, K37 
 
\ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 01 
 
 4 107 305 9 ^ 
 
F 119 
 .K37 
 Copy i 
 
 AN 
 
 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL. SOCIETY, 
 
 -DUCBHTBISB. 6, 1828. 
 
 BY JAMES KENT, 
 
 It 
 
 Prr.iidait of the SncicfV- 
 
 NEW- YORK : 
 PUBLISHED BY G. & C. CARVILL 
 
 BROADWAY. 
 
 1829. 
 
SetUhem District of J\reic-York, ss. 
 
 BE IT REMEMBLHED, That on the thirtieth day of December, A. D. 1828, in the lifty- 
 
 (L. S ) ''"'"^ ^®'*' "' ^^ Independence of the United Stiites "f Amorica, Jrlm vV Francis, 
 
 Ohiirles King, and Jonathan M- Wainwriglit, for the New-York Hisi.ir.eal tj.rietv, 
 
 of the said district, nave deposited in this olfiie 'he titie of ti Book, the right whereof the 
 
 said Society claims as Proprietors, intlio words foilowiiip, to «it 
 
 _ " An Anniversary Discourse, delivered before the ■>ew- York Historical Society, December 
 Cth, 1828. By James Kent, President of the Society." 
 
 In confonnity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encou- 
 ragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the iiuthors and 
 proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." vVnd also to an Act, entitled, 
 " An Act, sup|)lenientary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by 
 securing the copies of Maps, Chart.^, ard Books, to tho authors and proprietors of such copies, 
 during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, 
 engraving, and etching historical and other Prints-" 
 
 FRED. J. BETTS, 
 Clerk of the Southern District of New- York. 
 
 iayroii & Van Norden, Printerf- 
 
J^'eW'York Historical Society, ? 
 December 9th, 1828. S 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Honourable 
 James Kent, for his able, appropriate, and highly interesting Discourse, 
 delivered in the Hail of Colurabia College, on the 6th of December instant; 
 and that he be requested to iurnish a copy of the same for publication. 
 
 Resolved, That Doctor John W, Francis, Rev. Doctor Wainvvright, and 
 Charles King, Esq., be a Committee to carry the foregoing resolution into 
 effect. 
 
 JOSEPH BLUNT, 
 
 Recording Secretary. 
 
A 
 
 DISCOURSE, Ac. 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 It is a subject of just congratulation, that we now 
 find this Society in a condition to pursue, with success, the 
 patriotic design of the founders of the institution. By 
 means of the bounty of the legislature, and the public 
 spirit of several of the members, we are relieved from our 
 embarrassments, and are enabled to display, to great ad- 
 vantage, the valuable collection of books and historical 
 documents which we possess. 
 
 Our collections heretofore lay in such disorder, that few 
 persons were aware of their intrinsic value. They have 
 been redeemed from confusion, and made convenienth^ 
 accessible to the scholar and the antiquary ; and can now, 
 with great satisfaction, be presented to the view of our own 
 citizens, and of intelligent strangers. For this improve- 
 ment, our thanks are especially due to Mr. Delafield, the 
 Treasurer ; and it is to his industry, taste, and zeal, that 
 we are indebted for this new and beautiful arrangement of 
 our historical materials. 
 
 When we advert to what has been done in other states, 
 and particularly in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and 
 perceive how much they have hitherto surpassed us in the 
 extent and value of their researches, I trust we shall feel 
 an additional stimulus to acquit ourselves of our duty, and 
 throw back upon our own annals some of the light and 
 lustre which emanatie from the spirit of the age. 
 
 1 
 
As the object of the Society is to discover, collect, and 
 preserve materials, calculated to illustrate the history of our 
 country, it has appeared to me to be suitable to the design 
 of this anniversary meeting, to call your attention to some 
 reflections, arising upon a view of the domestic history of 
 this state. If I do not greatly deceive myself, there is no 
 portion of the history of this country, which is more in- 
 structive, or better calculated to embellish our national cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The eastern descendants of the pilgrims are justly proud 
 of their colonial ancestors ; and they are wisely celebrating, 
 on all proper occasions, the memory and merits of the ori- 
 ginal founders of their republics, in productions of great 
 genius and of classical taste. Why should we, in this state, 
 continue any longer comparatively heedless of our own 
 glory, when we also can point to a body of illustrious an- 
 nals? Our history will be found, upon examination, to be 
 as fruitful as the records of any other people, in recitals of 
 heroic actions, and in images of resplendent virtue. It is 
 equally well titled to elevate the pride of ancestry, to awa- 
 ken deep feeling, to strengthen just purpose, and enkindle 
 generous emulation. 
 
 Sucli historical reviews have a salutary influence upon 
 the morals and manners of the times ; for they help us to 
 detect pretended merit, to rebuke selfish ambition, to check 
 false patriotism, and humble arrogant pretension. 
 
 The discovery of the Hudson, and the settlement of our 
 ancestors upon its borders, is a plain and familiar story, on 
 which I shall not enlarge. Our origin is within the limits 
 of well-attested history. This at once dissipates the en- 
 chantments of fiction ; and we are not permitted, like the 
 nations of ancient Europe, to deduce our hneage from 
 super-human beings, or to clothe the sage and heroic spirits 
 who laid the foundations of our empire, with thv exaggera- 
 tions and lustre of poetical invention. Nor do we stand 
 in need of the aid of such machinerv. It is a suflicient 
 
iioiiour to be able to appeal to tlio simple and severe 
 records of truth. The Dutch discoverers and settlers of 
 New Netherlands, were grave, temperate, firm, persevering- 
 men, who brought with them the industry, the economy, 
 the simplicity, ther integrity, and the bravery of their Belgic 
 sires ; and with those virtues they also imported the lights 
 of the Roman civil law, and the purity of the Protestant 
 faith. To that period we are to look with chastened awe 
 and respect, for the beginnings of our city, and the works 
 of our primitive fathers- our ^/fca^ji patres, atque altce 
 masnia Roitkb. 
 
 It does great credit to the just and moderate views of 
 the Dutch during their government in this colony, that 
 though they selected and settled on some of the best bot- 
 torn lands on the shores of the Hudson and its tributary 
 waters, they lived upon friendly terms with the powerful 
 confederacy of the Five x\ations of Indians, whose original 
 dominion extended over all the lands occupied by the 
 Dutch. They were, at times, involved in hostilities with 
 restless clans of neighbouring Indians, but the original and 
 paramount lords of the soil, and generally the Long Island 
 Indians, gave them no disturbance." The reason was, that 
 the Indian right to the soil was recognised by the Dutch, 
 and always regarded by them, as well as by the English, 
 their successors, with the best faith ; and they claimed no 
 lands but such as were procured by fair purchase.* The 
 speech of the Indian called Good Peter to the commis- 
 sioners at Fort Schuyler, in 1788, is a strong attestation of 
 
 a Smithes History of New-York, vol. i. 2s. TnmhuWs History 
 of Connecticut, vol. i. 138-140. Collections of the New-York His- 
 torical Society, vol. iii. S24. 357. ffood^s Sketch of the First Set- 
 ttement on Long Island, p. £9 32. 
 
 b Wood^s Sketch, p. 12.22, 23. gives the names of the several 
 nbes from whom all the lands on Long Island, whether settled bv 
 the Dutch or English, were purchased. 
 
this I'act. He observed, that when the white men liist came 
 into the country, they were few and feeble, and the Five 
 Nations numerous and powerful. The Indians were 
 friendly to the white men, and permitted them to settle in 
 the country, and protected them from their enemies ; and 
 they had wonderfully increased, and become like a great 
 tree overshadowing the whole country." 
 
 The Dutch colonial annals are of a tame and pacific 
 character, and generally dry and uninteresting. The civil 
 officers, as well as the ministers of the Dutch churches, 
 were well-educated men, who imbibed their religion and 
 learning in Holland ; and in their long and sharp contro- 
 versies with the New-England Colonies, the governors of 
 this Colony showed themselves to be no ways inferior in 
 their discussions to the most sagacious of the Puritans, 
 either in talent, doctrine, or manners. Their disputes were 
 concerning territorial jurisdiction, and particularly in re- 
 spect to the country on Connecticut river, and they also had 
 contentions concerning fugitives from justice, and interfe- 
 rences witli the Indian trade. Strength and arrogance of 
 deportment were evidently on the side of the English. 
 Governor Keift, in his letter to the commissioners of the 
 United Colonies of New-England, in 1646, observed, that 
 their complaints of ill-usage were the complaints of the 
 wolf against the lamb.* Governor Stuyvesant also ob- 
 served, in his letter to the Dutch West India Company, in 
 1660, that the New-Englanders were in the ratio of ten to 
 one, and able to deprive the Dutch of their country."^ The 
 Dutch governors charged the English, in direct terms, with 
 an insatiable desire of possessing their lands ; and what- 
 ever might have been the real merits of the Dutch title to 
 
 a Colleclions of the New-York Historical Society, vol. iii. 526. 
 b Hist. Coll. Neic-York Society, vol. i. 196. 
 c Smithes Hist, of JVeir-York, vol. i. 21. 
 
