethren at
Albany, who to the Indians represented the government of
New Netherland.
Another bond of union may appear fanciful. We know,
that the 44 totem,” the insignia of one family in all the tribes
of the Five Nations, was the Tortoise or Turtle. We call
this a sneaking and stupid reptile, whose insignificance seems
to be its highest praise. The Indians saw in this animal 44 a
poem of silent hate,” and when they discovered that their
new friends, the Dutch, were animated by a similar silent
hate of the Latin race, and had learned (during the wars
with Spain) to bear injuries and burdens, hard and heavy
enough to crush any other organism, they likened them in
their minds to the Turtle, and became bound to them by an
unbreakable iron covenant-chain.
The men, who settled here at Fort Orange, had not come
from their old homes in Europe for political reasons ; they
wanted to improve their small fortunes and amass wealth.
This led them to trade with the Indians in goods, which
injured the moral and bodily condition of the red race, or
which might have been turned against the white settler with
disastrous results. This was the trade in liquor and in fire-
arms. Experience had taught the authorities that an indis-
criminate distribution of these articles among the Indians
might end in the complete destruction of the Colony. They
adopted, and on the 31st of March, 1639, published an
ordinance, forbidding 44 every inhabitant of New Netherland,
be his state, quality or condition what it may, to sell any
guns, powder or lead to the Indians, on pain of being pun-
ished by death.” Another ordinance, of June 18, 1643,
prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors to the Indians,
“whence serious difficulties had already arisen.” These3i
ordinances had to be repeated; the one relating to the sale
of liquors was frequently re-enacted at the request of Indian
chiefs, who easily recognized the pernicious influences of the
insinuating drink.
To prohibit the sale of liquor and fire-arms to the Indians
must be called an act of self-protection, as was the ordinance
of July i, 1656, against admitting armed Indians into the
villages and houses of the white settlers. But to show to
the Indian, that he also was entitled to the protection sug-
gested by law and fairness, an ordinance was passed, at an
early date (May 9, 1640) of the Colony, which did not affect
the Mohawks as much as the Indians around Kingston, New
York and Long Island. This ordinance says:
“ Whereas many complaints are daily made by the Indi-
ans, that their corn-hills are trampled under foot and up-
rooted by hogs and other cattle, and consequently great
damage is done when the maize is growing, whence it will
follow that the maize will be dear at the time of the harvest,
and our good people suffer want, the Indians be incited to
remove and to entertain feelings of hatred against our
nation. *	* * * Therefore, we, the Director and Coun-
cil of New Netherland, hereby charge and command all our
inhabitants, whose lands lie contiguous to Indian plantations,
to take due care of their cattle and prevent them, by fences
or otherwise, from damaging the com of the Indians, on
pain of making good the damage and of incurring the pen-
alty, payable to the Fiscal, according to the edict on tres-,
pass of March 15, 1640.”
^J3ne of the ordinances, relating to the intercourse with
the Indians, distinctly says, that its prohibitory provisions
should be communicated to the Indians, and it is very likely
that this was the custom in regard to all such laws. We
can well understand that the Indians, although uncivilized,
could appreciate to its fullest extent a measure intended for
the protection of their rights, and that in consequence their
friendship for their white neighbors increased?!32
Having seen how the friendship of the Indians had been
secured by the first settlers in these regions, we will endeavor
to discover the benefits arisingffrom this friendship.
Almost at the same time when Hudson ascended in his
“ Half Moon ” the river now bearing his name, Champlain,
at the head of a troop of Frenchmen, Algonquins and
Hurons, met a war party of the Mohawks near Lake Chain-
plain, where “ he taught them the terrible power of fire-
arms,” and, by killing their chief, “the inappeasable detesta-
tion of the French race.” To find the French on an
amicable footing with Algonquins, Adirondacks and Hurons
would have been sufficient to brand them as the enemies of
the Mohawks, for these Northern tribes had been at war
with the Iroquois since time immemorial in their simple
annals. Added to this, the death of their chief warrior at
the hand of the first Frenchman whom they met was another
incentive to act constantly as a barrier against French at-
tempts to pour in and take possession of the valley of the
Hudson river. Actuated by this feeling of animosity against
the French, they made the treaty with the Dutch at Fort
Orange, and having some practical sense of the value and
obligation of treaties they never violated it, but exerted
themselves in behalf of their white allies as they would for
themselves. The New Englanders had, during the whole
period of the 17th century, to suffer from the nightmare and
actual presence of “ French and Indians ” with the conse-
quent midnight slaughter and conflagration, but the hand-
ful of Dutch, who unwittingly had taken possession of the
key of this great continent, were protected against such
horrors by the treaty made at Fort Orange. For the pro-
tecting shield of the Mohawk treaty was interposed not only
between Fort Orange and the French in the North, but also
held up before the Mohicans along the Hudson river, who
interfered so barbarously in the settlement of Kingston and
Ulster county.33
Almost thirty years had passed since the first meeting
between the French and the Mohawks on the banks of Lake
Champlain, when it was the misfortune of the brave Jesuit
missionary, Joques, to fall into the hands of the implacable
Mohawks. He was treated with an exquisite cruelty, sub-
jected to tortures, compared with which the treatment
applied by his order and the inquisition to heretics was
child’s play. The news of this capture were imparted to
Arent van Corlaer, then agent of Rensselaerswyck. He
tried to ransom Joques and his companions in captivity,
but the Mohawks told him, “ We shall show you every kind-
ness in our power, but on this subject you must be silent.
Besides, you know well, how they treat our people when
they fall into their hands.” This answer is significant of their
enmity to the French, for we must consider the position held
by Van Corlaer (Curler) in the hearts of the Indians. He
had been a prominent figure in the early councils of Fort
Orange and Rensselaerswyck, and was drowned in 1667 in
the Bay of Perou, Lake Champlain, while traveling towards
Canada. Twenty years later, in September, 1688, at a con-
ference between Sir Edmond Andros, then Governor of New
York and the Five Nations, a Mohawk Sachem addressed the
Governor as follows: “ Corlaer, *	*	* for you were
pleased to accept the name of a man that was of good dis-
positions and esteemed dear among us, to wit, the Old
Corlaer.”
“ Corlaer ” represented to the Indians power and strength,
tempered by justice, and as the expression of it was to some
extent the policy of the Dutch towards the red men, they
gave this name of an early inhabitant of Fort Orange and
Albany to the Governors of the Colony of New York. The
name of another Albany man, the first mayor of the newly
chartered city, replaced that of Corlaer shortly after the Leisler
complications. Peter Schuyler, by the Indians called Quidor
(Keedor), had become as staunch a friend of the Indians as
Corlaer had been, and the influence he had over them is best
3	*34
described by the beginning of a speech, made by a Mohawk
Sachem at Albany in January, 1690: “ Brethren,” he said,
“ we must stick to our brother Quidor, and look on Onontio
(the Governor of Canada) as our enemy, for he is a cheat
*	*	*	* Corlaer and Kinshon [that is fish or New
England]! Courage, Courage ! In the spring to Quebec,
take that place and you will have your feet on the necks of
the French and all their friends in America.” The Governor
of New York held among the Indians the title ot “ Quidor”
almost as long as there were royal Governors in the Colony.
The English authorities comprehended, that to follow the
policy of the Dutch was a necessity for them. Hence they
endeavored by all means to preserve the friendship of the
Five Nations during the whole colonial period. The records
abound in the details of conferences between the governors
of this and other English provinces on the continent and the
Indians, all or nearly all, held here at Albany.
Early in September, 1664, the flag of the West India
Company was hauled down, and an English banner hoisted
in its stead. This change, very naturally, was a matter of
profound interest to the neighboring Indians of the Five
Nations. On the 24th of the same month representative
Sachems of the Mohawks and Senecas met the English com-
mander, Colonel George Cartwright, who had taken posses-
sion of Albany on behalf of the Duke of York. It was
agreed, that the Indians should have “ all such wares and
commodities from the English for the future, as heretofore
they had from the Dutch.”
2. That if any English, Dutch or Indian (under the pro-
tection of the English) do any wrong, injury or violence to
any of the Indians, in any sort whatever, if they complain
to the Governor at New York, or to the Officer-in-Chief at
Albany, if the person so offending can be discovered, that
person shall receive condign punishment, and all due satis-
faction shall be given; and the like shall be done for all
other English plantations.35
3. That if any Indian belonging to any of the Sachems
(parties to this treaty) do any wrong, injury or damage to
the English, Dutch or Indians under the protection of the
English, if complaint be made to the Sachems, and the
person be discovered who did the injury, then the person so
offending shall be punished, and all just satisfaction shall be
given to any of His Majesty’s subjects in this Colony or
other Plantations in America.”
Very little ever disturbed the friendly relations between
the English and their Indian neighbors in the Province of
New York, for the English of New York, having seen how
wise a policy it was, adopted that of the Dutch in never
settling upon Indian lands unless they had by treaty or deed
bought it first.
Two years after the above quoted first English-Indian
treaty, the French Governor of Canada entered into a cove-
nant of peace with the Five Nations, and within a week
after signing it he writes to the Commissaries or Magistrates
of Albany : 44 But as said Iroquois have always forfeited
their word and made use of so many extraordinary cruelties,
it would not be prudent to lose the opportunity of destroy-
ing them, when we have a considerable body of troops.
Every time you shall seriously reflect on their conduct, I
am persuaded you will be of the same opinion, since they
fail not, after the obligations they owe us, to exercise many
acts of hostility towards the people under our government.”
Sir Edmond Andros, during whose term as Governor,
King Philip’s war disturbed the Eastern Colonies, had
learned by this war that the Mohawks and their friends of
the Five Nations were a powerful factor in colonial politics;
hence he instructed the commissioners sent to Pemaquid,
that, if any Mohawks should come to them, they should be
received and used kindly, 44 as at Albany, giving them in-
telligence particularly of our friends as well as enemies.”
The Southern Colonies of Maryland, Virginia and Carolina
were neither slow to recognize the important position which36
the Iroquois held on the continent. However, if the
Governors of these Colonies desired peace with them, they
had to come either in person or by deputies and negotiate
a treaty here at Albany.
Albany was, in 1693, a little village of not more than 200
houses, even though it could boast of having a charter as a
city. But, notwithstanding its insignificant territorial extent,
the Governor of the Province had to admit that it had al-
ways been the ancient place of treaty, and when the Shaw-
anees came from their villages on the Susquehannah in
Pennsylvania to New York with the intention of making
peace with this Province and the Indians depending on New
York, he was obliged to refuse to hear them unless they
went to Albany, and the Iroquois, their former enemies,
were present at the interview.
The result of this wise Indian policy is best seen, by read-
ing the words, used by the speaker of the Five Nations at a
great meeting at Albany, on the 1st of October, 1696.
“We have become a small people,” he said, “ and much
lessened by the war. If the people of Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, Connecticut and New England,
who have al1. put their hands to the covenant-chain will join
with the inhabitant.; of this place, we are ready to go and
root the French and all our enemies out of Canada. * * *
The Tree of Safety and Welfare planted here, we confirm it.
As the tree is planted here and confirmed, so we make fast
all roots and branches of it, all the brethren of the Five
Nations and the brethren of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsyl-
vania, the Jerseys, New York, Connecticut and New Eng-
land.,,
This speech shows the esteem, which the Indians had for
Albany. They were then and until the end of French
dominion in Canada the only barrier between the French
and the Colonies east and south of the Connecticut river.
If they evei had made a peace with the Governors under
His Most Christian Majesty of France, as inviolable as they37
made them here in Albany with the English Governors,
nothing could have saved the city from the Fleur de Lys
banner. If the French had been able to seduce the Iroquois
from their allegiance to Quidor, in 1753, at the most critical
period for the English Colonies, and if Albany with the
valley of the Hudson river, had been part of the French
dominion in 1775, the Eastern and Southern Common-
wealths might have rebelled against the encroachments on
liberty by the British Ministry to their hearts* content.
They would have been “ whipped in detail,” like so many
school-boys.
The Iroquois however never would allow them, to cut
down the Tree of Safety and Welfare, planted, and ex-
tinguish the Council Fire, lighted in the ancient city of
Albany.COUKS EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE.
It is not intended to claim for the Dutch nation, the in-
habitants of the Low Lands at the mouth of the Rhine,
commonly called the Netherlands, that they were the first to
discover strength in the union of many weaker bodies, as
the Greek poet, Aesopus, had demonstrated this truism
centuries before in his well-known fable, but it is neverthe-
less significant, that of all the people of purely Teutonic
origin, they were the first to put this theory to the test of
practice. In 1581, they threw off the yoke of Philipp II,
the Spanish “ tyrant,” who had made them suffer so much,
and formed the Republic of the United Netherlands.
Indian war had induced the New England Colonies, in
1643, to join issues, with the object of “ protection against
the encroachments of the Dutch and the French, security
against the tribes of savages,” and to enjoy “ the liberties of
the gospel in purity and peace.” Massachusetts, Plymouth
Plantation, Connecticut and New Haven joined this con-
federation, from which they excluded Providence Planta-
tion and Rhode Island, because the people of these settle-
ments “ ran a different course, both in their ministry and
civil administration.”
The General Court of Massachusetts issued in 1690 a
call for a convention of colonial delegates, to decide upon
measures for the invasion of Canada. The invitation of
Jacob Leisler, the unfortunate self-appointed Lieutenant-
Governor of New York, to meet in the city of New York,
was accepted instead, and delegates from Massachusetts,
Plymouth and New York met without settling any thing of
importance.39
Peter de la Noy, a man educated in the spirit of free
Holland, although a Huguenot, born it the Province of
New York, who had taken part in the meeting of 1690, saw,
in 1695, that the safety of the English Colonies against the
encroachment of the French in Canada depended very
much on a federative union among them. In commenting
on the administration of Governor Fletcher, of New York,
he says: “I wish his Majesty would place a General Gov-
ernor over New York, New England and the Jerseys, so as
the Assemblys Courts of Judicature and Laws of the respec-
tive Colonies may remain and be kept separate. *	*	#	#
But a union under one Governor would be very convenient
*	*	*	* and a terrour to the French of Canada, who
assume a boldness purely from our divisions into separate
bodies and the piques that are too common amongst the
several Governors, of which the French don’t want a con-
stant intelligence.”
