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 http://www.archive.org/details/addressbeforedonOOdana 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 J 
 
 DONGAN CLUB, 
 
 @f %X^^\\% %. K., 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANKLIN M. DANAHER 
 
 JULY 22, 1889. 
 
 H- l I I I I II ■! I M 1 4- 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE DONGAN CLUB. 
 
 1889. 
 
 
JAMES B. LYON, 
 
 PEINTBB, BINDER AND ELECTEOTYPEB. 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 ^^N the 22d day of July, 1686, to follow the language 
 5^^ of the document, " Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant 
 and Governor of the Province of New York and 
 Dependencies in America, under his most sacred 
 Majesty, James the Second, by the Grace of God, of 
 England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender 
 of the Faith, and so forth, and Supreme Lord and 
 Proprietor of said Province of New York and its Depend- 
 encies," by virtue of his commission and authority and 
 the power in him presiding, granted a charter to the 
 town of Albany, confirmed its ancient rights, gave it 
 privileges, exceptional to the age, and made it a city. 
 
 Two centuries later, the city of Albany, still in pos- 
 session of its chartered rights, hallowed by time and 
 vivified by the gladsome light of liberty, as it had found 
 expression in a free country, where the rulers derive 
 their powers from the consent of the governed, and not 
 through the parchments of men, by the grace of God, 
 kings, celebrated the bi-centenary of the event. 
 
 It did full honor to the character and patriotism of 
 Thomas Dongan; it held him in grateful memory, and, 
 because of the charter, it extolled his merits and sung 
 his praises. 
 
 5 
 
Stomas g0txgati. 
 
 During the celebration, the young Irish- Americans of 
 Albany inquired into his life, examined his record as 
 Governor of colonial New York, traced his career as a 
 soldier and patriot, and found that he was more than a 
 grantor of charters, and resolved to lay myrtle, as well 
 as cypress, on his tomb, and to keep his memory fresh 
 and perpetuate his deeds for all time, in the place which 
 he protected as a soldier, and fostered as a governor; 
 which he made historical by his presence, and a city by 
 his favor. 
 
 For those reasons was this organization called the 
 Dongan Club. It is proper that it should place among 
 its archives some record of the life and services of this 
 illustrious man, but the task should have been given to 
 other hands. 
 
 To rake, amid the ashes of the burned-out fires of two 
 centuries ago, for the facts that go to make the history 
 of Dongan's life, would be a delightful task to one of 
 the literati or to a man of leisure; the vistas of life in 
 the colonies, which it reveals, the insight which it gives 
 into the character and methods of the hardy colonists 
 and brave aborigines, the richness of soil and the pro- 
 fusion of nature which the search develops, are among 
 the rewards of his industry, but to a man busy in the 
 every-day walks of life, the task is beyond his time and 
 I regret that I accepted the duty, even upon your kind 
 and flattering request. 
 
 The details of Dongan's private life are buried with 
 him; we can only form an estimate of his character and 
 of his ability as a ruler, from the records of his acts and 
 
 6 
 
sayings while Governor of New York. Their complete 
 exposition would be a history of the province during 
 his time, an undertaking both beyond my powers and 
 your patience, so I will plead what I may hereafter say 
 in part performance of your request, leaving to the 
 future historian of the club, the honor and pleasure of 
 doing a full measure of justice to this noble Irishman. 
 
 Thomas Dongan, the second earl of Limerick, was 
 born at Castletown, County of Kildare, in Ireland, in 
 1634, of an ancient and representative Catholic family. 
 The surname of Dongan is said to be of Milesian origin. 
 It is as ancient as Ireland's history. It appears as 
 Donnegan, Dungan and Dongan; its earliest Irish form 
 being O'Dunnagan. The Irish Dongans are among the 
 families descended from Heremon, the seventh son of 
 Milesius, of Spain, from whom were descended the 
 kings, nobility and gentry of the ancient kingdoms of 
 Connaught, Dalriada, Leinster, Meath, Ossory; of Scot- 
 land, since the reign of Fergus Mor Mac Earca, in the 
 fifth century; of Ulster, since the fourth century; of the 
 principalities of Tirconnell and Tirowen, and of England, 
 from the reign of King Henry II down to the present time. 
 
 O'Hart names the Dungans or Dongans among the fam- 
 ilies of English descent in Kildare, where Dongan was 
 born, but places the Dongans, earls of Limerick, among 
 the Anglo-Norman families of Limerick and Clare. It 
 may be that the Dongans migrated to England in the 
 early centuries and returned later to Ireland, or coming 
 directly from England, their name, in the course of time, 
 was Hibernicized. 
 
 7 
 
In 1387 Dermot O'Dongan was presented by the 
 Marquess of Dublin to a benefice within the diocese of 
 Limerick, and in 1392 the king granted to Thomas 
 O'Dongan, chaplain, and then an admitted Irishman, the 
 liberty of using the English tongue and law. The old 
 annalists speak of the ancient sept of O'Donnegan, who 
 were extensive proprietors in the half barony of Orrery, 
 County of Cork. 
 
 In 1395 John Dongan, a Benedictine monk. Bishop of 
 Derry, was transferred to the See of Down; Henry IV 
 made him Seneschal of Ulster, among other high and 
 memorable ofiices; he died in 1412. 
 
 Later, John Dongan, who had been a second remem- 
 brancer of the exchequer, in the time of Henry VIII, 
 was a proprietor in the city of Dublin, and in the 
 Counties of Carlow and Clare. He died in 1592 and 
 devised his estate to Walter, his eldest son and heir, 
 with remainders on William, Edward and Thomas 
 Dongan, second, third and fourth sons in tail .male, 
 successively. 
 
 Sir Walter, his heir, was styled of Abbottstown, 
 County of Dublin; he was a patriot and JDrought four 
 archers on horseback to the general hosting on the 
 hills of Tara in 1593. He settled his estates in 1615, and 
 the next year passed a patent for the manor at Kil- 
 drought (Castletown) and other possessions; was made a 
 baronet October 23, 1623, and died in 1626. 
 
 Sir John Dongan was Walter's son and heir; he was 
 23 years of age at the time of his father's death and 
 married. He was a member of the Irish Parliament 
 
and a captain of horse in 1643. He had four sons, 
 the subject of our address being the youngest. Sir 
 Walter, his eldest son, was one of the confederate 
 Catholics who assembled in 1646 at Kilkenny. Richard 
 Talbot, the celebrated Earl of Tyrconnell, served under 
 Sir Walter, who was his nephew. Sir Walter died 
 without posterity. Oliver, the third son, was deep in 
 the patriotic cause and was attainted in 1642. Sir 
 William, the second son, for his devotion to his country 
 and his adherence to the Stuarts, was compelled to 
 fly to France, in Cromwell's time. He was among those 
 who, through the Earl of Tyrconnell, petitioned Charles 
 II, after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, for their 
 estates, and was among the few who had them restored. 
 Sir William, who was a knight and a baronet, was 
 made Viscount Dongan on February 14, 1661, and on 
 January 2, 1685, was advanced on the peerage to the 
 earldom of Limerick, with remainder over, in default of 
 heirs, to his brother Thomas. 
 
 William, the first earl of Limerick, was a member of 
 the royal privy council for Ireland, lord lieutenant of 
 the County of Kildare, governor of the province of 
 Munster and member of the House of Lords of the 
 Parliament convened by James II, in Dublin in 1689. 
 
 His son, Lord Dongan, was, by deputy and subdeputy 
 clerk of the court of Common Pleas in the Irish court 
 of Exchequer, a member of the Irish Parliament and 
 after the resignation of his father, colonel of a regiment 
 of dragoons, in King James' Irish army, known as Don- 
 gan's Dragoons, which, after the Boyne, gained great 
 
 9 B 
 
glory and fought bravely for France under the name of 
 the King's Regiment of Dismounted Dragoons. 
 
 The entire family was devoted to the house of Stuart, 
 the Earl of Limerick being the personal friend of 
 Charles II, and through the Earl of Tyrconnell, who was 
 his uncle, deep in the councils and favors of the royal 
 cause ; it was rich in landed estates and influential with 
 the people. 
 
 In the turbulent and bloody times in Ireland, that 
 followed in the wake of the enforcement of Elizabeth's 
 penal laws, whereby Catholic Irishmen were deprived of 
 all liberty of conscience, of thought, and of action, 
 despoiled of their estates and hunted like wild beasts, 
 and of the rebellion of 1641, and the cruelties of Crom- 
 well, in 1649, who crushed the Irish for their adherence 
 to the king, in whose success they fondly imagined 
 they saw a ray of hope, a brave, self-reliant and indom- 
 itable race of Irish soldiers was made, whose life, from 
 necessity, was one of daily battle, and whose occupa- 
 tion was war with the hated invader. 
 
 Among the chiefs in the fore -front of the Irish cause, 
 the Dongans were prominent; they supported the 
 Stuarts for love of country and freedom of conscience, 
 and when the cause was dead they fled to France. 
 
 Amid these scenes and among these men, Thomas 
 Dongan spent the early years of his life. A soldier and 
 a gentleman by birth, and a patriot by instinct, he was 
 denied by the laws of the land, unless he would 
 forswear his religion, preferment in both war and 
 peace. 
 
