The magazine of history with notes and queries, Vol. II, No. 5, November 1905 (2024)

CONTENTS

Entered as a second-class matter, March 1, 1905, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.,under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.

PREFACE

Two great flank attacks on the British forces were made by theAmericans during the war of the Revolution. One, in winter, againstQuebec, in 1775–76, failed nobly; the other, in summer, into the Iroquoiscountry, against Tories and Indians, in 1779, was superbly successful.Yet while Montgomery and Arnold have had their meed of fame, butscant and tardy justice has been done to Sullivan.

Twelve years’ residence in the lake country of the Empire State,amid the scenes of the march that destroyed savagery and opened the foreststo civilization, has made its story a most fascinating study. After repeatedexamination, on the ground, of the camps, battlefields, scenes ofbridge-building and road-making, of topographical and engineering difficulties,of marchings and of rest, and even of feasting, along nearly thewhole of the routes of the main army and right wing, I have learned toappreciate more the magnitude of Sullivan’s task and the completeness ofhis successful enterprise. One can more readily understand why Congressand Washington first ordered the campaign, and then realized the importanceand value of its victories and happy issue.

Critical analysis and comparison of local legends, study of the mythology—thatgrows around picturesque scenery and striking names asnaturally as moss on a damp stone—and, most of all, of the originaljournals and documents of the men of 1779, have but added to the pleasureof the narrator. A knowledge of the march of Sullivan’s Continentals in1779 makes the landscape between Easton and the Genesee Valley glow,kindling at once memory, imagination and patriotism.

May art glorify history and the tablet, boulder, and memorial linethe pathway of the Revolutionary patriots with beacon lights of gratefulremembrance.

After the awful massacres at Wyoming and Cherry Valley in 1778,Congress passed a vote on the 27th of February, 1779, authorizingWashington to break the power of the Iroquois Indians by desolatingtheir country. Only thus could the American frontiers be protectedfrom Tories and Indians and the rear and flank attacks be stopped.

Until the Revolutionary War the Iroquois had been friends of ourfathers against the French in Canada, with whom the Algonquin Indianshad acted as allies. How did it come to pass that the Iroquois turned tobe our enemies? Lifting up the hatchet and scalping knife against us,they left at Cherry Valley, and Wyoming, great blood spots, and alongthe frontier a line of fire and death. To answer this question, we must goback more than a century and a half. At that time the North Americancontinent was divided between two quite different sorts of Indians, the FiveNations of the Iroquois, who were united in a confederacy, and the muchmore numerous Algonquins, who lived all around them.

In 1609, two men, each representing a different civilization, penetratedthe inland waters of America. Henry Hudson, an English captainin a Dutch ship and with a Dutch crew, sailed up the river that now bearshis name and made the friendly acquaintance of the tribes of NorthernNew York. Samuel Champlain, from France, came down the lake thatbears his name, acting not only as friend, but as ally to the Algonquins,who were ever at war with the Iroquois. The boundary line betweenthese two kinds of Indians was drawn at Rock Regio, in Lake Champlain,near Burlington, Vermont.

It happened at this time that hostile parties from the North and Southwere out seeking each other. Dressed in bark armor, with bows andarrows, and stone hatchets, they met in combat, not in ambush, but in theopen field. The Frenchmen, taking sides with the Algonquins, killedseveral Iroquois with their firearms. Forthwith, vowing vengeanceagainst these white men who had interfered, the Indians of the Southresolved to seek Dutch aid. A few years later they appeared at FortOrange, near Albany, bringing their beaver and other skins in exchangefor arms and ammunition. Thus armed, they were able to go forth on297equal terms with the Algonquins to the slaughter of the French and theirallies. With them the age of stone was over and the new era of iron andgunpowder had come.

Arendt Van Curler, whom the red men call “Corlaer,” a well-educatedHollander, who lived in America from 1630 to 1667, was superintendentof the Dutch settlement where Albany now stands and later becamethe founder of the city of Schenectady. He saw at once the value ofa league of peace with the Iroquois. He traveled among them, learnedtheir language, won their friendship and held them ever faithful, first tothe Dutch, and then after 1664 to the English. “The covenant of Corlaer”became with the Iroquois a holy sacrament, and the policy of allEnglish governors was to “brighten the silver chain” of mutual friendship.Van Curler was drowned near Rock Regio in Lake Champlain in1667. Sir William Johnson from 1738 to 1774 continued, expandedand strengthened the work of Van Curler. On the other hand the FiveNations became the Six Nations, when in 1722 the Tuscaroras, drivenfrom the Carolinas in 1713, were formally admitted into the confederacy.

For a century and a half the Indian was a political factor in determiningthe question whether the Anglo-Saxon or the Latin civilizationshould dominate North America. This question was settled on theheights of Quebec, in 1763, when England became mistress of the Continent.During all this time the French were never able, in war or inpeace, by their money or other gifts, by threats or smiles, by politicalenvoys or religious emissaries, to break the “silver chain” or to shake theloyalty of the Iroquois to English-speaking men. To this day the Indianscall the governor of New York “Corlaer,” and Queen Victoria,their ruler, “Kora Kowa,” or the Great Corlaer.

When, under King George, the colonists in America and the corruptBritish parliament and court quarreled and began war, Congress hoped tokeep the friendship or neutrality of the red men. In August, 1775, thefirst conference and treaty was made at Albany. Later General Schuylerwas sent into the Mohawk Valley to treat with the Iroquois and met acouncil of chiefs at German Flats. “This is a family quarrel,” he said,“and we want you to keep out of it,” and the red men promised to do so.General Herkimer also met a great gathering of warriors from the SixNations at Unadilla.

On the other side, the British agents at Oswego tried to win over the298savages, and succeeded. The Tories and British were able to presentmuch more convincing arguments in the shape of abundance of rum,hatchets, beads, mirrors and guns and powder. Moreover the Indian isalways a conservative. He holds fast to tradition. Hence he was mostdeeply touched by the adroit appeal to “the covenant of Corlaer,” and,being told that the Americans were “rebels,” he sided with the British.The Iroquois expected, in making this new alliance, that King Georgewould govern all the whites, while they should conquer and ruleall the red men in North America. It was a great day when GeneralBurgoyne and his officers in their glittering uniforms confirmed withsplendid presents the decision of the Iroquois to side with the King.

Active in the campaign of 1777, these confederate red men foughtwith the Tories and British soldiers against the Americans, especially atthe battle of Oriskany. For a while they were broken and demoralizedby Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga, when the whole British armysurrendered.

When in 1778, the red men were rallied by Brant, Butler, McDonaldand Sir John Johnson, they made the head of Seneca Lake, where Genevanow stands, their headquarters. Here they planned to attack Wyoming,a settlement, chiefly of Connecticut people, from which most of the ablebodied men were absent in Washington’s army, only old men, boys, womenand children being at home. After the battle and massacre of July 3another skillfully planned attack on Cherry Valley in New York wasmade, and on the 11th of October this settlement was reduced to ashesand the people murdered or taken prisoners to Canada.

These atrocities decided Congress and Washington to chastise thesavages, desolate their country and paralyze the activity of the Tories.It was especially necessary to do this, because the British were encouragingtheir white and red allies to make the great maize lands of Centraland Western New York a granary from which they could feed their verymixed army, made up of English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Hessians, Canadiansand Iroquois, besides keeping up a continual fire in the rear upon theAmerican forces.

But they had Washington, Sullivan, and the American riflemen toreckon with.

Whom should Washington select for so difficult and doubtful a task?The chosen leader must make an expedition, as into a foreign country,through the unmapped and unsurveyed wilderness of Western New York,against a foe ever ready by wiles and cunning to ambuscade the invader.It might be, as in many a dismal case before, that his men would be shotby invisible marksmen. Who would dare to try to feed an army ofregular troops with no base of supplies? With the precedent of Braddock’sfailure and bloody Oriskany before him, who aspired to lead? Itis no wonder that when Gates was offered the command he declined it atonce, much to Washington’s vexation. The commander-in-chief thensummoned General Sullivan. This descendant of Irish heroes was bornat Durham, in New Hampshire, and grew up to be a stalwart American,a vigorous and far-seeing patriot. Just as soon, in 1774, as Great Britainforbade the importation of military stores to America, Sullivan knewthere would be war.

Collecting a body of eager young men, he drilled them in militarytactics. In December, 1774, he attacked Fort William and Mary, atNewcastle, at the mouth of the Piscataqua river, and took the placein daylight. In spite of the fire of the garrison, he entered without losinga man, and pulled down the British flag. This was the first hostile actof the kind in the war of the Revolution. He carried the cannon andpowder to Durham, where it was stored partly in a barn and partly in thecellar of the Congregational church edifice, on the site of which themonument reared to his honor now stands. The powder reached BunkerHill in time to fill the horns of the militia. Indeed, this was about the onlysupply that our men behind the breastworks and rail fence had. Sullivancommanded at Boston and on Long Island, and fought at Trenton,Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and in Rhode Island.

Up to this time, 1779, the French Alliance had not amounted to anything,and there were but fifteen thousand regular Continental soldiersfit for duty. Yet so important did Washington consider this expeditionto destroy the Iroquois power that he detached one-third of his wholeforce, or 5000 picked Continentals. In its organization the army of300chastisem*nt consisted of four brigades, a regiment of artillery and eightcompanies of riflemen, making about five thousand men, with about twothousand pack horses and twenty-five hundred cattle and two fleets ofboats for river service, with stores and ammunition. The New Hampshirebrigade, then encamped at Redding, Conn., and the New Jerseybrigade at Elizabeth, N. J., with the Pennsylvania regiments, wereordered to march to Easton, and thence to move on to Wyoming, fromwhich point the stores and cannon were to follow the army until theyshould reach Tioga Point, where is now Athens. Here they were to bejoined by the New York brigade from Schenectady.

The Chemung and the Susquehanna, flowing from the east and thewest out of the heart of the Indian country, approach very near to eachother at Tioga Point, enclosing a pretty peninsula shaped like an arrowhead. Further down they meet and unite in one stream, the lordly Susquehanna,on which canoes could reach the cities on the Chesapeake Bayor any of the rivers flowing into it. Tioga Point was the Southern Doorof the Long House of the Iroquois confederacy, and here, as a base ofsupplies, a diamond-shaped fort with a block house at each corner, withhospital and barracks, was to be built. Upon this the army could fallback in case of defeat, and here be re-victualed on their return march.

In the rivers, nature provided the only highways, though the Iroquoisduring centuries of war, trade and travel had made many trails.From Tioga Point the Continentals were to march up the ChemungValley and thence into the wonderfully fertile lake country of CentralNew York. Along the ridge overlooking Seneca Lake they would pass,in order to strike the Tory headquarters and center of supplies at thelake’s northern end, where then stood a big Indian village, and now notfar away is the city of Geneva. Thence westwardly they were to move toCanandaigua and along the great trail at the southern end of the smallerlakes, Canadice, Hemlock and Conesus, into the valley of the Genesee.Possibly they might be able to reach the British fort at Niagara.

Indeed, in the great virgin wilderness of Central and Western NewYork there was no other way of advance, save through the river valleysand along Indian trails. When leaving the former and advancingthrough the forests, it would be necessary for the axemen to chop theirway. In miry places the pioneers must cut down trees, lay the logs andmake corduroy roads. Swamps must be filled and the smaller streams301bridged. In many parts of the country to be traversed there were indeedlarge open spaces where the cornfields of the Indians furnished storesof food, while their gardens yielded, as our men discovered, twelve kindsof vegetables. Yet in the main, the army would have to march through acountry covered with timber and brush wood.

A large force of axemen, pioneers, surveyors and road-makers wouldbe necessary, especially as the artillery must be carried along, for Washington,being himself a backwoodsman and an Indian fighter, knew thepersuasive power of cannon with the Indians. Brave as the paintedwarriors undoubtedly were, they preferred fighting behind logs and treesunder cover. They objected, most decidedly, to stand up in ranks andcoolly keep their places in the presence of howitzers that could tear themto pieces, not only by a frontal attack, but by sending shells to burst amongand behind them. The Indian had physical stamina, but he lacked moralcourage. Washington knowing this, ordered Colonel Proctor to takenine pieces of artillery and his regiment of three hundred artillerists.