De la Noy had lived long enough to have seen the futile
attempt of King James, who, in order to strengthen the
Colonies and his hold upon them, had united all the Northern
dependencies under one government. While serving as
member of the General Assembly for New York city and
county he had learned that New York Colony alone was not
strong enough to defend the Hudson valley against the
French, but needed the assistance of her eastern and south-
ern neighbors; they, however, always excused themselves
from sending aid on the plea that they were also exposed to
the enemy’s attacks. What was then really needed for the
safety of all the British colonies was a military commander
with power to call out, direct and station the forces levied
by each Colony. The English Ministers of State, to whom
De la Noy’s letter of 1695 was probably addressed, recog-
nized this necessity, and in a report to the King, made in
1696, recommended the appointment of a Captain-General
over the Colonies from the Delaware to Maine, who should
have the power of Governor of any one of them, while he40
was present in it. Dissensions among the respective agents
or representatives of the Colonies, in London, defeated this
scheme. Massachusetts wanted that her Governor should
also be civil chief magistrate of New York and New Hamp-
shire, and General of all the forces in Massachusetts, New
York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and the
Jerseys. Connecticut protested against this, as being too
hard on the inhabitants and contrary to their charter. New
Hampshire was a proprietary government, and the proprie-
tor, who acted also as Governor by royal appointment,
very naturally objected to being so summarily superseded.
New York, being most exposed to the dangers of a French
invasion, failed to see how in sending her troops to the more
populous Massachusetts she could protect her own frontiers.
The King solved the difficulty by appointing, on the 16th
of March, 1696-7, the Earl of Bellomont to be Governor
of the Province of New York, Massachusetts Bay and New
Hampshire, and to be Captain-General of all the forces
there, and in Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Jerseys.
Bellomont came “ out ” to his government with the best in-
tentions, and might have succeeded in settling the distract-
ing English and French difficulties, if death had not called
him away within a few years. With his death the arbitrary,
pragmatical union of these heterogeneous units came to an
end. The New England Colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Connecticut had their peculiar charter. New
York was a conquered Province; New Hampshire and the
Jerseys were proprietary governments; hence the internal
interests of all were widely divergent, while the people or
their representatives failed to discern the benefits of a union
and such concerted action of all against their common enemy
at the North.
For this reason we need not wonder, that Penn’s plan for
a union of the Colonies in America elicited very little com-
ment. He wanted all the Colonies, including the South as
far as Carolina to “ be made more useful to the Crown and4i
one another's peace and safety with an universal concur-
rence.” The Colonies were to meet, by their deputies, once
a year during the war and once in two years in times of
peace, to debate and resolve such measures as are most
advisable for their better understanding and the “ public
tranquillity and safety.” Each Province was to send two
representatives and a commissioner to be appointed by the
Crown to preside at their deliberations. The place of meet-
ing to be most centrally located, it was most likely, that New
York would be chosen as meeting place, and therefore the
Governor of New York was proposed as commissioner,
whose powers in war times were to extend also over the
military forces of all the Colonies. Tidings from England,
that a measure was pending before the House of Lords for
bringing all the proprietary governments, including Penn-
sylvania, under the Crown, led the great Quaker to return to
England, and his scheme was never mentioned.
We have no right to assume that Penn, who, though a
Quaker,was also a staunch Royalist, in devising this plan had
any idea of its leading to a severance of the Colonies from
the Crown. The threatning progress of the French among
the Indians, located to the west of the English settlements
made it sine qua non condition for the latter to meet the
French with a bold and unbroken front from the St. Law-
rence to the Ohio. Therefore we meet the matter recurring
at stated intervals. Some ten to fifteen years after Penn had
submitted his plan, in 17n, the Governors of the Colonies
from the Jerseys north and eastward, met at New London,
Conn. This congress acted only as a council of war, for
being composed of the Governors, acting under royal in-
structions, they could not speak as representatives of the feel-
ing of the settlers. This was claimed by the assemblies,
especially the Assembly of New York, in which Albany
county was then represented by Robert Livingston, Johan-
nes Cuyler and Colonel Johannes Schuyler.42
“ A greater asserter of liberty,” says Governor Hunter, of
New York, speaking of the political condition of his Prov-
ince, “one at least that understood it better that any of
them, has said: That as national or independent empire is
to be exercised by them, that have the proper balance of
dominion in the nation, so provincial or dependent empire
is not to be exercised by them that have ye balance of do-
minion in the Province; because that would bring ye gov-
ernment from provincial and dependent to national and in-
dependent. Which is a reflexion that deserves some con-
sideration for ye sake of another from ye same person, to-
wit: That ye Colonies were infants sucking their mother’s
breasts, but such as, if he was not mistaken, would wean
themselves, when they came of age.”
Politicians of to-day might agree as little with the fore-
going assertion, as the politician of 1711 fancied, how true
the closing sentiment would come during the same century.
In 1722 appeared in London “A Description of the
English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called
Florida, and by the French’, Louisiana.” The writer of it,
was a man, who like Penn, had proprietary interests in the
Colonies on the American Continent. His father, Daniel
Coxe, M. D., of London, was one of the proprietors, and
for some years Governor of West Jersey, where the son,
Colonel Daniel Coxe, served as member of the Council, as
Speaker of the Assembly and as Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of New Jersey. The book of Colonel Coxe
is rather a crude performance, the lack of geographical
knowledge displayed in it is absolutely startling, for the
Mississippi river is placed within half a day’s ride from the
Pacific Ocean. But he may claim to have been the uncon-
scious inventor of the United States, although generally
Benjamin Franklin is credited with originating that plan here
at Albany in 1754, as we shall see hereafter.
Coxe proposed, that for the more effectual defense of all
the British Colonies against the French, they should become43
one legal, regular and firm government, under a Supreme
Governor, the Governors of the single Colonies remaining
as his subordinates. The Council and Assembly of each
Colony were to elect annually two deputies, nearly as
United States Senators are elected to-day, whom the Gov-
ernor-General had the power to convene, when necessary.
They were to consult and advise for the general good of
the Colonies, and to settle the quota of men and money
needed for the common defense, from each Colony, while
the Supreme Governor had the right to veto any of their
acts, but could not enforce any ordinance without their
consent.
“ Let us consider/' says Coxe, “the fall of our ancestors,
and grow wise by their misfortune. If the ancient Britons
had been united amongst themselves, the Romans, in all
probability, had never become their masters; for as Caesar
observed of them: “dum singulipugnabant, vniversi vince-
banturp whilst they fought in separate bodies, the whole
island was subdued. So if the English Colonies in America
were consolidated as one body and joined in one common
interest, as they are under one gracious sovereign, and with
united forces were ready and willing to act in concert and
assist each other, they would be better enabled to provide
for and enable themselves against any troublesome neigh-
bor or bold invader. For Union and Concord increase and
establish strength and power, whilst Division and Discord
have the contrary effect." In other words, “Eendraght
maakt maght.”
In making these recommendations, Coxe was by no means
actuated by disinterested motives for the welfare of the Colo-
nies, nor does he claim to be so. He declared himself to be,
through his father, proprietor of the Province of Carolana,
stretching westward from the western bounds of Carolina,
and covering the present States of Georgia, Alabama, Mis-
sissippi and part of Louisiana, in the latter of which the
French had begun to get a foothold and to make extensive44
settlements. The British Colonies, with their military con-
tingents united under one head, could have driven the French
from Carolana, and this evidently was what Coxe desired.
. The next move, intending, however, to checkmate any
attempt at a union of the Colonies, had its origin in Albany
matters. J ohan nes Cuyler, Evert Banker, Wessel Ten Broeck,
Francis Salisbury and others, who were or had been justices
of the city and county of Albany, were prosecuted by the
then Attorney-General of the Province, Richard Bradley,
in 1723 and 1724, on the plea of not having taken sufficient
care of the county jail. They compromised the case by
paying to Bradley ^45, though he demanded a larger
amount. He gave his receipt for the above sum, and then
continued his persecutions of the justices for insufficiency
had inherited from him the idea of a political union, for
before the appearance of Coxe’s little work, they represented
to the King, George I, that to put a stop to a great many
abuses and inconveniences, prevalent in his transatlantic
possessions, he ought to appoint a Lord-Lieutenant or Cap-
tain-General to govern them all. George the First disliked
the country whose crown he had been obliged to put on his
head, and to expect from him that he should interest him-
self in dependencies of this country, so far across the ocean
as the American Colonies, was to expect too much. Hence
the recommendation of the Lords of Trade and Plantations
in 1721, and Colonel Coxe’s attempt to rouse by his publica-
tion general public sentiment, had no immediate result.
Doctor Coxe, the father of the author, had managed to
interest King William and Lord Lonsdale in the Carolana
Colony. We have no means of telling whether he had
submitted the case to them under the same aspect of a con-
federation of the British Colonies in America, but it seems
that the successors of Lord Lonsdale in his official position
of the jail accomodations, finally driving his victims to peti-
tion the General Assembly for relief. The latter “ found
by the before-mentioned receipt that it was in full for the45
Attorney- General's fees, and it being alleged that the said
gaol has since been well amended, it seems to them that the
present prosecutions proceed rather from a view to squeese
some more money from the petitioners than from any just
cause.,, The Assembly was, as we see, not friendly to the
Attorney-General, who had vainly tried to obtain from the
Province a fixed salary which his predecessor had enjoyed
in addition to the fees allowed him.
These efforts bearing no fruits, and the remembrance of
this rebuke and of a former one by the same Assembly, for
what they considered a breach of parliamentary privilege,
infuriated Attorney-General Bradley to such an extent that
he sent to the Lords of Trade and Plantation a long repre-
sentation against Assemblies of the Colonies, which he pre-
tended must necessarily aim at independence from the
Crown. He finds that most of the steps taken by a de-
pendent Colony to render themselves independent at their
pleasure are taken by the Assembly of New York. He had
discovered that the Colonies had grown from infants at their
mothers’ breasts to full-grown boys, who made only indif-
ferent use of the privileges granted to the suckling.
The increase of population in all the Colonies on the
Western Continent, both English and French, showed to
the statesmen of England the necessity of settling by force
of arms the divergent claims of either, and the matter begun
to be discussed in print about 1744. One of their “schemes ”
bore the title, “ Some remarks on the most rational and
effectual means that can be used in the present conjunction
for the future security of the trade of Great Britain by pro-
tecting and advancing her settlements on the North Con-
tinent of America.”
It is a curious coincidence, such as we often meet in the
study of history, that the man, who as Royal Governor of
New York, then opposed the plan of uniting the Colonies,
belonged to the same family which gave to the State of
New York its first Governor. Admiral George Clinton,46
Governor of the Province of New York from 1743 to 1753,
and Charles Clinton, father of General George Clinton,
first Governor of the independent State of New York, both
belonged to the family of the Earls of Lincoln, George
Clinton addressing Charles as cousin.
The “ scheme ” above referred to had in view the ap-
pointment of a general officer to preside over the respective
governments, who was to have the supreme command over
the troops raised in the Colonies. The commissions of the
respective Governors invested them also with the command
of the troops of their Province. Clinton did not approve
of a plan by which he himself was virtually superseded and
reduced to a u sypher.”
The state of affairs at that date on the continent ought to
have taught the Admiral-Governor the lesson, that, by their
united efforts, the Colonies could soon have relieved them-
selves from all anxieties caused by their neighbors, the
French. It has already been said that the increase of
population demanded a settlement of the contradictory ter-
ritorial claims of both nations. The boundaries north and
west had never been fixed. The English based their title
to the western lands upon the various cessions made by the
Indians, for they followed the policy inaugurated by the
Dutch, of first “ satisfying ” the Indians for the land to be
settled. Commissioners of Maryland and Virginia, Colo-
nies where this New York, or better called Albany custom,
was also a law, had bought for ^400 in gold and Indian
goods from the Iroquois “ all the territory which is or by
order of His Majesty shall be within the limits of the Col-
ony of Virginia.” The French, mistrusting these proceed-
ings, lost no time in beginning hostilities. Canso, in Nova
Scotia, fell quickly into their hands; but the soldiers cap-
tured there and allowed to go to Boston gave such reports
regarding the fortifications of Louisburg, one of the most
important points in the hands of the French, as to induce
the Assembly of Massachusetts to send an army of nearly47
4,000 men under Sir William Pepperell against the Preach.
The great fortress was taken after a spirited attack of six
weeks. Preparations were then made to invade Canada;
but the ministry in England withdrew the Royal forces co-
operating with the Provincials, as they did not desire to
rouse the military spirit of the Colonies to a consciousness
of its strength.
New York had been asked for assistance of men and
money, and Governor Clinton endeavored to induce the
Assembly to make an appropriation. In a speech to them,
on the 18th of July, 1744, he says, referring to his meeting at
Albany with commissioners from Massachusetts and Con-
necticut : “ The commissioners from the Massachusetts
government had full powers likewise for entering into a strict
union and alliance with us and all the Colonies on the main,
to concert and agree with them, upon proper measures for
their joint conduct in the war against the common enemy
for our mutual advantage. I earnestly recommend it to you
to provide supplies, the better to enable me to commissionate
proper persons with like powers for this laudable end, that
thereby such measures may be engaged in touching the con-
duct of the war in these parts, that His Majesty’s American
subjects may not only be safe in their possessions, but be-
come a terror to his enemies.”
But the Assembly would not listen to these entreaties.