True to his nature, he found vent for his courage and 
 combativeness among the French, to whom his country- 
 men were forced to fly to enjoy both liberty and the 
 free exercise of their religion; he was among the 
 earliest of the "wild geese" that flew over the waters 
 to give renown and military glory to the Bourbon lilies. 
 
 It is very probable that he accompanied his brother 
 and the Stuarts when they fled to France in 1649, 
 although he may have gone after 1641, when his brother 
 Oliver was attainted. He entered the French army at 
 once, and served continuously; we know that he partici- 
 pated in all of Turenne's campaigns, until the latter 's 
 death in 1675, and was, when he resigned in 1677, the 
 colonel of an Irish regiment in Louis XIV's army, "a 
 place worth to him £5,000 a year." The Duke of York, 
 who was Dongan's senior by a year, also served under 
 Turenne until 1656, when he accepted a commission in 
 the Spanish army. It is possible that it was in France 
 that the Duke of York came to know Dongan, and 
 learned to appreciate those qualities which made him, 
 in after years, so successful as Governor of New York. 
 
 In 1677, Charles II gave peremptory orders that all 
 his English subjects should leave France in forty- eight 
 hours, and Dongan, loyal to authority, gave prompt 
 obedience to the mandates of his king, resigned his 
 commission and returned to England, leaving large 
 arrears due him from the French government. These 
 arrearages of pay were never received by him, for in 
 July (27), 1686, while Governor of New York, he wrote 
 to M. Denonville, Governor of Canada, concerning the 
 
relations of the French and English in their dealings 
 with the Indians, and in the letter asked the Governor's 
 assistance to procure for him 25,000 livres due to him 
 from the French king for services as stated and certified 
 to, by the intendant of Nancy before his departure, 
 "vv^hich, when my prince called me out of the French 
 service, I had no time to get, and as I had gone to 
 Tangiers, and then some time after to New York, I had 
 no opportunity of representing my case to his majesty." 
 In a letter from Denonville to Dongan, dated September 
 29, 1686, the former promises to urge his matter before 
 the French king, and does so, for among the French 
 State papers relating to America, a letter from the king 
 (Louis XI Y) to Denonville is found, dated at Versailles, 
 March 30, 1687, in which he says: "He has no know- 
 ledge of Col. Dongan's claim of 25 M. £., which he 
 pretends are due to him in France. He therefore has 
 nothing to say to him on that subject." 
 
 That ended Dongan's claim. The services he had 
 rendered France had been forgotten in the harm he had 
 done it in America. 
 
 On his return to England from France in 1677, he was 
 granted by Charles II a life pension of £500 per annum, 
 and made lieutenant-governor of Tangiers, a place, evi- 
 dently, of no profit, for in a letter written by him in 
 1687, to the lord president of the board of trade, asking 
 for moneys due to him, he says: "My going to Tangiers 
 did not enrich my condition. Expences did more than 
 Ballance my Profitt." On September 30, 1682, he was 
 made Governor of the province of New York, which 
 
included Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, the District of 
 Pemmaquid, now in Maine, and other territory in extent 
 much larger than the present bounds of New York. 
 
 That he was commissioned at this particular time to 
 govern so important a province is high evidence of the 
 opinion the king and Duke of York had of his honesty, 
 administrative and military qualities, and of his know- 
 ledge of men — a faculty characteristic of great statesmen. 
 
 The political and financial situation of the colony 
 required a practiced hand and a man of more than ordi- 
 nary skill and judgment and one thoroughly acquainted 
 with the French and their diplomacy. 
 
 The French were aggressive, the Indians unfriendly 
 and the colonists discontented. The administrations of 
 Lovelace and Andros had been most tyrannical. Taxes 
 had been levied without authority of law, the protests 
 of the people had been treated with scorn, and their 
 demand for a popular legislative assembly had been 
 denied. When Andros attempted to force upon the col- 
 onists a law, enacted on his own motion establishing 
 for three years the rate of customs, the people were 
 inflamed to a point of resistance, and in 1680 refused to 
 pay any more duties. The Duke of York, who evidently 
 knew that the directors of the Dutch West India Com- 
 pany had stated that the company had expended 
 1,200,000 guilders in the government of the province 
 over and above the revenues it had received therefrom, 
 feared that a similar deficit would be a charge upon his 
 private purse, sent out Dongan, as Governor, to offset 
 French influence, to conciliate the colonists and to con- 
 
 13 
 
serve the colonial revenues. His instructions, dated 
 January 27, 1682-3, exhibit a wonderful complaisance on 
 the part of the Duke of York, and evinces much more 
 of a spirit of fairness and liberality in his dealings with 
 the colonists, than the Stuarts were giving to the king's 
 subjects at home. 
 
 Dongan arrived in New York in August, 1683. He was 
 received with expressions of delight and satisfaction by 
 the colonists, because they anticipated in his coming 
 relief from the abuses of former governors and from 
 intolerable taxation. They found him courteous and 
 affable, and in his carriage and demeanor dignified, as 
 became a soldier and courtier of Louis XIV, and wel- 
 comed him both to their hearts and homes. He found 
 the colony bankrupt, its revenue reduced, the people 
 discontented even to rebellion; Connecticut, making a 
 claim for a part of its territory; Pennsylvania, East and 
 West Jersey, cutting into its trade, and consequently 
 into its revenue; the French, warlike and aggressive, 
 and making great inroads into the English influence 
 among the Indians, many of whom were migrating to 
 Canada; the forts decayed, the guns dismounted, the 
 troops demoralized and without pay. By his beneficent 
 acts he soon extinguished the fires of public discon- 
 tent, so much so, that within a few months after his 
 arrival the sheriffs addressed the Duke of York in 
 most extravagant terms of gratitude and begged him 
 to '* accept their most humble and hearty thanks for 
 sending us over the Honorable Colonel Thomas Dongan, 
 to be lieutenant and governor of this province, of whose 
 
 14 
 
integrity, justice, equity and prudence, we had already 
 had a very sufficient experience at our last general 
 court of assizes." 
 
 With military promptitude he inspected all the 
 so-called forts and their meager, half-clad and poorly- 
 armed garrisons, and his description of their condition 
 is sad — in view, to him, of the great interests which 
 they guarded and the people whom they protected. 
 
 He put the province at once in a state of defense, 
 paid the garrisons and renewed the military stores. 
 
 His labors began with his arrival, among his first acts 
 being to circumvent William Penn and secure the 
 Susquehanna country to New York. 
 
 In 1683, Penn and his agents visited Albany to 
 purchase that valuable tract of land from the Onon- 
 dagas and Cayugas, in fact, were in Albany when Don- 
 gan arrived in New York. Their presence created great 
 excitement in the colony; the commissaries of Albany 
 petitioned Dongan to prevent the sale, for the loss of 
 that region meant the death of their beaver trade, then 
 bad enough, and a consequent reduction in the colonial 
 revenue. Dongan hastened to Albany, where he found 
 the wily and astute Quaker, drew him to New York 
 and eventually succeeded in obtaining the Indian title 
 to those lands for the colony. Penn was outwitted. 
 Penn, although a Quaker, was on terms of personal 
 intimacy with the Catholic Duke of York, and a most 
 powerful and influential man in his court, to which 
 he returned in a short time, Dongan's determined 
 enemy. 
 
 IS 
 
The Indians recognized his influence in the matter, for 
 when he attended at a great council of the Onondaga 
 and Cayuga Indians in Albany, on August 2, 1684, which 
 he called at the request of the Right Honorable Lord 
 Howard Effingham, Governor of Virginia, who came to 
 Albany to treat with the Indians in order to prevent 
 their forays into Virginia, the Indians addressed him as 
 Brother Corlaer, a title derived from the name of a 
 Dutchman, Arent van Curler, who by reason of his 
 services had won their favor and affection, and said 
 that they had shown their regard for him, for when 
 Penn wanted the Susquehanna country, they gave it, on 
 his account, to "the great Sachem, Charles, that lives 
 over the great lake," and confirmed the grant. 
 
 Smith, in his history of New York, says that Dongan 
 surpassed all his predecessors in a due attention to 
 the affairs with the Indians by whom he was highly 
 esteemed. 
 
 I wish it were within the limits of my time to give a 
 short sketch of the remarkable and warlike Indians, 
 known as the Five Nations, or Iroquois, who inhabited 
 central New York, and possessed the country in the 
 new world that divided the historic enemies in the old 
 world, the French and the English. 
 
 Until Dongan's time, the English had not succeeded 
 in gaining the entire friendship of the Indians. The 
 French, through Jesuit missionaries, had made a deep 
 impression on the Indians, and weakened the English 
 influence among them; they captured some of their val- 
 uable trade and had induced many to migrate to 
 
 i6 
 
Canada, where their descendants, the Caughnawaga 
 Indians, who visited Albany during the bi- centennial, 
 still reside. 
 
 The value of the Indian trade to the colony can be 
 estimated, because Dongan, writing of the public 
 finances, reported on September 8, 1687, that the "rev- 
 enue of the colony had been 35,000 to 40,000 beavers, 
 besides peltry; this year only 9,000 and some hundred 
 peltrys in all had been shipped." 
 