9 
 
 lands on Connecticut river, founded on assumed prior diso 
 covery and prior Indian purchase, it appears, at least from 
 the diplomatic papers orf the time, that their manner of 
 vindicating their claim, and repelling accusation, and re- 
 monstrating against aggression, was forcible, sagacious, 
 and temperate. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant administered the Dutch government 
 from 1647 to the surrender of the Colony to the English, 
 in 1664, and he held his power in difficult times, and was 
 surrounded with perils ; but he was a man of mihtary skill, 
 and of great firmness, judgment, and discretion." He ma- 
 nifested his desire for peace, and showed the magnanimity 
 of his character, in going, in proper person, in 1650, to 
 Hartford, to meet and negotiate with the commissioners 
 of the New-England Colonies. Though standing alone in 
 the midst of a body of keen and well-instructed oppo- 
 nents, he conducted himself with admirable address and 
 firmness. The correspondence between him and the com- 
 missioners, is embodied and preserved in the collections of 
 this Society, and it does credit to his memory.* The com- 
 missioners took offence at the date of his first diplomatic 
 note, which, though written on the spot, was dated New- 
 Netherlands. Governor Stuyvesant consented to date it 
 at Connecticut, leaving out New-Netherlands, provided the 
 commissioners would date theirs at Hartford, leaving out 
 New-England, and to this they assented. Both parties 
 managed the controversy with great discretion and good 
 sense. When the commissioners complained of the vague- 
 ness and harshness of some parts of his letters, Governor 
 Stuyvesant replied, that he came there from the love of 
 peace, and not for altercation ; and that they all knew he could 
 not deliver himself so promptly and clearly in the English 
 
 a Benson^s Historical Memoir, note iv. 
 
 b Collections, vol. i. 189 — 290., taken from Hazard's Historical 
 Collections, vol. ii. 
 
JO 
 
 as 111 his own native tongue, and no advantage ought to be 
 taken of any inaccuracy of expression. The meeting ad- 
 journed without any decisive results ; and he afterwards, in 
 the year 1653, sent an elaborate vindication of his rights to 
 the New-England commissioners at Boston, which con- 
 tained sound expositions of national law. The English had 
 complained of the exaction of duties upon them in their 
 trade and purchases at New-Amsterdam ; and he in his 
 turn insisted, that every civil government had a right to 
 make what laws it thought fit, and every person who came 
 within a foreign jurisdiction, must expect to find, and not 
 to bring laws with him. He resented, in proper terms of 
 indignation, the atrocious charge of being concerned in a 
 conspiracy with the Indians, to plunder his neighbours, and 
 shed innocent blood ; and he said, that he reposed on the 
 mens conscia rec% and despised the tongue of calumny. 
 Though he sought nothing but peace and neighbourly in- 
 tercourse, yet, if he must be driven to extremities, he had 
 confidence that a just God would smile on and bless a 
 righteous defence. 
 
 With that wise and good man terminated the Dutch 
 power in this Colony. 
 
 The English took possession of the government in 1664, 
 and administered it in the name, and under the authority 
 of the Duke of York, who was the patentee. The terms 
 of surrender of the Dutch power were exceedingly liberal. 
 The inhabitants were made secure in their persons, pro- 
 perty, and religion.'' Their titles to land were previously 
 free from the appendages and services of feudal bondage.* 
 
 a Smith's History of New-York, vol. i. 32. 
 
 5 This is to be inferred from the conditions which had been offered 
 by the Burgonaasters of Amsterdam, in 1656, to the settlers in New- 
 Netherlands, one of which was, that every farmer should have a free, 
 fast, and durable property in his lands. — New-York Historical Col- 
 lections, vol. i. 291. 
 
11 
 
 The conquest of the Colony proved to be a very fortunate 
 event to the Dutch. They were reheved from perilous 
 controversies with their eastern neighbours, and they be- 
 came entitled to the privileges of English subjects. In a 
 fevi^ years they participated in the blessings of a repre- 
 sentative government, and they exchanged their Roman 
 jurisprudence for the freer spirit, the better security, and 
 more efficient energy of the English common law. The 
 Dutch and English inhabitants became thoroughly united 
 and formed but one indivisible people. The Dutch race 
 in this Colony kept at least equal pace with their English 
 brethren, in every estimable qualification of good citizens. 
 Through all the subsequent periods of our eventful story, 
 down to the present day, they have furnished their full pro- 
 portion of competent men. This they have done in every 
 variety of situation in which our country was placed, whe- 
 ther in peace or in war ; and whatever was the duty in 
 which they were engaged, whether in the civil or military, 
 political or professional departments." 
 
 Within twenty years from the conquest of the Colony, 
 a free government, upon the plan of the English constitu- 
 tion, was given to it, consisting of a Governor and Legisla- 
 tive Council, appointed by the Crown, and a House of As- 
 sembly, chosen by the people.* The Assembly was com- 
 
 a It is worthy of notice, that the only two regiments of infantry 
 from this state, in the line of the army of the United States, at the 
 close of the Ameiicaii war, were coni'manded by Dutchmen I al- 
 lude to the regiments commanded by Col. Van Cortlandt and Col. 
 Van Schaick. And 1 hope I may be permitted to add, without 
 meaning any invidious comparisons, that we have now livii>g in this 
 state, in advanced life, thiee lawyers of Dutch descent, who are not 
 surpassed any where in acuteness of mind, in sound law learning, 
 and in moral worth. The reader will readily perceive that I have in 
 my eye Egbert Benson, Peter Van Schaack, and Abraham Van 
 Vechten. 
 
 h Smith's History, vol. i. 4f5. 58. 
 
12 
 
 posed, 111 the lirst instance, of seventeen members onlyy 
 and it was never enlarged, even down to the period of the 
 American war, beyond the number of twenty-seven. The 
 members, during the earher periods of our colony history, 
 were elected for an indefinite period ; and new elections 
 seemed to have been held only upon the dissolution of the 
 legislature by the act of the governor. After long struggles 
 for triennial elections, the assembly finally succeeded in 
 1743, to have the assembly made septennial by law. But 
 we should be greatly mistaken if we were to conclude 
 that so small a body of representatives, and chosen for such 
 indefinite or protracted periods, was unable to withstand 
 the influence of the executive branch of the government. 
 The house, almost as soon as it was organized, began to 
 feel its strength, and to display its independent genius. 
 Through the whole period of our colonial history, the gene- 
 ral assembly rarely ceased to sustain its rights, and assert 
 its dignity with becoming spirit, against the whole weight 
 and influence of the delegated powers of royalty. This 
 character of the house, was a consequence naturally flow- 
 ing from the healthy and vigorous principle of popular elec- 
 tion, which, like the touch by Antteus of his mother Earth, 
 in his struggles with Hercules, always communicated fresh 
 strength and courage to renew the contest. 
 
 The house of assembly, from the very beginning of it, 
 exercised its discretion as to the grant of supplies for the 
 support of government, both in respect to the extent and 
 the duration of the grants. The governors, however, con- 
 stantly complained, and insisted upon a permanent provi- 
 sion for the oflicers of government, and they interposed 
 royal instructions, and sharp remonstrances, for that pur- 
 pose. Governor Fletcher, in 1695, first began the struggle 
 with the assembly upon that point, and the contest was 
 continued down to the era of our revolution ; but the as- 
 sembly retained the control of their funds with inflexible 
 firmnesp. As the governor and council were appointed by 
 
tlie crown, and held their offices at Us pieiisure, and as 
 the judges were appointed by the governor and held at his 
 pleasure, the colonial assembly had good reason to be te- 
 nacious of reserving to themselves some check upon the 
 executive and judicial departments, by means of their sup- 
 port. 
 
