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Title: The magazine of history with notes and queries, Vol. II, No. 4, October 1905
Author: Various
Language: English
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VOL. II NO. 4
THE
MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
WITH
NOTES AND QUERIES
OCTOBER, 1905
WILLIAM ABBATT
281 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
Published Monthly $5.00 a Year 50 Cents a Number
THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
WITH NOTES AND QUERIES
VOL. II OCTOBER, 1905 NO. 4
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE BRITISH NAVY IN THE REVOLUTION REGINALD PELHAM
BOLTON 223
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS (_Sixth Paper_) REV. LIVINGSTON ROWE
SCHUYLER 228
EARLY DAYS IN LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
W. P. RYMAN 239
THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC (_Concluded_) R. N. ARPE 249
THE NORTHERN NECK OF VIRGINIA E. N. VALLANDIGHAM 259
FANCIES AT NAVESINK (_Poem_) WALT WHITMAN 264
THE FIGHT AT DIAMOND ISLAND REV. B. F. DECOSTA 265
INDIAN LEGENDS: _II._ THE MAIDEN OF THE
MOON The late CHARLES
LANMAN 273
THE FIRST WOMAN IN THE POST OFFICE
DEPARTMENT 276
HAND-LOOM WEAVING REVIVED 278
ERROR--MEMORIAL TREES 281
BALTIMORE’S OLD STEPPING-STONES 282
THE GRAVE OF LEATHERSTOCKING 283
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA (_Excerpt_) WILLIAM L. STONE 284
COMMUNICATION (John Paul Jones) A. A. FOLSOM 285
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
Letter of Col. Henry Glen to Col. Marinus Willett 287
Letter of Washington to the Board of War 289
Letter of John Dickinson to the President of Congress 290
MINOR TOPICS: The First U. S. Flag 291
GENEALOGICAL: Queries--Answers 292
BOOK NOTICES 293
Entered as second-class matter, March 1, 1905, at the Post Office at
New York, N. Y., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
_Copyright, 1905, by William Abbatt_
THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
WITH NOTES AND QUERIES
VOL. II OCTOBER, 1905 NO. 4
THE BRITISH NAVY IN THE REVOLUTION
In the study of the events of the Revolution, one cannot but be
impressed with the important share which the movements and achievements
of the navy of Great Britain, had in deciding the military events.
It has often been remarked that had King George been as well served
ashore, as he was afloat, the Revolution might have ended very
differently. Therefore, it may be assumed that the history of that
great struggle will not be entirely complete until the work done at
sea on both sides is more fully dealt with in its bearing on the land
operations.
In such a study, the material facts are available to an extent which
does not seem to be widely known; for in the great Public Record Office
of the Crown, in Chancery Lane, London, are stored away the actual
orders, reports and correspondence of the naval officials of that
period, and in addition the actual log books of the vessels. The former
include Admirals’ despatches, filed in the Navy Side, under the heading
“Admiralty Secretary, In Letters,” and those relating to the strife
with the thirteen colonies, during the period 1774 to 1784 inclusive,
are indexed by the name of the “North American Station,” and numbered
484, 485, 486, 487 and 488. Of the mass of interesting material therein
I was able, during a short visit, only to examine hastily one great
package, which I found teeming with details of the affairs of the
time, the confidential communications not only of the superior, but of
subordinate officers on different stations, captured papers, reports of
spies, and lists of captured vessels, men, and goods.
These papers are entirely free of access to any person, the only
requirement being that they shall be examined in public, that no ink
shall be used in copying, and that they are returned after every
session.
Up to a date one hundred years ago, the papers are available without
any introduction or order, but if the enquirer should desire those of
more recent date, a special order must be obtained. The courtesy of
Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, K. C. B., Deputy Keeper of the Records, and
of W. Stamp, his assistant must be acknowledged by myself, and will
undoubtedly be experienced by other enquirers into these matters.
It is extremely interesting to the student of history thus to handle
and read the very documents which, received by the then authorities
from the scene of actual hostilities, did so much in themselves to
affect the course of events.
These official naval documents may be supplemented by examination
of the contemporary military papers of the period, those emanating
from the pseudo-civil governors of the colonies containing especially
interesting matter.
Of these a number of the despatches of Governor Tryon to Lord George
Germain, will be found in the Colonial Office Records, under heading
“America and West Indies.” Those of 1780, for instance, are indexed
No. 189--a bundle which contains some fascinating papers, such as
the original reports of spies, a number of these signed by one
especially active scoundrel whose signature, A. Z., is frequent, and
his suggestions for the confounding of the American forces full of
a lively personal interest. On the reports of deserters and spies,
many favorable prognostications are founded by the writers of these
despatches, and much may be learned of the policy and directions which
led to some of the stirring events of that period.
Another source of information of a most detailed character is the large
collection of log-books of the various war vessels. These were, in
those days, kept not only by the Captains, and by the Lieutenants in
command, but separate books were also kept by the sailing masters. Of
the two former, those of the Lieutenants being practically duplicates
of the Commanders’, have been destroyed, but the Captains’ and Masters’
books are preserved.
These books are in the original bindings and are of a most interesting
character, carefully noting the time and nature of every occurrence in
which the ship took part, as well as the surrounding circumstances of
weather, sea and course.
From them may thus be obtained not only much new information of the
details of actions, but confirmative and corrective matters of time and
place.
In the course of a study of the operations of the British marine in
the waters of New York, I found myself confronted by contradictions
of a very annoying nature in the published accounts of the events of
1776, but upon reference to these log books many of these points were
fully cleared up. Of some of these I hope at a future date to be able
to give details, but the purpose of this article being to afford to
others the knowledge of the existence and accessibility of the source
of this information, I shall here give only the index numbers of the
log-books of the most important vessels, which bore a prominent part in
the Revolution.
The well-known names of the redoubtable men-of-war, frigates, armed
brigs and schooners will recall to my readers events in which these
took part, and the significant gaps in the logs of some point to the
disasters or captures of which they became the victims.
CAPTAINS’ LOG BOOKS
[Preserved in the Public Record Office, London]
----------+--------------------------------------+------------------------
NAME OF | ARMAMENT | CAPTAIN | PERIOD COVERED | INDEX
VESSEL | | | BY LOG | NO.
----------+------------+---------------------+----------------------------
Asia | 64 Guns | George Vandeput | 177- to |
| | | 1783, April 3 | 67
Phœnix | 44 Guns | Capt. Hyde Parker | |
| | Jr. | 1764, Oct. 1, to |
| | | 1776, July 7 | 693
” | ” ” | ” ” ” | 1776, July 8, to |
| | | 1780, April 8 | 694
Roebuck | 32 Guns | A. S. Hamond | 1775, July 14, to |
| | | 1783, April 8 | 796
| | | (No entries |
| | | between |
| | | 13 July, |
| | | 1776, and |
| | | 7 Jan., 1769) |
Rose | 20 Guns | Sir Richard Wallace | 1768, April 27, to |
| | | 1776, Feb. 29 | 804
” | ” ” | ” ” ” | 1776, March 1, to |
| | | 1785, June 8 | 805
Tartar | Frigate | Edward Medows | 1763 to |
| | | 1778, Nov. 23 | 972
“ | ” | ” ” | 1779, July 27, to |
| | | 1783, Oct. 25 | 973
Thunderer | Bomb-ketch | | 1764 to |
| | | 1780, March 27 | 987
Thunder | Bomb-ketch | | 1775 to |
| | | 1780, May 18 | 987
Vulture | Frigate | | 1776, June 10, to |
| | | 1783, Nov 19 | 1044
” | ” | | 1780, Nov. 8, to |
| | | Dec. 22 | 4386
Pearl | 30 Guns | Jas. O’Hara | |
| | to 1775 | 1764 to |
| | | 1777, May 21 | 674
” | ” ” | Thos. Wilkinson | 1777, June 14, to |
| | | 1782, July 18 | 675
| | | (Missing to 1786) |
Orpheus | | Chas. Hudson | 1773 to |
| | | 1784, March 31 | 650
” | | ” ” | 1775, July 25, to |
| | | 1776, Aug. 31 } | 4279
” | | ” ” | 1781, Jan. 1, to |
| | | Dec. 31 } |
” | | ” ” | 1784, April 1, to |
| | | 1787, Feb. 26 | 659
----------+------------+---------------------+--------------------+-------
MASTERS’ LOG BOOKS
[Preserved in the Public Record Office, London]
------------+----------------+------------------+--------------------------
NAME | ARMAMENT | CAPTAIN | PERIOD COVERED |INDEX
| | | | NO.
------------+----------------+------------------+--------------------------
Asia | 64 Guns | George Vandeput | 1771, April 23, to |
| | | 1775, Mar. 9 | 1580
” | ” ” | ” ” | 1775, Mar. 10, to |
| | | 1777, Mar. 10 | 1583
” | ” ” | ” ” | 1777, Mar. 14, to |
| | | 1779, Apr. 24 | 1582
” | ” ” | ” ” | 1779, Apr. 24, to |
| | | 1781, Apr. 23 | 1581
” | ” ” | ” ” | 1781, Apr. 24, to |
| | | 1783, Apr. 3 | 2149
Carcass | Bomb-ketch | | 1775 to |
| | | 1778, Sept. 14 | 1640
” | ” ” | | 1778 to 1781 | 1641
Carysfort | Frigate | Fanshaw | 1775, Nov. 15, to |
| | | 1778, Apr. 30 | 1642
Charlotte | | | Missing from 1770 |
| | | to 1797 |
Charlotta | Tender | | None |
Dutchess of | | | |
Gordon | Despatch Packet| | None |
Eagle | Flagship | | 1776, Mar. 4, to |
| | | 1779, Jan. 8 | 1709
” | ” | | 1779, Jan. 8, to |
| | | 1781, Jan 7 | 1710
” | ” | | 1781, Jan. 8, to |
| | | 1782, April 16 | 2296
Experiment | 50 Guns | Alexander Scott | 1775, July 11, to |
| | | 1779, Mar. 18 | 1725
| | (1778, Wallace) | (Missing to 1793) |
Greyhound | 30 ” | Archibald Dickson| 1775, Nov. 5, to |
| | | 1778, Dec. 2 | 1768
” | “ ” | ” ” | 1778, Dec. 2, |
| | | to 1780, Aug. 20 | 1765
| | | (Missing on |
| | | to 1794) |
La Brune | 32 ” | | Not in list |
Orpheus | | Charles Hudson | 1775, Aug. 24, to |
| | | 1781, Aug. | 1893
Pearl | 20 Guns | Thos. Wilkinson | 1776, Sept. 14, to |
| | | 1777, Nov. 16 | 1392
Phœnix | 44 ” | Hyde Parker, Jr. | 1775, July 8, to |
| | | 1778, July 23 | 1909
Repulse | 50 ” | Davis | 1780 to 1782 | 2494
Renown | 50 ” | Banks | 1775, Aug. 4, to |
| | | 1778, Mar. 18 | 1953
” | ” ” | ” | 1780, Aug. 2, to |
| | | 1783, Jan. 5 | 2495
Roebuck | 32 ” | A. S. Hamond | 1775 to |
| | | 1777, July 14 | 1963
” | ” ” | ” ” ” | 1777, July 15, to |
| | | 1779, July 14 | 1964
” | ” ” | “ ” ” | 1779 to |
| | | 1781, July 3 | 2504
” | ” ” | ” ” ” | 1781 to |
| | | 1783, April 9 | 2505
Rose | 20 ” | Sir Richard | |
| | Wallace | 1775, Nov. 1, to |
| | | 1777, Oct. 31 | 1970
Shuldham | Tender | | None |
Solebay | 28 Guns | | 1775, Aug. 16, to |
| | | 1777, Aug. 27 | 1999
” | ” ” | | 1777, Aug. 27, to |
| | | 1780, Mar. 3 | 1998
| | | (Missing to 1787) |
Tartar | Frigate | Edward Medows | 1775, Dec. 13, to |
| | | 1778, Sept. 22 | 2029
” | ” | ” ” | 1778 to |
| | | 1781, May 26 | 2030
” | ” | ” ” | 1781 to |
| | | 1783, Oct. 25 | 2567
Thunder | Bomb-ketch | | 1775 to |
| | | 1780, June 2 | 2041
Thunderer | ” ” | | (Missing to 1778) |
” | ” ” | | 1778, Feb. 25, to |
| | | 1780, June 20 | 2042
| | | (Missing to 1794) |
Trial | Armed Schooner | Lt. John Brown | Up to 1772, Aug. 6 | 1483
” | ” ” | ” ” ” | Begins 1790, |
| | | Oct. 17 | 3551
Vulture | Frigate | | 1776, June 19, to |
| | | 1779, June 30 | 2072
” | ” | | 1779, June 29, to |
| | | 1782, July 29 | 2073
” | ” | | 1782, July 30, to |
| | | 1783, Nov. 19 | 2592
| | | (Missing on |
| | | to 1803) |
------------+----------------+------------------+--------------------+-----
Of these it may be noted that the _Asia_ was conspicuous around
New York, particularly in the summer of 1776, when a shot from her
caused the only bloodshed of which Governor’s Island has been the
scene, although it has been a military station since 1800. One of her
cannon-balls took off an arm of an American soldier, in April, 1776.
Another of her shots penetrated the roof of Fraunces’ Tavern, in Broad
street, New York. It was preserved until a few years ago, when it
mysteriously disappeared. Freneau, in his _Petition of Hugh Gaine_
refers to the incident:
At first we supposed it was only a sham
Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam.
The _Eagle_ came very near furnishing the first proof in history of the
efficiency of submarine boats or torpedoes. It is part of the history
of the Revolution that Bushnell’s “Turtle” only failed to blow her up,
as she lay off Governor’s Island in August, 1776, because of her bottom
being coppered, and hence affording no chance of attachment of the
“Turtle” by a huge screw, as the inventor had intended.
The _Duchess of Gordon_ was Tryon’s headquarters at the same time.
The _Experiment_, _Thunder_ and _Solebay_ were conspicuous in the
unsuccessful attack on Charleston in June, 1776, and the _Pearl_,
_Phœnix_, _Rose_, _Roebuck_ and _Tartar_ were particularly active near
New York during the whole war.
* * * * *
The foregoing are by no means all of the vessels engaged in the war of
the Revolution, of which I have gathered references to no less than one
hundred and twenty-two, and there were doubtless many more engaged in
those operations east and south of which I have been unable to make a
close study.
These will, however, serve to indicate some of the material available,
and perhaps afford some historical enquirers the means of adding to
their information.
REGINALD PELHAM BOLTON.
NEW YORK CITY.
THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS
IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, WITH PARTICULAR
REFERENCE TO CONDITIONS IN THE ROYAL COLONY OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER IV (_Continued_)
THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN NEW YORK
The administration of Governor George Clinton is very important on
the side of Constitutional growth, since it is now that the General
Assembly for the first time clearly enunciates the principles of
self-government and the right not only to vote the taxes but to
determine the ways in which the money shall be expended. In 1747 the
colonies were engaged in war with France, and it was of the greatest
importance that the outposts and fortified places on the Canadian
border should be adequately garrisoned and amply supplied with
provisions and munitions of war. Clinton was striving to assert the
principle of royal prerogative in the matter of money-bills, a right
which Governor Clarke had allowed to slip away from him. This attempt
the General Assembly naturally resisted, and as a result is reproached
by the Governor with neglecting to provide him with the money
necessary to keep the province properly defended against the French.
In the Minutes of the General Assembly of Oct. 8th, 1747, appears the
following Message from the Governor,
“_Gentlemen_,
By your Votes I understand you are going upon Things very foreign
to what I recommended you: I will receive nothing from you at this
critical Juncture, but what relates to the Message I last sent you,
viz. By all Means, immediately to take the preservation of your
Frontiers, and the Fidelity of the Indians, into consideration: The
Loss of a Day may have fatal Consequences; when that is over, you may
have Time enough to go upon any other Matters.
G. CLINTON.”
The next day the House took into consideration the Governor’s Message,
and after a rather theatric locking of the door and laying the key on
the table (as though, as Clinton says in his Message of Oct. 13th, some
one were attempting to break in,) drew up a set of Resolutions to be
delivered to the Governor, in which his Message was declared to be an
attempt to subvert the rights, privileges, and immunities of the House.
In addition a long document, called “A Humble Remonstrance of the
House on the present State and Condition of the Colony,” was ordered
carried by a committee to the Governor. This document, which had taken
a Committee several days to draw up, was a long and detailed statement
of the Assembly’s side of the quarrel and an attempt to show that the
wretched state of the colony’s affairs was due to the tactics of delay
made use of by the Governor and not to any fault of the Assembly which
was very willing to grant money provided it had some assurance that
the sums voted would be expended for the purposes designated. This
Remonstrance the Governor refused to receive, and by his Secretary
directed James Parker, the official printer, not to print it in the
proceedings of the Assembly; this direction was not heeded by Parker, a
step which brought out from the Governor the following Order:
“By His Excellency the Honourable George Clinton, Captain General and
Governor in Chief, of the Province of New York, etc.
To Mr. James Parker, Printer to the General Assembly of the Province
of New York.