Of the guns, two were howitzers of five and a half inch caliber thatcould throw bombs, two were six, and four were three pounders. Thenthere was a Coehorn mortar, so light that it could be borne by four men.This diminutive implement of war proved to be very effective, beingusually posted in the advance and easily carried over hill and valley.Mounted on an iron frame, with hickory legs, it could easily be “laid” oraimed at any angle. After a discharge it always kicked itself over, and,because of its long spindle-like limbs, the soldiers called it “the grasshopper.”Along with Proctor’s (now the Second United States) Artillerywent “a band of music,” that is, a fife and drum corps. In all,there were about two hundred musicians with their drum and fife majors.The lively tunes, such as “The White co*ckade,” “The Tall Grenadier,”and “Derry Down,” greatly inspirited our men, while at the solemnburials in the forest, “Roslin Castle” was the usual dirge.

Each regiment had its chaplain, and until the advance from TiogaPoint in battle array there were frequent services for worship and preachingat the camps.

Washington’s plan was to have a right and a left wing to the mainbody. While Sullivan advanced through the Susquehanna country, Clinton’sNew Yorkers, with part of the Sixth Massachusetts, were to move upthe Mohawk river and valley with two field pieces and a fleet of two hundred302boats. At Canajoharie he was to load his stores and boats onwagons, each drawn by eight horses, and march over the hills to OtsegoLake, thence to descend the outlet and enter the Susquehanna at ChenangoPoint where Binghamton now stands. Floating past Owego, he was tojoin Sullivan at Tioga Point, where the Chemung and Susquehanna unite.This programme was very successfully carried out.

The left wing, at Pittsburg, was led by Colonel Daniel Brodhead, aContinental veteran, afterwards Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. Hehad assembled about six hundred men, including some friendly Delawaresand Cherokees, with one month’s provisions, and started August 11, transportinghis cattle and pack horses to Mahoning. Entering the countryof the Mingoes and the Muncey tribes in Western Pennsylvania, and theSeneca towns in Southwestern New York, he desolated their houses andcorn fields.

“The parings of scalps and the hair of our countrymen at everywarrior’s camp on the path,” wrote Colonel Brodhead to Washington,“are new inducements to revenge.” Although his men on their return,September 14, were bare-footed and in rags, and had had no pay for ninemonths, he offered to lead an expedition to Detroit. Of two soldierswhom he sent to General Sullivan, he heard nothing. “I apprehend,”he wrote, “they have fallen into the enemy’s hands.” Dressing manyof his men like Indians, he sent out various parties that devastated theregion, and made it for a time uninhabitable by the savages. Very fewmen on our side were lost, and not a soldier but these two fell into theenemy’s hands.

Although Brodhead’s “Allegheny expedition,” or “Diversion infavor of General Sullivan’s expedition,” failed to make direct communicationwith the main body of Continentals, yet his was a vital part of thegreat expedition of 1779. It aided powerfully in that series of blowswhich shattered the Iroquois confederacy. By keeping probably fivehundred Senecas from Sullivan’s front, Brodhead helped to toll the deathknell of savagery on the North American continent.

The Indian country to be invaded by Sullivan stretched from the Hudsonto Niagara Falls, and was called by the Iroquois “The Long House.”To this long house there were four “doors,” the northern at Oswego, thesouthern at Tioga Point, the eastern at Schenectady, and the western atNiagara.

In 1779 there were only a few settlements of the white man outsideof a thin line in the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. The Six Nations ofIroquois, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscaroras,were federated together and usually acted as a whole. Many ofthe Mohawks living near the settlements were friendly to the Americancause, and almost the entire Oneida tribe had been won over to loyaltyto the Continental Congress through the efforts of Dominie Kirkland,afterwards a chaplain in Sullivan’s army and the founder of HamiltonCollege. He was one of the few white men who had been as far west asthe great “castle” of the Senecas, on Seneca Lake.

The Tuscaroras lived east of Cayuga Lake, the Cayugas between thelargest two of the “finger lakes,” Cayuga and Seneca. The Onondagasdwelt around the lake which takes their name, and the Senecas, in theregion between the lake named after them and the Genesee river.Roughly speaking, we may think of Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Elmira,Geneva and Ithaca as being the centers of the six tribes mentioned in theirorder, the central council-fire being with the Onondagas, near Syracuse.

The Senecas were, in 1779, the largest and most active of the tribes,and “the Seneca country” was a general name for the great region whichSullivan was to traverse. Our soldiers were to enter the Long Housethrough the southern door, at Tioga Point, near which, on the fertileslope of the valley, was Esthertown, or the Indian Queen Esther’s countryand castle. One of their hardest marches would be through the swampyvalley stretching from the town of Chemung west of Esthertown to thecastle of Queen Catherine Montour, her sister, at Montour Falls, N. Y.

The mention of Queen Esther’s name recalls the fact that the savages304were not entirely alone in their schemes of hostility, but that the brain andhands of white men assisted them in their bloody forays. Indeed, it wasone of the counts in the Declaration of Independence that the colonieswere justified in their war of independence, because George III. “hasendeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the mercilessIndian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguisheddestruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” There were several hundredwhite men aiding and abetting the Indians in the arts of war andin methods of fortification. Besides the British regulars, Johnson’sGreens, loyalists, Canadians and half-breeds, two of the most eminentIroquois women called “Queens” had white blood in their veins. Bothboasted descent from the French Count Frontenac, and were married topowerful chiefs. Esther, at Sheshequin, near Tioga Point, and Catherine,at Montour Falls, near the modern Watkins Glen, were the ownersof large and well-worked corn fields and of fenced gardens, of horses,cattle, hogs, and other live stock and of houses made of sawed and carvedtimber and spoken of as “palaces.”

It must not be forgotten that from the missionaries of France, whohad at various times lived among the Indians for over a hundred years,and from the traders, gunsmiths, and friendly whites of various dispositionand ability, supported by the British government, the Iroquois Indians hadreached a comparatively high point of progress. Even when the whitemen first met them these federated warriors were the most advanced ofall others within the limits of the United States. They had their ownmyths and legends. They met in council and had orators to argue bothsides of a question or proposal. They sent embassies from one tribe toanother, and these envoys were very ceremonious and careful in dress andetiquette. When they made a treaty of peace they solemnly buried thehatchet and smoked the calumet, or pipe of friendship. To dig up thesame weapon meant war. Instead of our letters, seals, and documents ofpaper and parchment, they used wampum made of shells drilled and lacedtogether, which in belts or strings served as money, as messages, as historicalrecords. Some of the Indian orators, Logan, Red Jacket and others,were very famous. To become such these men practiced elocution andrhetoric very much the same as do our public speakers. As the Iroquoisraised and stored corn and other vegetable foods, they were able to wagesystematic war and go on long campaigns. Thus they excelled and conqueredthe other savages. When they left the stone age, by obtainingguns from Europeans, their lust of conquest was fired more than ever.305When the white men of Pennsylvania and Virginia paid the Indians forlands, the avarice of the Iroquois was still further excited. Many tribes,even as far as Canada and the Mississippi Valley, were vassals of the confederacy.In the Iroquois we see the highest type of pagan man.

Our debt to the Indian is very great. He taught our fathers the useof tobacco, maple sugar, corn, succotash and various methods of gettingfood, besides the use of the birch bark canoe, the moccasin, and the snowshoe.

The Iroquois method of raising corn was very ingenious. On thelands in river valleys this was easy enough, yet they could win crops evenin the forest. This they did by “girdling.” They cut round the treetrunk near the ground, and again about ten feet higher, and then strippedoff the bark between the spaces girdled by the knife or hatchet. Thiscaused the tree to wither and the leaves to fall, quickly letting in the sunshineon the ground. Thus, the Indian without the trouble of choppingdown the trees and clearing the land got at once the benefit of the soil.In the autumn, by burning the underbrush and trees, the ground was enrichedand the space easily cleared for next year’s crop. In almost everyIroquois village there were store houses made of bark or timber, in whichthe grain was saved.

The dwellings or long houses were made of wooden frameworkcovered with bark and built in the form of a modern compartment house.Each had a long hall or passageway through the middle, with rooms oneither side, one for each family, with a fireplace in the center and thesleeping bunks against the wall. The walls of these rooms were decoratedwith bows and arrows, guns and equipments, and the prizes ofthe chase, which all hunters love, and of war, over which warriors gloat.They had also more horrible ornaments in the scalps of their enemies,both white and red. These, stretched and dried on hoops, were oftenpainted and decorated with feathers and strings dyed in bright colorswhich had symbolic significance.

Many of Sullivan’s soldiers, who enlisted hoping to rescue whitecaptives, often their own relatives, were able to recognize in the Iroquoishouses the hair and scalps of fathers, brothers, wives, children, neighborsor friends. In the case of women, it was especially easy to do this.

At several places where hill and ravine, or the situation of the riversand the inclosed land made natural fortresses, the Iroquois had “castles.”306These were made by driving three rows of young trees, sharpened at theends, into the ground to form a palisade which was fastened at the top.Inside of these were platforms, on which warriors could stand and shootarrows or balls against besiegers. Besides barring the gate tightly, theyhad heaps of stones ready to throw on the heads of near assailants andtubs of water prepared to put out fires. It was expected that the artillerywould have to be used against these. The orders were to burn all theIndian houses and utterly destroy the crops so that the country would beleft uninhabitable. There was no mistake about the orders of Washingtonon this point.

While the army was assembling and the stores, boats and horses werein preparation, other expeditions on a smaller scale had been attempted.The State of New York, in the autumn of 1778, attempted to send anexpedition among the Mohawks and Onondagas, but on account of thelateness of the season it was abandoned. In the following year, however,on April 19, Colonel Van Schaick leading, 558 men of the First NewYork regiment made a forced march of 180 miles in six days against theOnondagas. He burned three of their towns with their storehouses offood, slew twelve and took prisoners thirty-three of the savages. Withthe Onondagas was the hearthstone of the confederacy, and a terriblehumbling done to the Iroquois pride was the extinguishing of the councilfire.

Pennsylvania was also active in clearing the path for Sullivan. InSeptember, 1778, Colonel Thomas Hartley with about two hundredsoldiers of the Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment, with seventeen horses,advanced northward from Sunbury up the Lycoming river and into aregion of swamps, mountains, defiles and rocks. His especial object wasto destroy the power of Queen Esther. This squaw had made herselfvery active in the massacre at Wyoming. She compelled the prisoners ofwar to kneel in a circle around a boulder, still called “Queen Esther’sRock,” and tomahawked them one after another. This was in revengefor her son killed in a skirmish. At Sheshequin, near Tioga Point,Hartley destroyed, by the torch, her castle and everything else that couldbe turned to ashes. Advancing up the Chemung Valley, towards Newtown,the big Indian town on the flats, near modern Elmira, he found theenemy in force and was obliged to return. On his way he cleverly defeatedthe Indians and Tories who had tried to surround him. He andhis men waded or swam the Lycoming river no fewer than twenty times.307He reached Sunbury again, October 5, having marched nearly threehundred miles, capturing among other spoil fifty head of cattle andtwenty-eight canoes. In his various battles and skirmishes he lost fourmen, but killed eleven of the enemy and took fifteen prisoners. Hisregiment was reorganized and became “the new Eleventh regiment,”under Colonel Adam Hubley, which formed part of Sullivan’s army andranked among his most effective troops.

One has but to study the map of Eastern Pennsylvania, a region richin swamps, rocks, hills and mountain ranges, to see what difficulties awaitedthe general who was to move a large body of troops, with artillery andwagon trains, from Easton to Wyoming. To go up the Lehigh Valleywas impossible, for between its headwaters and the Susquehanna werehills insurmountable. On the steel tracks of to-day a double force ofengine power is required. So from Easton, through the Blue Mountainsand Wind Gap, a road was cut through the forest, the stones taken out,the boulders stacked, the miry hollows corduroyed and the swamps filled.

Marvelous to relate, this military road, about seventy miles long, wasbuilt within ten days. It was indeed one of the wonders of the Revolution.Several hundred road builders, mostly Continental soldiers, underColonels Spencer and Van Cortlandt, did the work in parties, whileguarded by outlying scouts and riflemen. To-day the turnpike road andthe iron rails and bridges of the great railway companies traverse theregion in which “The Sullivan Road” once was, but the achievements ofthe modern engineers are in no way more wonderful. In five days thethree brigades of Poor’s New Hampshire men, Hand’s PennsylvaniaLight Corps and Maxwell’s New Jerseymen, with Proctor’s artillery andthe wagon trains, made the march over the new road. Their camps wereat Wind Gap, Larner’s on the Pocono, “Chowder Camp,” near the Tobyhanna,on the creek near the “Shades of Death,” and at “GreatMeadows,” or Bullock’s. Some of the relics of the road builders, includingthe section of a tree carved with the camp name of “Hell’s Kitchen,”are still preserved.