They resolved, nem. con., “ That as His Majesty has for
some years been engaged in a war with the King of Spain,
and is at present engaged in another with the French King,
this House will provide ways and means for putting the Col-
ony in such posture of defense as may on the one hand dis-
courage an enemy to make attempts upon it by sea or land,
and on the other excite our inhabitants cheerfully to exert
their known resolution in making a vigorous defense, in case
any such undertaking should be attempted.” They had not
a word to say of helping their neighbors, but passed with-
out great effort bills to support the garrison at Oswego and48
to fortify the city of Albany, at an expense of ^450.
This Assembly of twenty-seven members counted among
them fourteen of Dutch descent, of whom Philip Schuyler
and Peter Winne represented the city and county of Albany,
Johan Baptist van Rensselaer sitting for the Manor; and
they now repaid the sneers and assumed superiority with
which New England then as to-day liked to look down upon
New York as a Dutch Colony.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, ended King
George’s war without adjusting the line of demarkation be-
tween French and English territories. In 1749? the Ohio
Company, among whose members were Lawrence and
Augustin Washington, obtained from the Crown a grant of
500,000 acres on the Ohio. Its object was trade with
the Indians and cultivation of the land west of the Alle-
ghanies, and by that means the settlement of the country
by a people who acknowledged as sovereign the King of
Great Britain, and not His Most Christian Majesty of
France. In such a population the French of Canada saw
an always insurmountable barrier between their Canadian
and the Louisiana territory, and therefore this they were
not disposed to allow. Their agents had already visited the
valley of the Ohio, and had taken possession of it in the
name of their King, making friends and allies of the In-
dians in that region. After erecting a fort at Presqu, He,
which we call to-day Erie, Penn., they pushed forward to
the Miami, susprised an English garrison there and terror-
ized the Indians. On behalf of the latter, belonging to the
tribes of Shawanoes, Delawares, Piankashaws and others,
the celebrated headman or Sachem, Half-King (Scarow-
jady*), went to remonstrate with the French commander,
but without success. An expedition of the French in 1753,
* In the Dinwiddie Papers (Virginia Historical Collection, Vol. Ill),
Half-King is called Tanacharison, a Senaca chief; while the New York
Colonial Documents, VII, call him a Delaware of the above given
name, whom the Dinwiddie Papers claim as Oneida.49
although temporarily successful, did not entirely accom-
plish its ends. In December, 1753, Lieutenant-Governor
De Lancey, then administering the government of the Col-
ony of New York, was informed by Lieut. Holland, com-
manding Fort Oswego, that the greater part of the French
army which had gone to Ohio during the previous summer,
numbering 6,000 French and 500 Indians, had repassed his
post; and further, that from two deserters he had learnt the
fact that the French had been unable to accomplish their
designs beyond making a few English prisoners, though they
threatened next year to make a second attempt. The
French army had besides suffered from sickness and had
lost great numbers of their men from scurvy, an illness con-
tracted through the badness of their provisions. The Indians
to the southward had not only bid defiance to them, but
forced from them provisions and brandy, a net result for the
French, being the loss of many men by illness and the gain
of two English prisoners.
The French interest was further seriously compromised by
the capture and treatment of the two Englishmen, who were
sent to Canada in irons, although the Governor of Canada
had promised to his Indian allies not to molest the English.
Before De Lancey’s report could reach England, he
received directions from the Lords of Trades and Planta-
tions to hold an interview with the Six Nations at Albany,
although this place had become obnoxious to them. They
reviewed the state of Indian affairs, and added that they
think it best for his majesty’s service that he should take the
first opportunity of representing in the strongest terms to the
Council and General Assembly the great importance to the
Province of preserving the friendship and affections of the
Indians whom Governor Clinton had managed to estrange,
and the fatal consequences which must inevitably follow
from a neglect of their friendship. He was furthennore
instructed to impress upon the Assembly the necessity of
joining him as well as supporting him in every measure con-
45°
ducive to fix Indian loyalty to British interest. A speedy
interview with the Indians was urged, as their present dis-
position demanded and as usage and custom required. The
neighboring governments were to send commissioners to be
joined with those of New York, and the Governors of Vir-
ginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hamp-
shire and Massachusetts were also directed by the Lords of
Trade to represent to their respective Assemblies the neces-
sity of this measure. When the time and place of meeting
had been settled, the Governors of the Colonies not written
to directly were to be notified, and care was to be taken that
all the Provinces were, if practicable, comprised in one gen-
eral treaty, to be made in his Majesty's name.
This was the first seed sown for the Albany Congress and
the Albany Plan of Union. Albanians take a pride in sup-
posing that the scheme, upon which the United States were
founded about forty years later, originated in their city, but
this is the age of the ikonoklast, especially in history, under
whose blows our idols are crumbling to powder, and how-
ever painful it may be, we must concede the precedence to
Colonel Coxe, of New Jersey, whose little book has been
mentioned before.
De Lancey, according to instructions, placed the matter
before the Assembly, in which Captain Peter Winne, and
Captain Petrus Douw, sat for Albany county, J. B. van
Rensselaer representing the Manor, and had the satisfaction
to receive, two days later, a resolution of the House, “ That
as soon as the season of the year will permit His Honor the
Lieutenant-Governor to meet the Indian Nations at Albany
to renew the ancient treaty with them, this House will make
provision for the presents usually made them on such occa-
sions, and also for the expenses of His Honour’s voyage to
Albany.” Thereupon, “ His Honour,” with the advice and
consent of the Council, was pleased to appoint, that the
interview with the Indians be held at the city of Albany,
on the 14th day of June following; that is, in 1754.51
This date did not suit all the Governors, to whom it had
been duly notified. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, re-
plied by a discussion of the subject of the French encroach-
ments on the Ohio river, and of Major George Washing-
ton^ fruitless interviews with the French commandant at the
fort on the Ohio, M. de St. Pierre. He further stated, that
he had ordered out for the present a detachment of the
militia and hoped the Assembly of Virginia would enable
him to take more vigorous measures; he also requested that
the men, which New York was to furnish for mutual assist-
ance in obedience to the orders from England, should be
sent to Wills creek, at the head of the Potomac, early in
March. But the consultation at Albany, he was sorry to
say, came at an inconvenient time, for he had proposed to
meet the Six Nations and Southern Indians at Winchester
on the 20th of May, and the Assembly of his Province
will, he thinks, be backward in sending commissioners to
Albany. Governor Dinwiddie had been only a little over
two years in the Colonies, and apparently was as yet a tyro
in the study of Indian politics; for if he had been thoroughly
conversant with them, he would not have expected the Five
Nations to meet him at any other place than at Albany.
The following letter sent by some of the Mohawk chiefs to
Sir William Johnson, the New York Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, explains the feeling of the Five Nations on this
point:
Canajoharie, the 22d Day of March 1753.
Sir:
Brother Coll: William Johnson wee Let you No that
there has not Been any of the five Nations at Virginia to
Speeke with the govemur, nor Never Recivid any Present
from the governur of Verginia Last May, nor Any time
after Last May. Wee Canajoharies, Onydes, taskaroras,
Ondages Kayockes and Sinnikes Nor none of us. But Wee
Agreed to meet to Speeke in Albany Because Wee Would
Not goo to Loggstown in Virginia. Wee Would Speeke in52
Albany that our Governour Could heare it And Wee Would
Bee Glad to Speeke in Albany with the governur of Vir-
ginia And Wee did not Receve any Present in the above
Neamed time from the Governur of Virginia Ass Witness
our hands
P. S.—Hendrick says, that
they all know, that five Na-
tions gave you the Wamping,
to Sand bak to the governur
of Virgina, that they would
not meet at Virginia, but att
Albany.
his
Abraham -f- Pieters
mark
his
Brant + Urgyadekha
mark
his
Hendrick + Pieters
mark
Paulus-------
The Council of New York advised Governor De Lancey,
that to postpone the meeting with the Indians at Albany,
would be unwise, and repeated this advice to Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, when he also desired a postpone-
ment. Shirley seems to have been more of a politician,
than of a statesman, — a man, who had the interest of his
political party more at heart, than that of the whole Province
under his government, and in this line of action we must
consider him somewhat of a prototype for many of our
modem elective officers.
He pleaded to De Lancey, that the meeting at Albany on
the 14th of June, would interfere with their general election
in Massachusetts on the 28th of May, as the commissioners,
if any should be sent from his government, would be some
of the Council and Assembly to be elected, and therefore
he thinks, Massachusetts would not be represented at the
proposed interview, unless the same was put off to July.
Here we see the first indication of Shirley’s opposition to the
Albany Plan of Union, a modern historian, a Boston man,
notwithstanding, who accuses De Lancey of New York, as
defeating this plan, and says of Shirley, that he “ took a
leading part in the congress of Governors at Albany, (where
Shirley did not come,) and warmly supported the abortive53
scheme of union proposed by Franklin.” Further proof
of his opposition will be found in Volume VI of Doctu
ments relating to the Colonial History of New York.
I must request the reader’s indulgence for diverging here
into a few paragraphs of a polemic character, but the stand-
point from which New England historians look down upon
New York requires it. Being myself a beginner in the study
of history, I may be called presumptuous to try my hand at
correcting older writers, but the reasons for it are obvious.
The truth about New York has never been written, for the
writer encounters obstacles and no means to overcome them.
The country, compared with Europe or Asia, is new. “ The
first settlers were too much occupied in conquering nature
for a living to find time for exercising their literary capa~
cities. Cosmopolitan from the very beginning of white life
in New York, the unity of feeling, the pride of origin, which
ordinarily give birth to history, could not grow.” Then New
York was first settled by Dutchmen, of whom the English
knew very little, and whom the Puritans of New England,
with characteristic English insolence, hated for the benefits
and protection received in the Netherlands. We can go
further for the dislike of New York so often expressed by
New England. From the earliest beginnings of the Colo-
nies, the Dutch and the New Englanders were involved in
a boundary quarrel, which continued during the whole colo-
nial period. Upon reference of the differences to England,
New York was usually found to be in the right. But that
added only fuel to the bitter fire of hate and dislike. Hence
we see the history of New York treated with a subjective
feeling by the historians of to-day, which is entirely un-
worthy of them.
As already stated, the Council of New York objected to
a postponement of the meeting on Governor Dinwiddie’s
application, and again on Shirley’s. The Indians had
already been notified to come to Albany, and the state
of their feelings at the time made delay impolitic.54
The time appointed for the meeting drew near, and Vir-
ginia still endeavored to have it postponed. In March,
Governor Dinwiddie informed De Lancey that the time
would not admit of concerting measures with the other gov-
ernments, and he therefore hoped New York would do all
in its power to assist Virginia in driving the French from
the Ohio. Shirley, of Massachusetts, had seen the futility
of further delay, and sent word that he intended to appoint
commissioners for the Albany meeting. It appears, how-
ever, from the credentials of these commissioners, that not
the Governor, but the Council and Representatives of Mas-
sachusetts voted on the 18th and 19th of April, 1754, “that
Samuel Welles, John Chandler, Thomas Hutchinson, Oliver
Partridge and John Worthington (any three of whom to be
a quorum), be and they hereby are fully authorized and
empowered to represent and appear for this Province at the
General Convention of the British Governments proposed
to be held at Albany in .June next, and in concert with
Commissioners from all or any of the said governments to
enter into Articles of Agreement and Confederation, as well
offensive and defensive for their general safety and interest,
and for confirming and establishing the ancient and uninter-
rupted Attachment of the Six Nations to his Majesty, our
most gracious Sovereign, and their long and constant friend-
ship with his Majesty's subjects on this continent." This
insured the representation of one important factor at the
proposed meeting.
In New Jersey, which did not expect to suffer from an
invasion by the French, the Assembly declined to make
provision for meeting the expenses of commissioners, there-
fore none were appointed. About the middle of May,
Benning Wentworth, the Governor of New Hampshire,
wrote that the commissioners from his Province should be
fully instructed to join with the delegates from the other
governments at the intended interview concerning the erec-
tion of forts in the Indian country. Theodore Atkinson,55
Richard Wibird, Meshec Weare, and Henry Sherburne,
jun., appeared for this Colony. The other Colonies were
represented as follows:
Connecticut sent William Pitkin, Roger Wolcot, jun., and
Elisha Williams; Rhode Island appeared by Stephen Hop-
kins and Martin Howard, jun.; Maryland by Benj. Tasker,
jun., and Abraham Barnes; Pennsylvania by John Penn,
one of the proprietors, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris and
Benjamin Franklin; while New York was represented by
its Lieutenant-Governor, De Lancey, and Messrs. Murray,
Johnson, Chambers and Smith, of his Council. The ab-
sence of representatives of Virginia and New Jersey has
already been accounted for. The Carolinas felt the danger
of the French-Indian alliances as much as their sister Colo-
nies, but political dissensions between the Governors and
the Assemblies seem to have prevented the necessary money
grants. Georgia, the baby of the Colonies, was just pass-
ing from the infant state of a philanthropic experiment into
the maturity of a crown Province and could not be ex-
pected to be interested in matters occurring beyond its
boundaries.
The city of Albany made little preparations to receive
this assemblage of commissioners, who were to settle ques-
tions of so great importance to its inhabitants and to the
Province generally. The Common Council passed, on the
9th of May, 1754, an ordinance for cleaning and repairing
the streets before the 18th of the same month. Cleanliness
was, as we all know, almost a monomania among the
Dutch, and they wanted their city, then the stronghold of
Batavianism on this continent, to appear clean to the
strangers.
After they had arrived and undoubtedly enjoyed for a
while, the private hospitality of such Albanians, as by their
social position could offer it, the city entertained them. The
same Common Council resolved on the 2d of July, “that
his Honour the Lieut. Govemour and the gentlemen, that56
attended him from New York, also the commissioners from
the neighboring governments, be asked to dinner at the City
Hall to-morrow. This Board has agreed with Robert Lot-
teridge to prepare for the same at one shilling and six pence
for each dinner and that the Commonalty pay for ye dinner
at their own proper cost and that the liquor be at the ex-
pense of the city.”