Whereas some Persons, calling themselves a Committee of the General
Assembly of this Province, came into an Apartment of my House, on the
9th instant, while I was engaged in my private affairs; and without
the least previous Notice, one of them offered to read a large bundle
of Paper, which he said was a Remonstrance from that House, and
desired my Leave to read the same, which I absolutely refused, or to
have it left with me; and whereas the Speaker of the said General
Assembly hath, in disregard to my Authority and Person, ordered the
same to be printed by you in their Votes, although I forewarned you
by my Secretary not to do it; but as you afterwards signified to him,
that a Verbal Order was not sufficient to forbid you printing any
Thing to that Purpose;
I do hereby in his Majesty’s Name, expressly forbid you or any
other person in this Province, to re-print or otherwise publish,
the said Paper, called, a Remonstrance of the General Assembly of
this Province, as you and they shall answer the same at your and
their Peril; the said Paper, containing many false, scandalous and
malicious Aspersions on me, as Governor of this Province; and I do
hereby, further require you to give publick Notice of this my Order,
by publishing the same in your next News-Paper; and for your so doing,
this shall be the warrant.
Given under my Hand, at the City of New York, October 24th, 1747.[1]
G. CLINTON.”
This Order having duly appeared in Parker’s New York Gazette and Post
Boy, the Speaker on Oct. 26th reported it to the House and requested
“that the House would vindicate his Conduct therein.” Accordingly
Parker was ordered to appear before the body. He came the next day
and produced Clinton’s order in justification of his action, and the
Assembly then passed the following resolutions;[2]
“Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That it is the undoubted Right of the
People of this Colony, to know the Proceedings of their Representatives
in General Assembly, and that any Attempt to prevent their Proceedings
being printed and published, is a Violation of the Rights and Liberties
of the People of this Colony.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That any Attempt to prohibit the
printing or re-printing of any of the Proceedings of this House, is an
infringement of the Privileges of this House, and of the People they
represent.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That the Humble Remonstrance of
this House, of the 9th instant, though his Excellency, (contrary to
the uninterrupted Usage in such Cases,) refused to receive it, was,
notwithstanding, a regular Proceeding of this House.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That his Excellency’s Order to forbid
the printing or re-printing the said Remonstrance, is unwarrantable,
arbitrary and illegal, and not only an open and manifest Violation of
the Privileges of this House, but also of the Liberty of the Press, and
evidently tends to the utter subversion of all the Rights and Liberties
of this House, and of the People they represent.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That Mr. Speaker’s ordering the said
Remonstrance to be printed with the Votes and Proceedings of this
House, is regular, and entirely consistent with the Duty of his Office
as Speaker of this House.”
On Nov. 12th a further step was taken, when Col. Lewis Morris made the
following Motion, which was carried;
“The late Order in Parker’s Paper, ordering him as Printer of this
House, not to publish or print the Proceedings of this House, is an
Attempt to deprive the People of these Colonies of their Liberties; I
therefore move, that we order him to re-print our Humble Remonstrance
to his Excellency, and that he deliver ten Copies to each member
of this House, that our Constituents may know, that it is our firm
Resolution to preserve the Liberty of the Press, and to communicate
our proceedings to them, that they may judge of our Conduct.”
The Governor up to this time had said nothing on the subject, but in
his Speech dissolving the Assembly on Nov. 25,[3] he breaks his silence
and argues the matter at length. He begins by saying that their action
has a very dangerous likeness to a desire to grasp the executive power,
a result which would be destructive of their dependency on Great
Britain, and of which the people of Great Britain might become jealous.
He then goes on to show that their conduct is not only wanting in
respect to their Sovereign, since the Governor is his representative,
but even wanting in ordinary manliness and honesty, since they are
striking at one who, (on account of his position,) cannot retaliate.
The question as to whether the paper is not a false, scandalous and
malicious libel he left to his superiors in England. He ends his
statement of the matter, “As to the popular Out-cry you endeavor to
raise, of the Liberty of the Press, I shall only say, that certainly
this Liberty, as well as any other may be abused, to the injury of
others; if an injury is done, a proper Remedy ought to be applied; and
such a Remedy can never be thought a Restraint of any just Liberty.
I am persuaded that no considerate man can think, that I offered any
Obstruction to the Liberty of the Press, by forbidding the Printer to
publish that one Paper at his Peril; if no Peril in doing it, neither
the author nor Publishers of it can suffer by the Order; the proper
Judges may in Time show, whether I did a Service or a Disservice to
any, by such Warning.”
The Twenty-fifth Assembly came together in the Spring of 1748 and
the old quarrel was resumed. On reassembling for the second Session
in September an Address was drawn up in which former complaints were
reiterated, and which the Governor refused to receive.[4] The Address
was then printed in the Votes and Proceedings of the Assembly, and on
Nov. 12th the Governor, in proroguing the Assembly, took occasion to
complain of their method of procedure.
“In whatever your Governor and you differ, there is a legal Method for
Redress. In my Message to you, I told you that I would do the Justice,
to send a Copy of that Paper, which you call an Address, to his
Majesty’s Ministers; which is sending it to the proper Tribunal for
Redress, if I have done you any injury, by my refusing to receive it;
but you seem to decline this legal Method; and by your publishing that
Paper, under the name of an Address, in your Votes, and afterwards
in a publick News Paper, published by the Printer of your Votes; you
seem to place the dernier Resort in all Disputes between you and your
Governor, in the Populace; how his Majesty may take this, or how a
Parliament of Great Britain, may take your claiming, not only the
Privileges of Parliament, but Privileges far beyond what any House of
Commons ever claimed, deserves your most serious consideration.”[5]
Governor George Clinton was succeeded by Sir Danvers Osborne in the
summer of 1753, but the latter meeting with a violent death the
government devolved on James Delancey, the Lieutenant-Governor. The
latter in his speech at the coming together of the Assembly took
occasion to quote certain paragraphs from the Instructions given to Sir
Danvers Osborne. These would naturally be of interest to all in the
colony, and Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New York Mercury, published
the paragraphs in his next issue. This provoked comment and the
Assembly at once took action.[6]
“The House being informed that one Hugh Gaine, a printer, in the City
of New York, had presumed in his Paper, called, the New York Mercury,
of Monday, November the 12th, 1753, No. 66, to print and publish Part
of the Proceedings of this House, particularly several articles of
his Majesty’s Instructions to his Excellency, the late Sir Danvers
Osborne, Baronet; and the said Paper being produced, and read,
Ordered, That the said Hugh Gaine, attend this House To-morrow, at 10
o’clock in the morning.
Ordered, That the Serjeant at Arms, attending this House, serve the
said Hugh Gaine, with a Copy of this Order forthwith.”
Next day Hugh Gaine appeared at the Bar of the House; “being asked,
whether he was the Printer of the Paper, called the New York Mercury,
he acknowledged that he was; and then being asked, by what Authority
he had therein printed and published an Extract of the Votes of this
House; answered, that he had no Authority for doing it, and knew not
that he did amiss in doing so; and that he was very sorry that he had
offended the House, and humbly asked their Pardon.”[7]
The result was that after the matter had been discussed in the House
the printer was called in, reprimanded, and allowed to go, on paying
the costs.
In 1756 James Parker, who had in 1747 braved the wrath of Governor
Clinton in order to obey the Speaker of the House, himself fell into
disgrace. Parker and Wm. Weyman were at this time joint owners of the
New York Gazette, or the Weekly Post Boy, and on the 15th of March,
published an article entitled “Observations on the Circumstances and
Conduct of the People in the Counties of Ulster and Orange, in the
Province of New York.”
The Assembly at its meeting on the 16th took the matter up on the
ground that it reflected on the conduct and composition of the House.
The Serjeant at Arms was directed to bring the printers to the Bar.
Parker was out of town, but Weyman appeared, and being asked how he had
come to print it said that he done so merely as a piece of news, and
went on to say that he believed it to have been written by the Rev.
Hezekiah Watkins, a clergyman of Newburgh, Ulster County, and that he
was heartily sorry for the mistake. The House then;[8]
“Resolved, That the Piece ... contains sundry insolent, false, and
malicious Expressions, calculated to misrepresent the conduct of the
Representatives of the People of this Colony.
Resolved, That the Author of the said Piece has attempted by false and
malicious Misrepresentations, to irritate the People of this Colony
against their Representatives in General Assembly, and is therefore
guilty of a high Misdemeanor and a Contempt of the Authority of this
House.
Resolved, That James Parker and Wm. Weyman, for having published the
said Piece in their Weekly Paper, are guilty of a high Misdemeanor and
a Contempt of the Authority of this House.
Resolved, That James Parker and Wm. Weyman, be for their said offense,
taken into the Custody of the Sergeant at Arms attending this House.”
Four days later Parker presented a petition setting forth that on
receiving news of what had happened he had at once returned and
surrendered himself; that the writer of the piece was Mr. Watkins,
as he could easily prove; and the petition goes on to say “that when
he received the said Piece, he thought it contained sundry indecent
Expressions, and thereupon struck them out, but is sorry that he left
sundry Matters, which though they seemed not to be malignant to him at
the Time, appear now to be so; that he humbly confesses his fault in
printing the said Piece; that he had no design to give Offense thereby,
promised to be more circumspect for the future, and humbly begs the
pardon of the honourable House: And therefore humbly praying (having
long experienced the Kindness of the Honourable House) a Dismission
from the Custody in which he now is.”
A week later the House took the matter up, and a motion to that effect
having been made by Capt. Richard, Parker and Weyman were discharged
from custody.
The House having been prorogued shortly after this, it was not until it
came together again that the matter of the Revd. Mr. Watkins received
attention. On Oct. 15, 1756, a motion was made by Capt. Walton that
Mr. Watkins be ordered to attend the House. Accordingly he appeared on
the 22nd and admitted the fact of authorship said that he had had no
intention of acting disrespectfully but that the condition of affairs
in Ulster and Orange Counties had caused his zeal for the welfare
of the people to carry him too far; and that he was heartily sorry.
In spite of his explanation he was ordered into the custody of the
Sergeant at Arms, and the Minutes of the next day (Oct. 23,) set forth
his Petition in which he went over at greater length the explanation he
had given orally the day before. After some discussion of the matter
he was ordered to be brought to the Bar of the House where he was
reprimanded by the Speaker and then discharged.
Another case very similar to the last was that of Samuel Townsend, a
Justice of the Peace of Queen’s County. Some of the so-called “Neutral
French” had been quartered upon Long Island, and Samuel Townsend wrote,
in reference to their uncared for condition and misfortunes, a letter
to the Speaker which the latter laid before the Assembly on Mar. 16,
1758, and Townsend was ordered to appear and explain the matter. Having
examined him the House[9]
“Resolved, That the letter ... contains sundry indecent and insolent
Expressions, reflecting on the Honour, Justice and Authority of this
House.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente, That the said Samuel Townsend, for
writing and sending the said Letter, is guilty of a high Misdemeanor
and a most daring Insult, on the Honour, Justice, and Authority of
this House.
Ordered, That the said Samuel Townsend remain in the Custody of the
Sergeant at Arms attending this House.”
Next day a long petition was presented in which Townsend begged “leave,
humbly to express his Uneasiness and Sorrow, for having wrote the said
Letter; and at the same time, to declare that he did not intend thereby
to cast any Reflection upon the Conduct or Dignity of this House, and
that he shall for the future be more cautious to avoid every occasion
of exposing himself to their Censure or Reproof.
Your Petitioner therefore most humbly Prays, that the sincere
Acknowledgement of his Sorrow and Uneasiness may prevail upon this
honourable House, to treat him with all that Levity and Compassion,
to which the Innocence of his Intention herein declared, and the real
Regard he has for the Honour of this House, may entitle him, and
discharge him from the Custody of the Sergeant at Arms.”
After this had been read Townsend was ordered to the Bar, and, having
been reprimanded by the Speaker, was discharged.
The growing dissatisfaction with the home government was fanned into
open opposition when the news arrived in the colonies that the
Ministry, not content with the restrictions which it had placed upon
the growing trade of the Atlantic coast towns, had decided to introduce
direct taxation by a duty on stamped paper. The popular press in
New York was filled with articles against the Stamp Act, but these
articles were far exceeded in number and influence by handbills which
were posted throughout the town, and read and discussed by all the
inhabitants. The Assembly passed all this over, in silence, tacitly
permitting what but a short time before would have brought any one
suspected of complicity in the writing or printing of the same to its
Bar.
But a peculiarly offensive piece of writing finally was taken notice
of. It was about a month after the riot of Nov. 1st, 1765, (when the
Stamp Act was due to go into effect,) on which occasion some damage
had been done to the fort and batteries, that,[10] “Mr. Lott, Clerk
to this House, presented on the 26th instant, a sealed Letter to the
House, directed in the words following, viz. ‘To the General Assembly
of the Province of New York.’ Which Letter was delivered to him, the
said Lott, by his Clerk who had received it from a Person unknown;
and was enclosed in another Letter directed, ‘To Mr. Lott, Mercht. in
New York,’ and the same being read, was in the words following: ‘on
Receiving you are to read the in Closed in the open assembly of this
Province New York as you are Clark and whare of fail not on your perrel.
(Signed) FREEDOM.’”
* * * * *
And then the Letter addressed to the General Assembly being opened
and also read, was in the Words following: ‘Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives you are to consider what is to be Done first Drawing
of as much money from the Lieut. Governors Sallery as will Repare the
fort and on Spike the Guns on the Battery and the next a Repeal of the
Gunning Act and then thare will be a good Militia but not before and
also as you are asetting you may Consider of the Building Act as it is
to take place nex yeare wich it Cannot for thare is no Supply of Some
Sort of meterials Require’d this Law is not Ground on Reasons but thare
is a Grate many Reasons to the Contrary do Gentlemen we desire you
will Do what Lays in your power for the Good of the public but if you
take this ill be not so Conceited as to Say or think that other People
know noting about Government you have made these Laws and say they are
Right but they are Rong and take a way Liberty, Oppressons of your
make Gentlemen make us Sons of Liberty think you are not for the Public
Liberty, this is the General Opinion for this part of Your Conduct.
by order
Signd. one and all
FREEDOM’
1765 Nov. 26.
“The House then proceeded to the Consideration of the said Letters,
and having fully weighed and Examined the same;
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente,
That, said Letters are Libellous, Scandalous and Seditious, containing
many indecent and insolent Expressions, highly reflecting on the
Honour, Justice and Authority of, and an High Insult and Indignity
to this House; and are designed and calculated to inflame the Minds
of the good People of this Colony, against their Representatives in
General Assembly.
Resolved, Nemine Contradicente,
That the Author or Authors of the said Letters is, or are, guilty of
an High Misdemeanor and a most daring Insult on the Honour, Justice,
and Authority of this House.”
They then resolved to present an Address to the Governor calling on him
to offer a reward of £50 for the discovery of the Author or Authors,
and say that the House will provide means to meet the expense.
Writing under date of Sept. 23, 1765 to Secretary Conway in England,
Lieutenant Governor Colden remarks on this general subject:[11]
“Soon after it was known that Stamp Duties were by Act of Parliament
to be paid in the Colonies, virulent papers were published in the
Weekly Newspapers, filled with every falsehood that malice could
invent to serve their purpose of exciting the people to disobedience
of the Laws and to Sedition. At first they only denied the authority
of Parliament to lay internal taxes in the Colonies but at last
they have denyed the Legislative Authority of the Parliament in the
Colonies, and these papers continue to be published.
I agreed with the Gentlemen of the Council that considering the
present temper of the people this is not a proper time to prosecute
the printers and Publishers of the Seditious Papers. The Attorney
General likewise told me that he does not think himself safe to
commence any such Prosecution.”
And in another letter to Secretary Conway under date of Oct. 12,
1765,[12] he again refers to the matter.
“Since the last which I had the honour to write to you of the 23d
of September, this town has remained quiet the inflammatory Papers
continue to be published, exciting the People to oppose the execution
of the Act of Parliament for laying a Stamp Duty in the Colonies. The
most remarkable of these Papers is enclosed. This was distributed
along the Post Roads by the Post Riders. I examined the Post Master in
this place to know how this came to be done. He assured me that it was
without his knowledge; that he had examined the Post Riders and found
that one or more Bundles of them were delivered at Woodbridge, New
Jersey, to the Post Rider, by James Parker Secretary to the General
Post Office in N. America. Parker was formerly a printer in this place
and has now a printing Press and continues to print occasionally. It
is believed that this Paper was printed by him. The Gentlemen of the
Council think it prudent at this time to delay making more particular
inquiry least it should be the occasion of raising the Mob which it is
thought proper by all means to avoid.”
(_To be continued._)
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Minutes, General Assembly, Oct. 27, 1747.
[2] Minutes, General Assembly, Oct. 27, 1747.
[3] Minutes of General Assembly of that date.
[4] Minutes, General Assembly, Oct. 19 and Oct. 21.
[5] Minutes, General Assembly of that date.
[6] Minutes, General Assembly, Nov. 13, 1753.
[7] Minutes, General Assembly, Nov. 14, 1753.
[8] Minutes, General Assembly, March 19, 1756.
[9] Minutes, General Assembly, Mar. 23, 1758.
[10] Minutes, General Assembly, Nov. 29th, 1765.
[11] Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., VII, 759.
[12] Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., VII, 767.
EARLY DAYS IN LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA (1805-1845)
[Excerpts from an address by the late W. P. Ryman, Esq., of
Wilkes-Barré, Pa., before the Wyoming Historical and Geological
Society.]
THE EARLIEST SETTLERS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENTS
The difficulties of settling Dallas township were very great. It was
comparatively an easy thing to cut a path or road along the banks of
Toby’s Creek and find a way even to its source, but to settle there
alone, many miles from any clearing, and meet the wolves, bears and
other wild animals, which were terrible realities in those early days,
saying nothing of the still pending dread of the prowling Indian, was a
very serious undertaking.
When a small boy I heard Mr. Charles Harris, then an old man, tell some
of his early recollections, which ran back to about the time of the
battle and massacre of Wyoming. He told us of the Indians who once came
into the house where he and his mother were alone and demanded food.