By the building of the military road from Easton to Wyoming, andthrough Hartley’s and Van Schaick’s raids, the enemy was now fully convincedthat an invading army was being made ready for their chastisem*nt.Rousing the whole confederacy of the Six Nations, Brant, theMohawk, and Butler, the Tory, sent their warriors to make a series of308attacks on the American settlements, hoping thus to distract and scatterthe coming avengers. Sullivan, however, understood these tactics. Herefused to detach any pursuing parties, and pressed right on. In Aprilhe had sent his advance guard of two hundred of the Eleventh Pennsylvaniaunder Major Powell to strengthen the garrison at Wyoming. On the23d, when not far from the site of Wilkes-Barre, the party having reached,as they thought, nearly the end of their journey, were desirous of enteringthe settlement in good order and in fine personal appearance. Theyhalted, therefore, to brush and clean themselves, while the officers put ontheir coats and ruffles. Then marching forward, but having their attentioncalled from possible present danger by the presence of a deer crossingtheir path, they were led into an Indian ambuscade, in which several ofthem were killed. In 1896 a monument was reared to their memoryby the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution.

Another incident previous to the movement of Sullivan’s force wasin the attack, by one hundred British and two hundred Indians under commandof Captain McDonald, fifteen miles above Northumberland, Pa., onFreeland’s Fort. This they surrounded on the 28th of July, 1779, andcompelled the garrison of thirty-two men to surrender. They also ambuscadedCaptain Boon’s party, which had marched to their relief, killingfourteen of his men.

During the same week Brant with a party of warriors moved downthe Wallkill valley, destroying the Minisink settlements in Orange county,New York, killing many and making many prisoners. They decoyed intoan ambush more than 150 militia from Goshen, of whom over 100 wereslain. Brant then moved on to the destruction of the settlement of Lackawaxen,which was laid in ashes and the inhabitants slain.

All this was done to distract and scatter the avenging army, butevery effort failed, and the Continentals moved steadily on.

General Sullivan was implored, by messengers who brought him theterrible news, to march to the relief of the burned settlements. Wiselyand firmly he refused to detach a single soldier from his column. Heknew full well that advance into the enemy’s country would compel bothred and white foes to draw away their forces and concentrate. Thispolicy was really the best means of protecting the settlements. He thereforehastened his preparations, so as to move on at the first momentpossible. On July 31, at 1 P. M., he broke camp at Wyoming. Determined309not to be led into ambush or to be “Braddocked,” he threw out theriflemen in advance, to guard against surprise, and moved in line of battle.The flotilla of boats, the line of twelve hundred pack horses and sevenhundred cattle, the park of artillery and the brigades of infantry beingall ready, the signal was given by firing a cannon on the Adventurer,Proctor’s flagboat lying in the Susquehanna. The march from Wyomingto Tioga Point, through swamps and over frightful precipices, wassafely made in good order. The procession of boats on the water and ofsoldiers on land were each several miles long. Reaching Sheshequin onthe Susquehanna, the soldiers faced the flood, locked arms and forded theswiftly flowing river at where Milan, Pa., now stands, and then againcrossed the stream to reach the peninsula at Tioga Point, where they encamped,awaiting the arrival of their right wing, Clinton’s New Yorkbrigade.

CHAPTER IV
THE MOVEMENT OF THE RIGHT WING

The right wing of the expedition, consisting of the 3rd, 4th and 5th NewYork, the 6th Massachusetts, and 4th Pennsylvania, with four companiesof riflemen and two pieces of artillery, was under the command of GeneralJames Clinton. This veteran officer gathered his forces at Schenectady.He encamped his regiments around this little palisaded frontier town,while his flotilla of over 215 boats was building in the boat yards thatthen lined the Mohawk river, between the stream and the town’s woodenwalls on its north and west sides.

When all was ready, about June 15, the boats were pushed, poled orrowed up the river to Canajoharie. Then both the stores and the boatswere loaded on wagons drawn by four yokes of oxen, carried over the hillsand unloaded on the beach at Otsego Lake. This very toilsome workwas over by July 3, and on the “Glorious Fourth” was celebrated by aparade, salute of cannon, divine service and a banquet with thirteenpatriotic toasts. Herds of cattle had been driven from Kingston, N. Y.,by the great western route through the Catskill mountains, to furnishfresh beef. The soldiers enjoyed their camp life in the fragrant woods,though eager to move against the enemy.

An engineer and the father of the “father of the Erie Canal,” General310Clinton’s first object was to provide enough water to float his boatsdown out of the lake and into and along the shallow Susquehanna, in orderto make junction with Sullivan at Tioga Point. To secure this, in the drymid-summer a reservoir was made by damming up the little lake at itssource near the present Cooperstown. The flow of rain not only in this,but also in the adjoining Schuyler Lake, during four weeks of waiting tohear from Sullivan, was thus secured. The gain of one month’s waterfrom sky and earth was apparent. It is uncertain from extant journalsand diaries how high a level was reached, some saying that three feet,but one declaring that only one foot of water was gained. At any rate,the rise was sufficient to send the flotilla down into the valley, as if movingon a toboggan slide.

Monday, August 9, was fixed as the date of movement. On theprevious Saturday, the chaplain, the Reverend Mr. Gano, inquired of thegeneral whether he could break the news to the army. Being forbidden,he asked whether he might make choice of any text he pleased. To thisfull liberty was granted. When the preacher stood up before his audiencehe pronounced the words in Acts xx. 7, “Ready to depart on the morrow”;at which the faces of all the troops lightened.

The glad work of chopping away the dam was begun on Sundaynight when the water rushed out, so filling the lower channels of theriver as to afford easy passage for the boats. The Tuscaroras dwellingin the valley looking upon the swollen stream and their inundated cornfields,deemed themselves under the wrath of the Great Spirit, and fledin alarm. After every defeat the savages, according to their custom,hung up white dogs to avert the anger and beg for the pity of their gods.Our men found these tokens of primitive religion all along the route.As the army marched overland the various settlements of Indians andTories were destroyed by fire and axe.

Ithaca, N. Y.

During the early summer of 1776 the American forces wereactively engaged upon a work of great magnitude, which it washoped would prevent the British vessels ascending the Hudson.

The project was the blocking, by means of sunken vessels filled withstone,[1] of the narrowest portion of the deep channel of the river.

This was, and still is, the waterway extending between what is nowknown as Fort Washington Point, about 178th street, then called Jeffrey’sHook, and the foreshore below the Palisades about due west of thePoint, under Fort Lee.

Both sides were more or less protected by guns mounted in the earthworksof Fort Washington and Fort Constitution, the extent and characterof which were not well known to the British commanders, though theyseem to have been kept pretty well informed by treacherous informers ofthe progress of the work of obstructing the channel with the sunken vessels,from the decks of which protruded masts or sharpened poles, forming arough “chevaux-de-frise,” a dangerous form of obstruction for woodenvessels propelled by tide and wind.

During all the spring and early summer the British naval force inthe waters around New York was represented by two very active vessels,the sixty-four-gun man-of-war Asia, Captain George Vandeput, and theforty-four-gun frigate Phœnix, commanded by an able and energeticofficer, Sir Hyde Parker, Jr., son of a well-known commander of the samename, who had already done good service for his king.

On June 30, the advance guard of the British fleet under Vice-AdmiralMolyneux Shuldham, Rear-Admiral of the White, arrived atNew York from Halifax. His flagship was the Chatham, of fifty gunsand with her was her consort, the Centurion, also of fifty, and the twentygun frigate Rose, which took a very active part in later affairs. By the312first week of July the force under Shuldham had increased to fifty-fourarmed vessels of all ratings, aggregating about 1200 guns in broadside,with fully eighty supply vessels and transports laden with troops under thecommand of General Howe, who had made the journey from Halifax inthe frigate Greyhound, of thirty guns.

On the 7th of July, while messengers from Philadelphia were bearingthe news of the Declaration of Independence to New York, GovernorTryon and Howe were consulting aboard the Greyhound as to theexpediency of sending a naval force up the North River in order toobstruct the supplies of the Americans. Action on this scheme was evidentlydeferred pending the expected arrival of Admiral Lord Howe, thegeneral’s brother, with a powerful addition to the fleet.

No sooner was the arrival of this force announced by its advanceguard than a squadron was ordered up the North River in a bold attemptto force their way past the obstructions at Fort Washington.

The vessels selected were the Phœnix and Rose, with the armedschooner Tryal, and two bomb-ketches, tenders of the two frigates, respectivelythe Shuldham and Charlotta.

It will be remembered that on passing the town of New York thesevessels opened a bombardment, which it has been claimed was unprovokedby firing from the defences, and that a distressing bloodshed and panicamong the inhabitants resulted.

The log or journal of Captain Hyde Parker relates the events asfollows:

“Saturday 13th. Wind. S. W. Moderate breeze and fair weather.At 3 made the signal and weigh’d and came to sail in company with theRose, Tryal Schooner with the Shuldham and Charlotta Tenders, at ¾past 3 the Battery at Red Hook on Long Island began fireing on us, onour standing on, the Batterys on Governors Isl^d and on Powle’s Hookcommenced a heavy fireing at us. At 5 minutes past 4 being then betweenthe last mentioned batterys we began fireing upon them at ½ past 5 wepass’d the Batterys near Town and at 7 anchor’d in Tapon Bay abrest ofTarryTown in 7 fathom.... In passing the Batterys Rece’d twoshott in the Hull, one on the Bowsprit and several through the Sails, andhad one Seaman and two marines wounded.”

The log of Mr. Savage Landor,[2] sailing master of the Rose, givesfurther details, as follows:

314The journal of the Captain, Sir James Wallace, is nearly identical inthe main features recorded; repeating that “the Rebels began to fireupon us and the Phenix,” and confirming the material damage done to theship. As to this it may be remembered that Anthony Glean, who firedthe first gun at the squadron from the guns at the Battery, claimed that hisshot took effect on the hull of the Rose, and the good gunnery of theAmericans is evident from the general damage inflicted.

New York City.

IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, WITHPARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CONDITIONS IN THE ROYAL COLONYOF NEW YORK.

CHAPTER IV (Concluded)
THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN NEW YORK

In the fall of 1767 a pamphlet of which a few copies were reprintedfrom a London edition, appeared in New York and created considerableexcitement. It was entitled “The Conduct of CadwalladerColden, Esq. Lieutenant-Governor of New York, relating to the judges’commissions:—Appeals to the King; and Stamp Duty.” It had been presentedby the grand jury in October as a libellous reflection on the Council,the Assembly and the Courts of Justice in the province of New York, and,as its sub-title would indicate, was a defense of Colden’s conduct, when actingas Governor. In the course of the argument reference was made tothe action of the two branches of the Assembly in these matters, and bothbodies took umbrage and appointed a joint committee to investigate, andif possible discover, the author and the person responsible for the republicationin New York.[3]

The committee carried on its work with vigor, summoning amongothers the printers of the province and also Colden’s son and son-in-law,[4]and the matter finally ended in a report by the committee to the GeneralAssembly and the adoption of the following resolutions.[5]

“Resolved,... That the said pamphlet highly reflects upon thehonor, justice and dignity of his Majesty’s Council, the General Assembly,and the Judges of the Supreme Court; and contains the mostmalignant aspersions, upon the inhabitants of this colony in general.

316Resolved, That the said pamphlet tends to destroy the confidenceof the people, in two of the branches of the legislature, and the officersconcerned in the due administration of justice; to render the governmentodious and contemptible, to abate that due respect to authority, so necessaryto peace and good order, to excite disadvantageous suspicions andjealousies in the minds of the people of Great Britain, against hisMajesty’s subjects in this colony, and to expose the colony in general, tothe resentments of the crown and both houses of Parliament.

Resolved, That as the House has not been able to discover theauthor of the said pamphlet, a dissolution of the general assembly isspeedily expected; his Excellency the Governor be humbly requested, incase the author should hereafter be discovered, to order a prosecutionto be issued against him, that such punishment may be inflicted on sogreat an offender as the law directs.”