 Dongan held the Indians at their true value; he con- 
 sidered them the bulwark between the two nations, and 
 believed that the country which secured their friend- 
 ship would eventually triumph in the new world, and, 
 with remarkable success conciliated them, and gained 
 both their respect for his person and their friendship 
 to the colonists. 
 
 He gained their good will by diplomacy and fair 
 dealing, and maintained it by fighting for them against 
 the French, against their Indian enemies, against the 
 weaknesses of the English king, against the traders who 
 would rob them, and against the vengeance of the sister 
 colonies which at times they raided. He treated them 
 as men, and never failed in his promises made to secure 
 their cooperation; in his intercourse with them, he was 
 frank and bold, as became a soldier, and they liked him 
 for it; his influence was as boundless as the trouble he 
 took to succor them and advance their interests, and 
 his success was as remarkable as it was to be expected. 
 
 He caused the king's arms, with great formality, to 
 
 be erected in all their villages, as evidence of his 
 
 17 c 
 
protection, and forbade them to treat with the French ex- 
 cept through himself, to the latter's anger and humiliation. 
 
 His successful persistency in their behalf and his 
 determination to protect them at all hazards, gained 
 him the hatred of the French. They could neither 
 deceive, deter nor intimidate him, nor could they get him 
 superseded. Denonville reported him as a "very crafty 
 man" and filled his official accounts with details of 
 Dongan's unceasing activity, until the French took the 
 extraordinary method of reaching him through the 
 French king's intimacy with James, to the extent that 
 he was forbidden, by orders from the home government, 
 to interfere with the French in their dealings with the 
 Indians. The English king undid the work of his 
 lieutenant in America; as soon as he gained an advan- 
 tage or strengthened the colony, the king commanded 
 him to desist and his labor was lost. 
 
 When in 1685, M. de la Barre, Governor of Canada, 
 projected an expedition against the Iroquois, and made 
 a herculean effort to totally destroy them because the 
 French could not control them, Louis XIV procured 
 letters from the Duke of York commanding Dongan 
 to lay no obstacles in his way. Dongan was wiser than 
 his master and knew that the English supremacy was at 
 stake, so he warned the Indians of the intentions of 
 the French, sent them ammunition and promised to 
 assist them when needful, but disease and starvation 
 ruined the French enterprise. 
 
 Denonville, who succeeded De la Barre in 1686, 
 intended another expedition and made secret prepara- 
 
 i8 
 
tions, but was warned by Dongan, who anticipated his 
 action, that the Indians were subjects of Great Britain, 
 and that an attack upon them would be an infraction of 
 the peace between France and England. 
 
 Denonville denied all such intentions but could not 
 deceive Dongan. 
 
 The latter was tied both by instructions and the peace 
 then existing between France and England and could 
 not actively interfere, but he knew the weak state of 
 the colony and the value of the Indian bulwark and 
 wrote to Denonville that he would protect the Indians. 
 When the French expedition became a certainty, he 
 gave the Indians the benefit of his advice and military 
 experience. 
 
 He met the Five Nations — Senecas, Cayugas, Onon- 
 dagas, Oneidas and Mohawks — at a grand council in the 
 city hall in Albany on August 5, 1687. 
 
 The orations delivered on the occasion by Dongan 
 and the Indians are masterpieces of their kind. He told 
 them that as soon as he had learned that the French 
 had attacked their castles, he came up himself to give 
 them assistance and advice; his propositions were full 
 of policy, wisdom and kindness; he forbade them to kill 
 their French prisoners, told them to make no peace 
 without his sanction, particularly to keep faith with 
 Governor Effingham, for at that very time there were 
 parties of Oneidas down on the James river after spoils, 
 and threatening them, that, if they did not stop their 
 raids, he could not protect them longer, because one of 
 the charges made against him was that he protected 
 
 19 
 
the New York Indians who murdered the king's sub- 
 jects in Maryland and Virginia. He sent Indian runners 
 at once to Canada to induce the Christian Indians to 
 return, and promised them and those then in Albany 
 English priests, for he had forbid them to have inter- 
 course with the French Jesuits. He organized war 
 parties and had the Indians assume the aggressive, and 
 ordered them to bring to Albany their wives, children 
 and old men, whom he settled temporarily at Catskill, 
 Livingston's land and along the Hudson, and all their 
 corn, except that which was needed by the young 
 warriors remaining in the castles. 
 
 He returned to Albany in October, 1687, to take com- 
 mand of the troops stationed there, which consisted of 
 400 foot and fifty horse and 800 Indians, to give the 
 Iroquois moral support and protect the colony in the 
 event of its becoming necessary. He remained in 
 Albany until the spring of 1688. This French expedi- 
 tion was also a failure, but, notwithstanding Dongan's 
 protests, because of the moral effect on the Indians, 
 to have peace concluded only through the English, 
 James II, by orders, again counteracted his efforts, and 
 a treaty was signed between the French and the 
 Indians, in Montreal, which ended the war. 
 
 The French again contemplated the destruction of the 
 Iroquois, and not being able to cause Dongan's removal, 
 nor bind him by orders from his king, they were put, 
 for the sole purpose of counteracting his efforts, to the 
 expediency of inserting in a treaty between England and 
 France, made in 1688, called the neutrality treaty, a 
 
clause by which each engaged not to interfere with the 
 other in their wars against the Indians. England was 
 here outwitted, and French diplomacy gained a victory 
 over British statesmen that it could not win from 
 Dongan. France immediately sent fresh troops to 
 America, under the command of the veteran Count de 
 Frontenac, and renewed the war. 
 
 Dongan, in the meantime, had been superseded ; the 
 French were successful in many of their raids ; Schen- 
 ectady was destroyed and its people massacred in 
 February, 1690, and more damage done to the colony 
 than ever had been accomplished before. 
 
 In addition to protecting the Iroquois in war, he also 
 endeavored to make them Christians, and found his 
 opportunity in the events of the times. 
 
 The influence of the French Jesuits over the Indians 
 could not be over-estimated ; it even divided the Five 
 Nations, so that when the justices and commissaries 
 of Dutch Albam?- petitioned for English Jesuits to be 
 sent among them to overcome the French influence and 
 save their trade, Dongan looked at both the religious 
 and civic side of their appeal. 
 
 He reported their request to England, procured for 
 the converted Indians, already in Canada, to whom he 
 had sent runners asking their return, " a piece of land 
 called " Serachtague (Saratoga) lying upon Hudson's 
 river about forty miles above Albany," and promised, 
 if they would return, to give them this land, send 
 them priests and also build them a church, which 
 terms the Indians accepted ; he asked the government 
 
to send him over five or six priests, so "that three 
 may always travel from castle to castle and the rest 
 to live with those that are Christians." 
 
 Nothing came from the project, as far as the Indians 
 were concerned, by reason of their distance from Eng- 
 land and the wars then raging, but that the priests did 
 come is evident, for it is related that Father Henry 
 Harrison, an English Jesuit, as well as Rev. Alexander 
 Innis, of the Church of England, the chaplain of the 
 garrison of Fort James, spent the winter of 1687 with 
 Dongan in Albany. The presence of Jesuits in New 
 York about this time is shown by the annals of the 
 order, and it is said that Dongan erected a Jesuits' 
 college in New York, under pretense of teaching Latin 
 to the judges, and applied to King James to appropriate 
 the king's farm to its maintenance, but he refused. 
 The school did not get patronage, and vanished. 
 
 It might be said that Dongan's promise to furnish 
 priests to the Indians, and his bringing Father Harrison 
 to Albany, in 1687, to meet them, was pure politics, 
 revenue and trade, and on an equality with the petition 
 of the Dutch burghers, who were willing, though they 
 were stanch Protestants in a persecuting age, to have 
 the Indians Catholics and tolerate Jesuits among them 
 if they could barter rum for furs with the Iroquois. 
 
 If that act stood alone I might agree with the critic, 
 but judging of his character by his acts, we must con- 
 sider him as acting from a decided conviction as to the 
 right and from the best and purest of motives, founded 
 on considerations both of humanity and government. 
 
The influence lie had in molding public acts in favor 
 of the right to worship God according to the dictates of 
 one's conscience, the protecting aegis that he threw over 
 all creeds during his career as Governor, and his earnest 
 zeal in endeavoring to shed the light of Christianity 
 amid the gloom of paganism surrounding the Indians, 
 taken in connection with the military exigencies of the 
 day, are convincing proofs with his birth, training and 
 associations, that he acted solely from a sense of duty. 
 His love for the Indians is evidenced by all his official 
 acts, and the regard they bore him, because of it. He 
 used the political factors in their conversion only as a 
 means to accomplish his objects. The Jesuits were 
 demanded by the colonists for State reasons ; the Indians 
 wanted them, because they liked to have priests 
 at their castles, and Dongan was willing to gratify 
 both, from convictions foreign to either. It seems as 
 though he wished to convert them, because he loved 
 them, and because of their manliness and bravery, 
 he wanted to elevate them to a higher plane of 
 existence. 
 
 Jean de Lamberville, of the order of Jesuits, called in 
 Indian " Teiorhensere," wrote to Dongan from Onnon- 
 tague of date of September 10, 1685, of Dongan's services 
 in making Christians of the Indians; and that the 
 missionaries were among them " that the blood of Jesus 
 Christ, shed for all men, may be useful to them and 
 that his glory may be great throughout the earth," and 
 asked the governor to use his great influence with the 
 Indians for their protection. 
 