There being nothing better they roasted a pumpkin before the fire and
scraped it off and ate it as fast as it became soft with cooking. He
also told us about his father’s first settling on the westerly side of
Kingston Mountain at what is still known as the “Harris Settlement”
about two miles north of Trucksville. He said that his father worked
all the first day felling trees and building a cabin. Night came on
before the cabin could be inclosed. With the darkness came a pack of
wolves, and, to protect his family, Mr. Harris built a fire and sat up
all night to keep it burning. The wolves were dazed and would not come
near a fire, and when daylight came they disappeared. To pass one night
under such circumstances required bravery, but to stay, build a house,
clear a farm and raise a family with such terrors constantly menacing
exhibited a courage that commands our highest esteem.
Among those who came in the first decade were Joseph Worthington
and wife--the latter a daughter of Jonathan Buckley. They came from
Connecticut in the year 1806 and settled near Harvey’s Lake. His first
house was built of logs, and stood on the hill about a quarter of a
mile from the eastern inlet to Harvey’s Lake. When he first moved into
that country there was no road from Huntsville to Harvey’s Lake except
a bridle path. Mr. Worthington cut a way through and built a house when
his nearest neighbor was miles away and no clearings in sight anywhere.
Wolves were then very numerous and bold at night, and the only way Mr.
Worthington could protect his family from their assaults was for all to
climb the ladder to the second floor and pull the ladder up after them.
Mr. Worthington used to say that his life during those early days was
most lonely and disheartening.
THE VILLAGE STORE
The best of the first stores in Dallas would hardly be dignified by
that name now. Only a few necessaries were kept in any of them, and
“necessaries” then had a much scantier meaning than now. A few of the
commonest and cheapest cotton cloths were kept in stock; the woolen
goods used for winter wear, for both men and women, were all homespun.
It took many years for the storekeepers to convince the farmers that
they could buy heavy clothes of part wool and part cotton that would be
as durable and cheaper than the all wool homespun. The time spent on
the latter was counted as nothing, and the argument failed. A few other
goods of kinds in daily use, such as coffee, tea, sugar, molasses,
tobacco, powder, shot and flints and rum were of course necessary
to any complete store. Hunting materials and supplies were in great
demand. A hunter’s outfit at that time was proverbially “a quarter
pound of powder, a pound of shot, a pint of rum and a flint.” The flint
was the box of matches of that day. Before the invention of the lucifer
match, the matter of keeping fire in a house, especially in winter
time, was one of extreme importance in that sparsely settled country.
Everyone burned wood then, about there, and fire was kept over night by
covering a few “live coals” with ashes in the fireplace. Sometimes this
failed, and then, if no flint and punk were at hand, some member of the
family had to go to the nearest neighbor, probably a mile or more away,
and bring fire. It is not difficult to imagine their sufferings during
the winters in this respect. Had food, clothing and other things been
plenty and good, this hardship could have been better endured; but they
were not, and worst of all, there were almost no means of procuring
them. There was an abundance of game and fish for a time, but they did
not satisfy a civilized people.
EARLY AGRICULTURE
The only plow in use then was the old-fashioned shovel plow. The only
iron about it was the blade, which was about the shape of an ordinary
round-pointed shovel. This was fastened to the lower end of an upright
post. To the post were attached handles to hold it with, and a beam or
tongue to which the team could be hitched. This plow was jabbed into
the ground here and there between roots, stumps and stones, and with it
a little dirt could be torn up now and then. There was no patent plow
in use then, nor could it be used there for many years after we settled
in Dallas. Nor could we use a cradle for cutting grain. At that time
the ground was so rough, and there were so many stumps and roots and
stones, that we had to harvest at first with a sickle.
CROPS AND PIGEONS
Buckwheat was early introduced in Dallas, and was afterwards so
extensively raised there that the expression “Buckwheat-Dallas” was
frequently used by the way of marking this fact in connection with the
name. It is a summer grain and quick to mature. In ninety days from the
day when the crop is sowed it can be grown, matured, gathered, ground
and served on the table as food, or, as has been often remarked, just
in time to meet a three months’ note in bank. Another practical benefit
from raising this grain was that, in gathering it, a large quantity
of it shook off and was scattered over the fields. This afforded a
most attractive pigeon food, and during the fall and spring seasons,
and often during much of the winter, pigeons would flock in countless
numbers all over that country. They came in such quantities that it
would be difficult to exaggerate their numbers. When a boy I used
to see flocks that extended as far as the eye could reach, from end
to end, and these long strings or waves of birds would pass over so
closely following each other that sometimes two or three flocks could
be seen at once, and some days they were almost constantly flying
over, and the noise of their wings was not unlike the sound of a high
wind blowing through a pine wood. They cast a shadow as they passed
over almost like a heavy cloud. Often they flew so low as to be easily
reached with an ordinary shotgun. The skilled way of capturing them in
large numbers, however, was with a net. William or Daddy Emmons was a
famous pigeon trapper as well as fisherman. He used decoy pigeons. They
were blind pigeons tied to the ground at some desired spot, and when
they heard the noise of large flocks flying overhead, they would flap
their wings as if to fly away. Attracted by this the flock would come
down and settle near the decoys, where plenty of buckwheat was always
to be found. When a sufficient number had settled and collected on the
right spot, Mr. Emmons, who was concealed in a bush or bough house near
by, would spring his net over them quickly and fasten them within.
After properly securing the net, the work of killing them began. It
was done in an instant by crushing their heads between the thumb and
fingers. Hundreds were often caught and killed in this way at one
spring of the net. Pigeons were so plenty that some hunters cut off and
saved the breast only, and threw the rest away.
THE OLD LOG CHURCH
Of all the occasions in the church, none ever approached such intensity
of feeling and excitement as the “revival” or “protracted meeting”
season.
These meetings usually began late in the fall, about the time or just
after the farmers had finished their fall work. The first symptom
usually appeared in the slightly extra fervor which the minister
put in his sermons and prayers on Sunday. Then a special prayer
meeting would be set for some evening during the week. Other special
meetings soon followed, so that, if all things were favorable, the
revival or “protracted meeting” would be at a white heat within two
or three weeks. In the meantime the fact would become known far and
near, and the “protracted meeting” would be the leading event of the
neighborhood. If the sleighing became good, parties would be formed
miles away to go sleigh riding with this “protracted meeting” as their
objective visiting point, often from idle curiosity or for want of
something more instructive or entertaining to do. Others went equally
far, through storm and mud, in wagons or on foot, from a higher sense
of personal responsibility and duty. With many it was a most grave
and serious business. The house was usually packed to repletion.
Professional ambulatory revivalists, often from remoter parts of the
state or county, would stop there on their religious crusades through
the land, to attend and help at these meetings. Many of these were
specially gifted in the kind of praying and speaking that was usually
most successful at such times. It is not overdrawing to say that many
times on a still night the noise of those meetings was heard a mile
away from the church. In one occasion I saw a leading exhorter at one
of those meetings enter the pulpit, take off his coat, hurl it into
a corner, and standing in his shirt sleeves begin a wild and excited
harangue. After possibly half an hour of most violent imprecations and
raving he came down from the pulpit, jumped up on top of the rail which
extended down the center of the room and divided the seats on the two
sides of the house, and from there finished, and exhausted himself,
begging and pleading with sinners to come forward and be converted, and
invoking “hell fire” and all the torments supposed to accompany this
kind of caloric, upon those who dared to smile or exhibit a sentiment
or action not in accord with his.
The principal argument at those meetings was something to excite
fear through most terrible picturings of hell, and the length of an
eternal damnation and death. Scores would be converted, and many would
backslide before the probationary season had ended. Some were annually
re-converted, and as often returned again to their natural state. Many
remained true to the new life, and became useful and prominent members
of the church and community. It cannot be successfully denied that many
were reached and reformed at those meetings whose consciences never
could have been touched by any milder form of preaching. They had to be
gathered in a whirlwind or not at all.
THE SECOND ADVENT
This chapter cannot well be closed without some reference to
“Millerism” and the preaching of Millerite doctrines in the winter
of 1842-43. It is doubtful if any other religious movement of modern
times, and certainly few in all historic time, have ever, in so short
a period, awakened so vast a religious excitement and terror as the
announcement and promulgation of these doctrines. Ten years before Rev.
William Miller, of Pittsfield, Mass., began preaching upon the subject
of the second coming of Christ, and claimed to have discovered some
key to the prophecies by which the near approach of the end of the
world and of the judgment day was clearly shown. His earnest manner
and elaborate arguments, apparently fortified with abundant historic
proof, had attracted great attention and started many followers to
adopt and preach the doctrines, so that, at the period named, the
excitement attending it throughout Christendom was at its highest
point. The time for this holocaust had been definitely fixed by these
modern interpreters. The year was 1843 and February was the month
when all things were to collapse and end. Even the day was fixed by
some. On that, however, all did not agree. Some fixed the 14th and
others the 16th of February, and others still other days in that month
for the happening of this terrible event. When we recall that the
doctrine found millions of believers in the most civilized centers
of the world, and for a time seriously paralyzed business in London,
New York and Philadelphia, we will not wonder that with the people
then living in the dreary solitudes of Dallas, such a doctrine found
ready listeners and willing believers almost everywhere. The old log
schoolhouse was not large enough to hold the meetings, and others were
started in different places. A very large one was conducted at the
“Goss” or “Corner” schoolhouse. The time was getting short, and with
the nearing of the fatal day excitement increased. Half the people
of the community were in some degree insane. Many people refused to
do any business, but devoted themselves entirely to religious work
and meditation. These meetings were started early in the fall, and
were kept up continuously through the winter. The plan and intention
of the leaders was to convert everyone in Dallas township, and with
a few exceptions the plan succeeded. Of course there were different
degrees of faith. Some were so sure of the dissolution of all things
on the appointed day that they refused to make any provisions for a
longer existence. One man, Christian Snyder, refused to sell corn or
grain, but was willing to give it away to the needy, and only desired
to keep enough for the needs of himself and family until the fixed
final day. Many of the people spent that dreadful winter reading the
Bible, praying and pondering over that horrible interpretation. The
memorable meteoric shower which extended almost over the whole world on
the night of the 12th and 13th of November, 1833, was still fresh in
the memory of almost every adult, and was well calculated to prepare
the mind to believe the proofs and prophecies of such a catastrophe.
That never-to-be-forgotten rain of fire must have been frightfully
impressive even to the most scientific man who could best understand
the causes which produced it. It has no parallel in recorded history,
and one can quite readily understand how such an interpretation of the
holy prophecies, following immediately such a fiery manifestation in
the heavens, should find easy believers.
Converts were frequently baptized that winter by immersion through
holes cut in the ice, and in one instance, I am credibly informed, when
a parent only succeeded in converting a doubting daughter on the night
before the supposed fatal day, he took her himself on that bitter cold
night to the nearest mill-pond, cut a hole in the ice and baptized her
by immersion. The man was personally well known to me, and to the day
of his death, which occurred only within the last decade, he remained
firm in his faith in similar interpretations of the prophecies, and
continued calculating and fixing new dates in the future for the coming
of the end of all things. He was never disconcerted by any failures,
but seriously accounted for it by saying that he had made a little
error in his calculation, and gave you a new and corrected date further
on. This man was Christopher Snyder.
An anecdote is told of Harris in connection with the meteoric shower
above referred to, illustrating the common belief that the stars had
actually fallen from the heavens. On the evening following the shower,
Mr. Harris said he could see a great diminution of the number of
stars in the heavens, and ventured the belief that a few more showers
like the one of the evening before would use up the rest of them. So
common was this belief that the stars had actually fallen, so great
and memorable was the event, that to this day, among the older men
about Dallas, you will occasionally hear men trying to fix the date or
year of some long past occurrence, and not infrequently one will say
something like this: “Well, I know it happened then because the stars
fell in thirty-three, and this happened just so many years after” (or
before, just as the case may be)--“now figure it up yourself.”
SOCIAL THINGS
Of “apple cuts” I can speak in lighter vein. They were generally
occasions of great merriment.
It has been truly said that a country is poor indeed when it is so poor
that dried apples become a luxury. Before the days of cheap sugar and
canned fruits, dried apples and cider apple sauce, the latter made of
apples boiled to a pulp in cider, were luxuries and necessities both
in many places besides ours. Apples were always abundant and cheap
in Dallas. In fact, when the forests are cleared away, apple trees
are found to spring up spontaneously in some places, and only need
a little trimming and protection to become good orchards. This fact
was accounted for to the writer by the owner of one such orchard as
follows: He said a good many people had marveled at the natural growth
of his orchard, and had asked him how he could account for it. “Of
course you know,” said he, “that it has always been my habit to give
such things a good deal of thought. I could never be satisfied, like
most folks, to just sit down and take things as they come without
trying to understand them, and I always keep at them until I cipher
them out. Now, you see it’s just like this about these apple trees:
Some day or ’nuther, probably millions of years ago, this hull country
was overflowed by the ocean. That’s plain enough to any man who takes
the trouble to think about these things. Well, right about over here
somewhere there has been a shipwreck some day, and a ship load of
apples has sunk right here, and these apple trees have sprung from the
seeds. You know a seed will keep a great while and then grow.”
The work of paring the apples and removing the cores for an ordinary
family’s winter supply of dried apples and apple butter, before the
days of machines for that purpose, was a task of no little magnitude.
All had to be done by hand and as sometimes happened, many bushels had
to be so treated. It was a task that would have occupied the working
portion of an ordinary family several days, and thus much of the fruit
would, from long keeping, have lost its value for cider appliance by
becoming stale and partly dried. For this reason there seemed almost
a necessity for calling in help sufficient to do the required amount
of work in a very short period of time. The apple cut solved this
difficulty successfully. When a family had once determined on having
an apple cut, it was given out to the nearest neighbors, and from them
it spread of its own accord for miles around. Those who heard of it
could go if they chose to. No special invitations were required. The
apple cut was an evening festivity, and was most “prevalent” just after
buckwheat thrashing, when the nights were cool and the roads not very
muddy. I am told that in later years it began to be considered “bad
form” to go to an apple cut without special invitation; but apple cuts
were degenerating then, and they died soon after when the apple parer
in its present improved form was introduced.
The old-fashioned apple cut was a very informal affair. Each guest
upon arrival was expected to take a plate and knife, select a seat and
some apples, and begin work without disturbing anyone else. The “cut”
usually lasted for an hour or two. Twenty or thirty people could, and
did usually, accomplish a good deal in that time in the way of work as
well as say and do a great many of the commonplace things that country
people ordinarily indulge in when thus congenially thrown together.
After the work was finished and the _débris_ cleared away, a
surreptitious fiddle was sometimes pulled from an old grain bag and
started up. “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” “Money Musk” and “The Arkansaw
Traveler” composed the stock of the average fiddler thereabouts in
those days, and any of them was enough to set all heels, with the
slightest proclivities in that way, to kicking in the French Four,
Virginia Reel or Cotillion. At some houses dancing was looked upon
as improper, and in its stead some simple games were played. The
festivities usually broke off early, as all had long distances to go.
Dissipation in the matter of late hours could not be indulged in very
much, because of the very general country habit of early rising.
The gentlemen did not often forget or fail to be gallant in the matter
of escorting the ladies home. Usually the demands of etiquette were
satisfied with the gentleman “going only as far as the chips,” as it
was commonly expressed, meaning, of course, the place where the wood
was hauled in front of the house and chopped up for firewood.
“Going as far as the chips” was an expression as common and as
generally understood in that day as going to the front gate would be
now. The front gate then was generally a few improvised steps to assist
in climbing over the rail fence at some point near the “chips” or wood
pile.
“Spinning Bees” and “Quilting Bees” were exclusively feminine
industries. With each invitation to a “spinning bee” was sent a bunch
of tow sufficient for two or three days’ spinning, which the recipient
was expected to convert into thread or yarn by or before the date fixed
for the party. The acceptance of the tow was equivalent to a formal
acceptance of the invitation. On the appointed day each lady took her
bunch of spun tow and proceeded early in the afternoon to the house of
the hostess. The afternoon was usually spent in the usually easy and
unconventional manner that might be expected when a dozen or fifteen
able-bodied women of the neighborhood, who had not seen each other
lately, are assembled. This was, of course, long before the newspaper
or magazine had reached their present perfection, and before the daily
paper “brought the universe to our breakfast table.”
The surest way for a lady to avoid being the subject of comment was to
be at the meeting. The gentlemen always came in time for tea and to see
the ladies home.
“Quilting Bees” define themselves in their name. They were very similar
to spinning bees, except that the work was done after the guests had
assembled.
Of “Stoning Bees,” “Logging Bees” and “Raising Bees,” description is
unnecessary. The names are almost self-explaining, though just why
they were called “Bees” I cannot learn, unless it is because those who
came were expected to, and usually did, imitate the industrial virtues
of that insect. They were also sometimes called “frolics,” possibly
for the reason that the frolicking was often as hard and as general
as the work. Strong and hearty men were much inclined to playful
trials of strength and other frivolities when they met at such times.
This tendency was much enhanced in the earlier days by the customary
presence of intoxicants.
These amusements were varied and extended far beyond those above
mentioned. They exhibited and illustrate much of the character,
surroundings and habits of those early people. They wanted no better
amusement. It was, in their esteem, a wicked waste of time and in
conflict with their necessary economies to have parties or gatherings
of any kind exclusively for amusement, and unaccompanied with some
economic or industrial purpose like those indicated above.