 In 1708 the house of assembly declared that it was the 
 unquestionable right of every freeman in the colony to have 
 a perfect and entire property in his goods and estate ; and 
 that the imposing and levying of any moneys upon the sub- 
 jects of the colony, under any pretence or colour what- 
 soever, without their consent, in general assembly, was a 
 grievance, and a violation of right. They further declared 
 that the king could not erect a court of equity in the colo- 
 ny -without the consent of the legislature. This last resolu- 
 tion was again and again adopted, between 1702 and 1735, 
 in despite of the influence and menaces of the royal repre- 
 sentative." In 1749, the claim upon the assembly to pass 
 a permanent Supply bill, was renewed in the most imperi- 
 ous and offensive manner. The governor told the assem- 
 bly he had the king's instructions for a law rendering the 
 provision for the support of government permanent ; and 
 the house calmly replied, that they would never recede from 
 the method of an annual support. The governor then went 
 so far as to deny their authority to act, except by the royal 
 commissions and instructions, alterable at the king's plea- 
 sure, and subject to his limitations ; and that there was a 
 power able to punish them, and would punish them, if they 
 provoked it by their misbehaviour. He proceeded to such 
 extremities that the assembly, without swerving in the 
 least from their determined purpose, declared his conduct 
 to be arbitral}', illegal, and a violation of their privileges.* 
 
 It would be diflicult to find in any of the legislative re- 
 
 a Colony Journals, vol. i. 253. 
 
 b Smith's Hist, of JSfew- York, vol. ii. lOtJ — 1 10. Colony Journals, 
 vol. ii. 244 — 271. 
 
14 
 
 cuuls ol tins country, a clearer sense of right, or a better 
 spirit to defend it. There were also considerations arising 
 from the peculiarity of their local condition, which serve 
 greatly to elevate the character of our colonial ancestors. 
 
 Whenever war existed between Great Britain and France, 
 the province of New- York was the principal theatre of co- 
 lonial contest. It became the Flanders of America, and it 
 had to sustain, from time to time, the scourge and fury of 
 savage and Canadian devastation. We need only cast an 
 eye upon our geographical position, and read the affecting 
 details of the formidable expeditions, and the frightful in- 
 cursions which laid waste our northern and western fron- 
 tiers, between 1G90, and the conquest of Canada, in 1760, 
 to be deeply impressed with a sense of the difficulties which 
 this colony had to encounter, and of the fortitude and per- 
 severance with which they were overcome. The leading 
 men, who swayed the house of assembly, or directed the 
 popular voice, never wanted valour and virtue adequate to 
 the crisis. 
 
 But I hasten to cast a rapid glance over the great events 
 in our domestic history, subsequent to the peace of 1763. 
 
 The colony took an early and distinguished stand against 
 the claims of the British parliament, to raise a revenue from 
 their American colonies without their consent. If she was 
 not in advance, New- York was at least equal in point of 
 time, in point of spirit, and in point of argument, to any of 
 the colonies, in the use she made of the monitory language 
 of remonstrance. In March, 1764, the English house of 
 commons passed a declaratory resolution, that it would be 
 proper to impose certain stamp duties in the colonies for 
 the purpose of raising revenue, and other resolutions passed 
 at the same time, laying new duties upon the trade of the 
 colonies. In October, 17G4, the house of assembly of this 
 colony, addressed the king and each house of parliament 
 against all such schemes of taxation. They contended that 
 the power of taxing themselves was interwoven fundamen- 
 
15 
 
 tally in their constitution, and was an exclusive and inex- 
 tinguishable right ; and that the people of the colony could 
 not be rightfully taxed without their consent, given by their 
 representatives in general assembly. They declared that 
 they received with the bitterness of grief, the intimation of 
 a design in the British parliament to infringe that inestima- 
 ble right. They complained also of the extension of the 
 powers of the Vice-Admiralty courts, which led to a dange- 
 rous diminution of trial by jury. The assembly reasoned 
 the question of taxation, with the British parliament, in the 
 most eloquent and masterly manner ; they declared that 
 the people of the colony nobly disdained to claim exemp- 
 tion from foreign taxation as a privilege ; they challenged 
 it, and gloried in it as a right. It was a right enjoyed by 
 their fellow subjects in Great Britain, and was the grand 
 principle of the independence of the British house of com- 
 mons ; and they very significantly asked, " why such an 
 odious discrimination ? Why should it be denied to those 
 who submitted to poverty, barbarian wars, loss of blood, loss 
 of money, personal fatigues, and ten thousand unutterable 
 hardships, to enlarge the trade, dominion, and vv'calth of the 
 nation ?" 
 
 In October, 1765, the house of assembly were represent- 
 ed by a select committee, in a congress of the northern 
 colonies, which met in this city, on the subject of the 
 grievous claims and laws of the British parhament. The 
 chairman of that committee was Judge Livingston, the fa- 
 ther of the late Chancellor of that name ; and he reported 
 to the house the proceedings of the congress, and the house 
 approved of the Conduct and services of the committee. 
 They then united in fresh remonstrances to the king, and 
 each house of parliament, against the stamp act and other 
 statutes imposing taxes upon the colonies without their 
 consent, and against the unwarrantable jurisdiction of the 
 Vice-Admiralty courts. They declared that they were not, 
 and could not, be represented in parliament : and their ad- 
 
10 
 
 dresses were spirited and determined, and they certainly 
 ^A ere urged with wciglity and pathetic exhortation. 
 
 At the close of tlic year 1768, the house of assembly 
 again remonstrated in the most decided style, and in ani- 
 mated addresses to the king and parliament, against the 
 clciims of the British government. They specified their es- 
 sential rights, and cnnnieraled their grievances. They 
 complained of the recent statutes imposing duties and 
 raising revenue from the colonies, without their consent, as 
 being utterly subversive of their constitutional rights. They 
 insisted that the authority of the colonial legislatures could 
 not lawfully be suspended, abridged, or abrogated ; and 
 they considered the suspension of their legislative power, 
 until they should have made provision for the accommoda- 
 tion of the king's troops, as a most dangerous assumption 
 of unlawful power. They strongly urged their complaints 
 of the erection of courts dependent upon the will of a royal 
 governor; of Admiralty courts in which they were deprived 
 of trial by jury, so deservedly celebrated by Englishmen, in 
 ail ages, as essential to their safety ; and of the parliamentary 
 claim of a right to give away their estates, and bind them 
 in all cases whatsoever. They asserted in the most manly 
 ierms, their claim to a participation in those rights and li- 
 berties, which had been declared by magna charta, and re- 
 asserted in the petition and bill of rights, and confirmed at 
 the accession of the house of Orange ; and they reminded 
 the king and parliament of their former loyalty and services, 
 and how often it had been confessed that their zeal had 
 carried them to make contributions beyond their propor- 
 tion, and that the excesses had been reimbursed. 
 
 These state papers were produced in December, 1768. 
 and they resemble very much in matter, spirit, and style, 
 the resolutions and addresses of the first continental con- 
 gress, in 1774, and they rival them in dignity and value. 
 They were forwarded to the colonial agent at the court of 
 Great Piritain. and that assent was Edmund Burke. And yet 
 
17 
 
 for those very proceedings, the assembly was severely re- 
 buked by the governor, Sir Henry Moore, and the legis- 
 lature was dissolved. 
 
 As the disputes between the mother country and the co- 
 lonies grew more serious, and were evidently approxima- 
 ting to an appeal to arms, the house of assembly began to 
 pause in its career. The influence of the crown upon the 
 legislature of the colony was sensibly felt, and it tended, in 
 ;i considerable degree, to damp their future zeal, and neu- 
 tralize their measures. But the spirit of the people kept 
 equal pace with the views and wishes of their brethren in 
 the other colonies ; and the prominent and splendid lumina- 
 ries in the great scenes of the revolution, now began to 
 ascend above the horizon. The names of Philip Schuyler 
 and George Clinton, appear on the journals of the colony 
 assembly, as members of the house during those noble ef- 
 forts in the year 1768 ; and they were constantly maintain- 
 ed in that station, by their constituents of Albany and Ulster 
 counties, from that year down to the termination of the ex- 
 istence of the colony legislature in April, 1775. The Dutch 
 family of Schuyler stands conspicuous in our colonial an- 
 nals. Colonel Peter Schuyler was mayor of Albany, and 
 commander of the northern militia in 1690. He was dis- 
 tinguished for his probity, and activity in all the various 
 duties of civil and military life. No man understood bet- 
 ter the relation of the colony with the Five Nations of In- 
 dians, or had more decided influence with that confedera- 
 cy. He had frequently chastised the Canadian French for 
 their destructive incursions upon the frontier settlements ; 
 and his zeal and energy were rewarded by a seat in the 
 provincial council ; and the house of assembly gave their 
 testimony to the British court of his faithful services and 
 good reputation. It was this same vigilant officer who 
 gave intelligence to the inhabitants of Deerfield, on Con- 
 necticut river, of the designs of the French and Indians 
 upon them, some short time before. the destruction of that 
 
village, ill 1704.'' In 1720, as president of the council, he 
 became acting governor of the colony for a short time, pre- 
 vious to the accession of Governor Burnet.* His son. Colo- 
 nel Philip Schuyler, was an active and efficient member of 
 assembly, for the city and county of Albany, in 1743. But 
 the Philip Schuyler to whom I particularly allude, and who 
 in a subsequent age shed such signal lustre upon the family 
 name, was born at Albany in the year 1733, and at an early 
 age he began to display his active mind, and military spirit. 
 He was a captain in the New-York levies at Fort Edward, 
 in 1755, and accompanied the British army in the expedi- 
 tion down lake George, in the summer of 1758. He was 
 with Lord Howe when he fell by the fire of the enemy, on 
 landing at the north end of the lake ; and he was appointed 
 (as he himself informed me) to convey the body of that 
 young and lamented nobleman to Albany, where he was 
 buried, with appropriate solemnities, in the episcopal 
 church. 
 