 23 
 
Denonville, the French Governor, wrote from Ville 
 Marie, on June 20, 1686, to Dongan, concerning his 
 French majesty's zeal for the progress of religion, and 
 for the support and maintenance of the missionaries 
 among the Indians, and asking for their protection, and 
 said: "I expect from your piety that you will not be 
 opposed to that, knowing how much you love religion." 
 
 In reply, Dongan wrote from New York, July 27, 1686: 
 "I doubt not but your master's inclinations are very 
 strongly bent to propagate the Christian Religion, and 
 I do assure you that my master has no less a share in 
 so pious intentions; for my part, I shall take all imagin- 
 able care fchat the fathers who preach the Holy Gospell 
 to those Indians, over whom I have power, bee not in 
 the least ill-treated, and, upon that very accompt, have 
 sent for one of each nation to come to me, and then 
 those beastly crimes you reprove shall be checked 
 severely, and all my endeavors used to suppress their 
 filthy drunkenness, disorders, debauches, warring and 
 quarrels, and whatsoever doth obstruct the growth and 
 enlargement of the Christian faith among .the people." 
 
 In a letter to Denonville, dated December 1, 1686, he 
 said: " I have ordered our Indians strictly not to exer- 
 cise any cruelty or insolence against them, and have 
 written to the King, my master, who hath as much 
 zeal as any prince living, fco propagate the Christian 
 faith, and assure him how necessary it is to send 
 hither some fathers to preach the Gospell to the natives 
 allyd to us, and care would be taken to dissuade them 
 from their drunken debauches, though certainly our 
 
 24 
 
rum doth as little hurt as your brandy, and, in the 
 opinion of Christians, is much more wholesome; how- 
 ever, to keep the Indians temperate and sober is a 
 very good and Christian performance, but to prohibit 
 them all strong liquors seems a little hard and very 
 Turkish." Dongan exhibits his kindness to the Indians, 
 his sensible views of life and his Milesian origin, when 
 he thus expresses his sentiments on the prohibition 
 question. 
 
 Whatever may have been his motives in sending 
 priests among them, they were justifiable, both on social 
 and political grounds. A Catholic Christian Indian was 
 a better man, in a practical sense than a pagan one 
 with all his cruelties and debaucheries indulged in then 
 as a part of his religious observances. 
 
 As a matter of experience in the missionary history 
 of the North American Indians, Catholic priests, 
 especially the Jesuits, "the black gowns," have had 
 more success in converting them to Christianity than 
 all others combined. Their robes and ceremonies 
 appealing to the Indian imagination have produced 
 wonderful results. It was not different then; the 
 French Jesuits had made an impression on the brave 
 Iroquois to the extent that some had abandoned their 
 country to follow them and others would not fight 
 against their friends. As a grave political question, 
 when the safety of the colony depended upon gaining 
 their friendship, none except Jesuits could have been 
 offered to them nor could others have produced equal 
 results. They would have none others at that time, for 
 
 25 D 
 
Stomas gotxgatx. 
 
 when Dongan addressed the Five Nations at their largest 
 representative conference in Albany on August 5, 1687, 
 and promised them priests as an inducement to remain 
 on friendly terms with the English, they replied that 
 they would receive them. It is supererogation to 
 defend an attempt to propagate the gospel, a work 
 approved by the consensus of all Christian people, 
 but it was a heinous offense, at that time to be a Cath- 
 olic and it became the habit of colonial writers, after the 
 revolution, in 1688, to ascribe political motives to every 
 act of James II or his lieutenants, so that Dongan was, 
 in subsequent years, charged with designs prejudicial 
 to the State, in sending Jesuits among the Indians, 
 but in the light of modern research the accusation is 
 both false and ridiculous. The English and Dutch 
 cared but little for the souls of the Indians and much 
 for their furs, and Dongan should be credited with 
 both the Christian zeal that made him endeavor to 
 bring the Indians to the "way of the cross" and the 
 statesmanship that such a result would produce on 
 the colonies. 
 
 A student of the history of the Five Nations, in 
 their relations with the French and English in America 
 in the seventeenth century, must admit the paramount 
 necessity to the colonists of securing their good 
 will. 
 
 France was sending veteran troops from home, deter- 
 mined to crush the Indians, in order to open an avenue 
 to New York, and England allowed them and the 
 colonists to defend themselves without her assistance. 
 
 26 
 
The Indians suffered grievously in these wars, many- 
 were killed, they saw their castles burned, their crops 
 destroyed, their wives and children dragged into cap- 
 tivity ; England was reaping the benefit of their 
 sufferings and making no corresponding sacrifices. 
 
 The Iroquois were heart- sore and weary, and sought 
 rest from their troubles ; they turned to their Christian 
 brethren in Canada, with whom they were in com- 
 munication, and contrasted their relative conditions 
 and were inclined, not only not to fight against them 
 and their friends, but to ally themselves with them. 
 If that had been done, the map of northern New York 
 would have been changed and its boundary would 
 never have been the St. Lawrence. The migration of 
 these Indians had already weakened the Indian bul- 
 wark, and to lose more was death to the colony, and 
 Dongan fought against it and won and laid the founda- 
 tion of the train of events which helped France to 
 lose an empire in America. 
 
 In subsequent years the Earl of Bellomont and Briga- 
 dier Hunter endeavored to follow Dongan's policy, and 
 rectify their neglect in the matter by supplying the 
 Indians with Protestant missionaries. But none could 
 be found to endure the life of hardship and live 
 among the Indians and become a part of their exist- 
 ence as the Jesuits did. The government was convinced 
 that the religious question among the Five Nations 
 was most important, and promised them missionaries. 
 Dominie Dellius, the Dutch minister, was quite suc- 
 cessful, but he was banished. Their efforts in that 
 
 27 
 
direction were weak, spasmodic and futile, for the 
 motive was political, and not of the kingdom of God. 
 
 Seventy years after Dongan's time, the political and 
 financial necessity for the return of the Catholic 
 Iroquois to New York still existed, and Lieutenant- 
 Governor De Lancy wrote to the Indian commissioners 
 in relation to bringing them back from Canada. The 
 Saratoga lands were found not to be available for the 
 purpose, and the project dropped. 
 
 Dongan should be credited with the fact that he did 
 not allow his religious convictions or his desire to con- 
 vert the Indians to interfere with the duty he owed 
 to the State. 
 
 His earlier feelings towards the French Jesuits were 
 of the kindest character. The letters of the brothers 
 Lamberville and Father Dablon are filled with expres- 
 sions of good will, gratitude and love for his endeavors 
 to Christianize the Indians, but when events developed 
 the political effects of the presence of the French 
 Jesuits among them, he used every endeavor to drive 
 them from among the Indians, and eventually did so. 
 
 He was anxious that they should be Catholics, but 
 
 wanted them English and not French, loyal to his 
 
 people and not to their enemies ; he endeavored to 
 
 supply their places with English priests, and that he 
 
 did not succeed was not owing to want of faith or 
 
 endeavor, but because the English Jesuits were few 
 
 and not acquainted with the language of the Indians, 
 
 and the wars and his short term of oflSce prevented 
 
 the full realization of his plans. 
 
 28 
 
Stomas g^ttgam 
 
 Boundary disputes were of frequent occurrence in 
 colonial times. 
 
 As early as 1650, Connecticut made claims to portions 
 of the Dutch territory, and in 1663 coerced Stuyvesant 
 to surrender a portion of Westchester county to it, and 
 in 1664, when Nicolls was Governor, had the boundary 
 fixed by running a line twenty^miles east of the Hudson 
 river. 
 
 When Dongan became Governor, he promptly reopened 
 the contention, by giving orders that certain towns 
 within the disputed territory make presentment at the 
 New York assizes. Connecticut immediately claimed 
 those places as indubitably her own, but found in Don- 
 gan, the Irishman, different material than it did in 
 Stuyvesant, the Dutchman, and in the careless Nicolls, 
 and learned that its " crowding- out " processes would 
 not work with him. 
 
 Dongan bluntly replied, that it had deceived Nicolls in 
 1664 by running the line ten miles instead of twenty 
 miles east of the river, according to the agreement, and 
 notified Connecticut if it did not yield the disputed 
 territory, he should proceed at once to claim the whole 
 of the Duke's patent to the Connecticut river. 
 
 Connecticut surrendered the towns in short order and 
 sent commissioners to New York, where, in 1684, the 
 boundary line between the colonies was agreed upon, 
 where it has remained since. 
 
 Similar disputes took place with Jersey in regard to 
 
 the ownership of Staten Island, which was conceded to 
 
 New York; and even Massachusetts claimed a good 
 
 29 
 
share of the colony, and, as an expression of her right, 
 granted lands opposite to Fort Orange. 
 
 Prior to Dongan's time, the colonists had no voice in 
 the enactment of laws. 
 