This is an instance where neither branch of the Assembly can forcean avowal of authorship from those who are suspected; a little later weshall find in the Parker-McDougall case that the Governor and Councildid not consider it beneath their dignity to resort to very questionableactions when they were trying to find the person responsible for apamphlet which displeased them.

It is not necessary to enter here on the details of the circ*mstanceswhich finally led to the repeal of the Stamp Act and the passage of theMutiny Act.[6] The more extreme party had viewed with great disquietudethe passage of the latter act, and the way in which the Assemblyhad yielded in the matter of meeting its provisions. When the Governor,Sir Henry Moore, died on Sept. 11th, 1769 and Lieutenant-GovernorColden once more took up the reins of government, the feeling wasintensified, and on Dec. 16th, two printed papers appeared, the firstsigned “A Son of Liberty,” and the second “Legion” in which “thebetrayed inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York” were invitedto meet on the following Monday at the House of De La Montayne inthe Fields near the City, and there take steps to set forth their rights andvindicate the privileges which the Assembly seemed unable to successfullyassert.

At this meeting which was largely attended a speech was made byJohn Lamb a prosperous merchant of the city.

317Meanwhile the Assembly had had its attention called to the papersand had declared the first to be “false, seditious and infamous,” andhad branded the second as “an infamous libel,” and had requested theLieutenant-Governor to issue his proclamation, offering a reward of £100for the discovery of the author.[7] After the meeting in the Fields theAssembly ordered Lamb to appear before it, and examined him as to“his conduct about the two libels” but as it did not appear that hisactions at the Fields had been in consequence of the two libels he wasallowed to depart.[8] But the Assembly had not given up all hope offinding and prosecuting the author of the two pamphlets. One ofParker’s journeymen for the sake of the reward, gave information againsthim, and on Feb. 7th Parker was arrested and examined by the Governorand Council. While the latter was detained in a room off the CouncilChamber, his apprentices were arrested, and brought before the Council,and although for a long time they stoutly refused to admit any knowledgeof the papers, one of them by gross intimidation was finally broughtto admit that the papers had been printed in his master’s office.

Parker was then brought back before the Council, told that hisapprentice had admitted that it had been printed by him, and threatened,in case he refused to name the author, with the loss of his position asSecretary of the Post Office. Finally Parker, being promised indemnity,gave information which resulted in the arrest on a bench warrant ofAlexander McDougall, who was taken before the Chief Justice, and onrefusal to admit the fact of authorship, committed to prison.

Some seven years before this, in 1763, John Wilkes, member ofParliament, and editor of the “North Briton” had been arrested on ageneral warrant for having attacked in No. 45 of his journal the Buteadministration and abused the King, charging the latter with falsehood.Wilkes was discharged on the ground of parliamentary privilege, and thequestion being carried before the Chief Justice, Lord Camden, the latterdeclared general warrants to be illegal. Wilkes was expelled by a subservientParliament, but was regarded by great numbers in the nation asa martyr to the cause of liberty and freedom of discussion.

Now it happened that the vote of the Assembly declaring the handbills libellous had been printed on the forty-fifth page of the journal.For either this reason, or more probably because of No. 45 of the “North318Briton” (which number was often used as a party-cry in England),“Forty-five” became the watchword of the Sons of Liberty, at this timea numerous body. McDougall was overrun with visitors at the jailand was forced to issue in the “New York Weekly Journal” for Feb.15th, a card to his friends in which he appointed the hours from three tosix in the afternoon to receive them.

In the same number of the Journal appears an account of one ofthese receptions:

“Yesterday, the forty-fifth day of the year, forty-five gentlemen, realenemies to internal taxation, by, or in obedience to external authority,and cordial friends to Capt. McDougall, and the glorious cause ofAmerican liberty, went in decent procession to the New Gaol; and dinedwith him on forty-five pounds of beef, cut from a bullock of forty-fivemonths old, and with a number of other friends who joined them in theafternoon, drank a variety of toasts, expressive not only of the mostundissembled loyalty, but of the warmest attachment to Liberty, itsrenowned advocates in Great Britain and America, and the freedom ofthe press. Before the evening the whole company, who conducted themselveswith great decency, separated in the most cordial manner, but notwithout the firmest resolution to continue united in the glorious cause.”In April he was indicted by the Grand Jury for libel, and being broughtto the bar pleaded not guilty and was admitted to bail.

While matters were in this condition the Assembly again took thematter up. On Dec. 13, 1770, the Speaker was directed to order McDougallto attend at the Bar of the House to answer a complaint madeagainst him by Mr. De Noyellis for being the supposed author or publisherof the paper signed “A Son of Liberty.”[9] On his attending,McDougall was asked whether he was or was not the author of thepaper. He replied “That as the grand jury and house of Assembly haddeclared the paper in question to be a libel, he could not answer the question.Secondly, that as he was under prosecution in the Supreme Court,he conceived it would be an infraction of the laws of Justice to punish aBritish subject twice for one offense, for that no line could be run, that hemight be punished without end; but he would not be understood to denythe authority of the house to punish for a breach of privilege, when nocognizance is taken of it in another Court.”

319The Assembly decided that this was a contempt of the authority ofthe house, and, since he refused to ask pardon of the house, he wasordered into the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and placed in thecounty jail.

A writ of Habeas Corpus was sued out before the Court of Justice,whereupon the sheriff notified the house and asked what he should do.A committee was appointed on Jan. 22d, 1771, “to search the journals ofthe house of Commons, for precedents in cases where writs of habeascorpus have been issued, to bring persons committed by the Commonsbefore other Courts.” The committee reported on Feb. 16, that severalprecedents had been found, which precedents were ordered printed in theJournal of the House. It was also determined that the sheriff should beindemnified for his action in not obeying the order of the Court.

The Assembly was prorogued on March 4, 1771, and did not cometogether till Jan. 7, 1772, and we hear no more of the McDougall affair.About this time Parker died and as he was the principal witness in thecase it was probably considered useless to bring up the indictment beforethe Court.

From this time on, pamphlets, opposing the Crown and its policy ofrepression, continued to appear in ever increasing number, but the governmentmade no serious sign of opposition, and seemed to have givenup in despair the attempt to control a press which the majority of thepeople warmly supported.

CHAPTER V
THE PRESS IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

In the Southern colonies we find, as we should expect, an absence of anyvery important cases bearing on the subject under consideration.

The ideas of Sir Wm. Berkeley, (for thirty-eight years Governorof Virginia), in regard to the dissemination of information, may begathered from a reply made by him to some enquiries of the Lords Commissionersof Foreign Plantations.

The question being “What course is taken about the instructing thepeople, within your government in the Christian religion; and what provision320is there made for the paying of your minister?” his answer is:“The same course that is taken in England out of towns: every manaccording to his ability instructing his children. We have forty-eightparishes, and our ministers are well paid, and by my consent should bebetter if they would pray oftener and preach less. But of all other commodities,so of this, the worst is sent us, and we had few that we couldboast of, since the persecution in Cromwell’s tiranny drove divers worthymen hither. But, I thank God, we have not free schools nor printing;and I hope we shall not have these hundred years. For learning hasbrought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world; and printinghas divulged them and libels against the government. God keep us fromboth.”[10]

At the beginning of the last quarter of the seventeenth century Virginiasuffered from internal disorders (as Bacon’s Rebellion), due topolitical disturbances having their origin in the English Civil War. LordCulpepper, the Governor, was inclined to stretch the royal prerogative toits furthest limit and met the murmurings of the Assembly with a coldand gloomy dignity.[11]

The Assembly insisting on its rights as given in the charters, LordCulpepper dissolved the body and endeavored to stamp out all remembranceof past freedom. In the Bland MS. p. 498,[12] we find the followingentry: “Feb. 21, 1682, John Buckner called before the Lord Culpepperand his Council for printing the laws of 1680, without his Excellency’slicense, and he and the printer ordered to enter into bond in £100not to print anything thereafter, until his majesty’s pleasure should beknown.” Thus, the press was strangled at its birth, since we have norecord or copy of any other work, and that the government continued towatch carefully lest it should appear again is proven by the Instructionsof Lord Effingham, the next Governor, in which he is ordered “to allowno person to use a printing press on any occasion whatsoever.”[13]

In the period between 1733, when Wm. Parks established his pressat Williamsburg, and 1765 when Wm. Rind began to issue a paper atWilliamsburg, there was but the single press in Virginia, and being the321organ of the government it may be easily imagined that it had no greattemptation to struggle for the liberty of the press.

With the exception of libel suits against Wm. Parks about the year1740 (by which the House of Burgesses sought to punish him for publishingan article reflecting on one of the members), and the presentmentin 1766 of Rind, and of Purdie and Dixon, the publishers of the two VirginiaGazettes (for referring in a way considered improper, to the bailmentof Colonel Chiswell), in both of which instances the prosecutionfailed utterly in its attempt,—there is nothing on the subject which claimsour attention.

In South Carolina the press was encouraged, liberal inducementsbeing held out to any printer who would settle in the colony. As a resultof this policy we find the printing press in operation from the year 1730,a newspaper being published in 1731. In the early period of the historyof the press in the colony the only cause of serious trouble that we findwas one involving Peter Timothy, of the Gazette, who had published aletter by one Hugh Bryan in which occurred the statement that “theclergy of South Carolina broke their Canons daily.” With Timothywere also arrested Bryan and George Whitefield, the Evangelist, whohad corrected the manuscript. All three were admitted to bail, and thematter was dropped.

In 1773 one of the most important cases that ever occurred in thecolonies came about through the publication in the South CarolinaGazette, then owned by Timothy and a partner whom he had lately taken,named Thomas Powell, but managed entirely by the latter, of a portionof the proceedings of the Council on the previous day. Being summonedto attend the body, he admitted that he was the publisher of the Gazette,and that he had printed the proceedings, which on being asked he saidhad been brought to him by the Hon. Wm. Henry Drayton, a member ofthe Council. The Council then adjudged him “guilty of a high breachof the privileges, and a contempt of the house.”

Powell refused to ask pardon of the Council which then,

“Resolved, That Thomas Powell, who hath this day been adjudgedby this house, to have been guilty of a high breach of privilege, and acontempt of this house, be for his said offense committed to the Common322Gaol of Charleston; and that his Honor, the President of this house, doissue his warrant accordingly.”

Mr. Drayton, who was present, and had acknowledged his share inthe affair, protested strongly, but without avail, and Powell was placed inprison. Two days later, on Sept. 2d, the Hon. Rawlins Lowndes, andMr. George Gabriel Powell, the former being Speaker of the Assembly,and the latter one of the members of the body, and both being justices ofthe peace, had Powell brought before them on a writ of Habeas Corpusand discharged him. The Council then took action in these resolutions:

“Resolved, That the power of commitment is so necessarily incidentto each house of Assembly, that without it neither their authority nordignity can in any degree whatsoever be maintained or supported.

Resolved, That Rawlins Lowndes, Esqr., Speaker of the CommonsHouse of Assembly, and George Gabriel Powell, Esqr. memberof the said house, being two justices of the peace, unus quorum, latelyassistant judges and justices of his majesty’s court of Common Pleas,have, by virtue of habeas corpus by them issued, caused the body of T.Powell to be brought before them, on the second of this instant September,and the said justices, disregarding the commitment of this house, didpresumptuously discharge T. Powell out of the custody of the sheriffunder the commitment of this house.

Resolved, That the said justices have been guilty of the mostatrocious contempt of this house.”

The resolution which follows calls upon the Assembly to disavowthe action of these men and give them up to receive proper punishment.This the Assembly refused to do, and then both houses carried the matteron petition to the Crown, and it had not been settled when the breakingout of the Revolutionary War put an end to the affair.

In this case the attempt of the upper house to destroy the liberty ofthe press, was opposed by the desire of the lower house to uphold it, andthe fact that this occurred on the eve of the Revolution is significant,teaching us that even to the last the principle that the press must be freehad not been established in the American colonies.

We have had brought before us all the instances of any importance,throughout the American colonies of efforts on the part of the governmentto control the liberty of the press. Let us now attempt to deduce fromthem the general principles which governed the matter.

In the first place it is clear that, as the several colonies differed theone from another in their relations with and dependence upon the homegovernment and their Governor, who represented that government, sotoo the press was in some colonies far more free from control than inothers. In Massachusetts, where interference from outside was alwaysresisted, control by the Governor was seldom attempted. Before theadministration of Governor Andros the Crown made no attempt to interfere;Andros himself appointed Edward Randolph (vide p. 9) aslicenser, and Bartholomew Green, the Boston publisher testifies (vide p.10) to the fact that in his time (the end of the seventeenth century),Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton took a keen interest in the productionsof the press, and refused to allow any publications without a previous applicationto him, with a copy of the matter to be published. After thisperiod the control by the Crown again was lost in that as also in politicalmatters.