 We next find him, under the title of Colonel Schuyler, in 
 company with his compatriot George Clinton, in the year 
 1768, on the floor of the house of assembly, taking an 
 active share in all their vehement discussions. Neither of 
 them was to be overawed or seduced from a bold and de- 
 termined defence of the constitutional rights of the colo- 
 nies, and of an adherence to the letter and spirit of the 
 councils of the union. The struggle in the house of as- 
 sembly, between the ministerial and the whig parties, was 
 brought to a crisis in the months of February and March, 
 1775 ; and in that memorable contest, Philip Schuyler and 
 George Clinton, together with Nathaniel Woodhull of 
 Long Island, acted distinguished parts. On the motions 
 
 a Smith's Hist, of New-York, vol. i. 92. 94. 137, lf.8. Hoyfs 
 Indian Wars, p. 185. 
 
 h Colony Journals, vol. i. 438. 
 
19 
 
 to give the thanks of the house to the delegates trom tlic 
 colony in the continental congress of September, 1774 ; and 
 to thank the merchants and inhabitants of the colony, for 
 their adherence to the non-importation and the association 
 recommended by congress, those patriots found themselves 
 in the minority. But their courage and resolution gained 
 strength from defeat. On the 3d of March, Colonel Schuy- 
 ler moved declaratory resolutions that the act of 4 Geo. m. 
 imposing duties for raising a revenue in An^erica; and tor 
 extending the jurisdiction of Admiralty courts -, and for de- 
 priving his majesty's subjects in America of trial by jury ; 
 and for holding up an injurious discrimination between the 
 subjects of Great Britain and those of the colonies, were 
 great grievances. The government party seem to have fled 
 the question, and to have left in the house only the scanty 
 number of nine members, and the resolutions were carried 
 by a vote of seven to two. But their opponents imme- 
 diately rallied, and eleven distinct divisions, on different mo- 
 tions, were afterwards taken in the course of that single 
 day, and entered on the journal; and they related to al 
 the momentous points then in controversy, between Great 
 Britain and the United Colonies. It was a sharp and hard 
 fought contest for fundamental principles ; and a more so- 
 lemn and eventful debate rarely ever happened on the floor 
 of a deliberative assembly. The house consisted on that 
 day of twenty-four members, and the ministerial majority 
 was exactly in the ratio of two to one ; and the intrepidity, 
 talent, and services of the three members I have named 
 and especially of Schuyler and Clinton, were above all 
 praise, and laid the foundation for those lavish marks of 
 honour and confidence which theii: countrymen were after- 
 wards so eager to bestow. , 
 
 The resistance of the majority of the House was fairly 
 broken down, and essentially controlled by the efforts ot 
 the minority and the energy of public opinion. A series 
 of resolutions, declaratory of American grievances, were 
 
•20 
 
 passed, and petitions to the king and parliament adopted, 
 not indeed in all respects such as the leaders of the mino- 
 rity wished, (for all their amendments were voted down,) 
 but they were nevertheless grounded upon the principles of 
 the American Revolution. They declared that the claims 
 of taxation and absolute sovereignty, on the part of the 
 British parliament, and the extension of admiralty jurisdic- 
 tion, were grievances, and unconstitutional measures; and 
 that the act of parliament, shutting up the port of Boston, 
 and altering the charter of that colony, also were griev- 
 ances. 
 
 These were the last proceedings of the general assembly 
 of the colony of New- York, which now closed its existence 
 for ever. More perilous scenes, and new and brighter 
 paths of glory, were opening upon the vision of those illus- 
 trious patriots. 
 
 The delegates from this colony to the first continental 
 congress in 1774, were not chosen ^.y the general assembly, 
 but by the suffrages of the people, manifested in some suf- 
 ficiently authentic shape in the several counties. Among 
 those delegates, and indeed among the whole list of per- 
 sons in this first memorable convention, which assembled 
 at Philadelphia with more than Amphictyonic dignity, 
 there is but the name of a single survivor. He now lives in 
 an adjoining county, in tranquil retirement, with his facul- 
 ties sound, his health comfortable, cherished by his chil- 
 dren, cheered by his friends, and displaying in his conver- 
 sation and manners the wisdom of a sage, and the faith 
 and resignation of a Christian. John Jay was one of the 
 committee in that earliest congress, who drew and re- 
 ported the address to the people of Great Britain. I was 
 assured, in very early life, that he had a special share in its 
 composition. At any rate, it bears the impression of his 
 genius, and it is a production that stands without a rival. 
 The public papers of that congress were all of them, in 
 <ivery point of view, of a masterlj/ character. Lord Chat- 
 
21 
 
 hain declared in his place, in the House of Lords, tiiat those 
 productions had never been surpassed in any age or nation, 
 for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of 
 conclusion. 
 
 The delegates to the second continental congress, which 
 met in May, 1775, were chosen by a provincial congress, 
 which the people of the colony had already created, and 
 which was held in this city, in April of that year, and had vir- 
 tually assumed the powers of government. The names of the 
 delegates from this colony, to this second congress, were, 
 John Jay, John Alsop, James Duane, Philip Schuyler, 
 George Clinton, Lewis Morris, and Robert R. Livingston ; 
 and the weight of their talents and character may be in- 
 ferred from the fact, that Mr. Jay, Mr. Livingston, Mr. 
 Duane, and Mr. Schuyler, were early placed upon commit- 
 tees, charged with the most arduous and responsible duties.* 
 We find Washington and Schuyler associated together in 
 the committee, appointed on the 14th of June, 1775, to pre- 
 pare rules and regulations for the government of the army. 
 This association of those great men, commenced at such 
 a critical moment, was the beginning of a mutual confi- 
 dence, respect, and admiration, which continued, with un- 
 interrupted and unabated vividness, during the remainder 
 of their lives. An allusion is made to this friendship in the 
 memoir of a former president of this society, and the allu- 
 sion is remarkable for its strength and pathos. After men- 
 tioning General Schuyler, he adds, " I have placed thee, 
 my friend, by the side of him who knew thee ; thy intelli- 
 gence to discern, thy zeal to promote thy country's good, 
 and knowing thee, prized thee. Let this be thy eulogy. 
 I add, and with truth, peculiarly thine — content it should 
 be mine to have expressed it."* 
 
 a Journals of Congress, vol. i. 99. 106. 
 
 6 The Memoir of Judge Benson, from which this is extracted, has 
 never met with the reception due to its intrinsic nievits. Tliis has 
 
 3 
 
'2-2 
 
 The congress oi" this colony, during the years 1775 and 
 1776, had to meet difficulties and dangers almost sufficient 
 to subdue the firmest resolution. The population of the 
 colony was short of 200,000 souls. It had a vast body of 
 disaftected inhabitants within its own bosom. It had nu* 
 merous tribes of hostile savages on its extended frontier. 
 The bonds of society seemed to have been broken up, and 
 society itself resolved into its primitive elements. There 
 was no civil government but such as had been introduced 
 by the provincial congress, and county committees, as tem- 
 porary expedients. It had an enemy's province in the 
 rear, strengthened by large and well-appointed forces. It 
 had an open and exposed seaport, without any adequate 
 means to defend it. In the summer of 1776, the state 
 was actually invaded, not only upon our Canadian, but 
 upon our Atlantic frontier, by a formidable fleet and army, 
 calculated by the power that sent them, to be sufficient to 
 annihilate at once all our infant repubhcs. 
 
 In the midst of this appalling storm, the virtue of our 
 people, animated by a host of intrepid patriots, the men- 
 tion of whose names is enough to kindle enthusiasm in the 
 breasts of the present generation, remained glowing, un- 
 moved, and invincible. It would be difficult to find any 
 other f)eople who have been put to a severer test, or on 
 trial gave higher proofs of courage and capacity. 
 