 They were ruled by the Governor and his council, 
 which, with the Duke of York, was the law-making 
 power. In 1664, the laws in force in the king's colonies 
 and plantations were collected together and formed into 
 a code, and delivered to the colonists at a general meet- 
 ing held at Hempstead, upon Long Island, in March of 
 that year, by virtue of a commission given by the Duke 
 of York to Governor Nicolls. The compilation was, and 
 is now, known as the "Duke's Laws." The laws were 
 fair and just, substantially the same as those of Eng- 
 land, except where the situation and condition of the 
 colonists made departures necessary; it was a complete 
 code, regulating administration, procedure, marriage, 
 military affairs, and all matters except customs and 
 taxes. 
 
 The Catholic Duke of York, while providing for the 
 State establishment of the Church of England, therein 
 enacted the first law in the colony, which, under the 
 Dutch, had witnessed the persecution of the Lutherans, 
 Baptists and Quakers, providing for the freedom of 
 worship, by decreeing that no person (in the colony) be 
 molested, fined or imprisoned for differing in judgment 
 in matters of religion who profess Christianity. 
 
 Dongan's instructions, which accompanied his commis- 
 sion, directed him to call by writ and summons a gen- 
 eral assembly of all the freeholders of the province in 
 
 30 
 
New York city, to be known as the " General Assembly 
 of New York and its dependencies," to establish laws for 
 the good of the State, subject to the Governor's and the 
 Duke of York's consent and approval. 
 
 Under his call, the first general assembly, wherein 
 the people of this State met to enact laws for their 
 government was held in New York city in October, 1683. 
 
 Its first act bore the title of the " Charter of Liberties 
 and Privileges granted by his Royal Highness to the 
 inhabitants of New York and its dependencies." 
 
 Dongan's liberal spirit, his love of liberty and his 
 desire to grant freedom of conscience to the colonists, 
 which was denied to them in England and Ireland, is 
 evidenced by every line of this remarkable document. 
 
 That it could not have passed without Dongan's direct 
 sanction is certain, because he had the power of veto, 
 before it could be sent to the Duke of York for final 
 approval, and that the broad spirit of liberalism and 
 toleration which it exhibited was his, is further evi- 
 denced by the fact, that the act was beyond his 
 instructions for it never received the duke's complete 
 approval and was finally specifically revoked. 
 
 This charter of liberties marks so important an era 
 in the history of popular government in America, and 
 is so directly connected with the heart and personality 
 of this Catholic Irishman that I must be pardoned if 
 I refer to it at length. I quote from the New York 
 Civil List, page 49 et seq. (See, also. Col. MSS. of 
 New York, vol. 3, p. 357.) "The first act of this, 
 the first general assembly of the colony of New York, 
 
 31 
 
was' entitled, ' Charter of Liberties and Privileges granted 
 by his Royal Highness to the inhabitants of New York 
 and its dependencies.' Its first sentence contained the 
 phrase : ' people met in general assembly,' to which 
 James objected, when he became King of England, on the 
 ground that it is 'not found in any other constitution 
 in America; ' and this royal objection, with the char- 
 acter of this charter, places New York in advance of 
 any other colony, and proves that it held the leader- 
 ship in the struggle for equal rights and ancient lib- 
 erties. The entire sentence read that 'under his 
 majesty and royal highness, James, Duke of York, 
 Albany, etc.,' 'supreme legislative power shall forever 
 be and reside in the Glovernor, council and people met 
 in general assembly.' The year of its adoption wit- 
 nessed the establishment of a free and representative 
 government in Pennsylvania, and the first session of its 
 general assembly. 
 
 "James became King of England in February, 1685. 
 At a meeting of the Committee of Trade and Planta- 
 tions, March third, this minute was ordered entered: 
 'The Charter of Incorporation of the Province of New 
 York being read, His Majesty doth not think it fit to 
 confirm,' and the government was ordered assimilate 
 to that projected for New England. Observations upon 
 the charter were entered, which show that the objec- 
 tions were political, and demonstrate that the colonists 
 were in advance of the inhabitants of other colonies, in 
 their demands upon the Crown, as well as in their con- 
 cessions of personal liberty. 
 
 32 
 
"The charter opened grandly. It declared 'that, for 
 the better establishing of the government of this pro- 
 vince of New York, and that Justice a ad Right may be 
 equally done to all persons within the same, Be it 
 enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives 
 now in General Assembly met and assembled, and by 
 the authority of the same.' And the charter, after 
 providing for the election of a General Assembly, 
 enacted that the Representatives of the Province, with 
 the Governor and his Council, shall be the Supreme and 
 only legislative power. To this the King quietly 
 inquired: 'Whether this does not abridge the act of 
 Parliament that may be made concerning New York.' 
 His observation upon this provision seems to be some- 
 what in conflict with his remarks on the provision 
 that the inhabitants be governed by and according to 
 the laws of England. 'This privilege,' he said, 'is not 
 granted to any of His Majesty's Plantations.' Of the 
 provisions that sheriffs and other officers of justice 
 be appointed with like powers as in England, he said, 
 ' This is not so distinctly granted or practiced in any 
 other plantation.' The charter provided 'that the exer- 
 cise of the chief magistracy and administration of the 
 government over the said province shall be in the said 
 Governor, assisted by a Council with whose advice and 
 consent, or with at least four of them, he is to rule 
 and govern the same according to the laws thereof.' 
 To this the king objected that 'no other Governor is 
 restrained from anything without the Council.' The 
 charter provided 'that according to the usage, custom 
 
 33 E 
 
Stomas §onQmt. 
 
 and practice of the Parliament of England, sessions of 
 a General Assembly be held in this province once in 
 three years at least,' to which the king objected, that 
 trienniel sessions 'are an obligation upon the govern- 
 ment greater than has been ever agreed to in any 
 other plantation, and the grant of such a privilege has 
 been rejected elsewhere, notwithstanding a revenue 
 offered to induce it.' The provision that acts be 
 presented to the Governor and Council for approval, said 
 the king, ' seems to take away from the Governor and 
 Council the power of framing laws as in other planta- 
 tions.' The provision limiting to two years the power of 
 the Lord Proprietor to dissent to bills, said James, 'does 
 abridge the King's power and has been thought incon- 
 venient in other plantations.' The provision that the 
 Assembly is to judge of the elections and qualifications of 
 its members, 'maybe inconvenient,' he said, 'and is not 
 practiced in some other plantations.' Of the provision 
 guaranteeing liberty of conscience, the king remarked 
 that it ' is practiced in the proprietaries ; ' and it was 
 the only section which he seems to have affirmatively 
 approved, although there were other important provis- 
 ions which he did not explicitly disapprove." * * * 
 
 " The entire charter we are considering is a clear and 
 crisp declaration of the ancient liberties of all Aryan 
 freemen. The remaining portion reads substantially as 
 follows: 'Every freeholder and freeman shall vote with- 
 out restraint. No freeman shall suffer but by judgment 
 of his peers, and all trials shall be by a jury of twelve 
 men. No tax, tillage, assessment, custom, loan, benevo- 
 
 34 
 
Stomas ^ouQmx. 
 
 lence or imposition whatever shall be laid, assessed, 
 imposed or levied, on any of his Majesty's subjects 
 within this province, or their estates, upon any manner 
 of color or pretense, but by the act of the Governor, 
 Council and Representatives of the People in General 
 Assembly met and assembled. No seaman or soldier 
 shall be quartered on the inhabitants against their will. 
 No martial law shall exist. No person professing faith 
 in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be anyways 
 disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion.' 
 Its approval by the Governor was the signal for great 
 rejoicing. 
 
 " Thus was set forth in admirable phrase the rights 
 for which the Dutch and English colonists had unitedly 
 contended for nearly half a century. It was the full 
 fruitage of freedom, bursting the shell of feudalism, 
 and clothing itself in more perfect organic form, evolved 
 from ancient systems, which had become incapable of 
 preserving and protecting the liberties of the people. 
 Alike in spirit and substance, it presented in most per- 
 fect form that which was dearest to all — to the eighteen 
 nationalties represented in the province under Stuy- 
 vesant — to English and Dutch, their common German 
 ancestors and Keltic neighbors, so long crushed under 
 Druidic dominion." 
 
 This charter also provided "that every publick min- 
 ister upon Long Island should be maintained according 
 to the subscriptions. That all contracts made in New 
 York for the maintenance of the severall ministers shall 
 be made good." The observation on that was, " this is 
 
 35 
 
agreeable to the practice of New England, but not of 
 his maJV other plantations." Dongan thereby provided 
 by law for the support of the Protestant church and 
 ministers, and made their maintenance a charge upon 
 the respective communities, as was the law in Puritan 
 New England. 
 
 James, by decree dated May 29, 1686, further extended 
 the clause guaranteeing liberty of conscience and free- 
 dom of worship to all " who profess faith in God, by 
 Jesus Christ," by granting the privilege to "all persons 
 of what religion soever." 
 
 Thus did a Catholic King and Governor declare the 
 rights and sanctity of conscience. The Jew, the Mahom- 
 edan and Catholic were placed on an equality with 
 the Protestant, and all were allowed to worship God 
 according to the dictates of conscience. The enactment 
 shone amid the darkness of that intolerant age, for but 
 five years; when the king and Dongan were fugitives, it 
 was repealed, and intolerance was again triumphant. 
 His liberality and statesmanship was again shown, when 
 he caused a beneficent act of naturalization to be passed 
 by this first assembly, whereby all persons professing 
 Christianity then in the province, or who subsequently 
 came into it, were made citizens, a privilege in those 
 days of much importance. This was not passed to 
 benefit the Catholics, because there were then very few 
 in the province, but, as I believe, because Dongan knew 
 the trend of Louis XIV's feelings toward the Huguenots, 
 and was willing to benefit the province by attracting 
 those people to New York. 
 