In Pennsylvania we have an instance of a Governor representing anindividual proprietor. Here the struggle between the people and Penn’srepresentative in political matters was carried over into the field occupiedby the press, and so we find in the early period of the existence of thepress a dual authority exercised, the Crown and the Quarterly Meeting,both claiming the right of censorship (vide p. 23). In the first half ofthe eighteenth century the power of the Quakers passed away as far asour subject is concerned, but the control exercised by the Crown continued,although more and more questioned, until the breaking out of the Revolutionarystruggle.

In New York the Governor himself was responsible for the introductionof the press and for forty years (1692–1734), it took no activepart in political agitations, maintaining a cautious neutrality under Bradford.In this colony it was rather a question of the right to freedom ofspeech, a question raised in the prosecution of Col. Nicholas Bayard.324From the period of the Zenger trial newspapers continued to increase andthe twenty-five years before 1775 witnessed a continuous production ofpamphlets in which the Crown and its representative were attacked, theefforts to punish by the government being in almost every case entirelyfutile. The press divides itself into two groups, the supporters andopponents of the Governor, and the party newspaper becomes a reality.

In the Southern colonies the press never attained any liberty, thegovernment being ever on the watch to repress the smallest attempt atfreedom of discussion and criticism.

In the second place we find that the attitude assumed by the inhabitantsof the colonies, as expressed by the actions of their representatives,varied in the different colonies. We do find this general similarity, thatin all there was a very jealous upholding of the rights of the legislativebody as against criticism. That can be easily established by a perusalof the Minutes of any of the Assemblies. But in Massachusetts a distinctionseems to have been early established between a criticism of theproceedings of the General Court as such, and a criticism of the policy ofthe government. In Pennsylvania this view was only in the latter periodarrived at; in New York the General Assembly was constantly takingoffense at writings appearing in the newspapers or distributed in theform of pamphlets; while in Virginia the question never arose becausethere was no criticism.

Everywhere we find that there was, as time goes on, a generaladvance towards freedom of discussion. But this is best seen in nonpoliticalmatters. With the failure by Parliament in 1695 to renew theLicensing Act all publication became at least theoretically free except inso far as it was restrained by the law of libel. To just what extent thislaw could be stretched was always a matter of dispute. The maxim “thegreater the truth, the greater the libel” must certainly have exercised aninfluence to deter the publications of the time from the discussion ofprivate affairs. In fact in many instances the news contained in an issueof a newspaper was practically nothing, the few columns being occupiedwith a very bald statement of Indian affairs, or the relations with Franceor perhaps a short account of something which had taken place in Englandor on the Continent. The needs of the community, as better roadsor the impounding of wandering cattle, were lightly touched on, butthere was but slight evidence of any conception of the idea that the presscould lead and direct public opinion as to municipal affairs.

325In political matters not directly affecting the Crown there was alsoa slight advance towards freedom of discussion, which, as the time of theRevolution approached, became very much extended. But here againno general rule can be established for the more radical colonies, asMassachusetts, would naturally be far in advance of the more conservative,while between would stand New York.

Of one thing we may be confident. In no colony would the Governor,as representing the Crown, permit a criticism of its actions to passwithout censure, and, if possible, punishment. When the Evening Postof Boston (vide p. 14) published in 1741 the paragraph in regard to theexpected overthrow of the Walpole Ministry, the Attorney-General wasat once ordered to file an Information against the printer, Thomas Fleet,and although no further proceedings were ever taken, the omission wasdue rather to want of confidence in the Massachusetts jury than to anyleniency on the part of the Governor. In the case of McDougall (videp. 65), we find the writer of a pamphlet obnoxious to the Crown kept inprison even against a writ of Habeas Corpus, and only released when thedeath of the principal witness in the case made his conviction impossible.

The liberty of the press was still further curtailed by the influenceexerted by certain classes in the community. There was always a strongfeeling among those who had grants of land (either directly from theCrown or by the Crown as confirmatory of purchases already made fromthe Indians), against any discussion of their rights over those who weretheir tenants. This influence would of course be of importance only inthe colonies where grants were numerous, as in the colony of New York.But another class influence, that of the Clergy, was far stronger at alltimes and universal in its extent. In Massachusetts and Pennsylvania itis hardly possible to overestimate the importance of this influence, and innone of the colonies can it be neglected if we desire to properly appreciatethe difficulties that faced the printer in his struggle for the right of freediscussion. The troubles of Wm. Bradford, the elder in Pennsylvania(vide p. 26), and of James Franklin in Massachusetts (vide p. 11), giveus a pretty clear idea of the troubles that would beset the man who didnot keep himself out of controversy. Just as the New England ElectionSermons give us perhaps the best means of understanding the influenceof the Clergy in the field of politics, so these quarrels between printer andQuarterly Meeting or Presbytery show us the feeling toward freedom ofdiscussion.

New York City.

Among the relics of Robert Fulton in possession of the AmericanSociety of Mechanical Engineers at their house in New YorkCity is a manuscript (hitherto unpublished, it is believed), inwhich in 1859 the only surviving associate of the inventor recorded hisrecollections. These simple and obviously honest reminiscences from thehand of a plain man become of interest, however deficient in literary art.He was J. B. Calhoun of Brooklyn, and told his story thus:

“In 1807 Mr. Fulton’s first boat, the North River, of Clermont,commenced running on the Hudson River to Albany. Between 1809 and1811, he had two more, the Car of Neptune and the Paragon. Eachsteamer had two masts—on the foremast was a square sail, two topsails,and a jib. On the mainmast was a spanker and topsail. The foremasthad at the heel trunnions by which the mast could be lowered when thewind was ahead. When the wind was fair, all hands, passengers too,were called to raise the mast and set sail.

These steamers had high or poop decks some four feet above themain deck; the entrance to the cabin was by the old-fashioned ship companionway—nota house on deck. These steamers, being on the bottomas flat as a house floor, each had two heavy side lee boards, to preventmaking leeway when sail was set. In those days neither the pilot norengineer had an assistant, nor the captain any clerk. In leaving NewYork at five, the pilot would take the wheel until supper; after supper hewould again take the wheel and keep it till next morning; he had no finepilot-house, not even an awning to protect him from the hot sun nor themost severe weather. When coming to landings, instead of a bell to ring,the pilot blew a tin horn some five feet long; the bell was used only formeal times....

Mr. Fulton had at North Point, Jersey City, four large shops, anda dry-dock some 200 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 16 feet deep to repair hisboats in; the first dry-dock in this country. In those days such a thing asa cut-off, a throttle-valve, or an eccentric was not known by the engineer.

To make the trip to Albany took from twenty-six to thirty hours,327burning in that time about thirty cords of firewood. None of Mr. Fulton’ssteamers made the trip in less than twenty-five hours. In 1813 Mr.Louis Rhoda, Mr. Fulton’s chief engineer, was killed on the trial trip ofthe ferry-steamboat on the East River, the Nassau, by being caught in theengine when in motion. He had his entire right shoulder taken from hisbody by the crank. Mr. Rhoda was the first engineer killed in thiscountry.”

Then follows a paragraph descriptive of Fulton’s personal appearanceand manners. The sketch adds:

“His death was rather sudden; so much so that many attributed it tosuicide. This was not so; he died a calm, natural death in the bosom ofhis family, at No. 5 Broadway, opposite the Bowling Green. In attendingcourt at Trenton, N. J., he had taken a cold, and on returning home toNew York the ferryboat on which he was was caught in the ice, and wasthus delayed some three hours. It was a cold, stormy day in January;this confirmed and increased his illness, which finally sent him to his grave.”

In 1811 Mr. Fulton built at Pittsburgh, Pa., a boat for the NewOrleans trade; she was called the New Orleans, the first steamer on theOhio and Mississippi Rivers.

In 1810–11 a company was formed—they built two boats to run inopposition to Mr. Fulton’s. One was called Perseverance, CaptainBunker, and the other The Hope, Captain Sherman, afterwards wellknown on Lake Champlain. These steamers were some faster than Mr.Fulton’s. After a long contest in courts of law, the two Albany boatswere confiscated to Mr. Fulton, and he had them soon broken up atAlbany, in sight of their former owners.

In 1812–13 some gentlemen in New York built a steamer called theFulton, to run to Albany, by Mr. Fulton’s consent, under the followingterms: The new boat was to charge $10 for each passenger, paying Mr.Fulton $3 out of every $10 paid by the passengers; this did not proveprofitable, and the next season the Fulton was placed on the East Riverand the Sound, being the first steamer ever before on the Sound....It was expected that the steamer Fulton would make the trip to Albany inthirteen or fourteen hours’ time, but I think she never made the trip in lessthan sixteen or seventeen hours.

The first steamer on the Potomac River, Va., was built by Mr. Fulton328in the last days of his life; she was called the Washington; she was intendedto run between Washington City and Norfolk; she went there inMay, 1815; the writer of these lines went out with her and stayed longenough to teach a black man, a slave, how to start and how to managethe engine.

The first steamer for the great Western Lakes was built at BlackRock on the Niagara River by Mr. Noah Brown of New York, in 1818.She was a handsome vessel of 360 tons’ burden, full brig-rigged. Shewas called the Walk-in-the-Water. She was owned by Dr. J. B. Stewart,then of Albany. The writer put up her engine. She was totally lost ina terrible gale on Lake Erie, in October, 1820. In these years from 1818to 1820, no dividends were made from the earnings of the steamer. Suchwas the little travel on those lakes at these times that if the steamer carriedthirty or forty passengers, it was doing pretty well. The strength of theBlack Rock Rapids was so strong that besides the power of the engine, itrequired the use of eight pairs of oxen to get the steamer up the rapids onto the lake, a distance of two miles.

The first steamer that made the trip to Albany in twelve hours wasthe steamer Sun, of which the writer was the engineer. She was a doubleengine, called the Woolf engine, high and low pressure—had six high-pressureboilers, 24 feet long, and 30 inches in diameter, intended to carry120 pounds of steam—cylinder, four feet stroke.

The first attempt to use hard coal on a steamer on the Hudson Riverwas made by the Messrs. Mowatt on the steamer Sun and the HenryEckford in 1825. Wood and coal were tried together; then coal alone.The trial was not successful, but it was soon seen that what was wantedwas a strong draft or the use of some kind of a blower. The writer received$50 for making the trial. In those days, blowers were unknown.The first blower was introduced by the late Robert L. Stevens, on boardthe North America in 1826.

About the year 1827 the steam chimney was introduced by the lateJ. P. Allaire. He claimed he had a patent for the same, but I think hehad not.

In 1825 the steam towing business was commenced by the lateMowatts on the Hudson River, with the steamboat Henry Eckford andsix barges. About the same year Mr. William C. Redfield introduced the329passenger-barge, towing, with the steamers Swift-sure and Abe Commerceand the barges Lady Clinton and Lady Van Rensselaer; it was an aristocratic[venture]—got up to catch the support of the rich and powerful,but it did not succeed well, and in two years it went down.

All the fixtures about the ferry landings, the bridges, the floating boxunderneath, the chains and pulleys, were all invented by Mr. Fulton.

I have many things in my memory in regard to him. All of theabove was written wholly from memory; not one word or a line of referencehave I had before me while writing this historical record of oldtimes. When I get in good health I have much to say on these subjects.

Apparently he never “got in good health,” for no other record ofhis than this is known.

No region in the vicinity of New York has more natural beauty orhistoric interest than that lying west of the Palisades. Until afew years ago it was to most people an almost unknown land.Hackensack, Englewood, Paterson, and Passaic were familiar names;but the country north of these was seldom visited. Recently the valleysof the Ramapo, Pascack, Saddle, and Hackensack Rivers have attractedmany suburban homeseekers, and their character is rapidly changing.Yet their charm still centers in the ancient stone farmhouses that speakof a civilization that has lasted for two hundred and fifty years. Insome of the villages are churches built in early colonial times, and aboutthese cluster the graves of the forefathers. New names have been givento many of the hamlets, and the present residents know little and careless for their past history. Only in musty records, and fading memories,do the ancient Indian and Dutch names survive. Ka Keat, Mahakemack,Minesing, Aquackanock, are some of these. From Tappan onthe north to English Neighborhood on the south, a distance of thirtymiles, this country, except in the four chief towns, was until a generationago stagnant; its population was no greater than at the beginning of thenineteenth century. A few years since, the writer journeyed with afriend to one of its ancient churchyards, to commit to its grave the bodyof an aged lady. There it rests with those of ten generations of theBogarts, Brinkerhoffs, Demarests, Zabriskies, and other historic families.