The dancing party or ball was a thing of later date, but even when it
came, and for many years after, it was looked upon by the more serious
people as not only wicked and degrading in a religious and moral point
of view, but very wasteful in an economic sense.
Their hard sense taught them that their industrio-social gatherings,
together with the church meetings and Sunday-schools, furnished ample
occasions for the young to meet and become acquainted, while the
elements of evil that crept into modern society elsewhere were there
reduced to a minimum.
A THRIFTY STOREKEEPER
A good story is told of Joseph Hoover dating well back in the first
half of the century. He went one day to the store of Mr. Jacob R----,
in a neighboring town, to get a gallon of molasses, taking with him
the jug usually used for that purpose. As it happened that day, the
son, Isaac, who usually waited on him, was otherwise engaged, and the
father, Jacob, went down cellar to draw the molasses. After being gone
some time, Jacob called up from the cellar to Joseph and said that the
jug did not hold a gallon. “Call Isaac,” replied Hoover, “and let him
try; he has always been able to get a gallon in that jug!”
THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
A PAGE OF HISTORY CORRECTED
III
HALLECK AND POPE
The fourth letter[13] contains a sentence which almost takes one’s
breath. It is bunglingly constructed--a thing unusual in Pope’s
communications. He had received a letter from Halleck, dated November
7, intimating that the Secretary of War would order a court of inquiry,
and he answers, conveying the following:
“The overt act at Alexandria, during the engagement near Centreville,
can be fully substantiated by letters from many officers since I have
been here [St. Paul], it is quite certain [Now mark!] _that my defeat
was predetermined_, [Now mark again!] and I think you must now be
conscious of it.”
Pope does not even intimate who predetermined that “overt act,”
although he intimates rather clearly that Halleck is conscious of the
facts. It is difficult to see, however, how either McClellan, Porter or
Griffin could “predetermine” either a victory or a defeat at that time.
On the 25th day of November, 1862, the very day set by General Pope,
Major-General Halleck ordered a general court-martial for the trial
of Major-General Fitz-John Porter, and on that same day he made
his official report of the battle in which he certified to Pope’s
efficiency, as the latter had demanded in those uncanny letters. And on
the 5th day of December, Major-General Pope declared under oath:
“This is all I have yet done”: _i. e._, “in my official reports of the
operations of the army, to set forth all the facts as they transpired
on the field. I have not preferred charges against him. I have merely
set forth facts in my official reports,” etc.
The “Official Records” referred to show that he “set forth” certain
facts [or fancies] in his private letters to Halleck, which, by some
mysterious influence have found their way into print, and suggest that
an explanation is in order to reconcile his sworn testimony with the
fact that he was urging General Halleck to action, by military court,
and even threatening him in case he should neglect such action.
He says: “No man knows better than yourself the constancy, the energy,
and the zeal with which I endeavored to carry out your programme in
Virginia. Your own letters and dispatches, from beginning to end, are
sufficient evidence of this fact, and also of the fact that I not only
committed no mistake, but that every act and movement met with your
heartiest concurrence.”
[_Note._--This statement is fully corroborated by the “Official
Records.” It is as certain as anything can be that Halleck formulated
the plan and that Pope executed it. If he appeared to be making
mistakes, he was obeying orders, and Halleck should be chargeable.]
Pope continues: “Your own declarations to me up to the last hour I
remained in Washington bore testimony that I had shown every quality to
command success.”...
“Having, at your own urgent request [Mark that well! and what follows
also. This paragraph shows that Halleck himself was the instigator
of the charges against Porter], and from a sense of duty [!] laid
before the Government, the conduct of McClellan, Porter and Griffin,
and substantiated the facts stated by their own written documents, I
am not disposed to push the matter further, unless the silence of the
Government [this means Halleck, as has been shown Halleck was the only
objector to the gratification of Pope’s wishes], in the midst of the
unscrupulous slander and misrepresentation purposely put in circulation
against me and the restoration of these officers, without trial, to
their commands, coupled with my banishment to a distant and unimportant
department, render it necessary as an act of justice to myself.”
How keenly Pope feels his disgrace, having been used as a tool and then
flung aside, is shown clearly. He continues:
“As I have already said, I challenge and seek examination of my
campaign in Virginia in all its details, and unless the Government by
some high mark of public confidence, such as they have given to me in
private, relieves me from the atrocious injury done to my character as
a soldier ... justice to myself and to all connected with me demands
that I should urge the court of inquiry.... This investigation, under
the circumstances above stated, I shall assuredly urge in every way. If
it cannot be accomplished by military courts, it will undoubtedly be
the subject of the inquiry in Congress.”
Then follows a darkly ominous hint: “It is especially hard, in view of
my relations with you [Note that!] that I should be compelled even to
ask at your hands the justice which it is your duty to assure to every
officer of the army.... I tell you frankly that by the time Congress
meets such influences as can not be resisted will be brought to bear on
this subject.... I prefer greatly that you should do me this justice of
your own accord.”[14]
Altogether this letter is a rare specimen of the chiaroscuro in the art
epistolary; it tells of Halleck’s acts of injustice which Pope will
right by every means in his power. At times it breathes hatred and
vengeance, and closes with such a loving assurance as this:
“I write you this letter with mixed feelings. Personal friendship and
interest in your welfare, I think, predominate. I am not so blinded as
not to know that it gave you pain to allow such scandal against me and
to take such action as you thought the peculiar circumstances required.
Much as I differ with you on the subject, I am not ready to blame you
or to feel bitterly.”
Then follows that warning: “I impress upon you the necessity for your
own sake of considering carefully the suggestions I have presented,”
and closes with the assurance, “I shall not again address you a letter
on such a subject.”
This assurance was not fulfilled. Indeed, Pope wrote several letters
on the subject, as will appear. Queer letters were they, to be written
by a major-general commanding a department, to his superior, the
general-in-chief, to whom he administers the medicine _à la cheval de
trait_.
To summarize: Pope makes these charges against Halleck.
(1) That the plan of campaign was Halleck’s.[15]
(2) That Pope was but an instrument in the hands of the
general-in-chief.[16]
(3) That Pope faithfully executed Halleck’s plans.[17]
(4) That the latter fully approved every act of the former, thereby
making himself responsible, so far as Pope was concerned, for the final
result.[18]
Here a pause. These charges are fully substantiated by letters and
telegrams passing between Halleck and Pope, which appear in parts II
and III, of Vol. XII, of the Official Records. Pope was regularly
advising Halleck of his movements, and Halleck was as regularly
approving the same. And as late as August 26, 11:45 A. M., Halleck
wired Pope: “Not the slightest dissatisfaction has been felt in regard
to your operations on the Rappahannock,” etc.
Returning to the charges:
(5) That Pope had made the charges against Generals McClellan, Porter
and Griffin “at Halleck’s own urgent request.”[19] Halleck was the real
instigator.
(6) That Halleck had not assigned him [Pope] to command of the western
department, which, as Pope says, “would at once have freed me [Pope]
from the odium and abuse which have so shamefully and unjustly been
heaped upon me by the papers and people,” etc.[20]
(7) That he found himself banished to the frontier.[21]
(8) That his character and reputation as a soldier had been deeply and
irretrievably injured.[22]
(9) That the Government refused to allow him to publish the facts[23]
and
(10) That General-in-Chief Halleck declined to acknowledge his services
publicly.
All through the letters are insinuations and charges against McClellan,
Porter and Griffin. And he makes categorical demand in these words:
“I said, and say now, that one of three things I was entitled to; any
one of them would have satisfied me. The dictates of the commonest
justice gave me the right to expect one of them at least:
1st. That the court of inquiry be at once held and the blame be fixed
where it belongs. It is now too late for that, as the delay has already
made the worst impression against me that is possible.
2d. That the Government should acknowledge publicly, as it had done
privately, my services in Virginia, or
3d. That in case neither of these things could be done, then that
the Government bestow upon me some mark of public confidence, as its
opinion of my ability warranted.
None of these things have been done,” etc.
He continues: “You know me well enough I think, to understand that I
will never submit if I can help it. The court of inquiry, which you
inform me has been ordered, will amount to nothing for several reasons.
It is too late, so far as I am concerned. Its proceedings, I presume,
will be secret, as in Harper’s Ferry business. The principal witnesses
are here with me, and I myself should be present. The Mississippi River
closes by the 25th of November [Note that date!]; frequently sooner
than that. It is then next to impossible to get away from this place. A
journey through the snow of 200 miles is required to communicate with
any railroad.”[24]
And on the very day which Pope had named, November 25, 1862,
General-in-Chief Halleck issued his order for the court-martial of
Fitz-John Porter, and issued his report certifying to the efficiency
of General Pope, thus avoiding the court of inquiry which Pope had
threatened to demand.
Such a court, if honestly conducted, would have laid bare the truth,
and shown to the world that Halleck himself had prevented the
reinforcements from reaching Pope, caused the defeat of Second Bull
Run, imperiled the national capital, and opened the door of Maryland to
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.
This conclusion is supported both by Halleck’s official report and by
his testimony before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. In
the former, he says: “Had the Army of the Potomac arrived a few days
earlier, the rebel army could have been easily defeated and, perhaps,
destroyed.” His testimony before that committee, on March 11, 1863.[25]
“Question. To what do you attribute the disastrous result of General
Pope’s campaign?
Answer. I think our troops were not sufficiently concentrated so as to
be all brought into action on the field of battle; and there was great
delay in getting reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac to General
Pope’s assistance.
Question. To what is that delay attributable?
Answer. Partly, I think, to accidents, and partly to a want of
energy in the troops, or their officers, in getting forward to
General Pope’s assistance. I could not say that that was due to any
particular individual. It may have resulted from the officers generally
not feeling the absolute necessity of great haste in re-enforcing
General Pope. The troops, after they started from the Peninsula, were
considerably delayed by heavy storms that came on at that time.”
[_Note._--General Halleck has not told that committee, what his own
letters and telegrams conclusively prove, that the principal delay of
those reinforcements was due to his own wilfully false telegrams to
Generals McClellan, Burnside, and Porter, and that he also prevented
General Franklin and the Sixth Army Corps from reaching Pope from
Alexandria by refusing to provide transportation. The next question and
answer fixes the blame directly upon Halleck himself]:
“Question. Had the Army of the Peninsula [_i. e._, the army under
McClellan, which embraced both Porter’s and Franklin’s corps] been
brought to co-operate with the Army of Virginia [under the command of
Pope] with the utmost energy that circumstances would have permitted,
in your judgment as a military man, would it not have resulted in our
victory instead of our defeat?
Answer. I thought so at the time, and still think so.”
And this is the opinion of all military critics who have pronounced
judgment in the case. It is also certainly true that Halleck’s own
orders and telegrams prove that he himself, and apparently purposely,
prevented such co-operation, and it throws a peculiar significance on
Pope’s charge in his letter to Halleck, dated November 20, 1862, before
quoted, “_It is quite certain that my defeat was predetermined, and I
think you must now be conscious of it_.”[26]
The consequences which followed the defeat of Pope were not immediately
and fully appreciated at the time in the North, on account of the
censorship of the press, nor do they seem to be so at this day. Orders
were given to prepare for the evacuation of Washington; vessels were
ordered to the arsenal to receive the munitions of war for shipment
northward; one warship was anchored in the Potomac, ready to receive
the President, the Cabinet and the more important archives of the
Government: Secretary Stanton advised Mr. Hiram Barney, then Collector
of the Port of New York, to leave Washington at once, as communication
might be cut off before morning;[27] Stanton and Halleck assured
President Lincoln that the Capital was lost.
Singularly enough the designs against Washington in the East were
at the same time and in the same manner being duplicated against
Cincinnati, then the “Queen City of the West.”
On August 30, while Pope was fighting the second Bull Run battle in
Virginia, the Confederate Major-General, E. Kirby Smith, was fighting
the battle of Richmond, Ky. In his report to General Braxton Bragg,
Smith says:
“The enemy’s loss during the day is about 1400 killed and wounded,
and 4000 prisoners. Our loss is about 500 killed and wounded. General
Miller was killed, General Nelson wounded, and General Manson taken
prisoner. The remnant of the Federal force in Kentucky is making its
way, utterly demoralized and scattered, to the Ohio. General Marshall
is in communication with me. Our column is moving upon Cincinnati.”
On September 2, Lexington was occupied by Kirby Smith’s infantry. He
reports to General Cooper that the Union killed and wounded exceed
1000; “the prisoners amount to between 5000 and 6000; the loss--besides
some twenty pieces of artillery, including that taken here (Lexington)
and at Frankfort--9000 small arms and large quantities of supplies.”
The Confederate cavalry, he reports, pursued the Union forces to within
twelve miles of Louisville; and, he adds: “I have sent a small force to
Frankfort, to take possession of the arsenal and public property there.
I am pushing some forces in the direction of Cincinnati, in order to
give the people of Kentucky time to organize. General Heth, with the
advance, is at Cynthiana, with orders to threaten Covington.”
This invasion of Kentucky was due to Halleck, as was proved before
the military court appointed “to inquire into and report upon the
operations of the forces under command of Major-General Buell in the
States of Tennessee and Kentucky, and particularly in reference to
General Buell suffering the State of Kentucky to be invaded by the
rebel forces under General Bragg,” etc.
That court was in session from November 27, 1862, until May 6, 1863,
with the gallant Major-General Lew Wallace presiding. Its opinion
recited that Halleck had ordered General Buell to march against
Chattanooga and take it, with the ulterior object of dislodging Kirby
Smith and his rebel force from East Tennessee; that General Buell had
force sufficient to accomplish the object if he could have marched
promptly to Chattanooga; that the plan of operation prescribed by
General Halleck compelled General Buell to repair the Memphis and
Charleston railroad from Corinth to Decatur, and put it in running
order; that the road proved of comparatively little service; that
the work forced such delays that a prompt march upon Chattanooga
was impossible, while they made the rebel invasion of Tennessee and
Kentucky possible. Our forces were driven northward to the Ohio,
leaving the Memphis and Charleston railroad in excellent condition for
the use of the Confederates. Strangely enough, Halleck’s orders to
Buell had inured to the benefit of the Confederates in the West, in the
same manner and along the same lines as his orders to McClellan and to
Pope had inured to the benefit of the Confederates in the East.
Both Washington and Cincinnati were imperiled at the same time, and by
the same officer, General-in-Chief Halleck, and in the same way--by a
succession of steps that appear to have been carefully planned.
Now, mark what follows.
On March 1, 1872, the House of Representatives called upon the
Secretary of War for a copy of the proceedings of that military
court; and on April 13 the Secretary reported to the House, “that
a careful and exhaustive search among all the records and files in
this Department fails to discover what disposition was made of the
proceedings of the Commission,” etc.
But though the records of those proceedings which fix the blame for
that campaign upon Major-General Halleck were lost or stolen from the
archives of the War Department, Benn Pitman, the phonographic reporter
of the court, had possession of a report of those proceedings. And,
by Act of Congress, approved by President Grant on June 5, 1872, the
Secretary of War was “directed to employ at once Benn Pitman to make
a full and complete transcript of the phonographic notes taken by him
during the said investigation, and to put the same on file among the
records of the War Department, and to furnish a copy of the same to
Congress.”
The report of those proceedings may now be found in “Official
Records,” Series I, Vol. XVI, Part I, pp. 6 to 726, inclusive. The
most melancholy part of the story lies in the fact that Porter, who
certainly helped to save Washington from falling into Lee’s hands, had
his life blasted by Halleck, and died without knowledge that Halleck,
not Pope, was really guilty of the disaster which so nearly resulted in
the abandonment of the Capital to the Confederates, and while Halleck
was directing affairs in the West in such a manner as to imperil
Cincinnati.
The remarkable co-operation between Pope and Buell for the surrender
of those cities, and which was attempted by Halleck, does not look
like a concatenation of accidental circumstances. This is accentuated
by the charge against Halleck’s loyalty to the Republic which was made
by the gallant Wallace after he had presided over that Buell military
court. He was a careful man; and, being a good lawyer, he understood
the laws and effect of evidence. Porter, who prevented the surrender
of Washington, and Buell, who saved Cincinnati, were both punished.
It looks as if they had interfered with Halleck’s plan of a general
surrender.
L’ENVOI
In January, 1899, the writer commenced to unravel the mystery
surrounding the battle of Harper’s Ferry, which culminated in the
surrender of that post September 15, 1862. He was a member of that
garrison, and he knew that history had not truthfully recorded the
defense, some chronicles reading that “Harper’s Ferry fell without a
struggle,” others that “there was no defense”; in the main, historians
were a unit.
Such reports are wholly false. The defense of that post was stubborn
and prolonged, lasting from September 11, when the Confederates showed
themselves in Pleasant Valley, until the 15th, when the garrison was
subjected to one of the fiercest bombardments of the Civil War. Never
was hope abandoned until the last shell was expended, though the
little garrison of 12,500 men was besieged by what was practically the
whole of Lee’s army. Starting on a new line of research, and abandoning
the path beaten by others, he found many battles lost in the same
manner, and the responsibility shifted from the shoulders of the guilty
and carefully loaded upon those of the innocent, and all by the use of
the same means, a false report by General-in-Chief Halleck, and a bogus
trial by a military court.
Conspicuous among these was the battle of Second Bull Run, followed
by the trial of Fitz-John Porter. That battle was certainly lost by
Halleck, as shown by documents over that general’s own signature. And
Pope knew it, and charged that it was premeditated. To avoid the odium
which some papers were attaching to his name, the latter applied the
whip and spur to the former, who, under threat of exposure, ordered
the court-martial of the innocent and gallant Major-General Fitz-John
Porter. The battle of Harper’s Ferry followed; the result was the
same; lost by Halleck; responsibility lifted from his shoulders,
and carefully divided between General McClellan (for not relieving
the post) and Colonel Dixon S. Mills (for not defending it). After
that came Fredericksburg, with similar results; lost by Halleck;
responsibility lifted from his shoulders, and divided between Burnside
and Franklin.