 36 
 
It fulfilled all its intendments, when, in 1685, Louis 
 XIV, against the wishes and protestations of Pope Inno- 
 cent XI, ordered the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 
 and therewith the total abolition of all privileges there- 
 tofore possessed by the Huguenots in France, and drove 
 from that country many of its thriftiest and readiest 
 hands, some of whom found already prepared for them 
 m New York, by Louis XIV's former colonel, a haven 
 of refuge. Their descendants are among the leading 
 New York families of to-day. 
 
 In May, 1687, the French Protestants in New York 
 expressed their gratitude to the king for having so 
 much goodness towards them, and for Dongan's pro- 
 tection and beneficence, and petitioned Dongan if they 
 bring immigrants into the province that they be allowed 
 trading privileges, which petition was granted in July, 
 1687. 
 
 His beneficence was extended to all creeds. He 
 charmed Dominie Selyns, the Dutch minister, who 
 wrote to the classis at Amsterdam ' ' that Dongan was 
 a gentleman of knowledge, politeness and friendship, 
 that he had received a visit from his excellency and 
 could call on him when he chose." In his report on 
 the state of the colony (February, 1687) Dongan said 
 "that every town ought to have a minister," of the 
 church of England, and among his last official acts was 
 an order to set free forthwith and to send home by the 
 first opportunity, all Indian slaves, subjects of the King 
 of Spain, who could give an account of their Christian 
 faith and say the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 37 
 
Stomas ^ouQmx. 
 
 Dongan was at all times anxious to increase the 
 population, and consequent wealth, of his province, 
 and did so to some extent by his naturalization 
 law. 
 
 His reports show that he feared the lack of English- 
 born subjects in the colony and he petitioned that some 
 endeavors be made to send Englishmen to protect the 
 country. He reported "for seven years not over twenty 
 English, Scotch and Irish families came into the pro- 
 vince, but many Dutch and some French," and as early 
 as February 18, 1684, he recommended that a ship "go 
 constantly between New York and Ireland and bring 
 passengers for New York" and when on September 8, 
 1687, he wrote to the lord president and called for 
 assistance against the French, he said, " my lord, there 
 are people enough in Ireland who had pretences to 
 estates there and are of no advantage to the country 
 and may live here very happy. I do not doubt, if his 
 majesty thinks fit to employ my nephew he will bring 
 over as many as the king will find convenient to send 
 who will be no charge to his majesty after they are 
 landed." 
 
 Unfortunately it was not done. What speculations 
 may we not indulge in as to the probable influence of 
 those brave children of Drogheda, Wexford and Clonmel, 
 "with pretences to estates" upon the history of our 
 country and the status of the Irish in America to-day, 
 if Dongan's prayers had been granted and those patriotic 
 people welcomed to our soil, as freemen, over two 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 38 
 
Stomas §onQnu. 
 
 King Charles II died February 6, 1685, and was 
 succeeded by the Duke of York, his brother, under the 
 title of James II. 
 
 New York, theretofore a Duchy, was annexed to the 
 crown as a royal province; all its officers were con- 
 tinued in power by royal proclamation, but Dongan was 
 subsequently recommissioned as the king's lieutenant 
 as well as Governor on June 10, 1686. 
 
 I spoke before concerning the bankrupt state of the 
 colony when Dongan arrived. The French attacks on 
 the Indians, which followed his arrival, not only 
 increased the public burdens, but also, by interfering 
 with the fur trade, had decreased the public revenues. 
 
 Taxes were laid which the people could not pay, but 
 the lack of public funds did not deter Dongan from 
 protecting the colony; he spent his private fortune and 
 borrowed money on his personal credit to advance the 
 public interests, with the usual results to those who 
 serve the people too well. 
 
 A letter from the duke's committee, bearing date of 
 March 10, 1683-4, refers to his asking for £1,500 to pay 
 his debts, and defers its payment. Another of Novem- 
 ber 1, 1684, again procrastinates about his request for 
 money — a demand which to them "seems soe reason- 
 able and soe much yr right." In 1686, his salary was 
 raised from £400 to £600 per annum, but no moneys 
 were sent to pay his debts, contracted for the public 
 welfare. In his celebrated report on the state of the 
 colony, of date of February 22, 1687, made to the com- 
 mittee on trades and plantations, he complains that he 
 
 39 
 
Stomas g0tx0ati. 
 
 has to run the government without public funds, and 
 says, substantially: "It is a very hard thing upon mee 
 that, coming over hither in troublesome times, finding 
 noe revenue established, and yet having three garrisons 
 to look after and the forts with rotten timbers and 
 dismounted guns, a contest with Canada, and having to 
 purchase large tracts of land for the government, to 
 support the Assembly, to receive commissioners, run 
 boundary lines and pay salaries." 
 
 In a letter to the lord president of the board of trade, 
 not dated, (vol. 3, Doc. Hist, of N. Y., p. 428) he speaks 
 of the loss of colonial revenues and his great expendi- 
 tures in paying troops, and repairing forts, and 
 complained how much the king owed him and he owed 
 the people because of it. The fact that he did this 
 is remarkable when taken in connection with his zeal 
 to advance the English power in America, because in 
 those days men were colonial governors for revenue 
 only, and Dongan should not ordinarily have had love 
 of country as a spur, for he had been in France since 
 a boy, to which country he had been driven a fugitive. 
 He urged the annexation of Connecticut, Khode Island, 
 East and West Jersey and part of Pennsylvania to 
 New York, to prevent a diversion of trade, and thus 
 to increase the revenue, and also to lessen the cost of 
 government. 
 
 He wanted to establish a mint and post-houses along 
 
 the Atlantic coast from Carolina to Nova Scotia, the 
 
 latter request being acceded to, but he was sent " noe 
 
 power to doe it." 
 
 40 
 
*glxonx'as gotigaii* 
 
 In April, 1686, he granted a charter to New York 
 city, and in July another to Albany. Both of these 
 remarkable documents, engrossed on parchment, are 
 still in existence, and can be seen among the archives 
 of the respective cities. We can not enter into a dis- 
 quisition on the charters, except to say that they were 
 carefully drawn and were so liberal in the privileges 
 given to the people, that although they were granted 
 in the days of the Stuarts, they are the basis of the 
 government of these two American cities to-day ; the 
 Dongan charter of Albany not having been super- 
 seded until 1870, and then its privileges and liberties 
 were incorporated into a charter granted to it that 
 year. 
 
 At the very time Dongan was granting these popular 
 charters, the king, his master in England, was revok- 
 ing those of the oldest municipalities in his realm. 
 Among the charges presented against him by his 
 enemies to the king, was that the people of New 
 York were granted extraordinary privileges in their 
 charter ; but the mayor and common council peti- 
 tioned the king in Dongan's behalf with warm words 
 of praise and gratitude, and the accusation fell with 
 the others. 
 
 A man of such unceasing activity, so full of fight for 
 the rights of his people, and so uniformly successful 
 in defending them could not but expect to make 
 enemies. 
 
 It is the way of the world, and Dongan's experience 
 was no exception. 
 
 41 F 
 
These enemies were all to his credit and each by his 
 enmity bore testimony to Dongan's integrity and power. 
 
 Penn was Dongan's enemy at the Court of Whitehall for 
 his successes over Pennyslvania; Connecticut and New 
 Jersey were bitter over boundary and trade matters, 
 which Dongan would not allow them to steal ; Massa- 
 chusetts feared his colonial policy of consolidation, the 
 French pursued him through all the mazes of diplomacy 
 and war, and those in the colony who would rob it and 
 debauch the Indians endeavored to have him superseded. 
 
 John Santem, collector and receiver of the colonial 
 revenue, preferred charges against him. They were dis- 
 missed, and Santem, who was found to be a defaulter 
 in the sum of £3,000, was sent to England for trial. 
 The petition of tho corporation of New York to the 
 king in Dongan's behalf, refuting the Santem charges, 
 is couched in most heartfelt expressions of confidence 
 in his honesty and gratitude for his services. He 
 recommended that some person of wealth and promi- 
 nence in the colony be appointed in Santem's place, 
 because those that were sent out usually endeavored to 
 make a fortune in a few years, but his interest in the 
 colony was again set at naught and Matthew Plowman 
 received the office. 
 
 In 1686, he heard rumors that Penn had caused his 
 removal and that he was going to be ordered back to 
 the army. His official life was unassailable, his enemies 
 therefore endeavored to persuade the king that his mil- 
 itary skill was necessary to the army, in order to 
 
 remove him from New York. 
 
 42 
 
Stomas §0tX0atx. 
 
 He petitioned tlie king in person in 1686, and the lord 
 president of the board of trade in 1687 to be allowed to 
 remain until he had paid his debts, because he had left 
 a fortune in France when he left there in pursuance of 
 the king's command to serve in his army. 
 
 The rumor also reached him from Canada, which 
 received it by way of Paris. 
 