A number of natives had gathered at the porch of the church on thecapstone of whose arch was engraved “Nisi Dominus Frustra.” As thisis the motto of the Reformed Church of America I, as one of its ministers,felt at home. The day was stormy, and I asked that the building mightbe opened for a funeral service. The gentleman addressed said he fearedthat this was impossible, as the pastor was opposed to such a proceeding.The parsonage was next to the church, and I sent word to the ministerasking him to assist me in the burial office. My card was returned with acurt refusal. The old sexton was more communicative, and from him Ilearned the story of this “True Reformed Dutch Church”; could this331have been reported word for word it would rival in interest the best ofMiss Wilkins’ or Mrs. Wiggin’s tales.

Two facts remain in my memory; first, that Dr. Solomon Froelighwas to this peculiar people all that Knox had been to those who sat underthe Scotch Reformer; and, second, that the True Reformed Dutch Churchwas the remnant of God’s elect; for the rest of Christendom had irrevocablypassed under condemnation.

With these experiences in mind I have as far as possible gatheredthe facts that outline the story of a schism which, nearly a hundred yearsago, threatened to disrupt the Reformed Dutch Church, then relativelyamong the largest of Protestant denominations. Dr. Chambers, in theSchaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, has stated: “The True Reformed DutchChurch is the result of a secession led by the Rev. Solomon Froeligh, alearned man. The reasons assigned for the separation were that theDutch Church had become erroneous in doctrine, lax in discipline, andcorrupt in practice. The secession, however, did not adopt any newstandards. At one time it was very formidable, numbering over one hundredchurches and as many ministers. But it now numbers hardly adozen churches. It was a great injury to the church from which it seceded,but it is hard to see what service it has been to its own members, orto anybody else.” This statement, while judicious, is hardly comprehensive.The cause of the disruption was perverse human nature; pride,envy, and jealousy had much to do with it, and the effect was that apeople who might have led in the moral and material growth of the Stateretrograded. The evil it caused brought disaster to upwards of a thousandfamilies who had possessed every advantage of birth, property, andintelligence.

The beginning of the settlement of the region I have described wasalmost coeval with that of New Amsterdam. Later the occupation ofNew York by the English led to a large emigration thither of Dutch familiesfrom Manhattan and Long Island. Slowly and painfully these earlysettlers removed the forests, drained the swamps, and established theirhomes. The organization of Dutch churches in the neighborhoods ofthis section began immediately. The people were intelligent and devoutas well as thrifty. Godly and learned clergymen, among whom wereTaschmaker, Varick, Bertholf, Schuyler, and Van Benschoten, soongathered large congregations. The story of the labors of these men isone of a heroism and devotion hardly equalled in colonial history. The332minutes of the synod of 1778 reported seventeen strong churches in thedistrict. In 1818 the classes of Bergen and Paramus, into which it wasdivided, reported 2,400 communicant members, and more than 15,000persons in the congregations. At this later date some of these churcheswere larger than those in the cities of New York and Albany.

For many years the most influential man in the region, and in theestimation of his admirers in the Dutch Church, was Dr. Solomon Froeligh,minister of the Collegiate Churches of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh.Born near Albany in 1750, he had spent his boyhood in Walkillvalley. There, and in the adjacent Catskill district, the venerable Schunemanruled for fifty years like a bishop of mediæval times. He was thelawyer, physician, pastor, and friend of a large and scattered flock, amongwhom his wisdom and authority were unquestioned. A narrative of hislife and labors is told in a story of some sixty years ago called “TheDutch Dominie of the Catskills.” Through his guidance Froeligh wasled to dedicate himself to the ministry. For ten years he studied underDr. Dirck Romeyn of Schenectady—the founder of Union College—andDr. Peter Wilson of Hackensack, for many years a leading professor inKings College. Although he never visited Princeton, the College of NewJersey conferred on Froeligh at eighteen years of age the degree of masterof arts, because of his profound attainments. He became a favorite ofDr. John Livingston, whom Mrs. Jay, the wife of the chief justice, namedto Washington as the first citizen of New York. This great man, longthe unquestioned leader of the Dutch Church, was accustomed to makeprogresses through the various congregations; on two at least of these,and the time occupied was frequently several months, Froeligh accompaniedhim. Upon his licensure in 1775 he received four calls, of whichhe accepted that of the Collegiate Churches of Queens County, Jamaica,Newtown, Success, and Oyster Bay. In 1776 his house near Newtown,containing his valuable library, and all his earthly possessions, was burnedby the British, and he barely escaped death at their hands. For the eightsucceeding years he went up and down New York and New Jersey as amissionary and fearless patriot. At the close of the war for independencehe accepted a call to become the colleague of the Rev. Warmardus Kuypersin the pastorate of the Collegiate Churches of Hackensack andSchraalenburgh. Shortly after this, he was named by the General Synodof the Church together with Drs. Livingston and Romeyn, a professor oftheology. For thirty years he held this office, and trained for the ministrynearly one hundred young men.

333By inheritance Dr. Froeligh was a strong, self-sufficient man. Hiseducation and life accentuated these traits. His intercourse during theimpressionable years of youth with such masters as Schuneman, Romeynand Livingston must have developed in him an aptitude to command. Inscholarship he was in a narrow sense profound. His early possession ofthe seat of authority led to a certain dogmatism. He was pronouncedhyper-Calvinist, and ever ready to defend his extreme views. The synodsof the Church were in that day the great events of each year, not only forclergymen but laymen. In these Dr. Froeligh was ever the leading controversialist.Both tradition and records show that he was strenuous toharshness in manner, unyielding, and exacting in statement, and alwaysready to estrange a friend rather than bend in the least. Combined withthese traits there was in him a vein of mysticism. He dreamed dreamsand saw visions that were to him authoritative communications of theMost High. Naturally such a man gathered about him devoted andobedient followers, and at the same time offended and antagonized many.Religion and politics were then, far more than in our day, issues of intensepersonal moment to all thoughtful persons. Party spirit blazed fiercelyin every community. In the memorable Presidential contest of 1800,when the Federalist party was defeated, Dr. Froeligh was an elector andvoted for Jefferson. What this meant to most of the ministers and influentiallaymen of the Church, who were devoted to Hamilton, can besurmised.

As years passed his character did not soften, nor could he acceptdefeat gracefully. Gradually, new and younger leaders in the Churchcame to the front. Men like Milldoler, Brownlee, Broadhead, andFonda, whom he would not treat as his equals, paid him less and lessdeference. But his chief antipathy was his neighbor of Paramus, oncehis own scholar, Dr. Wilhelm Eltinge. They were men much alike incharacter, who invariably stood on opposite sides of every question.

Now the churches of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh, while ruledby one Consistory, were far from friendly to each other. They were richin property, having inherited thousands of acres of farm land, and theirmembers were noted for their wealth. Even before Froeligh’s day therewas bitter rivalry between the two. Mr. Kuypers, Froeligh’s colleague,was a gentle and infirm man, who, above all things, hated discord. Hereadily yielded to his energetic associate. As the years passed the frictionbetween the communities and factions in each church grew. Questionsas to the sale of property, the rebuilding of churches, assessments of costs,334and the like were constantly rising. On these friends parted and evenfamilies divided. At length four separate consistories and congregationswere established, one for each minister in each place, but all in one corporation.During the earlier years of his settlement Dr. Froeligh soughtto act the part of peacemaker. Not understanding the grounds for thefierce disputes, he diligently set himself to enforce agreement, and by theexercise of his masterful will partially succeeded.

In 1799 Mr. Kuypers died, and the question of his successor becamea burning one. The dominie was, of course, intensely interested, andtook a decided stand against a majority. During a summer storm a boltof lightning split the tablet over the door of the largest church, on whichwas engraved “Endraacht maakt macht”—union makes strength. Takingthis as a sign from heaven, Dr. Froeligh proclaimed in his sermon onthe following Sunday, “It is our belief founded on what we have seenand know of this people that, according to the sign given on July 10, theTriune God has made them two. The fire of divine grace is on one side,and the fire of discord and rage is on the other.” Even under such conditionsthe dominie was master of the situation, and held the reins tightly.He was sole minister of four rich churches, and by ecclesiastical law eachmeeting of the consistory was subject to his call. By the civil law hewas president of the corporation, and no business could be transactedwithout his presence. At last, in 1800, the General Synod of the Churchintervened, and by the exercise of its supreme authority placed Dr. J. V.C. Romeyn in Mr. Kuypers’ stead. It also divided the old Classis ofHackensack into two, with Dr. Froeligh’s two churches in that of Paramus,and Dr. Romeyn’s in that of Bergen. Dr. Froeligh entered asolemn protest against this action, and began a course of systematic effortto undo the arrangement. For eighteen years the controversy continued.It is needless to particularize the phases of this unhappy church quarrel.At last, in 1818, the crisis came. Proceedings under church law were institutedagainst Dr. Froeligh on the question whether the ministry orspiritual consistory composed of the elders of a church, was the responsibleparty in the matter of receiving or dismissing members. The Classisof Paramus sided with Dr. Froeligh, the next higher court, the ParticularSynod, sustained Dr. Romeyn, and then, in 1822, the General Synod, inperhaps the most memorable trial in her history, decided against Dr. Froeligh.Thereupon, he and the ministers and elders of nine churches, signedtheir names to a document declaring that they had formed themselves335into a separate body by the name and title of “The True Reformed DutchChurch in America.”

Those who recall Mrs. Stowe’s story, “The Minister’s Wooing,”need not be told of the great controversy in New England caused by thesermons of Dr. Hopkins of Newport. In the light of to-day, few if anyin the ministry accept his theology because of its narrowness. But a hundredyears ago men like Froeligh regarded Hopkins as a dangerous heretic,and sought to cast out of the church as Pelagians those who sided withhim. So long as the dominie could rule the Classis of Paramus he wasreasonably content, but when Dr. Eltinge and a majority of its membersapproved of the Hopkins position, the Dutch Church seemed without thepale. Doubtless his greatest sorrow was that the old leaders he mostadmired, like Dr. Livingston, refused to join in the controversy. Theyounger men who were shaping the missionary activities of the church,and planning the constitution that was adopted in 1832, ignored him.No wonder he became embittered. But he had a large following ofsincere, earnest, though narrow men. They had been in their early yearshis students and he was still their oracle. So the schism became formidable.After taking this final step he made a proselyting tour among thechurches in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. A score of these joinedhis new communion. As many more were completely disrupted, and soonceased to exist. Side by side in fifty hitherto peaceful, united, and prosperousvillages rival congregations began a bitter warfare. Accusationsagainst the teaching character and morals of ministers and laymen werepublished. In the church courts notable trials were held. In some casesthe peace of the State was broken, and the civil authorities invoked. Indeed,the actions at law caused by this secession in New York and NewJersey led to the establishment of principles as to the rights of membersin church property that are to-day the basis of the ecclesiastical law inboth States. Probably the most famous case was that of the Church ofthe English Neighborhood in New Jersey. It was argued before theSupreme Court by Messrs. Wood and Hornblower on one side, and VanArsdale and Theodore Frelinghuysen on the other. Chief Justice Ewingdelivered the opinion of the court. These five named leaders are probablythe most prominent in the history of the New Jersey bar.

As I have gathered from many sources the facts herein set forth, themost interesting and impressive feature of the controversy is the sane anddignified manner with which the church met the issue. Every lawful336means was adopted to first reunite and then recover the seceding churches,and, so far as the records show, this was ever in the spirit of the Christianrule of kindness. When these efforts failed all loyal members were urgedto live in charity with their neighbors.

Until 1850 the “True Reformed Dutch Church” grew in strength.It concentrated all its powers on the one aim of proselyting adherentsfrom the mother Church. Wherever possible it effected discord in congregationsand families. It took no part in the missionary or philanthropicmovements of the day. Its members gloried in being a “peculiarpeople,” whose “good works” consisted in nursing pride and standingapart from all others.