 On the 19th of June, 1775, Philip Schuyler was ap- 
 pointed by congress the third Major General in the armies 
 of the United Colonies ; and such was his singular promp- 
 titude, that in eleven days from his appointment, we find 
 him in actual service, corresponding with congress from a 
 
 probably arisen from the style and manner peculiar to that venerable 
 man, whose habit has been to treat matters of fact with the dryness, 
 precision, and severity of a special pleader. But the Memoir is never- 
 theless replete with shrewd remarks, sound principles, just criticism, 
 lieen satire, and ardent patriotism. 
 
23 
 
 riistancc, on business that required and received immediate 
 attention. In July, 1775, he was placed at the head of a 
 Board of Commissioners for the northern department, and 
 empowered to employ all the troops in that department at 
 his discretion, subject to the future orders ot the Com- 
 mander-in-chief. He was authorized, if he should find it 
 practicable and expedient, to take possession of St^ Johns 
 and Montreal, and pursue any other measures in Canada 
 having a tendency, in his judgment, to promote the peace 
 and security of the United Colonies. 
 
 In September, 1775, General Schuyler was acting under 
 positive instructions to enter Canada, and he proceeded, 
 with Generals Montgomery and Wooster under his com- 
 mand, to the Isle au Noix. He had at that time become 
 extremely ill, and he was obliged to leave the command ot 
 the expedition to devolve upon General Montgomery The 
 latter, under his orders, captured the garrisons of Chambiy 
 and St. Johns, and pressed forward to Montreal and Que- 
 bec. Montreal was entered on the 12th of November, 
 1775 by the troops under the immediate orders ot Mont- 
 o-omery, and in the same month a committee from congress 
 was appointed to confer with General Schuyler, relative to 
 raising troops in Canada for the possession and security ot 
 that province. His activity, skill, and zeal, shone conspicu- 
 ously throughout that arduous northern campaign; and 
 his unremitting correspondence with congress received the 
 most prompt and marked consideration. 
 
 While the expedition under-Montgoinery was employed 
 in Canada, General Schuyler was called to exercise his m- 
 fiuence and power in another quarter of his military district. 
 On the 30th of December, 1775, he was ordered to disarm 
 the disaffected inhabitants of Tryon County, then under 
 the influence of Sir John Johnson; and on the 18th of 
 January following, he made a treaty with the disaffected 
 p.,rtion of the people, in that western part of the state. 
 The continental congress were so highly satisfied with his 
 
conduct in that delicate and meritorious service, as to de- 
 clare, by a special resolution, that he had executed his trust 
 with fidelity, prudence, and despatch ; and they ordered a 
 publication of the narrative of his march in the depth of 
 winter, into the regions bordering on the middle and upper 
 Mohawk. The duties imposed upon that officer were so 
 various, multiplied, and incessant, as to require rapid move- 
 ments sufficient to distract and confound an ordinary mind. 
 Thus, on the 30th of December, 1775, he was ordered to 
 disarm the tories in Tryon coimty. On the 8th of January, 
 1776, he was ordered to have the river St. Lawrence, 
 above and below Quebec, well explored. On the 25th of 
 January, he was ordered to have the fortress of Ticonde- 
 roga repaired and made defensible ; and on the 17th of 
 February, he was directed to take the command of the 
 forces, and conduct the military operations at the city of 
 JVew-York. All these cumulative and conflicting orders 
 from congress, were made upon him in the course of six 
 weeks, and they were occasioned by the embarrassments 
 and distresses of the times.'* 
 
 In March, 1776, congress changed their plan of opera- 
 tion, and directed General Schuyler to establish his head 
 quarters at Albany, and superintend the army destined for 
 Canada. He was instructed to take such orders as he 
 should deem expedient, respecting the very perplexing and 
 all-important subject of the supplies for the troops in 
 Canada ; and those orders as to the supplies were repeated 
 in April, and again in May, 1776, The duty of procuring 
 supplies, though less splendid in its effects, is often more 
 effectual to the safety and success of an army than prowess 
 in the field. General Schuyler, by his thorough business 
 habits, bis precise attention to details, and by his skill and 
 science in every duty connected with the equipment of an 
 army, was admirably fitted to be at the head of the commis- 
 
 si' .Jniirnnls of CJomrres/t. vols. i. and ii. 
 
^o 
 
 sariate ; and he gave life and vigour to every brancU ot tii- 
 service. His versatile talents, equally adapted to investiga- 
 tion and action, rendered his merits as an officer of trans- 
 cendent value. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1776, he was ordered by congress 
 to hold a treaty with the six nations, and engage them m 
 the interest of the colonies, and to treat with them on the 
 principles, and in the decisive manner, which he had sug- 
 gested. His preparations for taking immediate possession 
 of Fort Stanwix, and erecting a fortification there, received 
 the approbation of congress, and their records afford the 
 most satisfactory evidence that his comprehensive and ac- 
 curate mind had anticipated and suggested the most essen- 
 tial measures, which he afterwards diligently executed 
 throughout the whole northern department. But within 
 three days after the order for the treaty, congress directed 
 his operations to a different quarter of his command He 
 Avas ordered, on the 17th of June, to clear Wood Creek, and 
 construct a lock upon the creek at Skecnsborough, (now 
 Whitehall,) and to take the level of the waters falling into 
 the Hudson at Fort Edward, and into Wood Creek. There 
 can be no doubt that those orders were all founded upon 
 his previous suggestions, and they afford demonstrative 
 proof of the views entertained by him, at that early day, ot 
 the practicability and importance of canal navigation. He 
 was likewise directed to cause armed vessels to be built so 
 as to secure the mastery of the waters of the northern lakes. 
 He was to judge of the expediency of a temporary fortifica- 
 tion or intrenched camp on the heights opposite Ticonde- 
 ro-a Captain Graydon visited General Schuyler early in 
 the summer of 1776, at his head quarters on Lake George : 
 and he speaks of him, in the very mieresiing Men^otrs of Ins 
 ow^^ Life, as an officer thoroughly devoted to business, and 
 being, at the same time, a gentleman of polished and cour- 
 teous manners. On the 1st of August following, he was on 
 the upper Mohawk, providing for its defence and security, 
 
26 
 
 and again in October we find him on the upper HuUson, 
 and calling upon the Eastern States for their militia. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the northern frontier, in the 
 campaign of 1776, was indebted for its extraordinary quiet 
 and security, to the ceaseless activity of General Schuyler. 
 At the close of that year he was further instructed to build 
 a floating battery on the lake, and a fort on Mount Inde- 
 pendence, and also to strengthen the works at Fort 
 Stanwix. 
 
 In the midst of such conflicting and harassing services, 
 he had excited much popular jealousy and ill will, arising 
 from the energy of his character, and the dignity of 
 his deportment. He was likewise disgusted, at what he 
 deemed injustice, in the irregularity of appointing other 
 and junior officers in separate and independent com- 
 mands within what was considered to be his military dis- 
 trict. He accordingly, in October, 1776, tendered to con- 
 gress the resignation of his commission. But when con- 
 gress came to investigate his services, they found them, 
 says the historian of Washington," far to exceed in value 
 any estimate which had been made of them. They de- 
 clared that they could not dispense with his services during 
 the then situation of affairs ; and they directed the president 
 of congress to request him to continue in his command, and 
 they declared their high sense of his services, and their un- 
 abated confidence in his attachment to the cause of 
 freedom. 
 
 On the 9th of July, 1776, the provincial congress of the 
 colony ratified the Declaration of Independence, and they 
 immediately assumed the title oft he Convention of this state. 
 On motion of Gouverneur Morris, seconded by William 
 Duer, a committee was appointed, on the 1st of August, to 
 prepare and report the form of a constitution ; but it was not 
 reported and finally adopted until the 20th of April, 1777. 
 
 a Marshall's Lift of Washington, vol. iii. 231. 
 