 On January 22, 1687-8, he wrote to the king that he had 
 just received a letter from the Earl of Tyrconnell, 
 wherein the earl sets forth that it will be requisite for 
 his majesty's service that he go home and says that he 
 consents to serve his king in his armies, but asks that 
 money be remitted to pay his debts before he leaves, 
 because the king is in debt to him and he to the people 
 because of it. 
 
 About this time, Dongan's recommendations as to 
 colonial unity were adopted. 
 
 King James, in 1688, ordered the union of all his 
 colonies in America, north of Delaware and Pennsyl- 
 vania, into one common government, to be known as 
 New England in America, and presumably through 
 French influence, Dongan was superseded, and Sir 
 Edmond Andros was appointed Governor. He was 
 notified by royal command, of the change, on April 28, 
 1688, and ordered "to repair to our Royall presence, 
 where you may expect from us marks of our Royall 
 favor and assurance of our entire satisfaction in your 
 good services during your gov't of our Colony." 
 
 The change in the form of government was not popular, 
 and helped materially in weakening the king's cause in 
 
 43 
 
Stomas §0MQmx. 
 
 America. The colonists had been made to believe that 
 the king had sold New York to the French, and that 
 Dongan was to be removed because he was not "such 
 an ill person as to deliver it," and that Andros was to 
 be sent over to do it. 
 
 The belief shows the popular idea of Dongan among 
 the colonists, and illustrates a public sentiment in his 
 favor, which protected him when a fugitive a year later. 
 His accounts as Governor were passed, and the colony 
 turned over to Andros in August, 1688. 
 
 He was offered by the king, the position of major 
 general in the British army and a regiment, both of which 
 he declined, and retired to his farm on Long Island. 
 
 We must transfer our attention, now, to Europe, 
 where events were happening which had great effect on 
 Dongan's life. 
 
 In 1688, the English people revolted against the 
 Stuarts; William and Mary were made rulers of Eng- 
 land; in 1690, the battle of the Boyne was fought and 
 lost and James II and his faithful followers were 
 fugitives in France. 
 
 The Dongans in Europe remained loyal to their king. 
 Dongan's nephew. Lord Dongan, was killed at the 
 Boyne, at the head of his dragoons, and his brother, 
 the Earl of Limerick, continuing steadfast to the royal 
 cause, retired to France. 
 
 Dongan, on the death of his nephew, became the next in 
 succession to the title and estates of the Earl of Limerick. 
 
 The revolution of 1688, has its reflex action in 
 America where it took a decidedly anti- Catholic turn. 
 
 44 
 
Jacob Leisler, a fanatical trader of New York, seized 
 the government, and as there was no excuse for his 
 action, he made one, by declaring he had captured the 
 forts and taken charge of public affairs to preserve the 
 Protestant religion. 
 
 There happened to be a few Catholic soldiers in the 
 garrison, who were at once disarmed, and much ado 
 made over their presence. He caused rumors to be 
 circulated of Catholic plots to deliver the government 
 over to France, and, although Dongan was living peace- 
 ably on his farm on Long Island, he was wrongfully 
 and maliciously accused with intent to create public 
 sentiment, of all sorts of cabals and schemes to cap- 
 ture the forts and resume his power. 
 
 The train bands denounced him as a papist, and had 
 him confined a prisoner on his place at Hempstead, but 
 he escaped to New Jersey and took passage for England. 
 
 His vessel got only as far as Neversink, where it laid 
 for sixteen days battling with adverse winds. Dongan 
 was sick and resolved to sail back, choosing rather 
 to die on shore than at sea, and returned to New 
 Jersey. 
 
 Leisler sent out eighteen men to disarm all the Cath- 
 olics on Long and Staten islands, and to search their 
 houses. They found four guns in Dongan's mill-house 
 and magnified the fact to one of great importance. 
 The Catholics were hunted like wild beasts and driven 
 into the woods. 
 
 Leisler, by proclamation, dated February 15, 1689, and 
 February 21, 1689, ordered the arrest of Dongan, and of 
 
 45 
 
Stomas SouQKU. 
 
 all *' such persons who are reputed papists," or who 
 held commissions under him. 
 
 Many fled and got away with Dongan, but more were 
 arrested and imprisoned. Dongan's property was seized, 
 and even his servants were imprisoned. He was hunted 
 out of New Jersey and fled to Khode Island, where he 
 met Sir Edmond Andros, who had also been arrested 
 in Massachusetts, but who had escaped; but in Sep- 
 tember, 1689, he was reported "now in these parts 
 again (New York); he has ranged all the country and 
 is mett daily by several." Dongan, who had granted 
 the colonists the right to worship God according to 
 the dictates of conscience, was a fugitive because of 
 his religion. He was pursued by those to whom he 
 had been both tolerant and liberal, but he had the sym- 
 pathy of the most influential men in the colony, like 
 Bayard, Van Courtland, Schuyler and Livingston, who 
 refused to recognize Leisler, and were persecuted for 
 their opposition to him, so he was not apprehended. 
 
 Albany held out against Leisler until he refused to 
 send troops to defend her against the threatened 
 French invasion which culminated in the massacre at 
 Schenectady, she then surrendered to his lieutenant, 
 Jacob Milbourne. 
 
 Leisler and Milbourne were subsequently hung, but 
 not because they were religious fanatics, in fact, that 
 was their defense. 
 
 Dongan was in Boston during the greater part of the 
 year of 1690, from which place he sailed, arriving in Eng- 
 land in 1691. While it may not be germane to inquire 
 
 46 
 
Stomas g0U0ati, 
 
 into what took place in New York after Dongan left, 
 the public acts of the succeeding general assemblies bear 
 testimony to Dongan's personality and influence, in the 
 remarkable regard for popular rights shown by the char- 
 ters granted and the legislation enacted during his 
 governorship. 
 
 Between 1683, the date of Dongan's charter of liber- 
 ties and privileges, and the bill of rights, passed in 
 1691, the people did not change, but the rulers did ; 
 in 1691 the same people passed a bill of rights, 
 wherein it was enacted that no person who professed 
 faith in God by Jesus Christ, His only Son, should 
 be molested on account of his religion, provided, how- 
 ever, " that nothing herein mentioned or contained 
 shall extend or to give liberty for any persons of the 
 Romish religion to exercise their manner of worship, 
 contrary to the laws and statutes of their majesty's 
 kingdom of England." 
 
 In 1684 they begged for Jesuits, but in 1700, by statute, 
 priests were expelled from the colony under penalties 
 of perpetual imprisonment and death, and people harbor- 
 ing them were subject to a fine of £200, to be set in 
 the pillory, and to be imprisoned in default of bonds 
 for good behavior. 
 
 An act passed in 1701 forever prohibited a papist or 
 popish recusant from voting for any office in the colony. 
 
 In 1715, an act declaratory of Dongan's naturalization 
 act of 1683 was passed, which, while it secured property 
 rights acquired under it, provided and allowed only for all 
 future times to come, for the naturalization of Protestants. 
 
 47 
 
We mention these laws without comment, for they 
 were enacted by the same persons who passed Dongan's 
 beneficent statutes, as examples of the powers possessed 
 by the colonial Governors, and as proof conclusive that 
 the acts of 1683 were Dongan's in thought, word and deed. 
 
 He returned to England to reside, at least forty- two 
 years after he left Ireland to go to France, and found 
 his brother, the Earl of Limerick, a fugitive in France, 
 and all the rich Dongan estates confiscated. 
 
 The confiscations comprised the castle, manor and 
 lands of Castletown-Kildrought, and other noble estates 
 in the counties of Kildare, Dublin, Carlow, Meath, Kil- 
 kenny, Longford, Tipperary and Queens, containing 
 26,480 acres, besides house property in Dublin city, and 
 some impropriate rectories, glebes, advowsons and 
 tithes. The lands, with much more, were given to the 
 Dutch Lieutenant- General, Baron de Ginkell, created 
 Earl of Athlone and Baron of Aughrim, as a reward for 
 his successes against the Irish. 
 
 The rectories, with the glebes in the county of Tip- 
 perary, were in 1703 made over to the trustees for the 
 augmentation of small livings and other ecclesiastical 
 uses, as was that of Castletown- Kildrough, in the 
 county of Kildare, the Dongan residence. 
 
 Dongan had taken no part in the rebellion, was not 
 a party to or a member of any cabal or conspiracy, 
 had had no entangling alliances, and, as far as the king 
 was concerned, had an absolutely clean record, and 
 was recommended to his favor by reason of his age 
 and distinguished services to the state. 
 
Stomas §o\xQmx. 
 
 When the Dongan estates were seized, no discrimina- 
 tions were made, and the forfeiture included Thomas' 
 private estates in Queen's county, inherited from his 
 father. 
 
 The first Earl of Limerick died in France, childless, 
 in 1698, and Dongan succeeded to the title and became 
 the second Earl of Limerick. 
 
 He claimed the exemption of his private estates from 
 the forfeiture, and also the Castletown estates, under 
 the settlement made thereof, by his grandfather, in 1615, 
 but got neither. 
 