Study the plans adopted in one instance; the plans adopted in the
others become manifest. The losing of the battles to the Union arms
was accomplished by carefully prepared plans, and reduced to an exact
science.
R. N. ARPE.
NEW YORK CITY.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[13] November 20, pp. 825-6.
[14] P. 818
[15] Page 817
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] P. 817.
[20] P. 818.
[21] Ibid.
[22] P. 921.
[23] Ibid.
[24] P. 822
[25] Vol. II, Part I, p. 454
[26] O. R., Vol. XII, Part III, p. 825.
[27] See Warden’s Chase, p. 415.
THE NORTHERN NECK OF VIRGINIA
PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF WASHINGTON’S BIRTHPLACE
Five Virginia counties lying between the Potomac and the Rappahannock
constitute the Northern Neck, the region in which George Washington,
Light Horse Harry Lee, and his more famous son were born and bred.
There are a scant thousand square miles in these counties of King
George, Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster, and
the population of the five is under fifty-five thousand. At no
point are the rivers much more than thirty miles apart, and near
the northern boundary line of King George the harbors on the two
streams are only nine miles apart. Washington was born on a lonely
plantation in Westmoreland County, bordering the beautiful Bridges
Creek, within sight of the Potomac. At Colonial Beach, two or three
miles across the mouth of Monroe Creek, also in Westmoreland County,
stands a house in good repair, which is declared to have been the
residence of Light Horse Harry Lee before he removed to Fairfax County.
Washington as an infant was taken by his parents to their new home
opposite Fredericksburg, in Stafford County, and at the age of twenty
he inherited from his half-brother Lawrence the fine estate of Mount
Vernon, in Fairfax County. Lawrence had named his estate in honor of
Admiral Vernon, with whom the young Virginian had served as an officer
in the campaign against the Spanish-American stronghold of Cartagena.
It was Lawrence’s acquaintance with Admiral Vernon that won for George
Washington the offer of a midshipman’s commission in the royal navy, an
appointment that only his mother’s strong objection prevented him from
accepting.
From the birthplace of Washington to his second home opposite
Fredericksburg is hardly more than fifty-five miles as the crow flies,
and from the birthplace to the scene of his death at Mount Vernon is
under seventy miles. The triangle enclosed by the lines connecting
these points includes a tract of Virginia that is full of historic
interest, and singularly rich and beautiful as an agricultural region.
Most of the counties of the Northern Neck are increasing in population,
but they lie far from railways, and their mode of communication with
the outside world is the steamboats that ply from Baltimore up and down
the two rivers.
In spite, therefore, of the rolling years, and of civil war, and
emancipation, the Northern Neck of Virginia is in many respects much
what it was when George Washington and Light Horse Harry Lee were born
a month apart in the quaint and lovely old Westmoreland of the year
1732. The visitor to Mount Vernon comes away with a strong impression
of Washington, the local magnate and world-wide hero. But Mount Vernon,
in spite of its tomb and its relics, many of them actually used and
handled by Washington himself, can hardly give one the eighteenth
century atmosphere. To obtain that one must make a pilgrimage to the
region of Washington’s birth. A fair shaft erected by the Federal
Government now stands on the spot occupied by the homestead of
Augustine Washington, the birthplace of his mighty son. The spot is
as remote and lonely as it was when Washington’s eyes first saw the
light, and the aspect of the region must be much what it was in that
day. Doubtless the woodland has shrunk in area and the plowed land has
widened. But there, in full view from the monument, are the land-locked
tidal waters of the little stream, and eastward lies the broad lazy
flood of the Potomac, idly moving beneath the soft overarching sky.
Everywhere are the marks of an old civilization. The road that leads
from the wharf at Wakefield on Monroe Creek to the monument is lined
with cherry trees escaped from the old orchards of the neighborhood.
The mockingbird sings in all the woodlands as it must have sung in the
ears of Augustine Washington as he moved about his fields, and gray
old log granaries of the eighteenth century pattern still stand amid
piles of last year’s corncobs. Even to-day brand-new corn cribs are
built in the same fashion of partly hewn logs. The crops are also those
of the earlier century. The monument itself stands in the midst of a
waving wheat field, and acres of Indian corn rustle green and rich as
they must have rustled in the first hot summer of George Washington’s
infancy.
The reality of it all is increased by the bodily presence of
Washington’s own kin, men and women bearing his name, the descendants
of his collateral relatives. A little boat rocking at anchor off the
wharf at Wakefield is the fishing dory of Lawrence Washington, commonly
called “Lal” Washington by his neighbors. He is a man of substance and
dignity. But he takes delight in fishing his own pound nets, and the
unpretentious fishermen of the region tell how the old man’s enthusiasm
was such that he rushed waist deep into the water to help three or four
young fellows drag ashore a heavily laden seine. His brother was for
years State’s Attorney of a neighboring county, and other members of
the family are landholders in Westmoreland. Their neighbors accept
these families of historic name in a simple, matter-of-fact fashion,
and with no humiliating sense of inferiority. “They’re all smart
people,” said the young fisherman that sailed us across Monroe Creek to
the wharf at Wakefield, and that is what Westmoreland expects of the
Washingtons.
Neighboring plantations are stocked with fine old European nut and
fruit trees, such as the colonists with the increasing wealth of the
third and fourth generations were accustomed to import. In some places
the fig is cultivated, and within the shadow of the birthplace monument
is a dense colony of young fig shoots which have sprung and resprung
after every severe winter for perhaps more than a century and a half.
The steep bank of Bridges Creek to the southeast of the monument is
lined with cherry trees that to this day bear excellent fruit, to be
had merely for the picking. One gathers from all the surroundings
of the place a strong sense of the dignity and simplicity that mark
plantation life in Virginia.
It is a quiet life, indeed, that the people of these Westmoreland
plantations lead. Even to this day sailing craft slowly worm their
way far into the deep navigable inlets of the region, and carry
freight to Baltimore and Washington. Each plantation has its own
wharf, and each planter keeps a lookout for the coming schooner, just
as their ancestors of Washington’s day must have watched for the
slow and patient craft that plied up and down the Potomac, and away
to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, or across the Atlantic to
England, a voyage that might stretch out for six or eight, ten, or even
twelve weeks.
The very speech of the people has a slightly archaic flavor, and
family names are redolent of old English ancestry. Here still are
the Kendalls, who like to boast that one of their ancestors was the
earliest mail contractor in Virginia. The elder Kendall, a man of
substance and fair education, found satisfactory reasons for selling
all that he had and coming to Jamestown with Captain John Smith. In
coming away he left behind a son just grown to manhood and some debts
owing to the estate. The son was instructed to collect what he could of
the proceeds, invest it in blankets and trinkets such as the Indians
liked, and to follow the father to Jamestown. The young man obeyed the
paternal instructions, but in sailing up the Potomac with his freight
of gewgaws he mistook the Potomac for the James. After vainly looking
for Jamestown, he concluded that the settlement had been destroyed
by the Indians, and, having reached the present site of Alexandria,
he made a settlement and called it Bell Haven. Some months later an
Indian who visited Bell Haven made the settlers to understand that
there were white men on a river further south. Young Kendall knew then
that Jamestown was still in being. So he wrote a letter to his father
and entrusted it to the Indian to be delivered at Jamestown, paying him
for the service one gay woolen blanket. Father and son thus came into
communication, but the son remained at Bell Haven, and from him are
descended the Kendalls of the Northern Neck.
The whole region teems with traditions of Washington. Down in
Northumberland County, the lovely little harbor of Lodge is named from
the fact that here stood the Masonic lodge that Washington used to
attend. The British destroyed the house during the Revolutionary War,
but the cornerstone was found and opened not many years ago, and some
of its treasures of old English money were placed in the cornerstone of
the Masonic lodge at Kinsale, another charming little Virginia harbor.
It is at Lodge that the maker of canceling dies for the Post Office
Department, exiled from Washington because of the climate, has for
nearly twenty years carried on his business with the aid of country
youths trained for the purpose.
If the shore is much what it was in Washington’s infancy, the river
and its tributaries are even more so. Those who know the Potomac at
Washington or amid the mountains that hem it in further west and north,
may well have no suspicion of the vast flood which it becomes in the
lower part of its course. Fifty miles below Washington the river is
from four to six miles wide. Sixty miles below the capital it has
spread to a width of ten miles, and in the lower forty miles of its
course it is from ten to eighteen miles wide, a great estuary of the
Chesapeake, with tributaries, almost nameless on the map, that fairly
dwarf the Hudson. The busy steamers plying these waters to carry the
produce of the plantations to the markets of Baltimore and Washington
leave the Potomac from time to time to lose themselves in its tortuous
tributaries. Cape on cape recedes to unfold new and unexpected depths
of loveliness; little harbors sit low on the tidal waters backed by
wooded bluffs, behind which lie the rich plantations of Northumberland
and Westmoreland. A soft-spoken race of easy-going Virginians haunts
the landing-places. Fishermen, still pursuing the traditional methods
of the eighteenth century, fetch in sea trout and striped bass and
pike to sell them at absurdly low prices, and for nine months of the
year oystermen are busy. Every planter who will can maintain his
pound net in the shallows of the Potomac or one of its tributaries,
and all along the lower course of the stream the planter may secure
his own oysters almost without leaving the shore. The dainties that
filled colonial larders in Washington’s youth are still the food of the
region--oysters and clams, soft-shell crabs, wild duck, geese, and swan
in winter, and a bewildering variety of fish.
Just across the Potomac from Washington’s birthplace is old Catholic
Maryland of the Calvert Palatinate, settled almost exactly a century
before his birth, and still rich in the names and traditions of that
earlier time. The great width of the separating flood makes one shore
invisible from the other, and the only means of communication are
either the local sailing craft or the steamers that weave from side to
side of the river and lengthen the voyage from Baltimore to Washington
to a matter of thirty hours. Communication between Maryland and
Virginia was almost as easy in Washington’s day, for the steamboats
have an annoying habit of neglecting many miles of one shore or the
other, and there are days when no steamer crosses the stream. A man
living in one of the little harbors of the Northern Neck, being in a
hurry to travel northward, found his most expeditious mode of travel
to be a drive of seventy miles to a railway at Richmond. Shut in thus,
the people of the Northern Neck have nursed their traditions and held
hard by their old family names, so that the visiting stranger, if he
have any touch of historic instinct, finds himself singularly moved
with a sense of his nearness in time to George Washington and his
contemporaries. The telephone, indeed, has brought these people into
tenuous communication with the modern world, but he that looks out upon
the sea-like flood of the Potomac from the mouth of one of its many
navigable tributaries in the Northern Neck can hardly persuade himself
that the capital of 80,000,000 people lies less than a hundred miles
up stream. Washington the man seems vastly more real and present than
Washington the city.
E. N. VALLANDIGHAM.
_Evening Post_, N. Y.
FANCIES AT NAVESINK
(The original manuscript of this unpublished poem by Walt Whitman, was
sold in New York recently. Apparently it was never finished; which is
to be regretted, as its few lines are in Whitman’s best manner. The
scene is on the hill by the twin lighthouses at Navesink, N. J., near
the entrance to New York harbor.--ED.)
FANCIES AT NAVESINK--THE PILOT IN THE MIST
(Steaming the Northern Rapids--an old St. Lawrence Reminiscence.)
A sudden memory-flash comes back, I know not why,
Here waiting for the sunrise, gazing from the hill.
Again ’tis at morning--a heavy haze contends with daybreak.
Again the trembling, laboring vessel veers me--we press through
foam-dash’d rocks that almost touch.
Again I, turning, mark where aft the small, thin Indian helmsman
Looms in the mist, with brow elate and governing hand--
[Illustration]
THE FIGHT AT DIAMOND ISLAND
Standing upon one of the heights near the head or southern end of Lake
George, the tourist looks down on the placid waters, and sees at his
feet a little island covered with verdure, and glowing like an emerald
in the summer sheen. This is Diamond Island,[28] one of the best known
of the many exquisite isles that gem the little inland sea.
From time immemorial it has borne its present name, derived from the
exquisite crystals with which the underlying rock abounds. Here is
the scene of the fight which took place on this lake, September 24,
1777, an occurrence that appears to have been purposely overlooked
by the Americans at the time, and which has since failed to find a
chronicler.[29]
But before proceeding to give the narrative of this event it may be
well to speak of several other points, and to make a brief statement of
the military situation at that time.
First comes the question of the discovery of Lake George by the
Europeans. According to the best knowledge that we possess, its waters
were first seen by a white man in the year 1646.[30] It is true
Champlain tells us that he saw the falls at the outlet of the lake in
1609, yet there is nothing whatever to indicate that he visited the
lake itself, though the Indians had informed him of its existence. It
is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that Lake George was seen for
the first time by a European, May 29, 1646,[31] when it received its
name, “Lake Saint Sacrament,” from the Rev. Isaac Jogues, S.J., who,
in company with Jean Bourdon, the celebrated engineer, was on his way
south to effect a treaty with the Mohawks. Arriving at the outlet of
the lake on the evening of _Corpus Christi_, they gave it the above
name in honor of this festival, which falls on the Thursday following
Trinity Sunday, and commemorates the alleged Real Presence of Christ in
the Great Sacrament.
From this time until 1755 the lake was rarely visited by Europeans. At
this period the French commenced the fortifications of Ticonderoga,
while the English met the advance by the construction of Fort William
Henry at the opposite end of the lake.
We pass over the struggles that took place on these waters during
the French wars, and come to the period of the Revolution, when a
feeble English garrison held possession of Ticonderoga, while Captain
Nordberg lived in a little cottage at the head of the lake, being the
nominal commander of empty Fort George. With the commencement of the
struggle for liberty, Lake George resumed its former importance as a
part of the main highway to the Canadas, and by this route our troops
went northward, until the tide turned, and our own soil, in the summer
of 1777, became the scene of fresh invasion. Then Burgoyne’s troops
poured in like a flood, and for a time swept all before them. It was at
this period that the fight at Diamond Island took place.
Burgoyne had pushed with his troops, by the Whitehall route, far to the
southward of Lake George, being determined to strike at Albany, having
left but a small force at Ticonderoga, a handful of men at Fort George,
and a garrison at Diamond Island to guard the stores accumulated
there. Seeing the opportunity thus broadly presented, General Lincoln,
acting under the direction of Gates, resolved to make an effort to
destroy Burgoyne’s line of communication, and, if possible, capture his
supplies. To this end, he despatched Colonel John Brown with a force to
attack Ticonderoga, an enterprise which, though attended with partial
success, failed in the end. To this failure he subsequently added
another, which resulted from the fight at Diamond Island.
But since the printed accounts of the attack upon Ticonderoga are
almost as meagre as those of the struggle at the island, we will here
give the official report, which is likewise to be found among the Gates
Papers, now in the possession of the Historical Society of New York,
prefacing the report, however, with the English statement of Burgoyne.
In the course of a vindication of his military policy, General Burgoyne
writes as follows:
“During the events stated above, an attempt was made against
Ticonderoga by an army assembled under Major-General Lincoln,
who found means to march with a considerable corps from Huberton
undiscovered, while another column of his force passed the mountains
Skenesborough and Lake George, and on the morning of the 18th of
September a sudden and general attack was made upon the carrying place
at Lake-George, Sugar-Hill, Ticonderoga, and Mount-Independence.
The sea officers commanding the armed sloop stationed to defend the
carrying place, as also some of the officers commanding at the post
of Sugar-Hill and at the Portage, were surprised, and a considerable
part of four companies of the 53d regiment were made prisoners; a
block-house, commanded by Lieutenant Lord of the 53d, was the only
post on that side that had time to make use of their arms, and they
made a brave defence till cannon taken from the surprised vessel was
brought against them.
After stating and lamenting so fatal a want of vigilance, I have to
inform your Lordship of the satisfactory events which followed.
The enemy having twice summoned Brigadier General Powell, and received
such answer as became a gallant officer entrusted with so important
a post, and having tried during the course of four days several
attacks, and being repulsed in all, retreated without having done any
considerable damage.
Brigadier General Powell, from whose report to me I extract this
relation, gives great commendations to the regiment of Prince
Frederick, and the other troops stationed at Mount-Independence. The
Brigadier also mentions with great applause the behaviour of Captain
Taylor of the 21st regiment, who was accidentally there on his route
to the army from the hospital, and Lieutenant Beecroft of the 24th
regiment, who with the artificers in arms defended an important
battery.”[32]
Such is Burgoyne’s account of the attack upon Ticonderoga; next to
which comes that of Colonel Brown, who for the second time in the
course of his military experience has an opportunity of exhibiting his
unquestioned valor. His report to General Lincoln runs as follows:
“North end of lake George landing.
thursday Sep 10^{th} 1777
Sir,
With great fatigue after marching all last night I arrived at
this place at the break of day, and after the best disposition of
the men, I could make, immediately began the attack, and in a few
minutes, carried the place. I then without any loss of time detached
a considerable part of my men to the mills, where a greater number
of the enemy were posted, who also were soon made prisoners, a small
number of whom having taken possession of a block house in that
Vicinity were with more difficulty bro’t to submission; but at the
sight of a Cannon they surrendered. during this season of success,
Mount Defiance also fell into our hands. I have taken possession of
the old french lines at Ticonderoga, and have sent a flag demanding
the surrender of Ty: and mount independence in strong and peremptory
terms. I have had as yet no information of the event of Col^o.