27 
 
 *rhe deliberations of the convention were conducted under 
 the excitement of great pubhc anxiety and constant alarm ; 
 and that venerable instrument, which was destined to be 
 our guardian and pride, and to command the confidence 
 and attachment of the people for upwards of forty years, 
 was produced amidst the hurry and tumult of arms. The 
 convention was constantly changing its place of residence 
 to meet the exigencies of the day. From this city it re- 
 moved successively to Harlem, to the White Plains, to 
 Fishkill, to Poughkeepsie, and to Kingston. The mem- 
 bers were harassed by variety of avocation and duty. 
 Some were with the troops in the field ; others were mem- 
 bers of the continental congress ; others were absorbed in 
 attention to local concerns, and the wants of their exiled 
 families. General Woodhull, who acted a noble part in 
 the colonial assembly, and was president of the New-York 
 Convention when it ratified the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, commanded the Long Island militia, and was 
 slain by the enemy on Long-Island, at the close of 
 the battle, in August, 1776. The draft of the constitu- 
 tion was in the hand-writing of Mr. Jay, and it was re- 
 ported by Mr. Duane. Those individuals, together with 
 Gouverneur Morris and Robert R. Livingston, were proba- 
 bly among the most efficient professional members of the 
 convention in the production of the instrument ; though 
 the names of other members stand in bold rehef upon the 
 records of our revolutionary contest, for their wisdom in 
 council, and their energy in action. 
 
 When the constitution was promulgated, and the con- 
 vention were about to dissolve, they created a Council of 
 Safety ; and by their resolution of the 8th of May, 1777, 
 they invested that council with all the powers requisite for 
 the safety and preservation of the state, until a governor 
 and legislature should be duly chosen, and in a condition 
 to act under the provisions of the constitution. The coun- 
 cil, thus clothed for a season with absolute power, consisted 
 
2S 
 
 of only hi'teen men ; but they were not sunsiiine painots. 
 Their souls were formed of nobler materials. They had 
 every claim to public confidence, and they did not abuse it. 
 Their names, in the order in which they stand in the resolu- 
 tion of the convention, were, John Morrin Scott, Robert R. 
 Livingston, Christopher Tappen, Abraham Yates, junior, 
 Gouverneur Morris, Zephaniah Piatt, John Jay, Charles 
 De Witt, Robert Harper, Jacob Cuyler, Thomas Tred- 
 well, Pierre Van Cortlandt, Matthew Cantine, John Sloss 
 Hobart, and Jonathan D. Tompkins. 
 
 A governor and legislature were chosen in the summer 
 of 1777, and in that trying season, there was not a county 
 in this state, as it then existed, which escaped a visit from 
 the arms of the enemy. To add to the embarrassment of 
 our councils in the extremity of their distress, the inhabit- 
 ants of the northeast part of the state, (now Vermont,) 
 which had been represented in the convention, and just 
 then ingrafted into the constitution, under the names of the 
 counties of Cumberland and Gloucester, renounced their 
 allegiance, and set up for an independent state. On the 
 30th of June, in that year, they were knocking at the door 
 of congress for a recognition of their independence, and 
 an admission into the Union. 
 
 The memorable campaign of 1777 was opened by an 
 expedition of the enemy from New- York to Danbury in 
 Connecticut, and the destruction of large quantities of pro- 
 visions and military means collected and deposited in that 
 town. In the northern quarter. General Burgoyne ad- 
 vanced from Canada through the lakes, with a well-ap- 
 pointed army of 10,000 men, and for a time he dissipated 
 all opposition, and swept every obstacle before him. 
 General Schuyler was still in the command of the whole 
 northern department, and he made every exertion to check 
 the progress of the enemy. He visited in person the dif- 
 ferent forts, and used the utmost activity in obtaining sup- 
 plies to enable them to sustain a siege. While at Albany, 
 
i^ which was his head-quarters as previously fixed by congress,) 
 busy in accelerating the equipment and march of troops, 
 Ticonderoga being assailed, was suddenly evacuated by 
 General St. Clair. General Schuyler met on the upper Hud- 
 son the news of the retreat, and he displayed, says the candid 
 and accurate historian of Washington," the utmost diligence 
 and judgment in that gloomy state of things. He effectu- 
 ally impeded the navigation of Wood Creek. He rendered 
 the roads impassable. He removed every kind of provi- 
 sion and stores beyond the reach of the enemy. He sum- 
 moned the militia of New- York and New-England to his 
 assistance ; and he answered the proclamation of Burgoyne 
 by a counter proclamation, equally addressed to the hopes 
 and fears of the country. Congress, by their resolution of 
 the 17th of July, 1777, approved of all the acts of General 
 Schuyler, in reference to the army at Ticonderoga. But 
 the evacuation of that fortress excited great discontent in 
 the United States, and General Schuyler did not escape his 
 share of the popular clamour, and he was made a victim to 
 appease it. It was deemed expedient to recall the general 
 officers in the northern army, and in the month of August 
 he was superseded in the command of that department by 
 the arrival of General Gates. The laurels which he was 
 in preparation to win by his judicious and distinguished ef- 
 forts, and which he would very shortly have attained, were 
 by that removal intercepted from his brow. 
 
 But the advance of General Burgoyne's army was not 
 the only evil that awaited us. Colonel St. Leger, with a 
 large force of regulars and Indians, pressed upon our west- 
 ern border, and invested Fort Schuyler, at the head of^the 
 Mohawk. The whole southern district of the state was at 
 the same time in secure possession of the enemy. There 
 was never, perhaps, in the history of a free people strug- 
 
 a MurslialVft Life of Washington, vol. iii. 247. 
 1 
 
i^liiig loi tlicir Jibeiiics, u more portentous crisis. We wele 
 ilriven in on every side. The extremities of the state were 
 destroyed. There Avas no pulsation but at the heart. 
 Every thing seemed to be lost but hope, virtue, and trust 
 in the providence of God. In that gloomy season, the 
 country rose, met and repelled the danger, with an ardour 
 and vigour that can scarcely be conceived." Brigadier Ge- 
 neral Herkimer commanded the mihtia on the Mohawk, 
 and in his efforts to relieve Fort Schuyler, he was attacked 
 in the Oriskany woods by a detachment of the enemy un- 
 der Sir- John Johnson, and after a sanguinary and disas- 
 trous conflict, he fell fighting gallantly in defence of his 
 country. His memory was honoured with the deep re- 
 grets of his countrymen, and the Congress of the United 
 States voted a monument to his fame. Fort Schuyler, un- 
 der the command of Colonel Gansevoort, was defended 
 with great bravery, perseverance, and success. Colonel 
 Marinus Willet distinguished himself likewise, by his zeal 
 and daring enterprise during the operations of the siege, 
 und the enemy were compelled to retire with loss and dis- 
 grace. Those distinguished officers received a warm eulogy 
 from congress, and strong public expressions of gratitude 
 from their own state. 
 
 George Clinton, who had recently been elected governor, 
 met the legislature, for the first time, at Kingston, on the 
 
 a The convenlion of this state, at the close of the year 1776, had 
 prepared the minds of the people for the trials of the ensuing cam- 
 paign, by the admirable address to their constituents, which they pub- 
 lished at FishkiiljOn the 23d of December of that year. It was un- 
 derstood at the time to have been drafted by Mr. Jay. The object 
 was to cheer tiie country in its season of distress, and to rouse it to 
 vigorous exertion. The address w as plain, sententious, and solemn, 
 fittmgthe object and the crisis ; but it carried its appeal with irresisti- 
 ble force to the noblest affections of the human breast, and the strong- 
 est principles of anion. 
 
31 
 
 10th of September. It was then and there tliat the con- 
 stitution of this independent state first received the princi- 
 ple of hfe. But so rapid and so violent were the vicissi- 
 tudes of events, that, about a month from that time, the 
 village in which they were assembled was burnt by the 
 enemy. The members of the legislature were dispersed ui 
 a few days after the session was opened, and the governor 
 flew to the defence of the posts in the Highlands, to the 
 command of which he had been assigned by congress ni 
 the spring preceding. They were assailed by a very supe- 
 rior land and naval force under Sir Henry Clinton, and 
 when a summons for surrender was sent to Fort Mont- 
 gomery, the governor peremptorily refused. He defied an 
 assault, and made a gallant resistance.*^ It is well knowii 
 that the fort was taken at the point of the bayonet, and in 
 the midst of the confusion of the evening, the governor and 
 a considerable part of the garrison secured their retreat, 
 Tliis was the first time that this eminent man fairly dis- 
 closed to his countrymen his military spirit. I knew him in 
 the midst of the American war. He had a boldness and 
 inflexibility of purpose, and decision and simplicity of cha- 
 racter, which resembled the hardy sons of antiquity in the 
 best days of Roman freedom, when her sages and heroes 
 displayed the majestic port and stern defiance of " the lords 
 of human kind."* 
 
 a The enemy sustained a severe loss, at least in the fall of Count 
 Grabouski, a Polish nobleman, and aid to the British commander, 
 and in the still greater loss of Lieutenant Colonel Campbell and Ma- 
 jor Alexander Grant. The latter was an accomplished officer, and in 
 the war of 1756, was a lieutenant in the 42d Highland regiment. 
 
 h In the full-length portrait of the elder Clinton, painted by Colo- 
 nel Trumbull, perhaps forty years ago, and in which Fort Mont- 
 gomeij, and the wild scenery around it, appear on the back ground, 
 the painter, with very great skill and felicity, has thrown into the 
 rountenartce and air of the hero, touches of the character, which I 
 hare here attempted to pourtray, from my own vivid recollections. 
 