The accounts show, that the wine, offered at the City Hall
upon arrival of the Lieut. Governor, cost	.8.-—, the
entertainment £14^.4. Imagine to-day a dinner, prepared
by a caterer for probably at least fifty honored guests, and
costing not more than about $40.*
Governor De Lancey and his Council held a preliminary
meeting at the City Hall on the 18th of June. The Com-
missioners of Indian Affairs, of whom Colonel Sir William
Johnson was the head, reported the result of their consulta-
tions a few days previous. They advised: The Six Nations
should be exhorted to dwell together in their respective
castles and the Mohawks to live in one only; the Onon-
dagas were to cause all their friends and relations, wherever
dispersed, to join them, particularly those who had separated
and lived at Swegatchie (Oswegatchie), a French settlement
of Indians of the Six Nations on the St. Lawrence. The
Senecas were desired, to make a general castle near the
mouth of their river, the Gen-is-he-yo-Ga-hun-da or Genesee
river, where they had already begun to erect a new castle.
The most effectual method, to retain and secure the Six
Nations to the British interest, the Commissioners of Indian
Affairs advised, would be to build two forts, one in the
Onondaga, the other in the Seneca country and to appoint
a missionary to reside in each. They further recommended,
that the sale of rum in the Indian country should be for-
bidden, and that Frenchmen be expelled and afterwards
kept out of the Indian castles.
* The pound New York currency was equal to about ten shillings
sterling.57
The recommendation concerning the traffic in rum, with
the Indians, was a hint, upon which the Governor promptly
acted!. A traveller, whose work we must consider as an
authority, tells us something of this pernicious trade in liquors
with the Indians. It is true, his nationality as Swede biased
him against the Dutch, who had so effectually squelched
New-Sweden on the Delaware, but we have other evidences
to show that he did not go beyond the truth in his statement.
Peter Kalm, this traveller, says of Albany and the Albanians,
whom he visited in 1750 : 44 Rum is an absolute necessity to
the inhabitants of Albany for their Indian trade; they use
it to blind the eyes of the Indians, so that the latter will sell
his furs at any price, the Albany traders are willing to give.”
The large influx of Indians to Albany, where liquor was
used as much as the daily bread, showed the prejudices to
his Majesty’s service and the danger to the peace of the in-
habitants, resulting from indiscriminate use of liquor by these
Indians. De Lancey therefore issued a proclamation,
strictly forbidding 44 all persons, whatsoever, to sell or give
to the Indians any liquor during my residence in this place,
as they will answer it at their peril. And all magistrates,
justices of the peace, and other civil officers are hereby re-
quired, to see that this proclamation be strictly put in
execution and all offenders presented and punished with the
utmost severity of the law.”
Upon the other points the Governor decided, with the
advice of his Council, to say to the commissioners of the
other Colonies:
44 That the treaty to be made with the Indians be in his
Majesty’s name in behalf of all the Colonies and if any of
the commissioners would propose matters relative to a par-
ticular government only, that it be made a part of the
general treaty.
44 That it be principally insisted on in the conferences, to
unite all the Indian nations and their allies in the British58
interest in one common alliance and friendship with each
other and with all the Colonies on the continent.
“ That two forts be built at the places mentioned by the
Commissioners of Indian Affairs, and a proper garrison con-
stantly maintained in them, and smiths to repair their guns,
in whose hands small sums of money should be put, to pro-
vide and give to the Indians such necessary supplies as they
may most stand in need of from time to time.
“ And that for the securing the frontiers of this and the
eastern Colonies, three forts be erected and maintained with
sufficient gerrisons in them, one in a proper situation near
the Carrying Place on Hudson’s river (to-day Fort Edward),
one on the Lake St. Sacrement (Champlain), and the other
on the lower or further part of Wood creek (in Washington
county), the two last being the inlets, by which the French
and their Indians make incursions into these Colonies.”
These propositions having been approved by the Council,
Goldsborow Banyar, the Deputy Secretary of the Province
and Clerk of the Council, was directed to wait upon the
Commissioners from the other Colonies and acquaint them
that His Honor desired them to meet him in council in the
the City Hall (then at the north east comer of Hudson
street and Broadway) the next day, 19th of June, at eleven
o’clock in the morning. Kalm, quoted already above,
describes the City Hall of 1750 as a “ handsome stone
(brick) building, three stories high. It has a little spire with
a bell, and on the top of the spire a gilded ball and a flag.”
The other houses of the city he found fairly well-looking,
partly built of brick, usually covered with shingles of white
pinewood. Tiles were little used, presumably only by the
wealthier inhabitants, for these tiles had to be imported from
Holland, as the clay found in the vicinity was considered
not to be fit for such uses. No mortar covered the brick-
walls, but the material did not seem to suffer from this ex-
posure to the climate.59
They met in the afternoon, and after they had organized,
Governor De Lancey suggested that they should consider the
points which they judged proper to be proposed to the
Indians at the intended conferences with them, and prepare
the speech to be made on the occasion. For this purpose,
the Secretary or Agent of Indian Affairs was directed to
attend them with the records of that office, and the Indian
Commissioners received orders to supply all required infor-
mation.
A proposition by Governor De Lancy points to disputes
having arisen as to precedence among the delegates. To
avoid further squabbles over such a trival matter, he moved
that the Colonies should be named in the minutes according
to their situation from north to south, and the Congress
agreed to it.
The committee, appointed to draft the speech to the In-
dians, handed in the same on the 21st of June, but there were
as yet no Indians of importance to whom it could be deliv-
ered. Five days more elapsed, and the Mohawks of the
upper castle, the Canajoharie district, were still absent.
“ Brethren of Canajoharie,” wrote De Lancey to them, “ I
am surprised at your staying so long from this place, where
I have been for a considerable time. I expected you here
among the first, as you had some complaints to make to me,
which I have been and still am ready to hear; and I would
have you come down immediately; otherwise I and the
commissioners from the other governments shall be obliged
to speak to the Six Nations without you.”
This Castle of the Mohawks had been deeply offended at
a.conference held with Governor Clinton at New York on
the 12th of June, 1753.	“ It grieves us,” had they said by
their speaker Hendrick, “ to know and hear that the Coun-
cil and Assembly don’t take care of Albany, but leave it
naked and defenseless, and don’t care what becomes of our
Nation. You sit in peace and quietness here, whilst we are
exposed to the enemy.” They had also complaints to make6o
about land matters, but received no satisfactory reply to any
of their pleadings, and left the conference saying : “ When
we came here to relate our grievances #	*	*	* we
expected to have something done for us, and we have told
you that the covenant chain of our forefathers was like to be
broken. Brother, you tell us that we shall be redressed at
Albany, but we know them so well that we will not trust to
them, for they are no People but Devils, so we rather desire
that you’ll say nothing shall be done for us.
“ Brother, by and by you’ll expect to have the Nations
down, which you shall not see, for as soon as we come home
we will send up a belt of wampum to our brothers, the Five
Nations, to acquaint them that the covenant chain is broken
between you and us. So, Brother, you are not to expect to
hear of me any more, and we desire to hear no more of
you. * * * * Brother, we did not expect when we
came from home that all our desires would have no effect.”
After such talk by one of the most influential members of
the Indian Long House, their absence from a meeting
called to strengthen their friendship to the British interest
looked ugly. For we must remember that the report of the
proceedings in June, 1753, had induced the Board of Trade
and Plantations to order this conference, hoping, as they
did, that the Indians might be reconciled and made useful
in the final struggle for supremacy on this continent between
the English and French powers.
On the seventh day of waiting, the 28th of June, the
anxiety naturally felt by all the commissioners was relieved
by the announcement, the upper Castle of the Mohawks
had arrived and desired to lay some matters of importance
before the Governor and the Council. Hendrick, their
speaker, plunged into medias res without much of the usual
preliminary compliments of Indian speech. “ Brother,” he
said, “we thought you would wonder why we of Cana-
johary stayed so long. We shall now give you the reason.
Last summer, we, of Canajohary, were down at New York61
to make our complaints, and we then thought the covenant
chain was broken, because we were neglected; and when
you neglect business the French take advantage of it, for
they are never quiet. It seemed to us that the Governor
had turned his back upon the five Nations, as if they were
no more, whereas the French were doing all in their power
to draw us over to them.
“We told the Governor, last summer, we blamed him for
the neglect of the five Nations, and at the same time we told
him the French were drawing the five Nations away to
Oswegatchie owing to that neglect, which might have been
prevented if proper use had been made of that warning, but
now we were afraid it is too late. We remember how it was
in former times when we are a strong and powerful people.
Colonel Schuyler used frequently to come among us, and by
this means we were kept together.
“ Brother, we, the Mohawks, are in very difficult circum-
stances and are blamed for things behind our backs which
we don’t deserve. Last summer when we went up with
Col. Johnson to Onondaga and he had made his speech to
the Five Nations, the Five Nations said, they liked the
speech very well, but that the Mohawks had made it. We
are looked upon by the other Nations as Col. Johnson’s
councilors, and supposed to hear all news from him, which
is not the case, for Col. Johnson does not receive from nor
impart much news to us. This is our reason for staying
behind, for, if we had come first, the other Nations would
have said that we made the Governor’s speech, and, there-
fore, tho’ we had resolved to come, we intended the other
Nations should go before us, that they might hear the Gov-
ernor’s speech, which we could hear afterwards. There are
some of our people who have large open ears, and talk a
little broken English and Dutch, so that they sometimes
hear what is said by the Christian settlers near them, and by
this means we came to understand that we are looked upon
to be a proud Nation, and therefore stayed behind. ’Tis62
true and known we are so and that we, the Mohawks,
are the head of all the other Nations; here they are, and
they must own it. But it was not out of pride that we
Canajoharies stayed behind, but for the reason we have
already given.”
The cloud, rising on the sky of Indian politics and threat-
ening to burst with disastrous results, was removed. Gov-
ernor De Lancey, a New Yorker born, understood the
Indian character well enough, and was so thoroughly trained
in law that he found no difficulty in settling the land troubles
which had caused such uneasiness among the Five Nations.
He handled the “ proud ” and irascible Mohawks, of Cana-
joharie, so well that on the 5th of July they declared them-
selves satisfied with his promises and returned him thanks.
Equal satisfaction was expressed by the Mohawks of the
lower Castle, who, on the opening of the conference, had
told him by their speaker, Canadagaia: “ We are here this
day by God’s will and your order, to which place you have
led us as it were by the hand. This is our old meeting
place, where, if we have any grievances, we can lay them
open.” They, too, had complaints to make about land
transactions, in which the old Albany custom had been
observed by the white men only pro forma. Surveyors had
returned as sold lands from the Half Moon, “ and so up
along Hudson’s river to the third fall and thence to the
Cacknewaga or Canada creek, which is about four or five
miles above the Mohawks, which, upon inquiry among our
old men, we cannot find was ever sold.” This was a case,
where procrastination seemed to be the best policy, and De
Lancey took advantage of the inability of the complainants
to name the offenders. He told the Indians, white men’s
justice required to hear both parties before a judgment was
given, and to manifest his friendship for the Indians, he
would do them all the justice in his power.
The limited knowledge acquired by the red men, of the
workings of civilized society, made it undoubtedly hard for63
Governor De Lancey to satisfy these same Mohawks on
another point. The Rev. Henry Barclay, a native of Albany,
where he had been bom as the son of the first Episcopal
minister, had made his studies at Yale College in 1734, and
after the absolution of his college course, gone to the Mo-
^ hawks at Fort Hunter as catechist. He went to England
in 1737, for the purpose of receiving holy orders, and after
ordination, in January, 1738, was sent as missionary to
Albany and Fort Hunter, by the Society for the Propaga
tion of the Gospel. He returned to his native city in the
beginning of April following, and continued his labors there
and at Fort Hunter until 1746. When he first came to live
with the Mohawks, at Fort Hunter, where they had one of
their castles, he promised to continue there till his death.
It speaks well for this native of Albany, grown up in Albany
notions regarding the red men, that upon this promise, they
proposed to give him a piece of ground to build a house
upon, with a garden and a meadow. They showed him a
little piece of low land, which he thought too small, and he
pointed out a larger one, as he was determined to live and
die amongst them. They transferred this larger parcel to him
to keep as long as he lived there, but after laboring eight years
among the Mohawks he left them, to take charge of Trinity
Church in New York. He died at New York in 1764,
superintending the publication of his translation into Mo-
hawk of the Book of Common Prayer. The Mohawks
could not understand that a man of scholarly attainments
should prefer living in civilized surroundings to the wilder-
ness of an Indian castle. Their complaints about it were
not attended to. Neither this nor Mr. Barclay’s claim to
keep the land contrary to agreement, suited their imperious
character. They were, however, willing to act in fairness,
and asked the Governor to pay Mr. Barclay for the house,
erected by him on the land, and stipulated that the land
should remain forever for the use of the minister stationed
among them. Governor De Lancey explained the reason64
why Mr. Barclay had left them, and promised redress to the
Indians. Another grievance on the part of the tribe, of a
similar kind, was settled as easily. They always had a very
great regard for Captain Butler, who formerly lived amongst
them, and had promised to do so always. They now saw
him at Albany, and understood that he would not return to
Fort Hunter; therefore, they begged His Honor to let him
go back. The Governor had to tell them that the company
to which Butler belonged was sent out of the Province, and
he could not post him again at Fort Hunter without men to
command. That he had also a great regard for him, and as
he was an old man and weak in his knees, he had given him
liberty to live at his house, and should be pleased, were it in
his power, to comply with their request.
The Indians were apparently satisfied with the answers
they received, for they made no further complaints^ The
proclamation concerning the sale of liquor to the Indians
does not seem to have had the desired effect. Drunken
Indians may have swaggered about the streets of Albany,
and terrorized timid women and children. To relieve them
from the agonies of a “ big head,” nothing more could be
done. But, not to destroy the satisfactory results of this
important Indian conference, by allowing the Indians
to be deprived of the presents, customary to be given on
such occasions, was the study of Governor and Council.