I have hardly touched on the pathetic side of this history. At thebeginning of the nineteenth century the Dutch Reformed Church in Americastood in a unique position. In the center of the country she wasthe oldest Protestant communion, and relatively the strongest. Morenearly than any other her policy coincided with that of the United States.In temper and trend she was highly irenic. Her liturgy and confessionswere simply Christian; and her genius made her one with true Christiansof every name. No wonder that the hopes of a great multitude, bothwithin and without her communion, for a hom*ogeneous body that shoulddo away with the multitude of ecclesiastical divisions centered in her. Itwas largely due to the schism Dr. Froeligh led that these hopes wereshattered. The natural growth of the Church was checked at the mostimportant period of the country’s development. Beginning at the closeof the Revolution, wise and devoted leaders had planted a large numberof Dutch churches on the then frontiers; these were everywhere prospering.In Central and Western New York, in Upper Canada, in WestNew Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania new congregations were constantlybeing organized. Then came the disruption. Fully two-thirds of thesenewer churches were broken up. In North Jersey, and Rockland County,New York, an unwholesome emigration of embittered people began.Families were broken up, neighbors estranged, and the material as wellas moral growth of the section was checked.

Possibly other communities as well as churches gained large accessionsthrough this secession. But people of this description are too selfishand disputatious to foster the peace of any neighborhood. It is well thattheir children should ignore and forget the ways of their fathers.

Now all that is left of the True Dutch Church are some ten dying337congregations. Each year or so one of these is disrupted. Civil andsometimes criminal actions at law follow, and the costs of the proceedingsabsorb the remainders of the property. But the remnant still cling totheir name and glory in their history; for they still invoke the shades ofDoctor Solomon Froeligh.

Evening Post, N. Y.

[Dominie Freligh was an ardent patriot, as is shown by the letterherewith, which presents an odd mixture of piety, patriotism and butter.

The original is in the possession of Mr. William Nelson, Secretaryof the N. J. Historical Society, to whom we are indebted for permissionto reproduce it.

The reference in its closing lines to “ladies’ headdress” is easilyunderstood by a glance at the Mischianza coiffure of the period, assketched by Major André—who at the date of this letter had been deadless than four months.—Ed.]

I Acknowledge herewith the Recept of Yours by M^r. Braket. It Affords meSingular Pleasure that a Protecting Providence has hitherto favoured you in yourPresent Precarious Situation—Hackinsack is often to me a Subject of Admiration;a Vilage Contiguous to the Enimies Lines & Accessible from all Quarters Aboundingwith Whigs, warmly attached to their Country’s Interest, & a Larger Number accordingto its Dimensions than Perhaps any town in the State Could produce, to bePreserved, is indeed a Striking Instance of Divine Protection and Seems to indicate,that Notwithstanding your Complaint of religious Defection there is Still a Remnant—Asfar as I am Capable I shall take pleasure in Satisfying Your Curiosity Respectingthe State of religion here—I Can Assure You Sir it wears a Pleasing Aspect;Several Make Profession of their faith & Confidence in Christ & Corroborate itwith a Corresponding Practice, Several have been Awakened Since my last & Somewho had degenerated from their former Exemplary piety, Seem to revive, & muchregret their Backsliding: The Exercises of one in particular are very remarkable;a man formerly of a most Abandoned Profligate life; now Under the Severest Conviction.Discourses on their own Experiences; Efforts to Obtain knowledge of theSacred truths, & family Devotion Prevails much Among them, and as LittleEnthusiasm I think as I ever knew at a Similar Juncture—I much approve of YourObservation that the End of a thing is better than its beginning and when I add tothis the Numerous Instances of Dfection, I cannot fear that there will be a338Lot’s wife among them however I fondly hope the Whole Will not proove to beWild-fire. Such is their taste for the Gospel, that they Would exact from me morePreaching than is Consistent in itself or my Circ*mstances of body & mind WouldAdmit of——

I am Pleased with the mode in which the late Mutiny in the Jersey Linewas Suppressed & Could Wish the Same Steps had been taken with the Pensylvanians—TheSoldiers in Our Army have Doubtless many Causes of Complaint, but aspirit of insurrection Should never be indulged in an Army, They Marched thro thisplace in remarkable good Order; The fate of Sir Harry’s Wretched EmisariesWhich, I presume you have heard Prooves Your Conjecture Respecting the Enemy’sJoy on the Occasion to have been Judicious—Recruiting Business we hear goes onin Pensylvania With Unexpected Success—If M^r Bracket tarrys with us till ThursdayI shall Probably have it in my Power to Send you The paper;

I had Engaged a Quantity of butter, but from the bad Prospect of any Conveyancethis winter I declined, should a proper Conveyance Occur I shallEndeavour to Procure Some for you: The Rev^d M^r. Leydt is recovered from hisillness that had nearly Prooved the Cause of his Death, & is hammering away atthe Ladies’ headdress with as much Vehemence As ever—M^r. Hardenbergh it isreported will move in the Spring:

I have the honour to be With Sincere

[The stories and legends associated with the Swamp are many. The mostauthentic and pathetic of all, and the one which Thomas Moore has made the themeof a poem, is to this effect: a young man who lost his mind on the death of the girlhe loved, disappeared, and was never heard from. As he had frequently said, in hisdelirium, that she was not dead, but gone in a canoe to the Swamp, it is supposedthat he wandered there in search of her, and died from exposure.

It seemed as if we had hardly been asleep an hour when a knock resoundedon our door, and a voice from the outside said: “Sixo’clock, ladies; breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes, and thecarriage will be here at half-past six.”

With half-shut eyes we made our toilet, and we were even too sleepyto enjoy the well-cooked breakfast which was spread for us in the dining-roomof the little Suffolk inn where we had taken lodging for the night onour arrival by train from Norfolk.

We were not thoroughly awake and interested in the adventure wewere about to undertake, until we found ourselves with guide books andlunch box on the back seat of a springless carriage, the front seat of whichwas occupied by a fat negro, with a good-natured grin, who answered tothe name of “Moses.” We had a three-mile drive before us to theentrance of the Swamp, where we were to meet our guide and take theboat.

The first stage of our journey lay through the main street of a sleepylittle Virginia town. The sun had not yet dried the dewdrops, and theold white, pillared houses on either side of the highway, where the greatelms overlapped their branches, were still wrapped in the quiet of theearly morning. Farther along the street, when we reached the shops,there were more signs of life. Men, who looked like planters of antebellumdays, were taking possession of the chairs which occupied the sidewalkand the porch of a small hotel. Negroes and mules and great bunches340of bananas were seen on every hand. But we soon left all these behindand were out in the open country. Level, green fields lay on eitherside of us. It was a lonely road, in spite of the greenness and the sunshineround about us. Occasionally we passed a weather-beaten negrocabin, and once we saw, looming in the distance, a white plantation mansion,stately still, in spite of years of neglect.

It seemed to us that this monotonous road might run on indefinitely,when, suddenly, Moses halted his horses, without apparent cause.

“He’ah we is, I reckon, missus,” said he.

“It can’t be,” returned my traveling companion. “I see nothinglike a swamp.” And then we both of us looked closely at the only objectin the landscape—a clump of willow bushes, seeming to cover the beginningof a brook that led nowhere in particular.

“Yes’m, he’ah we be su’ah,” reiterated Moses. “An’ he’ah’s MassaAlphonso now,” and he pointed to a light-haired, lank Virginian, who, atthat moment, appeared from behind the bushes, and stood leaning on anoar.

The man combined the stateliness of a courtier with the roughnessof a hunter, and the grace of his attitude and his blonde beauty led theSpinster to christen him “The Lohengrin of the Swamp.”

The object of this unspoken christening now came forward and introducedhimself as our guide. “An’ now, I reckon we might as wellbe a-startin’, ladies,” said he. “Wait, ma’am, I’ll help you down thebank. It’s mighty steep right here, but there wasn’t no other placenigh so good for hitchin’ the boat. You, Mose, you be back to-night atsix o’clock sharp for the ladies. D’ye understand?”

“Yes, sah’, yes, sah’, su’ah,” and Moses clattered away.

Once settled in the boat, the scene changed. We seemed to haveentered the beginning of an indefinitely long arbor, covered with grapevines.Of course, there were, in reality, no grapevines, but the willowsand the short, bushy trees which completely overhung the four-foot widechannel in which our boat rode made the illusion perfect.

“This is beautiful,” said the Spinster, as she watched the sunshineglinting through the pale-green leaves, still dew-covered, and falling inbright reflections on the face of the dark water beneath.

341“It’s fine!” I echoed; “but when do we enter the swamp, guide?”

“We’re in the swamp now, ma’am. It’ll be just like this for tenmiles, and then we’ll come to the lake.”

“Why—why,” I almost stammered in my amazement, “I thoughtthe swamp was dark and gloomy, with moss hanging from tall, mournfulpine trees, and not a sound to be heard in the wilderness. If it’s like this,with bird-calls and sunshine and bright green leaves, why do they call it‘dismal’?”

Alphonso smiled at my eagerness. “There’s more to it than showsjust at first, ma’am,” he answered. “There are more sad stories aboutthis swamp than all the sunshine can make bright. In the first place thischannel we’re riding in right now was dug by chain-gangs of slaves.They say the poor creatures died here in heaps from swamp fever. Butthat didn’t make any difference to their owners. They was made to digright into the heart of the swamp to get at the juniper trees. You seethey are very valuable—the most valuable wood, I guess, that grows; andthey are only to be found here in this swamp. I’ll show you some of themwhen we come to them. They are tall and slim and straight. No, weshan’t get to any until we are a good bit farther along. I told you theswamp was all alike, but I didn’t mean that exactly. There’s a good bitof difference, the deeper in we get, though you might not notice the differenceunless I pointed it out. The trees will be larger and taller, and thebird-calls will be different—more wild, like, and there’ll be owls andherons to be seen, and maybe a stork or two. I hope on account o’ youladies we shan’t meet no bears, but you see I’ve brought my gun along.There’s always a chance.”

I was more interested in his story of the slave gangs than in thebears. “Do you actually mean,” I asked, “that in former times slavesdug this channel ten miles long to Lake Drummond?”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s an actual fact; but they got some advantagesfrom it, too, for while they was digging they got to know the swamppretty well, and they discovered there was islands hidden away in thecenter of the swamp, though miles distant from this channel. The slaveskept their discovery to themselves, and later on fugitive slaves made useof it. If they could only reach these islands they were safe from theirpursuers, and it’s said that children and even grandchildren of the firstrunaways were born, and lived, and died on these islands.”

342“I don’t see what they had to eat,” suggested the prosaic Spinster.

“You don’t understand, ma’am. These islands are just as dry andnice as any land about here, and the swamp soil is mighty rich, so ofcourse they could just grow anything they had a mind to. Of course theywere helped also by friendly slaves on the plantations ’round here, andthen they had their cattle and honey to help out.”

“Cattle and honey!” exclaimed the Spinster.

“Yes, ma’am; and they’re here yet. I get all the honey maw andI want to eat from the hives of wild bees here, and most of my beef comesfrom here, too. Besides, many a quarter I’ve sold. There’s no bettereatin’ than the swamp cattle. But a cur’us thing about ’em is that theirhorns is polished just like ivory. It comes from pickin’ up their livin’ inthe swamp and brushin’ constant against tree trunks and reeds and thelike.”

“I don’t see how they came here in the first place, and I don’t seewhat they live on in the second place,” continued the Spinster, glancingat the edges of the swamp on either side of our narrow channel, whichseemingly consisted only of masses of dead leaves, dank moss, and reeds.

“Oh, I suppose they was tame cattle in the first place that strayedin here an’ then stayed an’ multiplied just as the slaves did. An’ as foreatin’, you ain’t seen the swamp grass, ma’am; it’s mighty rich.”

“I should think it would be unhealthy here,” said I. “Idon’t see how those fugitive slaves flourished to the third generation.”

“Well, no; that’s the queer part of it. It ain’t unhealthy. Thosenigg*rs who dug this ditch died of fever, but the swamp itself ain’t unhealthy.On the contrary, the medical folks say it’s a good place forconsumptives, and that this swamp water you see here, just as brown ascoffee, is good for ’em to drink. There’s been some talk of puttin’ up ahotel on the shore of Lake Drummond for a health resort, and cuttin’ achannel wide enough for a steamboat to run regular, but I hope they won’tget to it in my time. I can’t hope that the Swamp’ll last much longer,”he continued, with a sigh. “You see how black and rich the ground is,and if it was drained and cleared it would be mighty productive. Somecapitalists are already talking of doing that and dividing it off into farms.”