Johnson’s attack on the mount. My loss of men in these several actions
are not more than 3 or 4 killed and 5 wounded. the enemy’s loss; is
less. I find myself in possession of 293 prisoners. Viz^t 2 captains,
9 subs. 2 Commisaries. non Commissioned officers and privates 143
British. 119 Canadians, 18 artificers and retook more than 100 of our
men. total 293, exclusive of the prisoners retaken.--The watercraft I
have taken, is 150 batteaus below the falls on lake Champlain 50 above
the falls including 17 gun boats and one armed sloop. arms equal to
the number of prisoners. Some ammunition and many other things which
I cannot now ascertain. I must not forget to mention a few Cannon
which may be of great service to us. Tho: my success has hitherto
answered my most sanguine expectations, I cannot promise myself great
things, the events of war being so dubious in their nature, but shall
do my best to distress the enemy all in my power, having regard to my
retreat--There is but a small quantity of provisions at this place
which I think will necessitate my retreat in case we do not carry Ty
and independence--I hope you will use your utmost endeavor to give
me assistance should I need in crossing the lake &c--The enemy but a
very small force at fort George. Their boats are on an island about
14 miles from this guarded by six companies, having artillery--I
have much fear with respect to the prisoners, being obliged to send
them under a small guard--I am well informed that considerable
reinforcements is hourly expected at the lake under command of Sir
John Johnson--This minute received Gen^l. Powels answer to my demand
in these words, ‘The garrison intrusted to my charge I shall defend to
the last.’ Indeed I have little hopes of putting him to the necessity
of giving it up unless by the force under Colonel Johnson.
I am &
JOHN BROWN.”
Gen^l Lincoln.[33]
We now turn to the fight at Diamond Island, giving first the English
version, simply remarking as a preliminary, that in the postscript of
a letter addressed by Jonas Fay to General Gates, dated Bennington,
September 22, 1771, is the following:
“By a person just arrived from Fort George--only 30 men are at that
place and 2 Gun Boats anchor’d at a distance from land and that the
enemy have not more than 3 weeks provisions.”[34]
Writing from Albany after his surrender, General Burgoyne says, under
the date of October 27, that
“On the 24th instant, the enemy, enabled by the capture of the
gunboats and bateaux which they had made after the surprise of the
sloop, to embark upon Lake George, attacked Diamond Island in two
divisions.
Captain Aubrey and two companies of the 47th regiment, had been posted
at that island from the time the army passed the Hudson’s River, as
a better situation for the security of the stores at the south end
of Lake George than Fort George, which is on the continent, and not
tenable against artillery and numbers. The enemy were repulsed by
Captain Aubrey with great loss, and pursued by the gunboats under his
command to the east shore, where two of their principal vessels were
retaken, together with all the cannon. They had just time to set fire
to the other bateaux and retreated over the mountains.”[35]
This statement was based upon the report made by Lieutenant Irwine,
the commander at Lake George, whose communication appears to have
fallen into the hands of Gates, at the surrender of Burgoyne.
Lieutenant George Irwine, of the 47th, reports thus to Lieutenant
Francis Clark, aid-de-camp to General Burgoyne:
“Fort George 24^{th} Sept^r. 1777.
Sir
I think it necessary to acquaint you for the information of General
Burgoyne, that the enemy, to the amount of two or three hundred men
came from Skenesborough to the carrying place near Tyconderoga and
there took seventeen or eighteen Batteaus with Gunboats--Their design
was first to attack the fort but considering they could not well
accomplish it without cannon they desisted from that scheme, they were
then resolved to attack Diamond Island (which Island Capt. Aubrey
commands) and if they succeeded, to take this place, they began to
attack the Island with cannon about 9 o’clock yesterday morning, I
have the satisfaction to inform you that after a cannonading for near
an hour and a half on both sides the enemy took to their retreat.
Then was Gun boats sent in pursuit of them which occasioned the enemy
to burn their Gun boats and Batteaus and made their escape towards
Skenesborough in great confusion--we took one Gun boat from them with
a twelve pounder in her and a good quantity of ammunition--we have
heard there was a few kill’d and many wounded of them. There was not a
man killed or hurt during the whole action of his Majesty’s Troops. I
have the honor to be Sir your most obedient and most humb^{le} Ser^t
Geo^e Irwine Com at Fort George
L^t 47^{th}”[36]
We now turn to the hitherto unpublished report of Colonel Brown, who
reports as follows, not without chagrin:
“Skeensboro Friday 11 o’clock, a. m. Sep^t 26^{th} 1777
Dear Sir
I this minute arrived at this place by the way of Fort Ann, was
induced to take this route on ac^t of my Ignorance of the situation of
every part of the continental Army----
On the 22 ins^t at 4 o’clk P.M. I set sail from the north end Lake
George with 20 sail of Boats three of which were armed, Viz one small
sloop mounting 3 guns, and 2 British Gun Boats having on Board the
whole about 420 Men officers included with a Determined resolution
to attack Diamond Island which lies within 5 miles Fort George at
the break of Day the next Morning, but a very heavy storm coming on
prevented--I arrived Sabbath Day point abt midnight where I tarried
all night, during which time I [sic] small Boat in the fleet taken the
Day before coming from Fort George, conducted by one Ferry lately a
sutler in our army, I put Ferry on his Parole, but in the night he
found Means to escape with his Boat, and informed the Enemy of our
approach, on the 23d I advanced as far as 12 Mile Island, the Wind
continuing too high for an attack I suspended it untill the Morning
of the 24^{th} at 9 oclock at which Time I advanced with the 3 armed
Boats in front and the other Boats, I ordered to wing to the Right and
left of Island to attempt a landing if practicable, and to support the
Gun Boats in case they should need assistance, I was induced to make
this experiment to find the strength of the Island as also to carry it
if practicable--the enemy gave me the first fire which I returned in
good earnest, and advanced as nigh as I thought prudent, I soon found
that the enemy had been advertised of our approach and well prepared
for our reception having a great number of cannon well mounted with
good Breast Works, I however approached within a small Distance giving
the Enemy as hot a fire as in my Power, untill the sloop was hulled
between wind and Water and obliged to toe her off and one of the boats
so damaged as I was obliged to quit her in the action. I had two men
killed two Mortally wounded and several others wounded in such Manner
as I was obliged to leave them under the Care of the Inhabitants,
who I had taken Prisoners giving them a sufficient reward for their
services.
I Run my Boats up a Bay a considerable distance and burnt them with
all the Baggage that was not portable--The Enemy have on Diamond
Island as near as could be collected are about three hundred, and
about 40 at Fort George with orders if they are attacked to retreat
to the Island--Gen^l Borgoine has about 4 Weeks Provision with his
army and no more, he is determined to cut his Road through to Albany
at all events, for this I have the last authority, still I think him
under a small mistake--Most of the Horses and Cattle taken at Ty and
thereabouts were left in the Woods. Gen^l Warner has put out a party
in quest of them.
I am Dear S^r wishing you and the Main Army
great Success your most ob^t hum^l Ser^t
JNO BROWN.”
Gen^l Lincoln
“NB You may Depend on it that after the British Army were supply with
six Weeks provision which was two weeks from the Communication between
Lake George and Fort Edward was ordered by Gen^l Burgoine to be stor’d
and no passes given----
The attack on the Island continued with interruption 2 Hours.”[37]
Thus ended the fight of Diamond Island; a fight which, if attended
with better success, might have perhaps hastened the surrender of
Burgoyne, and resulted in other advantages to the American arms. As
it was, however, the British line of communication on Lake George was
not broken, while the American leaders took good care to prevent this
failure from reaching the public ear through the press. Thus Colonel
Brown’s reports to General Lincoln remained unpublished. They have now
been brought out to be put on permanent record, as interesting material
for American history.
To-day the summer tourist who rows out to this lovely isle, which
commands delightful views of the lake far and wide, will see no
evidences of the struggle, but will find the very atmosphere bathed in
perfect peace. Of relics of the old wars, which for more than a hundred
years caused the air to jar, and echoing hills to complain,--there are
none. The ramparts that once bristled with cannon have been smoothed
away, and the cellar of an ancient house is all the visitor will find
among the birches to tell of the olden occupancy of man.
(The Late Rev.) B. F. DACOSTA.
NEW YORK CITY.
Lieutenant Colonel John Brown (1774-1780), a native of Berkshire
county, Massachusetts, was a Yale graduate of 1771, and in 1774 visited
Canada as a horse dealer, to ascertain the sentiments of the Canadians
towards the principles of our impending Revolution. His subsequent
experiences with Arnold in the Quebec campaign are matters of history,
but his early death, in the encounter at Stone Arabia, N. Y., in 1780,
just after the discovery of Arnold’s treachery, prevented the details
of his specific accusations against the latter from becoming public.
His descendants in Boston have long been preparing to issue a detailed
biography, which should be a valuable contribution to the literature
of the Revolution. The story of his Lake George fight was practically
unknown before Dr. DeCosta’s article was written [for the N. E.
Historic Genealogic Society] and although it was afterward published in
pamphlet form, so few copies were printed that it has been inaccessible
to the general reader.
Mr. William L. Stone furnishes me with the following particulars
regarding Captain Aubrey: He came with his regiment from Ireland to
America in 1773, and served throughout the Revolution. He commanded his
company at Bunker Hill, and when in the spring of 1776 the regiment
was sent to reinforce Carleton in Canada, he accompanied it and aided
in the expulsion of the American forces. After Burgoyne’s surrender,
Aubrey’s detachment returned to Canada and he remained there and in
command of the post at the entrance to Lake Ontario for a long time. He
died in London, January 15, 1814.--[ED.]
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Silliman, who was here in 1819, says: “The crystals are hardly
surpassed by any in the world for transparency and perfection of form.
They are, as usual, the six-sided prism, and are frequently terminated
at both ends by six-sided pyramids. These last, of course, must be
found loose, or, at least, not adhering to any rock; those which are
broken off have necessarily only one pyramid.”--_Silliman’s Travels_,
p. 153.
[29] This affair was alluded to by the English, though the Americans
said nothing. Among recent writers, I have found no notice beyond that
by Lossing in his Field Book, vol. i., p. 114. When the present writer
composed his work on Lake George he had not found the official account
by Col. Brown.
[30] See _Relations des Jesuits_, 1646, p. 15.
[31] Mr. Parkman, in his work _The Jesuits in America_ (p. 219), has
indeed stated that Father Jogues ascended Lake George in 1642, when, in
company with Père Goupil, he was carried away a prisoner by the Indians.
The opinion of Mr. Parkman is based on a manuscript account of that
journey, taken down from Father Jogues’ own lips by Father Buteux.
The account, after describing the journey southward and over Lake
Champlain, which occupied eight days, says that they “arrived at the
place where one leaves the canoes” (_où l’on quitte les canots_), and
then “marched southward three days by land,” until they reached the
Mohawk villages. But there is nothing whatever in the description, by
which we can recognize a passage over Lake George, nothing about the
portage, the falls, nor the outlet. Everything turns chiefly on the
fact that they _arrived at the place where one leaves the canoes_. This
place, it is assumed, was the head of Lake George, from whence there
was a trail southward. Now in regard to the existence of such a trail
at that period, there can be no doubt; yet unquestionably it was not
the _only_ trail followed by the Indians. The old French map shows two
trails to the Mohawk villages, one from the head of Lake George, and
the other from the South-west Bay.
It is true that Champlain, in 1609, intended to go to the Mohawk
country, by Lake George, yet at the period of Jogue’s captivity we have
no account of any one taking that route. Father Jogues himself clearly
did not cross the lake in 1646. It is distinctly said that they arrived
at the end of the lake (_bout de lac_) on the eve of the Festival
of _St. Sacrament_, when they named the lake, and the next day went
south _on foot_, carrying their packs on their backs. This is the view
given by every one who has treated the subject in print, including Mr.
Parkman himself.
To this it has been answered that _bout de lac_ always means the _head_
of the lake, and that the terms are so used in the _Relations_; yet
if we return to the _Relations_ of 1668 (vol. ii., p. 5), detailing
the journey of Fathers Fremin, Pieron and Bruyas, we find that this is
not the case. The writer there says that while he and others delayed
on an island in Lake Champlain, the boatmen went forward, “landing at
the _end_ of the Lake (_bout de lac_) du St. Sacrement, and preparing
for the portage.” At this place, the north end of the lake, there is a
heavy portage, in order to get around the Falls of Ticonderoga. In the
next sentence he again calls this end of the lake, which is the north
end or outlet, _bout de lac_. But we have also to remind the reader,
that the place where Father Jogues _left his canoe_, in 1646, was at
the north end of the lake (the foot), which he, like the others, calls
_bout de lac_. The language is so translated by Parkman and others
who have mentioned the circumstances. _Bout de lac_, in the Jesuit
_Relations_, therefore does not mean the _head_ of the lake. We see,
then, that we have not sufficient reason for supposing that “the place
where one leaves the canoes” meant the head, or south end of Lake
George, and consequently that the alleged passage over the lake by
Jogues, in 1642, is indefensible.
[32] State of the Expedition from Canada. By Burgoyne. p. xciv. Ed.
1780.
[33] Gates Papers, p. 194.
[34] Gates Papers, p. 208.
[35] State of the Expedition from Canada, p. 53.
[36] Gates Papers, p. 218.
[37] Gates Papers, p. 220.
INDIAN LEGENDS
II
THE MAIDEN OF THE MOON
[The following legend was obtained from the lips of a Chippewa woman
named Penaqua, or the Female Pheasant, and I hardly know which to
admire most, the simple beauty of the plot, or the graphic and unique
manner of the narrative, of which, I regret to say, I can hardly give
a faithful translation.]
Among the rivers of the North, none can boast of more numerous charms
than the St. Louis, and the fairest spot of the earth which it waters
is that where now (1847) stands the trading post of Fond du Lac. Upon
this spot, many summers ago, there lived a Chippewa chief and his
wife, who were the parents of an only daughter. Her name was _Sweet
Strawberry_, and she was acknowledged to be the most beautiful maiden
of her nation. Her voice was like that of the turtle-dove, and the red
deer was not more graceful and sprightly in its form. Her eyes were
brilliant as the star of the northern sky, which guides the hunter
through the wilderness, and her dark hair clustered around her neck
like grape vines around the trunk of the tree they loved. The young
men of every nation had striven to win her heart, but she smiled upon
none. Curious presents were sent to her from the four quarters of the
world, but she received them not. Seldom did she deign to reply to the
many warriors who entered her father’s lodge, and when she did, it was
only to assure them that while upon earth she would never change her
condition. Her strange conduct astonished them, but did not subdue
their affection. Many and noble were the deeds they performed, not only
in winning the white plumes of the eagle, but in hunting the elk and
the black bear. But all their exploits availed them nothing, for the
heart of the beautiful girl was still untouched.
The snows of winter were all gone, and the pleasant winds of spring
were blowing over the land. The time for making sugar had arrived,
though the men had not yet returned from the remote hunting grounds,
and in the maple forests bright fires were burning, and the fragrance
of the sweet sap filled all the air. The ringing laugh of childhood and
the mature song of women, were heard in the valley, but in no part of
the wilderness could be found more happiness than on the banks of the
St. Louis. But the _Sweet Strawberry_ mingled with the young men and
maidens of her tribe, in a thoughtful mood and with downcast eyes. She
was evidently bowed down by some mysterious grief, but she neglected
not her duties; and though she spent much of her time alone, her
buchère-bucket was as frequently filled with the sugar juice as any of
her companions.
Such was the condition of affairs, when a party of young warriors
from the far North came upon a frolic to the St. Louis River. Having
seen the many handsome maidens of this region, the strangers became
enamored of their charms, and each one succeeded in obtaining the love
of a maiden, who was to become his bride during the marrying season of
summer.
The warriors had heard of the _Sweet Strawberry_, but, neglected by
all of them, she was still doomed to remain alone. She witnessed the
happiness of her old playmates, and, wondering at her own strange fate,
spent much of her time in solitude. She even became so unhappy and
bewildered that she heeded not the tender words of her mother, and from
that time the music of her voice was never heard.
The sugar making season was now rapidly passing away, but the brow of
the _Sweet Strawberry_ was still overshadowed with grief. Everything
was done to restore her to her wonted cheerfulness, but she remained
unchanged. Wild ducks in innumerable numbers arrived with every
southern wind, and settled upon the surrounding waters, and proceeded
to build their nests in pairs, and the Indian maiden sighed over her
mysterious doom. On one occasion she espied a cluster of early spring
flowers peering above the dry leaves of the forest, and, strange to
say, even these were separated into pairs, and seemed to be wooing each
other in love. All things whispered to her of love, the happiness of
her companions, the birds of the air, and the flowers. She looked into
her heart, and inwardly praying for a companion whom she might love,
the Master of Life took pity upon her lot and answered her prayer.
It was now the twilight hour, and in the maple woods the Indian boys
were watching their fires and the women were bringing in the sap
from the surrounding trees. The time for making sugar was almost
gone, and the well-filled mocucks, which might be seen in all the
wigwams, testified that the yield had been abundant. The hearts of
the old women beat in thankfulness, and the young men and maidens
were already beginning to anticipate the pleasures of wedded life
and those associated with the sweet summer time. But the brow of the
_Sweet Strawberry_ continued to droop, and her friends looked upon
her as a victim of a settled melancholy. Her duties, however, were
performed without a murmur, and so continued to be performed until
the trees refused to fill her buchère-bucket with sap, when she stole
away from the sugar camp and wandered to a retired place to muse upon
her sorrows. Her unaccountable grief was very bitter, but did not long
endure; for, as she stood gazing upon the sky, the moon ascended above
the hills and filled her soul with a joy she had never felt before. The
longer she looked upon the brilliant object, the more deeply in love
did she become with its celestial charms, and she burst forth into a
song--a loud, wild, and joyous song. Her musical voice echoed through
the woods, and her friends hastened to ascertain the cause. They
gathered around her in crowds, but she heeded them not. They wondered
at the wildness of her words, and the airy-like appearance of her form.