The most efficacious way to prevent this seemed to be a pro-
clamation, which was issued on the 5th of July, prohibiting the
buying or receiving from the Indians the presents given by
the government. On the same day an Indian affair came
before the commissioners, which they could not settle out of
hand. A petition signed by six Housatannunck (Housa-
tonic) or Stockbridge Indians was read, setting forth that
they were natives of the Province of New York, and that
their ancestors were native owners of some of the lands on
and about Hudson’s river to which the petitioners imagined
they had a right, as neither their fathers nor they had ever65
received any consideration whatever for a considerable
quantity of these lands, now occupied by white people.
These Stockbridge Indians were of the Mahicander or Mo-
hican tribe, and tradition does not seem to have been so
correct among them as among the Five Nations, or for
purposes of their own they preferred to forget, that their
forefathers had sold their lands during the preceding cen-
tury. Evert Lucasson had bought part of their territory
back of Kinderhook, Columbia county, in 1665; Gerrit
van Slechtenhorst acquired land near Claverack in 1678;
Derick Wessels ten Broeck, land on Kinderhook kil in
1679, and Robert Livingston settled with their approval and
to their satisfaction on Livingston manor in 1683. But
now Massachusetts people had their eyes upon the Hudson
valley. They attempted to purchase lands long ago settled
by New Yorkers, and hence the Indian complaints.
The Indians had apparently all been satisfied with the
replies to their speeches by Governor De Lancey, but some
of the commissioners from the other Provinces informed
him that they did not think he had allayed the Indian’s un-
easiness about their lands altogether, and that they were of
opinion he should speak to them again on this subject, to
discover the real sentiment of the assembled Indians. The
commissioners founded their belief of the continued un-
easiness upon information that several of the Indians had
declared themselves not satisfied. De Lancey therefore
desired a committee of the commissioners should attend
him in council, when he would examine the Indians again.
A sachem of each Indian nation was sent for, and De Lan-
cey said to them, when assembled: “You remember that
soon after I came to this place, you told me you were very
uneasy concerning the difference which then subsisted be-
tween Teady Magin and some Germans respecting the
purchase of some of your lands fin the present county of
Fulton J, and that this controversy has been since settled to
the satisfaction of all parties; and that as to the other com-
S66
plaints which you had made at New York, as I was absent
at that time [June, 1753I, I told you that as soon as I re-
turned thither, I would examine into them and do you all
the justice in my power. Now I desire you will acquaint
me and the commissioners present, whether you then de-
clared you were satisfied with my promise and returned me
thanks.”
To the commissioners from New England, where the In-
dians were always considered as untrustworthy and as inca-
pable of understanding honest and honorable dealings, such
straight-forward appeal to the Indians’ better feeling must
have been a surprise. The reply of the Indians to this allocu-
tion of De Lancey can neither have failed to astonish them
after their doubts about the Indians’ satisfaction. Hendrick
Peters of Canajoharie was again the spokesman who deliv-
ered himself as follows: “It is true we have made these
complaints and your Honor has told us, you were at Al-
bany, when we spoke of them to Governor Clinton at New
York; we trust your Honor will do, as you have promised
us. We, the Canajoharies, rely upon this promise and
are well pleased. Your Honor is the head of all the gov-
ernments present and we depend on you as our own Gov-
ernor. But if, after a year, we do not receive satisfaction
as to our complaints, we shall mention them again to your
Honor and all the Governors, and if you find, after trial,
you cannot redress them, we desire you to take the assist-
ance of the other Governors. As we have spoken lovingly
and friendly together, we hope everything may conclude so,
more especially as the French (some of whose Indians are
now in the place), if informed ofkany differences between
their brethren and them, will laugh at us and endeavor to
rekindle them.” They then returned his Honor and the
commissioners thanks and withdrew.
The sagacity of the son of the forest, awakened, kept
alive and sharpened by his constant contact with nature had
discovered that the object of this meeting of commissioners6j
from the English Provinces on the continent was not alone
for the purpose of conferring with them and brightening the
covenant chains. There were two other matters of impor-
tance to be discussed, and, if possible, to be settled. The
first concerned all the British Colonies; the second only
New York and Massachusetts.
For a thorough understanding of the matter discussed by
this conference of Colonial delegates, we must cast a glance
at their various commissions and instructions. The Massa-
chusetts Commissioners were told by Governor Shirley to
represent and appear for the Province, and enter into articles
of union and confederation with the other governments for
the general defence of his Majesty’s subjects and interests in
North America, as well in time of peace as war. The
representatives of Connecticut were “to consult proper
measures for the general defense and safety of his Majesty’s
subjects.” The paragraph pertaining hereto in the Mary-
land Commission said: “ I [the Lieutenant-Governor of
Maryland, Horatio SharpeJ, have had information that the
commissioners from the neighboring Colonies will receive
instructions *	*	* to concert measures for the better
securing the Indians for the future in our alliance and pre-
venting their being alienated from our interests, *	*	*
as well as for the more easy defense of his Majesty’s domin-
ions on this continent. You shall, if any propositions of
that nature are made, *. *	* let them know that this
Province is also disposed to contribute to the execution of
any general scheme to promote such desirable ends.” The
Rhode Island Commissioners were told “ to meet and join
with the other commissioners in consulting what methods
are proper to be used to preserve the friendship of the Six
Nations of Indians and their attachments to the British
interest in America. Also, what else may be necessary to
prohibit the French and their Indian allies from encroaching
on the lands within the dominions of his Majesty, and in
general as far as the abilities of this government will permit68
to act in conjunction with the said commissioners in every-
thing necessary for the good of his Majesty’s subjects in
those parts.”
We see that only the Massachusetts delegates had explicit
instructions regarding a union and confederation of all the
Colonies, although a united action in the defense of the Brit-
ish interests on the soil of America, is implied by the word-
ing of the directions given to the other representatives. The
assembled commissioners had been in session from the 19th
to the 24th of June, before any mention was made of a
union of the Colonies. On that day, “ a motion was made
that the commissioners deliver their opinioti, whether a
union of all the Colonies is not at present absolutely neces-
sary, for their security and defense. The question was ac-
cordingly put, and it passed in the affirmative unanimously.”
A committee, comprising Thomas Hutchinson, of Massa-
chusetts; Theodore Atkinson, of New Hampshire; William
Pitkins, of Connecticut; Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode
Island; Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, and William
Smith, of New York, was appointed to “prepare and receive
plans or schemes for the union of the Colonies, and to
digest them into one general plan for the inspection of the
board.” Four days later, this committee produced short
hints of a scheme for the consideration of their colleagues,
and the matter was discussed until the end of the session.
After all the Indian business, hbove related, had been
transacted, the commissioners, on the 9th of July, agreed
upon a representation to the Home Authorities on the
state of the Colonies, which closes with the recommenda-
tion : “ That there be a union of His Majesty’s several
Governments on the continent, that so their councils,
treasure and strength may be employed in due proportion
against their common enemy.”69
On the next day, the ioth,
of a Union was resumed, and
Plan of a proposed Union of the several
Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and
South Carolina, for their mutual Defence
and Security, and for the Extending the
British Settlements in North America.
That humble application be made for an
Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, by
virtue of which one general government
may be formed in America, including all
the said Colonies; within and under which
Government, each Colony may retain its
present constitution, except in the partic-
ulars, wherein a change may be directed
by the said Act, as hereafter follows.
That the said General Government be
administered by a President-General, to
be appointed and supported by the Crown;
and a Grand Council, to be chosen by the
Representatives of the people of the sev-
eral Colonies, met in their respective
Assemblies.
That within----months after the passing
of such Act, the House of Representatives
in the several Assemblies that happen to
be sitting within that time . .	. may
and shall chuse members for the Grand
Council in the following proportions, that
is to say:
Massachusetts Bay.................   7
New Hampshire....................... 2
Connecticut......................... 5
Rhode Island........................ 2
New York.... ....................... 4
New Jersey.......................... 3
Pennsylvania........................ 6
Maryland............................ 4
Virginia............................ 7
North Carolina...................... 4
South Carolina...................... 4
48
Who shall meet for the first Time at the
City of Philadelphia, being called by the
President-General, as soon as conveniently
may be, after his appointment.
the consideration of the plan
finally adopted as below:
Constitution of the United States,
adopted on the 17th day of September,
1787.
Article II, section I.
The executive power shall be vested in
a President of the United States of
America He shall hold his office during
the term of four years .... and be
elected.
Art. I, section I.
All legislative powers .... shall be
vested in a Congress of the U. S., which
shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives.
Section 3.
The Senate of the U. S. shall be com-
posed of two senators from each state,
chosen by the Legislature thereof for six
years.
Section 2.
The House of Representatives shall be
composed of members chosen every second
year by the people of the several states
Section 2.	§ 3.........The number
of Representatives shall not exceed one for
every 30,000, but each state shall at least
have one representative. .	.	. The
State of New Hampshire shall be entitled
to choose 3, Massachusetts 8, Rhode
Island 1, Connecticut 5, New York 6,
New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 8, Delaware
1, Maryland 6, Virginia xo, North Caro-
lina 5, South Carolina 5, and Georgia 3.7°
That there shall be a new Election of
Members for the Grand Council every
three years, and on the Death or Resigna-
tion of any member, his place shall be
supplyed by a new choice at the next sit-
ting of the Assembly of the Colony he
represented.
That after the first three Years, when
the proportion of money, arising out of
each Colony to the General Treasury, can
be be known, the number of Members to
be chosen for each colony, shall from time
to time, in all ensuing Elections be regu-
lated by that Proportion (yet so as that
the number to be chosen by any one
Province be not more than seven, nor less
than two.)
*******
That the Grand Council have Power to
chuse their Speaker, and shall neither be
dissolved, prorogued, nor continue sitting
longer than six weeks at one Time, with-
out their own Consent or the special Com-
mand of the Crown.
*******
That the Assent of the President-
General be requisite to all Acts of the
Grand Council, and that it be his Office
and Duty to cause them to be carried into
Execution.
That the President General with the
Advice of the Grand Council, hold or
direct all Indian Treaties, in which the
general Interest or Welfare of the Colonies
may be concerned, and to make Peace or
declare War with Indian Nations. That
they make such Laws as they judge neces-
sary for regulating all Indian trade.
That they make all Purchases from
Indians for the Crown of the Lands.
.	.	. That they make new Settle-
ments on such Purchases...
That they make Laws for regulating
and governing such new Settlements, ’till
the Crown shall think fit to form them
into particular governments.
*******
That they have Power to make Laws
and lay and levy such general Duties, Im-
posts or Taxes, as to themselves appear
most equal and just
*******
§ 4. When vacancies happen in the
representation from any State, the execu-
tive authority thereof shall issue writs of
election to fill such vacancies.
§5. The House of Representatives shall
choose their Speaker and other officers.
Section 3.	§ 4. The vice-president of
the U. S. shall be president of the Senate.
§ 5. The Senate shall choose their other
officers and also a president Pro tempore.
Art. II, Section 2.
1. The President shall be commander-
in-chief of the army and navy of the U.
S., and of the Militia of the several States.
.	.	.	.	2. He shall have power, by
and with the advice and consent of the
Senate to make treaties.
Art. IV, Sect. 3.
z. New States may be admitted by the
Congress into this Union.
* * * * * * *
2. The Congress shall have power to
dispose of, and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory or
other property belonging to the U S.
Art. I, Sect. 8.
The Congress shall have power: 1.
To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts
and excises.That the laws made by them for the
Purposes aforesaid .	. shall be
transmitted to the King in Council for
Approbation .	.	. and if not disap-
proved within three years after presenta-
tion, to remain in force.
That in Case of the Death of the Presi-
dent General, the Speaker of the Grand
Council for the time being shall succeed
and be vested with the same Power and
Authority and continue untill the King’s
pleasure be known.
That all Military Commission Officers,
whether for Land or Sea Service, to act
under this General Constitution, be nomi-
nated by the President General, but the
Approbation of the Grand Council is to be
obtained before they receive their com-
missions. And all Civil Officers are to be
nominated by the Grand Council and to
receive the President-General’s Approba-
tion before they officiate. But in Case of
Vacancy by Death or Removal of any
Officer, Civic or Military, under this Con-
stitution, the Governor of the Provinces,
in which such Vacancy happens, may ap-
point, ’till the Pleasure of the President
General and the Grand Council can be
known.
Art. I, Sect. 7, 2.
Every bill, which shall have passed the
House of Representatives and the Senate
shall, before it becomes a law, be pre-
sented to the President of the U. S.; if
he approve, he shall sign it, but if not he
shall return it.
Art. II, Sect 6.
In case of the removal of the President,
etc., the office shall devolve on the Vice-
President, and the Congress may by law
provide for the case of removal, death,
resignation or inability both of the Presi-
dent and Vice-President, declaring what
officer shall then act as President, and
such officer shall act accordingly, until the
disability be removed or a President shall
be elected.
Art. II, Sect. 2.
2............and he shall nominate,
and by and with the advice of the Senate
appoint .... officers of the U. S.,
whose appointments are not herein other-
wise provided for.
The reader, after perusing the above extracts from the
Albany plan of union and from the Constitution of the
United States, will have seen in how far one resembles or
differs from the other.
When the Congress of the United States was at work in
1787 framing the Constitution, Stephen Hopkins, one of the
Rhode Island delegates at Albany, was a member of that
Congress, and the independent spirit of another, Benjamin
Franklin, pervaded the whole body. Albany may therefore
claim, to have witnessed how the first germ of the United72
States began to sprout within its walls. The other point,
which occupied the attention of the Congress, was of a more
local nature and has been settled only in modem times.