3-2 
 
 Bui the successive defeats and final capture of Burgoyne 
 and his army at Saratoga, dissipated the angry elements 
 which menaced our destruction. The independence of 
 the United States was from that time forward, regarded by 
 us, and by the friendly nations of Europe, as immoveably 
 established. The history of the campaign of 1777, and 
 especially the condition of this state at the lowest point of 
 its depression, the energy with which it rose, the etibrts of 
 our heroes, and the spirit of our people, would together form 
 one of the noblest subjects for the graphic pen of the his- 
 torian. I can speak of the events of that year with some 
 of the impressions of a cotemporary witness. I heard the 
 noise and fury of the assault upon the fortresses on the 
 Hudson :" and I perfectly recollect the general distress, 
 terror, and bitterness of grief, that were visible in the earher 
 parts of the campaign, as well as the tones of joy, admira- 
 tion, and gratitude, at our final and triumphant deliverance. 
 
 Having brought this rapid review of prominent events in 
 our domestic histor}', down to within time of memory, the 
 limits of this discourse will not permit me to continue it. 
 My desire has been to place in fresh remembrance before 
 you, the merits of your ancestors ; and to rescue some of 
 their names, though it should be but for a moment, from the 
 dust and " dumb forgetful ness*' of the record. The distin- 
 guished men of the last age have nearly all passed away, 
 and a new generation have occupied their places, and are 
 enjoying the rich inheritance of public freedom and pros- 
 perity, bequeathed to them by the fathers of the revolution. 
 Amidst such a bright constellation of worthies, it is difficult 
 to discriminate. General Montsomerv, General Woodhull. 
 
 a I then resided almost in the neighbourhood of those scenes, for I 
 was born and nurtured in one of the beautiful and picturesque valleys 
 of the Highlands. Its "humble happiness," and portions of its sacred 
 soil, have never since been seen or remembered by me without the 
 deepest interest. 
 
33 
 
 and General Herkimer, sealed their devotion to their coun- 
 try with their blood. Major General Alexander M'Dougall 
 caused his early zeal and patriotism to be recorded, even on 
 the colonial journals ; and alter the war had commenced, 
 he rose rapidly in the military service of the United States, 
 and congress declared, by a special resolution, their sense 
 of his zeal and magnanimity." John Jay, Robert R. Li- 
 vingston, and Gouverneur Morris, not only received marks 
 of the highest trust and confidence in the service of this, and 
 of the United Stales, but at subsequent periods they dis- 
 played their skill and fidelity as representatives of the na- 
 tion at foreign courts. Egbert Benson rendered eminent 
 service to this state throughout the whole period of the 
 American war. He was zealous, firm, active, and exten- 
 sively usefiil, from the very beginning of the contest. In 
 1777 he wr.s appointed Attorney-General, and in that of- 
 fice, in the legislature, and in congress, his devotion to the 
 public interest was unremitted. The value of his services 
 as a member of the legislature throughout the war, was 
 beyond all price ; and in the able, constant, accurate, and 
 faithful discharge of the duties of that station, he has 
 scarcely had an equal in the legislative annals of this state. 
 Of the members of the provincial congress in 1776, in 
 addition to those who have already been mentioned, the 
 names of John Morrin Scott, Philip Livingston, Abraham 
 Ten Broeck, Leonard Gansevoort, Robert Yates, Pierre 
 Van Cortlandt, John Sloss Hobart, Zephaniah Piatt, Ezra 
 L'Hommedieu, Isaac Roosevelt, Thomas Tredwell, Robert 
 Van Rensselaer, John Taylor, David Gelston, and John 
 Broome, may be specially noticed, as receiving, in subse- 
 quent periods of our history, prominent and continued 
 marks of public confidence and esteem. There may be 
 
 a Journals of Congress, vol. vii. 63. 
 
34 
 
 others ot equal merit whose naniOiS 1 may have uiunteii" 
 tionally omitted, and I am obliged to confine myself to the 
 mention of those leading political and military characters 
 whom I have found, by my own imperfect researches, to 
 have left on record some striking memorial of public honour 
 and confidence, as early as the year 1777. There were 
 many other individuals of this state, then in comparatively 
 subordinate stations in the civil and mihtary service, who 
 afterwards rose to distinguished and deserved eminence. 
 If I depart from the limit which I have prescribed to my- 
 self, and select any one of them, my apology is to be found 
 in the illustrious name of Alexander Hamilton. He was, 
 even at that early day the confidential aid of Washington ; 
 but it was not until the latter part of the American war, 
 that he began to attract general attention, and to display 
 to the admiration of his countrymen, the matchless resour- 
 ces of his mighty mmd. He was chosen a member of con- 
 gress in July, 1782, and he took his seat for the first time 
 in November following. His efforts to reanimate the lan- 
 guid powers of the confederation, and to clothe congress 
 with some essential credit and resources, were great, 
 splendid, but unavailing. From that period his time and 
 talents were almost exclusively consecrated to the service 
 of the United States ; and it would have gratified me ex- 
 ceedingly, if the plan of this discourse would have per- 
 mitted, to have attempted to render some tribute of grati- 
 tude to his memory, by a recital of his unrivalled exertions 
 to give a constitution, and financial credit, and security 
 and prosperity, to the Union. His transcendant services 
 lo the nation are sufficient to render his name immortal. 
 
 •Tolin Jay, Egbert Benson, John Taylor, Thomas Tred- 
 well, and j\rarinus Willet, are the only persons, among 
 those revolutionary characters whom I have hitherto men- 
 tioned, that are now living ; and I perceive that one of 
 them has this very week been selected to execute a higli 
 
35 
 
 public trust." All these venerable remnants ot' the last age, 
 may be considered as now hving, in comparative seclusion, 
 on the very verge of human life, waiting, with a Christian's 
 hope, for their " bright reversion in the skies." But their 
 fame accompanies them, and "enlightens even the obscu- 
 rity of their retreat." 
 
 Suffer me to allude again to the history of General 
 Schuyler. He was too pre-eminent a character, to allow 
 any portion of his valuable life to be left unnoticed. 
 
 General Schuyler felt acutely the discredit of being re- 
 called in the most critical and interesting period of the 
 campaign of 1777 ; and when the labour and activity of 
 making preparations to repair the disasters of it had 
 been expended by him ; and when an opportunity was 
 opening, as he observed, for that resistance and retaliation 
 which might bring glory upon our arms. If error be attri- 
 butable to the evacuation of Ticonderoga, says the histo- 
 rian of Washington,* no portion of it was committed by 
 
 a John Taylor was chosen an elector of the President of the United 
 States, by the electoral college at Albany, on the 2d of December, 
 1828. He was formerly first judge of the city and county of Albany, 
 and continued in that office until he was obliged to retire from it, 
 abont twenty-six years ago, in consequence of being disqualified to 
 hold the office any longer by arriving at sixty years of age. He was 
 for many years afterwards Lieut. Governor, and in that character he 
 was ex officio President of the Senate, and President of the Court of 
 Errors and Appeals, and he continued to occupy the office until he 
 was upwards of eighty years of age. His case showed the striking 
 inconsistency of the constitution, which would allow a person to pre- 
 side over the Court of Errors at tiie age of 80, and yet held him dis- 
 qualified by age at sixty to preside over a county court. Thomas Tred- 
 well, also an Octogenarian, was for many years Judge of the Court of 
 Probates, and he at present fills the office of Surrogate of Clinton 
 county. He was always distinguished for singular simplicity of cha- 
 racter, and I received satisfactory evidence, even as far back as the 
 American war, that he had well founded pretensions to scholarship 
 and classical taste. 
 
 b 3 Marshall, 274.. 
 
General Schuyler. JJut his removal, thougii unjust and se« 
 vere as respected himself, was rendered expedient, accord- 
 ing to Chief Justice Marshall, as a sacrifice to the prejudi- 
 ces of New-England. 
 