They were spellbound by the scene before them, but their astonishment
knew no limits when they saw her gradually ascend from the earth into
the air, where she disappeared, as if borne upward by the evening wind.
And then it was that they discovered her clasped in the embraces of the
moon, for they knew that the spots which they saw within the circle of
that planet were those of her robe, which she had made from the skins
of the spotted fawn.
Many summers have passed away since the _Sweet Strawberry_ became the
Maiden of the Moon, yet among all the people of her nation is she ever
remembered for her beauty and the mystery of her being.
(The late) CHARLES LANMAN.
[Illustration]
THE FIRST WOMAN IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT
Just the other day, during a housecleaning in the Post Office
Department, a number of autograph letters written by men famous in
American history were discovered in an old and battered file-case.
The file-case had evidently been considered of no value, for it had
been stowed away in a little-used portion of the cellar, and would
undoubtedly have eventually been broken up and its contents lost or
destroyed.
The papers include letters of recommendation by Horace Greeley,
Garfield, Sumner, and others of then national prominence. Among the
papers was the record of the first woman appointed to the postal
service and one of the first employed in the Government departments in
Washington in any capacity.
The documents are considered as of more than ordinary interest,
particularly as autograph letters of recommendation from prominent
men are now practically things of the past. The general use of the
typewriter, and the fact that almost every man of prominence has a
private secretary, are largely responsible for this modern condition.
Autograph letters of recommendation, moreover, are not looked upon with
favor in Government departments nowadays, and a missive from Horace
Greeley such as the one on file would probably be thrown in the waste
basket as undecipherable. The appearance of this letter justifies all
things that were ever said about the great editor’s chirography.
One of the most interesting papers in the collection is an autograph
letter written by Elisha Whittlesey of the comptroller’s office in the
Treasury Department, to Montgomery Blair, then Postmaster General,
which resulted in the appointment of the first woman employee of
the postal service and the second to be employed by any Government
department in Washington. The letter follows:
“Treasury Department, Comptroller’s Office,
December 23, 1861.
SIR: Having understood you had decided to employ females in the dead
letter office under a recent act of Congress authorizing you to
employ an additional force, I present for your consideration the
application of Miss Elizabeth Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio, who now and
for some months past has been in this city.
She is a young lady, well educated, well behaved, and a member of the
Presbyterian Church. Her father died some years since, leaving a widow
and a large family of children.
Elizabeth D. was born in New Orleans, teaching school when the
seceding States withdrew. Not disposing to remain there, she was
protected by the colonel of a regiment from New Orleans to Richmond,
who was acquainted with her. From Richmond she went to Norfolk, whence
she came to Fortress Monroe with a trunk and flag of truce, from
thence to Baltimore in the regular steamer, and from there here by
railroad. A trunk containing her winter clothing was put in charge of
a gentleman who came to this city and lost it between Richmond and
Fortress Monroe.
The little money that she has is now exhausted, and she is in debt for
a few weeks past. She is the person of whom an account was given at
the time in the papers as having created a sensation on board of the
boat by hurrahing when she first saw the stars and stripes on Fortress
Monroe. Of her loyalty there can be no doubt, and for it I will be
responsible.
It seems to me that you will not have a case that will appeal more
strongly to your sense of justice nor to your sympathy or kindness. I
was acquainted with her ancestors in Connecticut, and have seen her in
Cleveland. Her application is before you and I hope it will prevail.
I should have waited on you in person if I could leave the office
without disappointing those creditors of the United States who are
waiting for their money.
The Hon. Mr. Theaker is acquainted with Miss Johnson, and will wait on
you in her behalf.
ELISHA WHITTLESEY.
P. S.--Mr. Theaker has heard of the death of his wife in Bridgeport,
Ohio, and has left for his home. Prof. Donald McLean, a clerk in this
office, will wait on you with this letter, and he is also acquainted
with Miss Johnson.
E. W.”
Mr. Blair made the desired appointment, and Mr. Whittlesey’s letter
bears the following endorsement in the Postmaster General’s handwriting:
“Somewhat mixed, but his heart is in the right place. Recommendation
approved.”
_Star_, WASHINGTON, D. C.
HAND-LOOM WEAVING REVIVED
Seated on a thick oak plank, worn smooth and shiny by centuries of use
as the seat of a hand loom, and with Mrs. Talbot seated on a similar
plank in front of a second loom in the basement of his residence,
No. 193 Power Street, Arnold G. Talbot, secretary of the Tockwotton
Company, and well known in social circles of the East Side, has become
a hand loom weaver. Side by side, with a light between them and another
in each of the front corners of the little room, Mr. and Mrs. Talbot
sit every week day evening and weave plain and pattern goods in silk,
linen and cotton, on the looms and in the fashions of two centuries ago.
They do it partly for amusement and partly to satisfy an increasing
demand for such goods as our grandmothers wove, among people with so
much money that it is really doing them a service to separate them from
some of it. They have what is probably the only hand loom establishment
in this State, a practical exposition of the spread and possibilities
of the modern arts and crafts movement. It is right in line with the
present movement for hand work in wearing materials or house fabrics by
those able to pay the necessarily increased cost.
In fact there are but few such establishments in this country. In the
mountains of Kentucky hand weaving is still practiced, and the products
of the mountaineers, handled through a semi-public institution, have
a ready sale. In Massachusetts such goods are also selling. Mr. and
Mrs. Talbot first thought of the possibilities of remunerative trade
when they found a demand for hand weaving among friends who saw the
results of their work of three hours every evening--from seven to ten
o’clock--on the one loom with which they began work. Then they procured
another loom in Johnston, the town from which the first one came, and
set that up beside the one Mr. Talbot had bought as a curiosity. Now
they have hired a Swede woman to come to work at the loom during the
day. In Sweden all the girls are still taught in the country districts
to operate a hand loom, and this woman has not been in this country
long enough to forget what she was taught as a girl.
Mr. Talbot believes in old things. It is said by friends that there is
nothing modern in his house except the present members of the family.
He has one of the most strikingly beautiful mantels imaginable, taken
from one of the old houses on South Main Street, in which the quality
of the old town of Providence once lived, and his son and heir even
sleeps in one of the trundle beds of song and story. So when a friend
told him of the auction of goods of a collector of antiques in Johnston
he went to the sale. No one else seemed to want the old hand loom there
offered, so Mr. Talbot bought it, just for the sake of getting an
unusual antique.
There must be many such looms in the garrets of the South County and
other sections of the State, where they were shoved to one side half
or three-quarters of a century ago, but few of them are set up and in
working order as this one was. Mr. Talbot had the loom brought to his
home and then started to put it together again. What he did not know
about looms was vast and comprehensive, and Mrs. Talbot’s knowledge was
equally vain. But together and with the help of a friend or two whose
working idea of mechanics was as great as the Talbot willingness to
learn, they finally had it set up in the room Mr. Talbot had used for
his den. Then they went to work to learn how to run the thing.
Mr. Talbot has a wide acquaintance among mill men, and some of them
volunteered to come to the Talbot home and show them how to read
patterns, that they might reproduce old hand-loom designs. So they
came, and were given some hand-made goods to read. One by one they
confessed that, while they could read any machine-woven pattern, the
difference in the methods of the machine and the hand looms was great
enough to puzzle them. They could not read the patterns, that is, tell
how they were woven--so many threads this way, so many that way, and
the rest. They gave it up. Mrs. Talbot, who had a rare combination of
gumption and energy, tackled the problem and puzzled it out. She picked
up a little here and a little there, and was soon weaving, and weaving
patterns, at that.
This was early last October. The first loom had no sooner been set
up and started than Mr. and Mrs. Talbot found a new difficulty. The
work was fascinating, the hours they had to give to it were few, and
each wanted to use the loom at about the same time. So Mr. Talbot
commissioned the man he had bought it from to find and buy another
for them. The second one was found in Johnston, the town from which
the first had come, and was set up beside the other. After that they
peacefully wove every evening side by side.
They had to work everything out from the beginning. Their thread they
bought, but they had to build a warping frame, after the old fashion,
and warp and link the thread themselves, running four threads at a
time, up and down the warping frame. It takes them about four hours
to wind fifty yards of warp for forty-inch cloth. Warping the yarn is
the most essential feature of the whole process, for if it is not done
well, the yarn will not feed easily, and the weaving will be stopped.
Everything about the looms, except the operators and the harnesses, is
old. The harnesses, which came with the looms, were of cord, and the
new ones are superior. The reeds used in the looms are of split reed,
and Mrs. Talbot considers them better than the modern ones of steel.
The looms themselves are built of white oak, and as their history is
known, Mr. Talbot is safe in the statement that they are each more than
200 years old. He has even procured the square and compasses with which
they were built. One loom is used for plain weaving, the other one for
pattern work.
Mr. and Mrs. Talbot have named it the Hearthside Loom, a charmingly
descriptive name, and have already produced some very handsome
patterns, some of them copies of old patterns of two centuries ago,
some of them from Mrs. Talbot’s ideas, or from patterns made by Mr.
Talbot for their original work. They have found a good demand for their
products at prices ranging from $3 a yard for tabbie weaving--the
straight up and down, plain weaving--to about $5 a yard for silk goods.
In linen, which costs $2.50 a yard, they use all imported Irish linen,
the American linen lacking the property of lasting, the oil having been
extracted from it. Wool patterns and patterns in imported cloth are
worth $6 a yard, with plain wool weaving forty or forty-five inches
wide, at $4 a yard, and scrim curtains at $6 a pair.
A good woman weaver can weave about four yards of linen a day, or about
five yards of wool a day, on such looms as these. The Hearthside Loom
takes orders for pattern work on original patterns, and its work has
already proved popular among people who are able to buy goods made to
last. In addition to the two large looms, Mr. Talbot has a small ribbon
loom that is even older than the larger ones, while the trade-mark of
the establishment is a reproduction of a hand loom small enough to be
held in one hand, and hardly bigger than a large shingle.
The room in which they are placed is a veritable curiosity shop. On
the wall hangs the long crane from the old glebe house of St. John’s
Church, torn down last year, with other iron fire pieces; at the hearth
are old iron fire dogs; all along the rear wall hang other antiques.
The house is filled with old and curious things, none older or more
curious, however, than the looms forming the working machinery of the
Hearthside Loom.
_Journal_, PROVIDENCE.
ERROR--MEMORIAL TREES
In our May number it is stated that Charles Sumner sent to Russia
some acorns of an oak growing near the tomb of Washington, and from
one of these sprang an oak now growing in Czarina Island. Dr. Samuel
A. Green, Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, corrects
this, showing that it was George, the brother of Charles Sumner. As
he says: “The incident may seem too trivial for serious notice, but a
memorial tree, if it is to have any meaning, should be deeply rooted
in truth and accuracy.”
[Illustration]
BALTIMORE’S OLD STEPPING-STONES
In the midst of the enterprise and activity that mark the Baltimore of
to-day, visitors frequently come across old landmarks that stand out
distinctly as reminders of the earlier and more leisurely days of the
city’s history. None of them is more familiar than the old-fashioned
stepping-stones still to be seen at a few crossings, usually at the
bottom of the steepest grades, and which become veritable Ararats of
refuge when the streets are flooded after a heavy rain. Worn smooth
on top by thousands of scurrying feet that now are still, chipped
and scarred at the corners by hundreds of whirling wheels long since
rotted, and streaked and pitted on the sides by the winter snows and
summer rains of countless yesterdays, the stepping-stone stands amid
the busy street like a milestone on the road that Greater Baltimore has
trod--like the tombstone of the dead past.
Nowadays the most prominent of these old stepping-stones are at
the foot of the hill below the town house of Secretary of the Navy
Bonaparte, at Centre Street and Park Avenue.
There are traces of the stones still left on the steep grade of
Saratoga Street, down from Courtland to Calvert, and there are some of
these stones at North Avenue, near the Mount Royal Avenue entrance to
the park, and their usefulness has been demonstrated more than once
during the heavy downpours that have characterized this season’s rains.
Probably the best-known of the stepping-stones were those opposite the
site of the old Hall of Congress, on what is now Baltimore Street,
between Sharp and Liberty, at which the sessions of the Continental
Congress were held in December, 1776.
Speaking of these old landmarks, Col. William H. Love said:
“For many years Baltimore and Fredericksburg, Va., shared with Pompeii
the distinction of having stepping-stones across the public highways.
Some years ago, when ex-Mayor Latrobe and his father, the late John
H. B. Latrobe, were visiting Pompeii, the elder Mr. Latrobe said:
‘Ferdinand, do you see anything familiar?’ Mr. Latrobe said that he
suddenly felt at home; he saw some old stepping-stones.
Some years ago, if I am not mistaken, there were stepping-stones at the
crossings on Lexington Street leading toward Liberty, and on Liberty at
the crossings all the way down to Lombard Street. They were the cause
of some painful accidents to children who were crossing and slipped,
cutting their faces badly. But as a rule they could not have been
dispensed with, because of the enormous body of water that came down
the streets when it rained in those days.
The flow of water was especially strong down Baltimore Street, and the
old stones opposite Congress Hall I remember well. The stones were
quite high at the curb and were somewhat lower near the center of the
street. I have known the rush of water to be so great down Baltimore
Street at that point that traffic was altogether stopped by it until
the storm was over.”
_Baltimore Sun._
THE GRAVE OF LEATHERSTOCKING
The grave of Daniel Shipman, who is generally believed to have been the
original of Cooper’s Leather Stocking, has been definitely located in
the Adams cemetery at Fly Creek, near Cooperstown, N. Y. A committee
has been appointed for the purpose of erecting a suitable tablet to
mark the grave, which is now merely covered with a large flat stone
with no inscription whatever.
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA
(At a recent meeting of the Saratoga County Society, Mr. William L.
Stone made an address on the subject of the battle, from which we make
an excerpt.--Ed.)
This event (which has been called by Creasy one of the fifteen decisive
battles of the world) secured for us the French alliance; and lifted
the cloud of moral and financial gloom that had settled upon the hearts
of the people, dampening the hopes of the leaders of the Revolution,
and wringing despairing words even from the hopeful Washington.
More than a century has elapsed since that illustrious event. All the
actors in the drama have passed away, and their descendants are now
sharing in the rewards of their devotion and suffering. And now after
years of labor a noble shaft has arisen at Schuylerville to commemorate
that turning point of our National destiny; which, like those of
Lexington and Bunker Hill, tells of one of the earliest bloodsheds in
the cause of Cisatlantic freedom, and makes the selfsacrifice of our
ancestors endure in granite records for the admiration of generations
yet to be.
It is a noteworthy fact, in connection with the Battles of Saratoga,
that, until recently, there has been no map of the battle-ground from
an American standpoint (Neilson’s is the same as no map), our only
means of information being those maps made by Burgoyne’s engineers
[these were then shown by the speaker] and which were published in 1781
to illustrate Burgoyne’s defence when he was tried in Parliament for
his defeat at Saratoga. But, within a few years, there has been found a
map of the battle-ground, by General Rufus Putnam, which throws great
light on one point in particular, viz.: It has always been a mystery,
as I say in my “Burgoyne’s Campaign,” why Gates did not renew the
battle on the next day, the 8th. But from this map [here the speaker
exhibited the map, which has never been published] it appears that the
ravines at Wilbur’s Basin had been so fortified by the British, that
(to quote from the map in Putnam’s handwriting) “These defences (_i.
e._: on these ravines) thus fortified, prevented our attack on the
British the next day.”
It is also of interest, as showing the good judgment of Burgoyne’s
engineers, that the roads which they cut through the (at that time)
primeval forest, are the same that the farmers and road commissioners
adopted for their present roads--the one, for instance, from Victory
Mills to Quaker Springs, on the high ridge which Fraser took, while
Burgoyne and Riedesel took the river bank.
COMMUNICATION
Mr. Hammond in his article on John Paul Jones (July MAGAZINE) says
that Jones left Portsmouth for Philadelphia, November 6, 1782. He
might have added, as you will see by the following paragraph copied
from the Journal of Claude Blanchard, commissary of Rochambeau’s army,
that Jones sailed from Boston with the Frenchmen on December 23, 1782
(never to return to the United States alive.)
BOSTON. A. A. FOLSOM.
On the 23d of December, 1782, I went on board of the _Triomphant_,
eighty guns with M. de Viomenil, and on the 24th the whole squadron,
carrying the army, set sail and left the harbor of Boston; the channel
is narrow and has little depth; so that we were not without uneasiness.
Our pilot himself did not appear to be quite composed and incessantly
repeated orders. However, we fortunately got through; one only of
the transport ships was shattered upon the rocks on setting sail;
happily, there were not troops on board. We were to cruise as high
up as Portsmouth, a pretty good port beyond Boston, where two ships
of war were, which were to rejoin us and then to cruise alongside of
Rhode Island in order to meet with the _Fantasque_, a vessel armed _en
flute_. The bad weather changed these designs; we could not, without
danger, remain upon these coasts exposed to being cast away upon them
or driven upon sand banks.