The charters or patents given to the Colonies of the
Massachusetts Bay and of New York, were not quite explicit
as to their boundaries. Hence this squabble, which the
Massachusetts delegates had been commissioned to treat
about together with the Indian conference. Massachusetts
claimed jurisdiction and soil to Hudson’s river, which of
course New York denied. On the ioth of July, towards
the end of the convention, Messrs. Murray and Smith of
New York reported to the Provincial Council that they had
proposed Connecticut river as the eastern boundary of this
Province, to which the Massachusetts commissioners would
not agree, but on their part proposed a line twelve miles
eastward of the Hudson. This again was rejected by the
New York delegates and the Council advised, to propose to
and agree with the gentlemen from Massachusetts, in the
settlement of a line, to run northerly from the north bounds
of Connecticut, so that it equally divided the lands between
the Connecticut and Hudson rivers. This line was to be the
boundary between the two governments. The Massachusetts
men would not agree to this proposition and seemed to de-
cline any further conference on the subject. They desired
to refer the whole matter of the boundaries to arbitrators.
The New York Council, however, was unwilling to leave the
matter to arbitration, but willing to make a further conces-
sion in order to preserve peace and prevent bloodshed
among the borderers. They suggested, that Westenhook
(now Housatonic) river, should be the line of demarkation be-
tween the two Provinces “ from the north line of Connecti-
cut, as far as the place where the north line of Westenhook
patent crosses that river, being about eighteen miles, that
from that place on the said river a line should be run
northerly so as to leave Fort Massachusetts one hundred73
yard eastward of such line.” This was the last transaction
of the Congress at Albany.
After the adoption of the plan of union, the Commis-
sioners were desired to lay the same before their respective
constituents for their consideration. Modern historians dif-
fer about the reception of this plan by the various Colonial
Assemblies. “ The Colonial Assemblies,” says one, “ were
unwilling to concede any of the privileges either to a cen-
tral power chosen by themselves or to one appointed by the
Crown.” Another asks us to believe that the eastern Colo-
nies were most ardent for the union, except Connecticut,
which was too jealous of the power of the President Gen-
eral. Smith, the historian of New York, who himself had
been one of the commissioners at Albany, calls the plan “ a
scheme, begotten in the fright of the delegates assembled at
the repulse of the Virginians under Colonel Washington, on
the 3d of July.” He forgets, however, that the idea of
such a union was first talked of by the delegates on the 24th
of June, and that the news of Washington’s defeat at the
Meadows, near the Ohio river, on the 3rd of July, could
not as yet have been known at Albany, seeing that no elec-
tric telegraph carried then the news with the rapidity of
lightning. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, who had com-
missioned Washington, received the news of the disaster
about the 24th of July, and we cannot suppose that Wash-
ington would have sent another report by faster runners to
Albany, to have reached there in time to influence the de-
liberations of the commissioners. The New York Council
Minutes say, under date of the 28th of August, 1754: His
Honour communicated a letter from Governor Dinwiddie,
of the 31st ultimo, giving an account of the defeat of the
Virginia forces under the command of Major Washington.
This settles the matter as to the influence on the delegates
by the report of Washington’s defeat.
But let us see what the opinions about the Albany plan
were, as expressed in the various Assemblies. Connecticut74
declared it “ would tend to subvert the liberties and privi-
leges of the Colonists.” New Jersey thought it might be
prejudicial to the prerogatives and to the liberties of the
people. Pennsylvania expressed no opinion, although the
plan was discussed in the Assembly. The Assembly of New
York, before which the plan was laid by Governor De
Lancey, replied, in their address to the same: “We are of
opinion with your Honour, that nothing is more natural and
salutary than a union of the Colonies for their Defence,
and that it is a reciprocal Duty to be aiding and assisting to
each other in case of any invasion, but these principles,
your Honor, will not extend to any unlimited sense; there
may be instances where particular Colonies invaded ought to
exert their strength and not too loudly call on others.” In
Virginia, it was deemed to contain articles of an extraordi-
nary nature, and an objectionable feature was, that the
President was to be invested with large powers, almost equal
to a Vice-Roy. Even if the Colonial Assemblies had all
approved of this Albany plan, it would never have become
the law for the Colonies, as the Board of Trade were too
much astonished by this provincial plan for a general gov-
ernment, so complete in itself; they regarded it with dis-
favor as restricting the prerogatives of the King. Had the
affairs in the Colonies been different, they might have ap-
proved the union and urged the passage of a law for that
purpose. But they evidently understood, that out of good,
evil might grow. The southern Colonies had so many in-
herent causes of weakness, that they never could gather
strength. The climate in the Carolinas, Georgia, and even
Virginia, made the settlers indolent and unenterprising.
Slavery was another weakening cause. The negroes almost
equaled the whites in numbers, and a man whose acres in
the eastern parts of the South had become sterile, would
emigrate to the West, and settle upon fresh and more fertile
lands there, to be worked by his negroes. In the Northern
Colonies the population consisted of people of different75
nationalities, different manners, different religions and dif-
ferent languages. Considerations of interest, power and
ascendency made them extremely jealous of each other.
The Puritanism of New England was only restrained by laws
and higher authority from persecuting the Quakers, the Dutch
Reformed, and other religionists. These being the condi-
tions of life in the Colonies, the Lords of Trade and
Plantations drew up a plan for the union of the American
Provinces, which they wanted to take the place of the
Albany plan. What they proposed does not concern us
here. The Albany plan interfered with their own, and gave
the people, who chose the Assemblies, the electors of the
Grand Council, too much power in the matter of taxation.
That alone was sufficient to condemn this Albany attempt
at self-government in the minds of the British ministry. To
confirm these latter in their opposition to it, there came a
letter from Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, who, as we
must remember, had instructed the delegates of that Prov-
ince on the point of union and confederation. He says:
“ The reason of committing to the several Houses of Rep-
resentatives solely the choice of the members, which each
Colony is allowed to send to the Grand Council, seems to
be because it is proposed, that the Council should have
power to levy taxes upon the people, which it is thought
could not be exercised by any Council whatsoever in the
Colonies which should not be wholly chosen by the people,
or at least by their representatives, without raising a general
dissatisfaction.
“ 2. On the other hand it is clear that as such Council
can be considered no otherwise than as the general repre-
sentative body of all the people of the Colonies comprized
in the Union, the giving to them a share in making peace
and war with the Indians, and concluding treaties with
them, in the disposal of military commissions, in the power
of raising troops and erecting forts, would be a great strain76
upon the prerogative of the Crown, and contrary to the
English Constitution.
“ 3. The command over the militia, power of raising
them by warrant of impress, marching them upon any ser-
vice, at least within the limits of the several Colonies, ap-
pointing all military officers, erecting and demolishing of
forts, declaring war against the Indians, and making treaties
of peace with them, are vested solely in the respective gov-
ernors of all of them, proprietary and charter, as well as
those whose government is founded on his Majesty’s com-
mission, except in the two Colonies of Connecticut and
Rhode Island, whose governments stand upon their old
charters, by which the Crown has divested itself almost of
the whole prerogative and transferred it to the populace, in
whom the several above-mentioned powers are lodged, the
Governors not having so much as a negative in any election
of officers or act of the Legislature.
“ 4. The institution of these old charter governments in
the Colonies, during the state of their infancy, though well
accommodated to draw together numbers of settlers in the
beginning of the English Plantations, and for the regulation
of each settlement, while it consisted of but an handfull of
people, yet seems by no means well calculated for the gov-
ernment of them, when the inhabitants considerably in-
creased in numbers and wealth. *	*	*	*
“ The result from these observations *	*	*	* is
that if the old charter fonn of government, such as that
which is proposed in the Albany plan of union, is unfit for
ruling a particular Colony, it seems much more improper for
establishing a General Government and Imperium over all
the Colonies to be comprized in the Union.”
Shirley had been Governor of Massachusetts since 1741,
and thoroughly understood, helped by his legal training, the
bent of Colonial politics. He had done efficient services in
America, and his opinion of the Albany plan had its due77
weight in crushing this first attempt at autonomy made by
the Colonies.
The seed had been sown. Twenty-one years later it
began to sprout, and the blood of the thousands of Colonists
who fell in defense of the great Aryan principle, “No Tax-
ation without Representation,’* helped the Albany plan of
union to grow into the Constitution of the United States.COMMERCE THE CHIEF ARCHITECT OF CIVILIZATION.
In 1768 Sir Henry Moore, Governor of New York, wrote
to the Earl of Hillsborough, then Secretary of State to King
George the Third : “As one of the motives of my late tour
was to get the best information of those parts of the Province,
which were most likely to suffer in case of a rupture with the
Indians, that I might be better enabled to give them the
assistance they might require, I went up as far as the Cana-
joharie Falls on the Mohawk river; here is a carrying place
about a mile in length and all boats going up or down the
river, are obliged to unload and be carried over land, which
is a great detriment, not only on account of the delay it
occasions, but from the damage done to the boats and cargo;
as this fall is the only obstruction to the navigation between
Fort Stanwix and Schenectady, my intention was to project
a canal on the side of the falls with sluices on the same plan
as those built on the great canal in Languedoc.”
He intended to place before the next General Assembly,
which was to meet a few months later, this plan for reaching
the more remote parts of his government by water, but for
some unexplained reason he failed to do so.
This is, however, not the first time a canal is mentioned
as planned in the annals of New York. Here again we must
allow precedence to the Dutch. During the last year of
their occupation, in 1664, inhabitants of what we now call
the “ City of Churches” and of New Amsterdam, found it
inconvenient to go from Gowanus Bay to the mills, lying to
the westward of it on Long Island. They proposed and
received permission, to turn a little run of water in that
neighborhood into a passage for boats, carrying 200 bushels
of wheat or a load of wood, and thereby avoid going round
west of Red Hook, “ where the water is ordinarily very low.”
More than a hundred years later, in 1774, the General
Assembly of the Province passed a law, “ to impower certain79
persons therein named to complete a ditch, that is partly
dug from Gowanes Bay to the East river.”
No attention was paid to Sir Henry’s recommendation.
Eight years later, in 1774, Governor Try on brought the
matter of canalizing again before the home government.
He says in his report, that by a short cut across the carrying
place on the Mohawk branch of the Hudson into Wood
creek, which runs into the Oneida Lake, a passage could be
opened through the Onondaga river into Lake Ontario.
“ The other branch [of the Hudson] being the continuation
of the main river tends to Fort Edward, to the north of
which it seems practicable to open a passage by locks, etc.,
to the waters of Lake Champlain, which communicate with
the river St. Lawrence. Both branches are interrupted by
falls and rifts; to surmount these obstructions, an expense
would be required too heavy for the Province at present to
support, but when effected would open a most extensive in-
land navigation, equal perhaps to any as yet known.”
A glance at the map of America cannot fail to show us
that Governor Try on had a correct insight into the future.
The Hudson river is, we see, the key to the continent for
all comers from the east, with Albany at the head of navi-
gation. “ It touches the natural pass of commerce opened up
in the geographical configuration of this continent.” The
Dutch had recognized the importance of the river, as well
as the French, and it had been their endeavor to keep
the people of New England and of Canada from it,
because the one interfered with their lucrative Indian
trade, while the others would have taken possession of the
whole of New Netherland. But the Dutch and French
dominions on this continent were doomed to short duration,
and England, after having spent so much blood and money,
to obtain undisputed possession, expected a return from the
Colonies. Hence these propositions to open communica-
tion with the system of great lakes and the far West by
means which the configuration of the country offered.8o
The time, when Governor Tryon made this report and
siiggested the important work, was not propitious for such
undertakings. Republican sentiment had become too
strong in the Colonies, and the ministers of the Crown were
not disposed to do any thing which would increase the
strength of the trans-atlantic dominions. Then came the
war of independence, and internal improvements could not
be attended to. The end of the war and the opening of
western lands to the disbanded army, by way of bounties,
brought the importance of better communication with this
region again forcibly before the eyes of the statesmen con-
trolling the life of the new nation. The republican ideas,
which brought forth the United States, spread to Europe,
and caused, among other disturbances in the old world, a
short-lived, but disastrous, revolution in Holland. Two men
were engaged in this revolution on the popular side, and,
after defeat, they found their way to America. One of them
was Colonel Adam G. Mappa, who became the agent of
the Holland Land Company; his friend and companion
was Adrian van der Kemp, originally a minister of the
gospel, and here a master in chancery and one of the assist-
ant justices of the Ulster County Court. Judge van der
Kemp was induced to make a journey to the western part
of the State, and wrote, in July, 1792, to his friend Mappa:
“ Our inland navigation, superior to that of many, equal
already to the best watered States in the Union, contributes
greatly to the increase of our commerce. *	*	* Our
government, I am informed, has passed a law to clear the
navigation from the Mohawk to the Hudson. If this is not
correct, then it is a prognostication what it shall, what it
ought to do at a future time. So much is certain, that it is
resolved to open the carrying place between the Hudson
and Wood Creek, and to clear the latter from many ob-
structions. Several thousand pounds have already been
consecrated by the Legislature to this salutary undertaking,
while subscriptions for the deficit have been opened in Al-8i
banyand New York with such a success that they were filled
in a few days.” We shall see to which acts of the Legisla-
ture the judge refers. He continues in his letter to Colonel
Mappa: “ See here then an easy communication by water
carriage opened between the most distant parts of this ex-
tensive commonwealth; see the markets of New York, Al-
bany and Schenectady glutted with the produce of the West
and the comforts of the South distributed with a liberal
hand among the agriculturers of this new country. The
fur trade begins already to revive, shall ere long recover
her former vigor, when the western Forts are surrendered;
and if it remains shared, as it. naturally must, by the North-
western Company, this seeming loss shall be fully compen-
sated from other branches, grafted in the wants and interests
of the Canadians. But this is not all. It is rather the
breaking out of the sunshine thro’ a morning fog in a charm-
ing summer day. Fort Stanwix must become a staple place
of the commodities of the West, stored there from the fer-
tile lands bordering the lakes and rivers, and Old Fort
Schuyler, nearly the central part of intercourse between the
North and West, transformed into an opulent mercantile
city, where future Lorenzos will foster and protect arts and
sciences, where the tomahawk and scalping knife shall be
replaced by the chisel and pencil of the artist, and the wig-
wam by marble palaces. Do not think that I dream, sir!
Fulto Si pero, quando si vuole.