 He was present at tlie capture of Burgoyne, but without 
 any personal command ; and the urbanity of his manners, 
 and thechivalric magnanimity of his character, smarting as 
 he was under the extent and severity of his pecuniary losses, 
 are attested by General Burgoyne himself, in his speech 
 in 1778, in the British House of Commons. He there de- 
 clared that, by his orders, '■'• a very good dwelling-house, 
 exceeding large store-houses, great saw-mills, and other 
 out-buildings, to the value altogether perhaps of £10,000 
 sterling," belonging to General Schuyler, at Saratoga, were 
 destroyed by fire a few days before the surrender. He said 
 further that one of the firs- persons he saw, after the con- 
 vention was signed, was General Schuyler, and when ex- 
 pressing to hnn his regret at the event which had happened 
 to his property, General Schuyler desired him " to thmk no 
 more of it, and that the occasion justified it, according to 
 the principles and rules of war. He did more," said Bur- 
 goyne, " he sent an aid-de-camp" to conduct me to Albany, 
 in order, as he expressed it, to procure better quarters than 
 a stranger might be able to find. That gentleman con- 
 ducted me to a very elegant house, and, to my great sur- 
 prise, presented me to Mrs. Schuyler and her family. In 
 that house I remained during my whole stay in Albany, 
 with a table of more than twenty covers for me and my 
 friends, and every other possible demonstration of hospi- 
 tality."* 
 
 I have several times had the same relation in substance 
 
 a The person alluded to by General Burgoyne was Col. Richard 
 Varick, then the military secretary to General Schuyler, and now 
 President of the American Bible Society. 
 
 h ParHamentary History, vol. xix. p. tl82. 
 
Irom General Schuyler himself, and he said that he re- 
 mained behind at Saratoga under the pretext of taking 
 care of the remains of his property, but in reality to avoid 
 giving fresh occasion for calumny and jealousies, by ap- 
 pearing in person with Burgoyne at his own house. It was 
 not until the autumn of 1778, that the conduct of General 
 Schuyler, in the campaign of 1777, was submitted to the 
 investigation of a court-martial. He was acquitted of 
 every charge with the highest honour, and the sentence 
 was confirmed by congress. He shortly afterwards, upon 
 his earnest and repeated solicitation, had leave to retire 
 from the army, and he devoted the remainder of his life to 
 the service of his country in its political councils. 
 
 If the military life of General Schuyler was inferior in 
 brilliancy to that of some others of his countrymen, none of 
 them ever surpassed him in fidelity, activity, and devotedness 
 to the service. The characteristic of all his measures was 
 utility. They bore the stamp and unerring precision of 
 practical science. There was nothing complicated in his 
 character. It was chaste and severe simplicity ; and take 
 him for all in all, he was one of the wisest and most effi- 
 cient men, both in military and civil life, that the state or 
 the nation has produced. 
 
 He had been elected to congress in 1777, and he w as 
 re-elected in each of the three following years. On his re- 
 turn to congress after the termination of his military fife, 
 his talents, experience, and energy, were put in immediate 
 requisition ; and in November, 1 779, he was appointed to 
 confer with General Washington, on the state of the south- 
 ern department. In 1781, he was in the senate of this 
 state ; and wherever he was placed, and whatever might 
 be the business before him, he gave the utmost activity to 
 measures, and left upon them the impression of his pru- 
 dence and sagacity. In 1789, he was elected to a seat in 
 the first senate of the United States, and when his term of 
 service expired in congress, he was replaced in the senate 
 
ol this state. In 1792, he was very active in digesting and 
 bringing to maturity that early and great measure of state 
 j)ohcy, the estabhshment of companies for inland lock navi- 
 gation. The whole suggestion was the product of his fer- 
 tile and calculating mind, ever busy in schemes for the 
 public welfare. lie was placed at the head of the direc- 
 tion of both of the navigation companies, and his mind was 
 ardently directed for years towards the execution of those 
 liberal plans of internal improvement." In 1796, he urged 
 in his place in the senate, and afterwards published in a 
 pamphlet form,* his plan for the improvement of the reve- 
 nue of this state, and in 1797, his plan was almost literally 
 adopted, and to that we owe the institution of the office of 
 comptroller. In 1797, he was unanimously elected, by the 
 two houses of our legislature, a senator in congress ; and 
 he took leave of the senate of this state in a liberal and 
 affecting address, which was inserted at large upon their 
 journals. 
 
 But the life of this great man was now drawing to a 
 close. I had formed and cultivated a personal acquaint- 
 ance with General Schuyler, while a member of the legis- 
 lature in 1792, and again in 1796 ; and from 1799 to his 
 death in tiie autumn of 1804, 1 was in habits of constant 
 
 a Tlie act of the legislature of this state of the 9th of March, 179S, 
 ch. 49, displayed unbounded confidence in General Schuyler. It 
 amended the law relative to lock navigation, after reciting that "the 
 President of the Board of Directors of the Western and Northern 
 Inland Lock Navigation Compar)ies, in their behalf, had signified to 
 the legislature, that, in his opinion, the alterations therein specified, 
 might be made without material injury." 
 
 b The paniplilet was entitled, " Remarks on the Revenue of the 
 State of New-York, by Philip Schuyler, a member of the Senate of 
 that State. Albany, 1796." The pamphlet was founded on a series 
 of arithmetical calculations, and General Schuyler was profoundly 
 versed in mathematical science. He had no superior in aptitude for 
 'Mch investisations. 
 
39 
 
 and triendly intimacy with him, and was honoured with the 
 kindest and most grateful attentions. His spirits were 
 cheerful, his conversation most eminently instructive, his 
 manners gentle and courteous, and his whole deportment 
 tempered with grace and dignity. His faculties seemed to 
 retain their unimpaired vigour and untiring activity ; though 
 he had evidently lost some of his constitutional ardour of 
 temperament and vehemence of feeling. He was sobered 
 by age, chastened by affliction, broken by disease ; and yet 
 nothing could surpass the interest excited by the mild ra- 
 diance of the evening of his days. 
 
 It was observed at the beginning of this discourse, that 
 we had in this state illustrious annals to appeal to, and I 
 humbly hope that I have made good the assertion. The 
 noble monument erecting on Bunker's Hill to the memory 
 of her early patriots, does honour to the pride and zeal of 
 the sons of New-England; but the records of this state, in 
 the hands of some future historian, are capable of elevating 
 a loftier monument, and one of less perishable materials, 
 on which, not the rays of the setting sun, but the rays of 
 a nation's glory, as long as letters shall endure, will con- 
 tinue " to play and hnger on its summit." I do not wish, 
 however, to cherish or inculcate that patriotism which is 
 purely local or exclusive. My object is more disinterested and 
 liberal. It is to enkindle that generous zeal and ardent public 
 virtue, with which Scipio, and other citizens of Rome, are 
 said to have been inspired, as often as they beheld the do- 
 mestic images of their ancestors. The glory of each state 
 is the common property of the nation, and our freedom 
 was established by the united will, and consolidated efforts, 
 of every part of the Union. Our responsibility for the wise 
 and temperate use of civil liberty, is of general obligation ; 
 and it is our example as a nation that has sensibly affected 
 the civilized world. The image of personal freedom, of 
 order, of security, of happiness, and of national prosperity, 
 which our country presents, has had its influence wherever 
 
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 learning and commerce have penetrated. . When our revo- 
 lution becan, despotism prevailed every where, except in 
 Great Britain and her colonies; or if civil liberty existed at 
 all on the continent of Europe, it dwelt in timid retirement, 
 in the romantic valleys of Switzerland, within the shade of 
 the lofucst Alps. But we have lived to witness a visible 
 improvement in the institutions and policy of nations, after 
 the tempest of the French revolution had subsided, and its 
 ravages were repaired. It left the nations upon which it 
 had spent its fury, in a better and healthier condition than 
 it found them. This was some compensation for the in- 
 justice and the miseries which it had produced. Limited 
 monarchies, resting on a recognition of popular rights, and 
 constitutional restrictions upon power, and invigorated by 
 the admission of the principle of representation, are now 
 established in the kingdoms of France and the Nether- 
 lands. The energy of the press and of popular instruction, 
 and the free and liberal spirit of the age, control or mitigate 
 the evils of a bad administration, or chastise its abuses in 
 every department of government, and t.icy carry their influ- 
 ence to the highest ranks and summits of society. Those 
 mighty causes will gradually enlarge the sphere of their ac- 
 tion, and produce freer institutions, and a better administra- 
 tion of justice, in every part of Europe. At any late, we 
 are assured that in our own hemisphere, from the head of 
 the gulf of Mexico, through all the good and bad forms of 
 government in Spanish and Portuguese America, down to 
 " the farthest verge of the green earth," the force of our 
 great example is strongly felt, and the eye is turned, with 
 respect and reverence, to the character of our power, and 
 the splendour of our rising greatness. 
 
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