On the 27th, the frigate _Iris_ left us, to proceed to France. On the
same day we lost sight of our convoy and our frigate. Moreover, every
vessel carried a sealed package pointing out the general destination of
the squadron.
The staff of the _Triomphant_ consisted of thirteen officers. Three
auxiliary and three officers of the regiment Médoc, keeping garrison in
the ship, who, with the officers who were passengers made fifty-five
persons. The soldiers and sailors were in proportion, so that there
were more than eleven hundred persons on board of this ship. We also
had on board the famous Paul Jones, who had asked permission to embark
on board of us, who behaved with great propriety.
February, 1783. On the 8th, several of our ships were obliged to put
into port at Curacoa. The squadron finally sailed for France, April
4th, arrived at Brest 17th of June.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
LETTER FROM COL. HENRY GLEN, OF SCHENECTADY, N. Y., TO COL. MARINUS
WILLETT.
[The writer was distinguished during the Revolution, and his
correspondent even more so. The letter is interesting as covering a
variety of subjects, including the failure of the Oswego expedition,
local politics, etc., and for its phonetic spelling.]
SCHENECTADY, _13th March, 1783_.
My worthy Friend
COLO M. WILLETT
SIR:
Your letter with the disgreeable Titings of that unhappy day I
have Before me and any delay of not answering you sooner was in an
exspatation of sending you the Grat & Gloriss news of peace. But out of
my power as yet, But momently exspected, when I shall loss no time of
sending that Longwished pease of newes. NO MEN Felt moor unhappy Then I
hearing the Miscariges of the Expedition & that through the conduct of
the dam Savage(s). I cannot but condol on the ocasion & that Sincerely.
However as its the change of war for Fourthen (fortune), & Miss
Fourthen to authir (other) Generals, dukes Lords & the first Generals
of the Earth Let’s Go back to Jullis Cisier’s time Al’xd the Grat,
Malberg (Marlborough) Charles the 12 of Sweden, Prince Ugen (Eugene),
Cumberland & the King of prusia, what has befallen them in a moment, a
woeful amangumercy (emergency) who both fell in Pursuitt of that thing
called Glory & Honour which promised the fairest of every thing in the
world, for you to be crowned with, for I blieve by your own acc’t Major
(Van Courtland?) & several other Gentlemen who was with you that not
a soul of the garrison new ware you came from--you might as well been
Tropt (dropped) out of the moon--for what they new--the only way is to
make your self happy, its well known your activity Bravery & Courage in
the case, that you are not Blamed--a few of your Enemies may say the
men had no business there, But what for....
I am last Evening from Albany--saw all the Polititians not a word
of newes but you had in the last papers. Major Hale Just from
head-Quarters, no aRivals momently Exspected--the Assembly ware to
Brack (break) up on Saturday next, Mr Morris[38] whants to resign--he
has some Enemies in Philadelphia who Excuse him for making Parde (part)
payment--Congress won’t Suffer him to Resign, wether they have it in
their power to prevent him I am not able to Judge, I am sorrow for it.
The Shrief (sheriff) has a letter for Publican (publication?) the
day of aLection for a Governer, Lieut Governer, one Senator for the
northen district in the Room of Genl Tenbroeck & the Reprecentatives,
which is to be on the 3rd Thursday in April next--no talk of any body
for to apose Governor Clinton--the Barroom talk is Judge R. Yates (a
pair?)--and Thomas Pallmer--neither of the three will answer, tho the
one has abbility enough but their is something wanting Palame (Palmer?)
I thing had the better ... various are the Congecturs who are the
persons for Rang of Goverment.
My opinion, George Clinton, Esq, Governer, for thre years moor,
Pier(re) V(an) Cortland Lieut Gov’r some Considerable Alteration in the
Lower House....
Civil List either John M. Scott,[39] or James Duane for Mayir for the
city of N. York. Recorder, I am at the last I believe, Marrinus Willet,
High Shreff, tho you have been misforthen’d you have still friends at
Court. So much for a little Pollitics. Calling yesterday at the post
office I found a letter to you from His Excellency, which accompanies
mine & Rest assured in a few days you will have one wether the war is
to continue or pease to take place--there is no telling till a packet
which had not come in within these fiew days
I am & Remain with Sentiments of Regard, &c.,
H. GLEN.
Addressed on back, “Col^o Marinus Willett, Commanding the Troops
westward, Tryon County.”
LETTER OF WASHINGTON PARTLY IN REFERENCE TO UNIFORMS
[A valuable historical letter in reference to the uniform of the Army.]
HEAD QUARTERS, NEAR NEW WINDSOR, (N. Y.,) _29th May, 1781_.
_To the Board of War_:
GENTLEMEN.--I have been honored with your favors of the 13th 14th and
17th instants. My late absence from the Army prevented my acknowledging
them sooner.
If the Uniforms which were fixed upon for the Troops of North and South
Carolina have not been ordered from Europe, I do not see that any
inconvenience can attend the proposed alteration. I think, however,
the Lace ought to be dispensed with as altogether superfluous and very
expensive.
It seems reasonable that a due proportion should be observed between
the pay of the Deputies and the principal in any department, and as
Congress were pleased to augment the Salary of Mr Laurance the Judge
Advocate General very considerably by the Resolve of the 10th of
November there can I think be no impropriety in augmenting the Salaries
of the Deputies also to 60 dolls p. month, which is what they request.
Sir Henry Clinton has informed me that it is not in his power to permit
the transportation of Tobacco from Virginia to Charlestown. I imagine
there are some commercial Regulations in the way. But he says that he
mentioned certain Articles to Colo Magaw and Colo Ely which might be
sent in and sold for the benefit of our prisoners. What they were I do
not exactly recollect, but I think Lumber and Iron.
I have the Honor to be
with great Respect
Gentlemen
Your most obt. Servt.
GO WASHINGTON.
Honble Board of War.
LETTER OF JOHN DICKINSON TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS
[Letter of John Dickinson, member of the Continental Congress, to the
President of Congress, in reference to the mutiny of the army, when
the soldiers had surrounded and threatened Congress. It was written
under the influence of strong excitement, as is evinced by the many
erasures and additions in the original. The troops had surrounded
the Congress building, demanding their arrears of pay, and honorable
discharge from service, under dire threats of violence. It relates
to one of the most trying periods of the Revolution, and one which
threatened the country with internal troubles.]
PHILADELPHIA, _July 27, 1783_.
SIR:
Yesterday evening the Soldiers from Lancaster began their March for
that Place Under the Command of their officers.--Those in the barracks
behave very quietly, & are desirous of being dismist.--Colonel
Hampton informs me that Letters were sent by the principal Authors
of the late Disturbance, to excite General Armand’s Legion & Colonel
Moylan’s Regiment, to join in the Mutiny. The general Disposition of
those Troops I know not; But I expect to receive immediate Advice of
any Movements of Importance among them, which I shall communicate to
Congress.
I am, Sir
Your very obt. Serv’t.
JOHN DICKINSON.
Mr. Thomson[40] who does me the Honor of charging himself with this
Letter, will deliver to Congress a copy of the last proposals of the
Soldiers to Councils, & the Act of Council thereon.
His Excellency
The President of Congress.
[Congress had adjourned from Philadelphia to Princeton, N. J.--ED.]
FOOTNOTES:
[38] Robert Morris, the great financier.
[39] Gen. John Morin Scott
[40] Probably Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress.
MINOR TOPICS
THE FIRST U. S. FLAG
The first Stars and Stripes were displayed at Fort Schuyler (the
present Rome, N. Y.), August 5, 1777. This much every schoolboy is
supposed [it is very much of a supposition, however, how many in the
average High School could tell the story off-hand--ED.] to know.
What is not generally known is that this historic flag is still in
existence; being in the possession of Mrs. Abram Lansing, of Albany, N.
Y., a grand-daughter of Colonel Gansevoort, and who possesses also the
original of the following letter:
Poughkeepsie, 29th August, 1778.
COL. PETER GANSEVOORT,
Fort Schuyler.
Dear Sir:
The great distance which your duty calls us apart obliges me at this
time to give you this trouble which otherwise I would not. You may
remember I was to have an order for eight yards of broadcloth on the
commissary for clothing of this State, in lieu of my blue cloak _which
was used for colours at Fort Schuyler_. An opportunity now presenting
itself, I beg (you) to send me an order enclosed to Jeremiah Van
Rensselaer, paymaster at Albany, or to Henry Van Vaughter, Albany,
where I will receive it, and you will oblige one who will always
acknowledge the same with true gratitude
Please to make my compliments to the other officers of the regiment
I am, dear Sir, your humble servant,
Abraham Swartwout, Captain.
GENEALOGICAL
[All communications for this department (including genealogical
publications for review) should be sent to William Prescott Greenlaw,
Commonwealth Hotel, Boston.]
QUERIES
27 _a._ ALLEN--In 1808, William B. Allen began to publish in Haverhill,
Mass., _The Merrimack Intelligencer_. In February, 1812, he took his
brother, H. G. Allen (Horatio Gates Allen?) into partnership. January
1, 1814, H. G. Allen, who had bought the interest of William B. in
1813, “sold out his paper, printing office and book store to William
Greenough and Nathan Burrill.” [Chase’s History of Haverhill.] Wanted,
the names of parents and birthplace of Wm. B. and H. G. Allen.
* * * * *
_b._ HOWARD--Benjamin Howard, born in 1691, resided in Chelmsford,
Mass. Whose daughter was his wife, Mary?
* * * * *
_c._ SNOW--Samuel Howard, b. 1731, son of Benjamin and Mary, married
(Int. pub. Sept., 1758), Mary Snow. Who was she?
* * * * *
_d._ WRIGHT--Mary, wife of Timothy Wright of Stoneham, Mass., died Oct.
27, 1755, aged 45 years (gravestone). Who was she? Timothy Wright’s
second wife whom he married in 1756 was Mary Green, the widow of Thomas
Green.
* * * * *
_e._ PERRY--Who was Deborah Perry of Lynnfield, who married, Feb. 14,
1796, Wright Newhall? She died in August, 1855, aged 80. G2.
ANSWERS
19 _a._ CHAMBERLAIN--James Savage derived his information relative to
Rebecca Chamberlain from Farmer’s and Moore’s “Historical Collections”
(vol. II, p. 70), published at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1823, and
republished in Smith’s “Boston News-Letter” (vol. I, p. 232), in 1826.
The article on the “Early History of Billerica, Mass.,” in the
“Historical Collections,” although unsigned was doubtless prepared by
John Farmer himself, as he had published in 1816 his “Historical Memoir
of Billerica.”
In the article in the “Historical Collections” here referred to we
read: “Though there is no positive evidence that any of the inhabitants
of Billerica were put upon trial for the supposed crime of witchcraft
in the time of this delusion, yet it may be safely inferred that
several were suspected and one or two apprehended. Besides the
authority of Hutchinson, the town records inform us that during the
height of the delusion, two persons were in the prison at Cambridge,
and that they both died there. Rebecca, wife of William Chamberlain,
died there Sept. 26, 1692, and John Durant, Oct. 27, 1692. They were
probably both victims of the infatuation which prevailed at that time.”
The writer has made a careful examination of the original court files
of Middlesex County for 1691 and 1692 and finds nothing for or against
Farmer’s statements. However, John Farmer, a native of the town of
Chelmsford, adjoining Billerica, does not write as though this phase of
his subject were traditional with him, but rather conjectural.
GEO. W. CHAMBERLAIN,
Weymouth, Mass.
* * * * *
20 _d._ GRIDLEY--On Dec 19, 1717, John Gridley, then of Beverly, Mass.,
married Joanna, daughter of Josiah^8 Dodge, of Wenham, Mass. [Genealogy
of the Dodge Family of Essex County, page 35.]
* * * * *
_g._ PARROTT--Mrs. Martha Parrott of Greenland, N. H., in 1805 was
the widow of John Parrott, whom she had married after the death of
his first wife, and by whom she had one son, Enoch Greenleaf Parrott,
named for a friend of the family, Enoch Greenleaf, of Weston, Mass.
Mrs. Parrott’s maiden name was Brackett; she was probably a daughter of
James and Martha (Cate) Brackett, of Greenland, N. H. X.
BOOK NOTICES
WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. WESSAGUSSET AND WEYMOUTH, an historical
address by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., delivered at Weymouth, July
4, 1874, on the occasion of the celebration of the Two Hundred and
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Permanent Settlement of the Town. WEYMOUTH
IN ITS FIRST TWENTY YEARS, a paper read before the Society by Gilbert
Nash, November 1, 1882. WEYMOUTH THIRTY YEARS LATER, a paper read
by Charles Francis Adams, before the Weymouth Historical Society,
September 23, 1904. Published by the WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1905.
8vo, pp. 164.
In the beginning of his second paper in this volume, Mr. Adams tells
how it came about that he delivered his first address at Weymouth
thirty years before, never having given thought to independent
historical investigations before he was invited by the town to deliver
the historical address on the occasion of the 250th anniversary. He
confesses that at that time he hardly knew where the town was, much
less anything of its history. The acceptance of that invitation, he
states, marked a turning point in his life which had previously been
devoted to civil and military affairs, and he expresses gratitude to
Weymouth because the path into historical research, thus unexpectedly
opened to him, has led him for thirty years through pastures green
and pleasant places. Besides affording him pleasure, it has brought
him honors in new fields of usefulness, and his labors have been
profitable to students of Massachusetts history. The mature outcome
of the earlier address was presented in print a dozen years ago in a
two-volume work called, “Three Episodes of Massachusetts History.”
In the later address Mr. Adams is merciless in his destruction of the
myth known as “The March of Miles Standish.” The familiar poem is
shown to be without any historical support, the “march” having taken
place by boat!
Speaking of this incident in Weymouth history, he says, “It smacks of
the savage; it is racy of the soil; it smells of the sea. It begins
with the flight of Phineas Pratt from Wessagusset to Plymouth, his
loss of the way, his fear lest his foot-prints in the late-lingering
snow banks should betray him, his nights in the woods, his pursuit
by the Indians, his guidance by the stars and sky, his fording the
icy river, and his arrival in Plymouth just as Miles Standish was
embarking for Wessagusset. Nothing then can be more picturesque, more
epic in outline, than Standish’s voyage, with his little company of
grim, silent men in that open boat. Sternly bent on action, they
skirted, under a gloomy eastern sky, along the surf-beaten shore, the
mist driving in their faces as the swelling seas broke roughly in
white surge over the rocks and ledges which still obstruct the course
they took. From the distance came the dull, monotonous roar of the
breakers, indicating the line of the coast. At last they cast anchor
before the desolate and apparently deserted block-house here in your
Fore river, and presently some woe-begone stragglers answered their
call. Next came the meeting with the savages, the fencing talk, and
the episode of what Holmes, in still another poem, refers to as
‘Wituwamet’s pictured knife
And Pecksuot’s whooping shout;’
all closing with the fierce hand-to-hand death grapple on the
blood-soaked, slippery floor of the rude stockade. Last of all the
return to Plymouth, with the gory head of Wattawamat, ‘that bloody
and bold villain,’ a ghastly freight, stowed in the rummage of their
boat.... That Longfellow wrote very sweet verse none will deny; but,
assuredly, he was not Homeric. At his hands your Weymouth history
failed to have justice done it. The case is, I fear, irremediable.”
Notwithstanding its many variations from the historical facts, the
poet’s version of this affair, because of its poetical setting, is
probably destined to be the only version to be widely known outside of
the limited circle of historical students.
Mr. Adams endeavors to establish as a fixed fact in Massachusetts
history that Weymouth as a permanent European settlement antedated
Boston by at least six years; and, moreover, that this fact has
singular historical interest. That it was a struggle for possession
between two forms of civilization and of religious faith; one being
ecclesiastical and feudal, the other theological and democratic;
the fate of the two settlements during the earlier and crucial
period depending not on events in Massachusetts, but upon a struggle
for supremacy going on in England. “Gorges represented Charles I;
Winthrop, the Parliament. If the fortune of war had turned otherwise
than it did turn, and Charles I. had emerged from the conflict
victorious, there can be little question Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and
not John Winthrop, would have shaped the destiny of Massachusetts. Its
history would then have been wholly other than New England will find
much of interest in it was.”
Students will find much of interest in the three papers printed in
this volume.
THE FRANKLIN BOOK SHOP
S. N. RHOADS, Proprietor. 1105 Walnut Street. Philadelphia, Pa.
Old and Rare items in Nature Study and Americana.
Publisher of Rhoads’ Reprint of Ord’s North American Zoology and the
Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In preparation, illustrated
work on Peale’s MSS. Journals of the Long’s and Wilkes’ Exploring
Expeditions, 1819, 1841. Send for Prospectus. Special discounts on last
catalogue Geology, Ethnology, Etc. Send for it.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s note
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Spelling has
been retained as published except in the printer errors listed below.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized where the words
exist in the same article.
The following printer errors have been changed.
=CHANGED FROM TO=
Table of
Contents: “FANCIES OF NAVESINK” “FANCIES AT NAVESINK”
Page 228: “of self-givernment” “of self-government”
Page 247: “it its stead some” “in its stead some”
Page 257: “they had interferred with” “they had interfered with”
Page 268: “loss of time detatched” “loss of time detached”
Page 269: “Aubrey and two campanies” “Aubrey and two companies”
Page 272: “explusion of the American” “expulsion of the American”
Page 276: “WOMAN IN THE POSTOFFICE” “WOMAN IN THE POST OFFICE”
Page 290: “additions in the orginal” “additions in the original”
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The magazine of history with notes and queries, Vol. II, No. 4, October 1905" ***
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