“ Our canals at the Falls, at Fort Stanwix, open an early
communication between the lakes Ontario and Oneida,
which is possible, and can thus be executed, and a large
part of the work is peracted. Go on then and dig canals
through the western district, and be not afraid that a single
hair shall be hurt on the head of its inhabitants by the
waves of Lake Erie. Dare only to undertake the enter-
prise and I warrant the success. *	*	*	* Qjve me the
the disposal of fifty New York purses, give me only the
credit of that city, and I shall do what others promised in
682
florid speeches; or, art thou apprehensive that the spell of
your enchantment shall be broken. Give me the Republi-
can wand of Cajus Popilius and I will go to the water-
nymph Erie and trace a beautiful canoe, thro7 which her
ladyship shall be compelled to pay a part of her tribute to
the Ocean through the Genesee country, engaging her a
courteous attendance from lakes and creeks, to wait on her
Grace during this extorted excursion, and leaving her the
consolation of the Doge of Genoa at the French Court, 4 to
admire no object but herself7 during her course through
our country to the Hudson River.77
Thirty years later, Governor De Witt Clinton, who was
on intimate terms with Judge van der Kamp and called
him “ the most learned man in America,77 wrote to him from
Albany: 44 Your letter to Colonel Mappa on the canal, writ-
ten in 1792, is really a curiosity. It gives you the original
invention of the Erie route, and I shall lay it by as a subject
of momentous reference on some future occasion.77
A few months before the date of this letter, on the 30th
of March, 1792, the Legislature of the State of New York
had enacted, and the Governor signed, 44 An act for estab-
lishing and opening lock navigations within this State.77
This was the entering wedge which made Albany the centre
of the lumber trade in the eastern part of America. The
Legislature of that day, not dreaming of steam-power and
its attendants, recognized that communication by water
between the southern, northern and western parts of the
State would encourage agriculture, promote commerce and
facilitate a general intercourse between the inhabitants.
Commissioners in New York and Albany were appointed
by this act to take subscriptions and issue stock in the
44 Western77 and in the 44 Northern Inland Navigation Com-
panies.77 Abraham Ten Broeck, 'John Taylor, Philipp S.
van Rensselaer, Cornelius Glen and John Ten Broeck were
the commissioners for Albany. The President of both
companies was an Albanian, a man who had fought valiantly83
during the war against England — Philipp Schuyler, and
among the names of the directors named by the act many
Albany families were represented. For Directors for the
Western Company were to be elected thirteen of the follow-
ing : Leonard Gansevoort, Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Elkanah
Watson, John Taylor, Jellis A. Fonda, William North, Golds-
brow Banyar, Daniel Hale, John Watts, Walter Livingston,
Dominic Lynch, James Watson, Mathew Clarkson, Ezra L.
Hommedieu, Melancton Smith, David Gelston, Stephen
Lush, Cornelius Glen, Silas Talbot, John Frey, Douw
Fonda, John Sanders, Nicholas I. Roosevelt, Daniel Mc-
Cormick, Marinus Willet, Jonathan Lawrence, Philipp van
Cortlandt and James Clinton. The Northern Company’s
affairs were to be managed by thirteen of the following per-
sons: Abraham Ten Broeck, John Williams, Stephen van
Rensselaer, Jacobus van Schoonhoven, John van Rensselaer,
Abraham G. Lansing, Cornelius Glen, Henry Quakenboss,
Robert R. Livingston, Philipp Livingston, James Duane,
Alexander McComb, Samuel Jones, Nicholas Lord, Dirck
Lefferts, William Duer, Peter van Ness, Barent Bleecker,
Henry Livingston, Peter Gansevoort, Peter B. Tearse,
Alexander Webster, George Wray, Thomas Tillotson, Ma-
thew Scott, Zephaniah Platt, John Thunnan, Albert Pawling
and Zina Hitchcock.
Operations on the Western route could hardly have
begun when the directors discovered that several of the
provisions, restrictions and limitations in the act incorporat-
ing the companies retarded greatly the progress of the
intended improvements, and would make it impossible to
complete the work within the fixed limit of five years.
They petitioned, therefore, the Legislature for relief, and
that these improvements, whose object was extensively to
benefit the community, might not be impeded, an act
amending the former was passed in December, 1792.
The Council of Revision, composed of the Governor of
the State, George Clinton, Chancellor Livingston, and Jus-84
tices Hobart and Lansing, objected to this bill as “ incon-
sistent with the spirit of the Constitution and the public
good.” They said, the power intended to be vested in the
President and Directors may in its execution prove sub-
versive of the rights of private property by divesting the
proprietor of his land in cases not indispensably necessary
for the attainment of an object of public utility; the third
enacting clause of the bill not only providing for the appro-
priation by the company of the land, on which any canal,
lock, dyke or other work shall be constructed, but extending
such appropriation for some distance on both sides of any
such work, and expressly declaring, that the land so acquired
may be applied to such uses as the officers of the company
shall think proper. Thus wresting from an individual his
property in a manner only justifiable in cases of urgent pub-
lic necessity, without imposing on the company, to which
his right is devolved, as a duty, that it shall be sacredly ap-
plied only to the advancements of those interests of the
company in which its private emolument is inseparably con-
nected with the effectual promotion of the public good.
They further objected to this bill, because previous to
executing or even obtaining a writ of ad quod damnum, the
bill authorizes the President and Directors, or their agents,
to enter upon, dig, trench and use the land of any citizen
without his permission, thus sanctioning a destruction of
timber and improvements, before proper precautions have
been taken to ascertain the amount of the injury sustained
and in many instances depriving the party affected by such
proceedings of the most conclusive proof of the extent of
that injury, arising from a relative comparison of the several
parts of the lands on which works are constructed, and
those adjoining them, and a collective view of the state of
the improvements rendered useless by the appropriations
made by the Presidents and Directors.
The Assembly voted, that, notwithstanding these objec-
tions, the bill should become a law of the State. Legisla-8S
tures were then, as to-day, liable to be influenced by big
corporations, but the two Inland Lock Navigation Com-
panies, in whose favor this law was enacted, were not suffi-
ciently benefited, and had again to petition the Legislature
for relief, within fifteen months. Their funds had proved in-
adequate to the undertaking and carrying into effect a design
so extensive in its nature, and unavoidably attended with very
considerable expenses. They had found it impossible to float
the shares of stock, limited by the incorporating act to i ,000; of
the stock of the Northern Company only 672, of the Western,
738 had been subscribed by 277 persons; although £10
had been paid on each share by the original subscribers, yet
many of the 277 had since neglected or refused to pay a
subsequent call of additional ^10. By the deficiency of the
unsubscribed shares, the expense to complete the objects con-
templated by the Legislature, threatened to amount to more
than many could afford. The failure of many of the sub-
scribers to respond to the second call, had reduced the
number of active shares in each company to 600. The
committee of the Assembly, to whom this petition had been
referred, recognized, that the object for which the companies
had been called into life, was of very extensive national con-
cern and proposed that the State should become stockholder
to the amount of 590 shares, the defect of the stock of both
companies, or loan to the corporations a sum equal to these
shares, under proper conditions of repayment and security.
When the matter came before a committee of the whole
House, opinions differed as to the mode of relief to be
granted. All members seemed to be convinced, that an
undertaking of such importance, deserved to be aided by
the State. The result, however, would have been satisfac-
tory to the companies. The same day “An act relative to
the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation ” was
brought in and read the first time. It passed the second
reading two days later, on the 24th of March, 1794, but
shortly after, on the 27th, the House resolved, “As the86
sense of this House, that the Inland Lock Navigation is of
high importance to the prosperity of this State and is pro-
motive of the agricultural and commercial interest thereof,
and as such that it merits legislative aid and attention.
That from the advanced period of the present session, the
Legislature cannot give the subject the consideration its im-
portance requires, but that it be recommended to the Legis-
lature at their next meeting, as a proper object of their early
attention and support.” Fearing, perhaps, that this recom-
mendation to the next Legislature might not be made or
overlooked by that body, the companies by their President,
Philipp Schuyler, laid the matter before the Assembly of
1795, presided over by an Albanian, William North. The
scheme of canalizing had in the meantime found only littie
favor in the eyes of capitalists, the number of shares taken
had increased from 738 to 742 in the Western Company and
from 672 to 676 in the Northern. Many of them appeared
to have been taken from the mere motive of speculating
upon the probable rise in the market. Such a rise not
taking place and the directors having been obliged to make
another call for money, 233 shareholders of the Western and
242 of the Northern failed to respond, and forfeited their
stock. Notwithstanding the serious embarrassments, caused
hereby and others, unavoidably incident to a work so novel
in the young country, the business of the companies had
progressed so far as to demonstrate the practicability of
effecting their purposes.
The waters of Wood creek emptying into Oneida lake,
and of its namesake, which empties into Lake Champlain,
had been cleared from obstructions, the course of the canals
traced, a canal and lock were prepared for connecting Lake
Champlain with Wood creek, and others had been erected
at the falls in Herkimer county. The officers of the com-
panies were confident that nothing but the want of funds
could prevent their being able within a reasonable period to
complete the inland navigation to the westward and to the»7
northward, whereby a new band of union would be formed
between the most distant parts of the State, their mutual
intercourse promoted and encouraged, the value of prop-
erty greatly enhanced and the commerce of the whole not
only extended, but secured from those channels into which
it might otherwise be turned, to the great injury of agricul-
ture and commerce of this State. The Legislature was
asked to assist, either by directing a subscription on the part
of the State to the deficient shares in these companies or by
loaning to each company the annual sum of ^6,000 for five
years successively, to be repaid pro rata from such annual
dividends as might arise from tolls. On the 9th of March, a
law was enacted further “ to amend the law relative to the
Inland Lock Navigation Companies,” and on the 31st of the
same month the “Act for the more effectual prosecution of the
improvements commenced ” by these companies, authorized
the Treasurer of the State to subscribe, on behalf of the
State, to 200 shares of stock in each company. In 1796,
the Legislature again opened the purse of the State in favor
of the Western Company, by directing the Treasurer to
advance to the corporation the sum of ;£i 5,000. Even this
apparently unasked-for aid was not sufficient to keep the
Western Inland Lock Navigation on its legs. The very
high price of labor had prevented them from obtaining as
many workmen as they had contemplated to employ during
the open season of 1796 in order to complete the canal,
connecting the waters of the Mohawk river with those of
Wood creek. Many of the men in their employ were lured
away by higher wages elsewhere. Nevertheless, sufficient
progress had been made in excavating the canal and in other
works incident thereto that no doubt remained, but it could
be effected in a year with the requisite locks, of which one
had already been erected.
But nature had interposed impediments, to remove which
required the expenditure of more money than the company
could command. Surveys made of the Mohawk river88
showed that the rapids between Schenectady and Schoharie
creek, a distance of twenty miles, were so many, so shallow
and impeded with so many rocks, that although it could be
made as navigable as the act of incorporation required, yet
it would be a navigation so imperfect as not to afford all
the advantages to the community as were desirable. A
canal was, therefore, proposed on the south side of the
Mohawk, between the two places mentioned, which it was
estimated would cost $250,000. The company had a pros-
pect of obtaining this sum by a loan on reasonable terms,
or by a subscription of an equivalent in shares of the stock,
from persons resident in Holland who had purchased land
in this State. This Holland Land Company was willing to
advance the money, provided that the Legislature would
permit them to hold the lands so purchased as tenants in
common in fee-simple, subject to the condition not to sell
any part or parts thereof except to citizens of the State or
of the United States. The petition was read in the Assem-
bly on the 17th of February, 1797, and on the 17th of
March following, “An act providing a means for procuring
a sum to the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company,
to enable them more effectually and speedily to prosecute
the improvements in the said navigation,,, was signed by the
Governor. At the same time the measures prayed for in
regard to the Holland Land Company became a law.
A few years passed, during which the Western Company
was not in financial difficulties. It was now the turn of the
Northern Company to be brought to the attention of the
Legislature. They had cut a canal through the land of in-
habitants of the village of Stillwater, in Saratoga county,
and were unable to pay for the damage done to the prop-
erty, and properly ascertained by competent arbitrators.
The State had become a stockholder of this company, and,
pending its insolvency, the party aggrieved looked to the
Legislature for relief. This was a case of the nature which
Governor Clinton and the Council of Revision had forseen89
when they objected to the law of 1792. The Assembly of
1799 did not feel able to cope with this question without the
legal opinion of the law officer of the State. The then
Attorney-General, Joseph Ogden Hoffman, decided:
“ Upon principles of law, the private property of the stock-
holders of this corporation cannot be held liable for the
debts of the company, and the State on this occasion can
only be considered in the situation of a stockholder to the
extent of the shares subscribed and taken, and its separate
funds are not responsible for demands upon the company.
*	*	*	* j$y the act of the 31st March, 1795, the
Treasurer is considered as a stockholder, and is directed to
pay such further sums on each share to be subscribed by
him, as may be so required. The directors of the com-
pany have not recently made any such requisition, and if
they were now to order one, there is good reason to con-
clude that most of the shares, held by individuals, would
become forfeited, and that the Treasurer, by the terms of
the last act, would comply with such requisition. It ought
not, therefore, to escape observation that, while such an
arrangement might enable the directors to satisfy the pres-
ent and all other demands against the company, yet in effect
such satisfaction would be made by the State. A consider-
ation of this circumstance, it is to be presumed, has gov-
erned the recent conduct of the directors in delaying any
new requisitions.”
The extension of the settlements on the Lakes, and the
rapid improvement of the western part of this State, fully
justified the liberal views which dictated the opening a
navigation adapted to afford a conveyance for the ample
products of that fertile region, and for the necessaries and
conveniences of life, which the manufactories of the towns,
or the resources of foreign commerce, enabled the inhabit-
ants of the earlier settled parts of the country to supply.
The mode of conveyance, then in use, is somewhere called9°
^ commodious.” To-day we would grumble and sneer at
the frugality of our forefathers.