 I quote from Gerard (Mag. of Am. Hist., July, 1886, 
 tit. Dongan's Charter) as to his career after he left 
 America : " When Governor Dongan returned to 
 England, he seems not only to be in reduced circum- 
 stances, but to have been almost impoverished. He 
 made several applications to regain his family estates, 
 the title deeds to which had been lost through the 
 troublous times. He appealed, also, for payment of long 
 arrearages of pension and for his advances to the gov- 
 ernment while in America. He states in one of his 
 petitions that he is old and poor, and that at least £17,000 
 is due him. He was at first allowed £2,500, and subse- 
 quently William III made an order in council, reciting 
 the facts of his case, and the inability of the earl to 
 live in England without some payment and that he 
 was disposed to live upon a small estate he had in 
 America; and it was ordered that a small prize vessel 
 of 160 tons and eight guns be given to the earl to 
 assist him in transporting him and his goods to 
 
 49 G 
 
America and to be retained by him there. An act of 
 Parliament was also passed in May, 1702, recognizing 
 his succession to his brother's estates, but he was only 
 to be allowed to redeem these on the payment of 
 claims of purchasers from the Earl of Athlone. 
 
 "Dongan also petitioned Queen Anne in 1704, stating 
 that if a third of what was due him were paid, he 
 would release the rest, and that it would be better 
 under the circumstances to live in Turkey than in 
 England. In a petition referred to the commissioners 
 of the treasury in 1714, he states that after paying his 
 brother's debts and his own he had but little left for 
 his support." 
 
 "In a petition for arrears of pay, he relates that 
 the state revenues (of New York) being small, 
 he was obliged to mortgage his lands and sell his 
 plate and furniture to meet the French invasion of 
 1686, and that the war lasted one and one-half years, 
 during which he disbursed £10,000, almost his entire 
 fortune." 
 
 "By his will made in July, 1713, he provides that he 
 is to be buried by his kinsmen Eichard Barnwell at 
 an expense of not over £100; and, after certain legacies 
 he leaves the residue of his estate to his niece, form- 
 erly Bridget Barnwell and to her husband, Colonel 
 Christopher Nugent." 
 
 Colonel Nugent was the son of Lady Bridget Dongan, 
 sister of Thomas, by Francis Nugent of Dardistown. 
 
 Nugent was a member of Parliament in 1689, and 
 lieutenant-colonel of horse under James II; after the 
 
 so 
 
Stomas ^ouQum 
 
 Boyne, in 1691, he commanded the horse regiment of 
 Sheldon, in the Irish brigade, in the service of France; 
 he fought in Flanders, Germany and Italy; accompanied 
 the first Pretender to Scotland in 1715 and 1716; took 
 part in every French campaign from 1692 until 1718, and 
 died in 1731, a marechal de camp, or major-general of 
 horse, one of the bravest and most distinguished of the 
 Irish soldiers in the armies of Louis XIV and Louis 
 XV. Thomas Dongan died in the faith of his fathers, 
 in 1715. He had never been married, and when he died, 
 the title of the Earl of Limerick became extinct in the 
 Dongan family. He was buried in St. Pancras church- 
 yard in London, where his tombstone bears the following 
 inscription: 
 
 The Right Hon. THOMAS DONGAN, 
 
 Earl of Limerick, 
 Died December 14, 1715, 
 
 Aged 81 Years. 
 Requiescat in Pace. Amen. 
 
 His estate lin America, not of great value 200 years 
 ago, for lands were then very cheap, consisted of a 
 house and lot in New York, a farm at Hempstead, 
 lands in Martha's Vineyard and 25,000 acres of land at 
 Castleton, Staten Island; the latter he had erected 
 into a manor and lordship of Cassiltowne, evidently 
 named after the family manor in Ireland. 
 
 His kinsmen, Thomas, John and Walter Dongan, 
 appear to have been domiciled in New York in 1715, 
 for, by deed in May of that year, he directed a mes- 
 
 51 
 
Stomas ^on^mt. 
 
 suage and house in New York, and also a tract called 
 the Vineyard, to be sold for his and their benefit. 
 They must have succeeded to his estates in America, 
 for in 1723 a private act was passed by the assembly 
 of New York "to enable Thomas Dongan and Walter 
 Dongan, two surviving kinsmen of Thomas, late Earl 
 of Limerick, to sell some part of their estate for the 
 payment of their debts, and discharging some incumber- 
 ances wherewith the same is now charged," and a 
 similar act was passed in 1726. 
 
 Descendants of these kinsmen of Dongan are alive in 
 America to-day. 
 
 The arms of Dongan, as Earl of Limerick, are techni- 
 cally described as follows: 
 
 "Arms. Quarterly. 1st and 4th gu. three lions pas- 
 sant, or, each holding in dexter paw a closed helmet 
 arg. garnished of the second. 
 
 "2nd and 3rd. az. six plates arg.; on a chief, or, a 
 demi lion rampant, gu. 
 
 "Crest. A lion, pass, or, supporting with the dexter 
 foot, a close helmet, ar. garnished of the first." 
 
 His personal arms, which he used according to the 
 custom of colonial Governors as and for the privy seal 
 of the colony, are the same as above, except that the 
 third quarter is, "az. a talbot pass, arg." 
 
 The personal arms, adopted by the Dongan Club as 
 its seal, were taken from an impression on a document, 
 now in the State department, made in 1686. 
 
 Dongan, the statesman and soldier died an impover- 
 ished and a disappointed man. 
 
 52 
 
His life was worthier of a happier old age; but if 
 those who do their duty on earth can have communion 
 after death with mortality, and can participate in the 
 panegyrics made upon them, Dongan did not suffer in 
 vain. 
 
 He has had his due meed of praise since, for all who 
 have written concerning him or his times have done 
 honor to his life and virtues. 
 
 Mrs. Lamb, in her History of New York, says that 
 "he had broad, intelligent views, was an accomplished 
 politician, and was essentially a man for the times. 
 He was a ready talker, bland and deferential to his 
 associates and fitted to inspire confidence in all around 
 him. He has been justly classed among the best of 
 our colonial Governors." 
 
 In Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 
 America (vol. 3, p. 404), it is said that Dongan, 
 ** though a Roman Catholic, an Irishman and a sol- 
 dier, proved himself to be an excellent and prudent 
 magistrate." 
 
 Smith, the colonial historian of New York, says that 
 he *' was a man of integrity, moderation and genteel 
 manners, and though a professed papist, may be 
 classed among the best of our Governors." 
 
 Lossing calls him "the liberal and just Governor," and 
 writes that he stood by the people as long as he could 
 and until he was ordered to surrender the government 
 into the hands of Andros, a supple tool of James II. 
 
 Gerard says that '* Dongan was a man of experi- 
 ence in war and politics, and filled the public duties 
 
 53 
 
of his difficult post with activity and wisdom ; he was 
 considerate and moderate in his government, just and 
 tolerant, and his personal character was that of an 
 upright and courteous gentleman." 
 
 Hinckley, of Plymouth, one of the most zealous of 
 Puritans, says that *'he was of a noble and praise- 
 worthy mind and spirit, taking care that all the people 
 in each town do their duty in maintaining the minis- 
 ter of the place, though himself of a different opinion 
 from their way." 
 
 That, in connection with what I have already quoted 
 as having been written by Dominie Selyns, expresses 
 the opinion of contemporaneous protestants as to his 
 liberal character in dealing with the religious opinions 
 of others, a quality of transcendent merit, in an age, 
 in which, to use the language of Eobertson, the 
 celebrated historian, "when not only the idea of tolera- 
 tion, but even the word itself in the sense now affixed 
 to it, was unknown." 
 
 Dongan administered the government to the satisfac- 
 tion of his king and the gratification of the colonists ; 
 no scandals attached to his office, and instead of 
 robbing the State, it robbed him. His record was 
 clean, his personal character stainless, and his ability 
 commensurate with his great official responsibilities. 
 
 His prominent characteristic was a firm devotion to 
 duty. As a boy his duty to Ireland made him a soldier 
 and he fought the English because of it; as a soldier 
 of France, he gave her the best years of his life and 
 all his talents; when called back by his king, his work 
 
 54 
 
Stomas g0tx0ati» 
 
 made him smother his feelings for the wrongs of his 
 native country, and his love for France, and he baffled 
 the French to serve the English. 
 
 Fortune did not stand in the way of duty; he left 
 one in France and spent another in America to benefit 
 the State, and, considering that money values have 
 increased tenfold in two centuries, his pecuniary sacri- 
 fices were enormous. 
 
 Zealous and devoted to his own religion, he endeav- 
 ored to foster all others, but when duty demanded 
 the expulsion of the French Jesuits, they did not stand 
 on the order of their going, but went. 
 
 As a statesman, dealing with human rights, he was 
 a century in advance of his times. 
 
 His municipal charters were models of legal acumen, 
 and founded so deep in the true principles of govern- 
 ment, that they have survived unto this day. His 
 celebrated Charter of Liberties did not die when 
 revoked; it simply slept. It was like a seed planted; 
 although hidden, it worked its purposes in nature, 
 and blossomed forth, when fully ripe, a perennial oak 
 in the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 We have spoken of matters, not in their historical 
 sequence, but have grouped them to show the man. We 
 have not done him justice and have left much unsaid, 
 but if our feeble efforts will but slightly increase popular 
 knowledge of Dongan, and justify in your minds the 
 founding of a club, bearing his honored name, we will 
 not have labored in vain. 
 
 55 
 
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