Before the canal at the falls in Herkimer county had been
constructed, in 1795, every boat bound up or downwards,
with all its cargo, was taken out of the river and conveyed
on wagons over the carrying place, on a road as rough and
as rocky as could well consist with its being passable. The
boats thus transferred could not be large, and seldom ex-
ceeded the burthen of a ton and a half. If any arrived
singly at the landing on either side of the falls, it could usu-
ally not be conveyed with its cargo to the other side in less
than half a day. If other boats arrived about the same
time, a longer period was required in proportion to the num-
ber of vessels, and frequently it happened that there was a
detention of two days. Hence, as every boat was navigated
by three men, the shortest detention involved the loss of the
wages of one man for one day and a half.
The unequal surface of the road, the unwieldy bulk of
the boats, the exposure of the cargoes to the injuries of
the weather, and the unloading and reloading, frequently
entailed great injuries and loss. Disappointments, oc-
casioned by loss and delay, were often very severely felt;
but since the canals had been completed, a boat with its
cargo could pass through the canal in either direction in less
than an hour, and a number of boats arriving at the same
time could be locked through successively at intervals of
only eight minutes. Now, boats carrying from eight to ten
tons could be and were employed between Schenectady and
Rome, and the expense of transportation by these means
alone was reduced more than one-half; and after an im-
provement of the navigation on Wood creek had been
made, boats could easily and safely go to the most southern
parts of Cayuga lake. The transportation at the falls,
previous to the completion of the canal in 1795, cost four
shillings (50 cents) for a boat, and the like sum for a
wagon-load; but the road would not admit of carry-91
ing half a ton in a wagon, and as the price of all
kinds of labor had been considerably increased since
that period, in this instance probably 75 per cent, this
amounted to the toll charged on half a ton, not only for
passing the locks at the falls, but also the Burnetsfield locks,
in Herkimer county, at which no toll was asked. It was
evident that not only all the expenses resulting from deten-
tion, from loss of articles, from injuries to the boats and
cargoes were now saved, but the charge of transportation
was also greatly diminished by the facility afforded for the
passage of larger boats.
Consideration of these benefits, which had accrued to the
State and to the public generally, induced the Legislature
of 1802 to enact a new law for the relief of the Western
Inland Lock Navigation Company. The Comptroller was
authorized to accept shares of the stock of the company for
money due to the State; delinquent shareholders were re-
admitted by paying arrears and “ watering ” stock, a very
proper proceeding for a company dealing so largely in water
and water works, was legalized. The company received
permission to divide each original share into three, and the
new shares were to represent $120.
The Legislature then, ever attentive to the prosperity of
the State, readily perceived the great advantage that had
already accrued to the public by means of the improve-
ments made up to 1806, and being convinced of the hard-
ships and inconveniences under which the individual stock-
holders labored by not deriving any interest for many years
on the moneys already advanced, granted further relief to
the company by extending the time for completing the work
to January 1, 1808.
When the year 1808 came around, the company deemed
it the wisest policy to surrender to the State that part of
their grant which allowed them to continue the canalizing
west of Oneida lake, and the Legislature accepted the sur-
render. This was virtually the end of improving the inland92
navigation of the State by private parties. The Albany
members of the Board of Directors had died, and the duty
of managing the affairs of the companies had been trans-
ferred to men principally living in the city of New York,
who could not or would not give that necessary personal
attention, which alone could insure success.
To understand the action of the Legislature in the follow-
ing years, we must study the statistics of population in the
State at that period. When the first move was made in
1791, the State was divided into twenty counties; the popu-
lation not warranting a division of the territory into more.
Two had been added in 1795, when a census of the voters
in the State was taken. This census of voters showed, that
in a total of 64,017 for the State, there were 31,393 living in
counties directly affected by the easier communication
which the canals offered. In 1801 the voting population of
the State had increased to 85,844, the number of counties
to thirty, of which only twelve were not contiguous to the
canals, and the voters in these thirty counties numbered* 47,-
462. When the next census of voters was taken, in 1807,
we find a voting population in the State of 110,997, °f which
the canal counties furnished 58,345, and thirty-eight counties
were represented in the Legislature. Seven counties were
added in the years 1808 and 1809, all, with the exception of
twelve, more or less interested in having easy means of com-
munication with the markets for their produce or their
necessities. The Assembly of 1795 was composed of seventy
members, twenty-eight of whom came from counties directly
touched or like Albany and Rensselaer counties benefited
by the canals. In 1801, of the 107 members sitting in the
Assembly, fifty-one came from these counties, while of the
112 members of the Assembly in 1810, seventy-four repre-
sented constituencies, who derived benefits from the inland
navigation. This Legislature of 1810 authorized the ap-
pointment of commissioners to explore a canal route between
the Hudson river and Lake Erie. It was the first scene in93
the first act of the great drama which ended in the final scene
of opening the Erie canal on the 26th of October, 1825.
Commercial statistics tell us, what significance the Erie
canal had in the development of the United States. The
returns for 1870 enumerate 28,138 vessels as belonging to
the various customs districts of the country. Of these the
State of New York had 6,977 or more than one-fourth,
while ports on the lakes Erie and Ontario could claim 3,439
as belonging there. Nearly all these lake vessels depend for
their trade on the craft plying on the canal, and paying, in
1870, for tolls into the treasury of the State, the sum of
$3,107,138.90. A further inquiry, which, however, would
lead too far in explaining, would show that New York
furnishes over one-third of the American tonnage and of the
capital invested in the lake trade in consequence of the con-
nection of the lakes with the Hudson at Albany. The trade
from and to the West, just then barely opened, threatened
to find an outlet to Europe and other countries by way of
Montreal and the St. Lawrence river. This trade would have
enriched a foreign country and the great commercial rival of
the United States, and might have corrupted the morals of the
Americans by the opportunities it afforded for smuggling.
The opening of the canal further increased the revenues of
the State, because it brought salt from the works at Salina
in competition with the article imported from foreign lands.
To complete this sketch of the importance of the Erie
canal, we will see what a joint committee of the Senate and
Assembly of 1817 say on the subject: “This State is favor-
ably situated for the encouragement of every public interest.
It contains inexhaustible quantities of salt, gypsum and iron
ores, with a great variety of other valuable materials for
manufacturing establishments. The thirty million acres of
its territory offer to agricultural industry no uncertain or
penurious reward. An unrivaled river navigation for more
than 160 miles, terminating on the sea board, at a port
which is healthy, capacious and easy of access; its interior94
boundary line passing for more than half its length through
the waters of Erie, Ontario and Champlain, and the num-
erous navigable lakes included within its limits afford to its
citizens the most decided commercial advantages. In such
circumstances its prosperity is not surprising. It was to be
expected that under the direction of prudence and patriotism
its wealth, population and security would be rapidly ad-
vanced. And this advance, which is everywhere observable,
is not the less gratifying because it was natural and probable.
It is on that account more likely to be permanent. But
has it not nearly reached its maximum with respect to the
Southern and Middle Districts, unless some new means of
aiding it are speedily discovered and applied ? Consider-
able portions of these districts are now almost replete with
inhabitants,* who by their industry and enterprise have taken
possession and made the most of nearly all the bounties
which nature has spread out before them. Beyond the slow
progression of improvement to be produced by the invention
of happier methods of applying labor and the more perfect
division of mechanical occupations, what will enlarge the
borders of their cities and villages hereafter ?
“ As the Eastern and Western Districts! have increased in
numbers and opulence, they have loaded the Hudson with
their surplus produce and the merchandise for which they
* The Southern Senatorial District comprised then the counties of
Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester, New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk,
Richmond and Rockland, and had, in 1814, a population of 236,508
souls, including slaves. In the Middle District were the counties of
Columbia, Greene, Orange, Ulster, Albany, Delaware, Sullivan, Che-
nango, Schoharie, Otsego with 261,064 inhabitants. Albany county
alone had in 1880 a population of 154,890.
tThe Eastern District: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Herkimer, Jeffer-
son, Lewis, Montgomery, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Sche-
nectady, Warren, Washington, with a population of 295,587 in 1814.
The Western District: Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Cort-
land, Genesee, Madison, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Steuben,
Tioga, with 243,602 inhabitants. The population of the State was
then a little over 1,000,000.95
have exchanged it and this trade has been the chief aliment
of all the increase, which has latterly been exhibited at the
mouth and along the banks of that river. But the remote
sections of these districts are contiguous to the territory of a
foreign power, and are washed by navigable waters, which
flow into the ocean through that territory. It is for the in-
terest, and therefore will be the policy, of that power to in-
vite commercial intercourse with those sections. Facilitated
by the course of their streams and the declivity of their
country, our citizens have already extensively engaged in
this intercourse, and if nothing is done to divert them from
it, it is easy to foresee that it will become permanent, and
soon embrace within the number of its agents all those who
live beyond the high lands, in which our rivers running to
the north originate, including the most fertile part of the
State, which is hastening also to become the most populous.
Our eastern and western districts having been settled from
the south and the east, roads from these points were, of
course, first opened. These roads were extended and im-
proved with the diffusion and age of the new settlements,
and as they were, for several years, better in proportion to
their proximity to the Hudson, this circumstance, added to the
ties of acquaintance, friendship and consanguinity, retained
the settlers for a long time and universally in a business con-
nection with our own cities. But these roads are now carried
through to the farthest borders of the State and on the
margin of the waters, where they terminate a dense, active
and intelligent population is collected. Stimulated by the
energetic impulse of private emolument, these people are
making new roads and improving the old, erecting store-
houses and wharves, building vessels of every description
calculated to facilitate transportation, and at various places
entending into the country by artificial constructions and the
improvement of natural streams navigable communication
with the northern waters. The enterprising spirit of these
people is laudable. It has heretofore added to the wealth9<5
of the State, while it has enriched themselves, but unless it
is directed into new channels it will hereafter lavish the pro-
duction of our soil, to the amount of several millions a year,
upon our northern neighbors. This unwelcome result it
appears to your committee that the present state of things
is rapidly maturing, and to render it still more inauspicious
it will inevitably produce the effect of sending to a perma-
nent foreign residence many of our most useful citizens.
“ Shall we look with unconcern and see so large a portion
of our means, within our power, of conferring a perpetually
increasing strength and respectability upon our body politic
forever averted ? Or shall we adopt an easy, an obvious, an
effectual method of reclaiming for ourselves and our posterity
to the remotest generations all these means, amplified unto
their fullest proportions by a warmer patronage, than the
frozen outlet of the St. Lawrence can ever afford ? The
decision of this question is now emphatically devolved upon
the State. It is a question in which the interests of every
district, county and town are deeply implicated. *	*	*
Navigable canals connecting the Hudson with Lake Erie
and Lake Champlain would from the moment of their com-
pletion make it cheaper for nearly all of our northern and
western citizens to find a market down these canals than in
any other direction, and they would certainly afford the
safest possible transportation.
“ But besides calling to our own markets a large amount
of the productions of our own soil, which are now alienated
from them, the construction of these canals would draw into
our limits the trade of the western parts of Vermont, of a
considerable region in upper Canada and of the northern
half of all that portion of the United States which lies west
of the Alleghany mountains. The future extent of this trade
it would be difficult to calculate. It must be immense.
The country south of the great lakes alone, from which it
will flow, includes as many acres as make up the territory of
some of the most powerful nations of Europe, and is the97
most fertile part of the globe. That country already con-
tains near a million of souls and is increasing with a rapidity
of population known only on this side of the Atlantic. *
*	*	* It is in our power to open to that country a
cheaper, safer and more expeditious road to our market
towns than they can possibly enjoy to any other. Shall it
be done ? ”
The citizens of Albany know that it has been done, and
they have derived material benefits from it. The reader of
this sketch will, however, say, what had Albany to do with
it, as it was not an Albany enterprise. Let us turn from the
study of history to that of a cognate and closely allied
branch, to chorography, which has more to do with the
events of history than it receives credit for.
We learn in geography that a range of lofty mountains
traverses the United States from North Carolina northward
to the St. Lawrence. This Appalachian range allows access
to the Atlantic Ocean, to various rivers, the Hudson, the
Delaware and the Susquehanna, but none of them naviga-
ble for boats until within a short distance from its mouth,
except the Hudson, which can be navigated by consider-
able craft as far as Albany, or 150 miles from the sea. It
was, therefore, necessary that when a connection of the
Great Lakes with the Atlantic seaboard was considered, the
Hudson should be chosen. Another consideration was the
shorter distance between the settlements, then growing up in
the West, and the Hudson, as compared with a possible
Mississippi route. From Buffalo, at or near the then con-
templated commencement of the canal, it is about 300 miles
to Albany, from Buffalo to Montreal 350 miles, and from
Montreal to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 450. From
Buffalo to New Orleans by the Lakes and the Illinois river,
2,250. The Upper Lakes, Superior, Michigan and Huron,
have no other outlet than into Lake Erie; hence, the trade
coming to settlements on these lakes had to go eastward
to find a better market. The distances of towns, then in
798
existence, tell their own story. Chicago is distant from
Albany, 1,050 miles, from New Orleans about 1,600, and
from the mouth of the St. Lawrence also 1,600 ; from Detroit
to Albany the distance is 550 miles, to the ocean, by way
of the St. Lawrence, 1,050; to New Orleans, by way of
Cleveland and down the Muskingum, 2,400.
The mountain range mentioned touches the Hudson a
comparatively short distance below Albany. It would have
been folly, and caused needless expense, if it had been at-
tempted to reach the navigable Hudson through this rnnge,
and as the shortest way is usually the best, Albany had to be
chosen as the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal.
And what has the Erie Canal done for the history of the
United States ? It has raised the State of New York to
the first place in the sisterhood of Americian commonwealths,
and going beyond the borders of this State, the benefits de-
rived from this system of inland navigation have been
showered upon sister States.
“I am rejoiced,” said Governor Tilden in a speech at
Utica, “ that it is impossible for us to protect and develop
our own interests in respect to the great systems of inter-
communication which traverse our State without conferring
like benefits on the great western communities of Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri.”