This was a plan that pleased the Spinster, and she kept our guide talking343on this and kindred topics until the sun, creeping on, stood directlyoverhead, and it was noon, and we had reached the limit of our journey.

We forgot our prosaic talk of so short a time before when we stoodon the shores of Lake Drummond. There lay the magic lake, boldlygray, even in brightest sunshine. Waves which were born from the windsof the wilderness lapped the pebbles at our feet. Although the sun shonewarm upon us, it could not overcome the feeling of awe-struck loneliness.

“Do you notice,” said my companion softly, “that even the bird-callsof the swamp have ceased?”

I nodded without speaking. It seemed unfitting to break by wordsthe ghostlike silence that brooded over this water so far from the life andways of men.

A moment later the guide joined us and brought us down from thishigh plane by his unconcerned talk.

“Yes,” he said, “this lake’s just on the boundary line between NorthCarolina and Virginia. We came through ten miles of Virginia swampthis morning to get to it, and we’d have to pole through ten miles of NorthCarolina swamp if we tried to get out through the other side across thelake there.”

“What sources feed Lake Drummond?” asked the Spinster, shakingherself free from the abstraction that had preceded Alphonso’s entranceupon the scene.

“Nobody knows,” returned the guide, shaking his head. “Nobodyknows where it comes from nor where it goes. The black folks aroundhere say that the lake belongs to the devil and the scientific people say it’sof volcanic origin. Perhaps that amounts to the same thing.” Then hechanged the subject by briskly demanding if we were ready for lunch.

We ate our luncheon in the rough wooden house, which, with itsshake-down beds and pine board tables, served as quarters for the huntersand scientists, sometimes for weeks at a time. Perhaps its limited accommodationssatisfied them. We should not have been contented.

We were not sorry to find ourselves once more in our comfortableboat and started on our homeward journey.

344“I reckon we don’t get any bears this trip,” remarked Alphonso,after we had progressed a considerable distance.

“Do you often get them?” asked the Spinster.

“Sure, though it’s kind o’ between seasons for them now. Theyain’t out lookin’ after berries or honey. I might say that I bag ’emmighty frequent,” he continued. “That is, when I’m hunting by myself.When I’m guidin’ other folks they do more missin’ than hittin’, I’mbound to say,” he added with a laugh.

We had heard the evening before that Alphonso was considered thebest shot in Nansemond County, so that we did not doubt his personalprowess, but the humorous twinkle in his eye encouraged us to ask forstories of the misadventures of other people, and we heard various seriocomictales of grave professors who could draw a trigger and yet miss abear within six feet of them, or let a bear-cub crawl away unhurt, not froma sense of pity, but from absent-mindedness.

“But I don’t mind so much their missin’ of the game,” said Alphonso,“as I do their wanderin’ off by themselves an’ gettin’ lost in this’ere swamp. It takes me such a pile o’ walkin’ before I can round ’em upagain. I remember once I was fool enough to let a party of three go offhuntin’ by themselves. It took me two days before I found ’em again,an’ I can tell you I was gettin’ mighty anxious. My! didn’t they enjoythe wild-cow beefsteak I cooked for ’em that night!”

As he spun his yarns, we hoped to beguile Alphonso into a more personalstrain and get him to tell about his own life and his mother to whomhe had more than once alluded. Although evidently unwilling to do so,he did tell us enough of his life so that we could piece together his storyand account for his opposing characteristics. It seemed that his motherhad been an heiress and a belle in the days before the war. She hadmarried a colonel who was killed in one of the first battles, and her onlychild, Alphonso, had at the age of eleven been thrust out into the worldto gain a living for himself and his mother. This he had succeeded indoing, but there had been no time for education—that is, for book-knowledge.Chivalry of manner he had learned from his lady-mother. Thewiles of Cupid he had likewise shunned. As he told us, he was an “oldbach,” and lived alone with “maw,” and reckoned he’d continue so to do,When we tried to gather more details of his life, he showed himself shy,345as well as modest, and parried our most skillful questions. His last evasionled to an incident which proved much to our advantage.

“Look-a-there,” he cried, not answering the Spinster’s last quiz.“Do you see that owl, ma’am, perched on that dead branch in the top ofthat pine tree? He’s the largest I’ve seen this year. Would you likehim? He’d make a mighty nice specimen in case you’re collectin’.”

The Spinster’s eye and mine met in consultation. The decision wasunanimous, and an instant later the guide’s unerring rifle rang out and theowl was fluttering in the water dead. He was picked up and his plumagesmoothed, and he was carefully bestowed under one of the boat seats.The small remaining portion of our journey was given up to talk aboutour new possession and how he should ultimately be disposed of, and inthis manner our day with Alphonso, “the Lohengrin of the Swamp,” drewto a close. We were met at the appointed time and place by fat Moseswith the springless carriage. Alphonso bade us a courteous adieu, againleaning against his oar in the attitude of the morning.

Moses drove us back to the station at a rapid pace, chuckling thewhile at our owl which lay on the seat beside him and which he said“looked just like de debbil.” We arrived at the station in time to procurea box for our owl, and then boarding the train arrived safely in Norfolkthat night.

Evening Post, N. Y.

The short list following is partly supplemental to Larned’s Literatureof American History; its regular A. L. A. continuations; thevarious cumulative indexes to periodicals and Miss Kroeger’sGuide to reference books (q. v.). This little collection, which may be extended,is intended merely ta present some clews to additional means ofhistorical research.

KEY:—

010

Bibliography (general).

017

Catalogs (sale).

580

Botany (ancient America).

913

Antiquities.

920

Biography.

929

Genealogy.

973

History (U. S.).

010 BIBLIOGRAPHY (general).

Cole, George Watson. Compiling a bibliography. Practical hints with illustrativeexamples concerning the collection, recording and arrangement ofbibliographical materials, by George Watson Cole. An address deliveredbefore the Pratt Institute School of Library Training, March 15,1901; reprinted, with additions, from the Library Journal [26:791,–859];New York, The Library Journal, 1902. 21 pp. 23½ x 19 cm.[“Two hundred and fifty copies printed for private distribution.”]

Cole, George Watson. American bibliography, general and local. (In the LibraryJournal, 19, No. 1 [Jan., 1904]:—5–9.)

017 CATALOGS (sale).

Bibliotheca Americana. Being a collection of books... for sale by GeorgeHarding, 64, Gt. Russel St., Bloomsbury, London, W. C., England.New series, No. 112 (1905). 36 pp.

347Edwards’s American catalogue. Parts 1–3 (1904–1905). Books for sale byFrancis Edwards, 83, High Street, Marylebone, London, W., England.Partially annotated.

Contents: Part 1 (Oct., 1904). The American continent; voyagesof discovery, general histories, collections, atlases, and maps (pp. 1–35);natural history; geology, botany, zoölogy (pp. 36–53); North AmericanIndians and prehistoric remains of man in North America (pp. 54–69);languages of North American Indians (pp. 70–72). Part 2 (1904–1905?)relates to Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, Alaska andYukon territory. Part 3 (June, 1905), The United States; Colonialperiod 1606–1764 (pp. 137–169); Revolution, 1765–83 (pp. 170–202);Constitution, 1784–1811 (pp. 203–216); War of 1812 (pp. 217–221);Settling of Great West, 1816–60 (pp. 222–240); Civil War, 1860–65(pp. 241–248); Reconstruction, 1866–date (pp. 249–254); Texas (pp.255–256).

Gray’s international bulletin. Books for sale by Henry Gray, Goldsmith’s Estate,East Acton, London, W., England. Monthly, Foreign series, No. 1(1904–5?) pp. 32. Contents: Americana and Coloniana.

580 BOTANY (ancient America).

Cook, O. F. Food plants of ancient America. (In annual report of the...Smithsonian Institution... for the year ending June 30, 1903,Washington: Government printing office, 1904; see pp. 481–497.)

“Revision of article on The American Origin of Agriculture, inPopular Science Monthly, October, 1902.” Sets forth some inferencesto be drawn from evidences of ancient trans-Pacific communication; distributionof food-plants, etc.

913 ANTIQUITIES

Butterworth, Hezekiah, ed. The Mysterious Races. (See his Young Folks’ Historyof America, chap. 1, 13–28, Boston: D. Lothrop & Co., 1881,illustrated.)

Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. List and prices of publications issued by FieldColumbian Museum, Chicago, U. S. A. [1904.] 12^o. 9 pp.

See serial Nos. 8, 16, 23, 28, relating to archæology of Mexico, Peruand Yucatan.

Hewett, Edgar L. Antiquities of the southwest and their preservation. By EdgarL. Hewett [of the] National Museum, Washington. (In The Magazineof History,... New York, 1, No. 5 [May, 1905]: 291–300.)

348Holmes, W. H. Report... on the Congress of Americanists, held at Stuttgart,Germany, Aug. 18–23, 1904. (In Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,quarterly issue, vol. 47, No. 1558, pp. 391–395.)

Contains programme of the congress, with titles of addresses; also alist of publications, “a set of 75 bound volumes relating mainly toAmerican Archæology and Ethnology, published by the Smithsonian Institutionand its two bureaus—the National Museum and the Bureau ofAmerican Ethnology.”

McAdam, William. Records of ancient races in the Mississippi Valley; being anaccount of some of the pictographs, sculptured hieroglyphs, symbolic devices,emblems and traditions of the prehistoric races of America, withsome suggestions as to their origin. With cuts and views illustratingover three hundred objects and symbolic devices. St. Louis: C. R.Barnes Publishing Co., 1887. 120 pp., 8vo.

Based on much personal research by the author, who died about April16, 1895, on which date the Alton (Illinois) Daily Republican printeda two-column obituary notice, he having been a resident of that city.

The “Old Mill” at Newport: A new study of an old puzzle. Scribner’s Monthly,17, No. 5 (March, 1879): 632–641.

Makes some architectural comparisons of the tower with other similarancient structures, in an attempt thus to solve the problem of the former’sorigin.

Prescott, William H. Origin of the Mexican civilization—analogies with the OldWorld. (See his Conquest of Mexico, 3, appendix, part 1: 309–352,Philadelphia: David McKay, 1892. [‘Preliminary notice,’ pp. 309–310].)

“The civilization of Anahuac was, in some degree, influenced by thatof Eastern Asia;... the discrepancies are such as to carry back thecommunication to a very remote period,” extract, p. 352. Accompaniedby very extensive notes and citations of authorities.

Thomas, Cyrus. Central American hieroglyphic writing. (In annual report ofthe... Smithsonian Institution... for the year endingJune 30, 1903, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904; seepp. 705–721, illustrated.)

U. S. Smithsonian Institution. Classified list of Smithsonian publications, availablefor distribution, April, 1904. Washington: published by the Institution,1904. (No. 1461.) 29 pp. 8^o. See pp. 6–8, Archæology.

349U. S. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. List of publicationsof the Bureau of American Ethnology, with index to authors andtitles. Extract from the twentieth annual report of the Bureau. Washington:Government Printing Office, 1903. 26 pp. [paged cxcix-ccxxiv],29½ cm.

920 BIOGRAPHY.

Twelve contemporary estimates of Washington. (In Self Culture, 2, No. 6[March, 1896]: 851–857.)

Accounts quoted (presumably) verbatim.

Elliott, Agnes M. Comp. Contemporary biography. References to books andmagazine articles on prominent men and women of the time. Compiledby Agnes M. Elliott. [Pittsburgh]: Carnegie Library, 1903, pp. 171,23 cm.

929 GENEALOGY.

Allaben, Frank. Concerning genealogies; being suggestions of value for all interestedin family history. New York: The Grafton Press, 1904 (?)12mo. 75 cts. Not examined.

American genealogies or family histories, and other historical works, for sale by JoelMunsell’s Sons, Albany, N. Y. 48 pp. 12½ cm.

Contains a large number of surnames arranged alphabetically, withdate, number of pages and price of publication.

Genealogical, heraldic and historical publications of the Grafton Press. NewYork: 1905. 16 pp.

Gray’s International Bulletin. Books for sale by Henry Gray, Goldsmith’s Estate,East Acton, London, W., England. Monthly, No. 242 (1904–5?);pp. 16. Contents: Family history, British and foreign.

Same. Subject series, No. 1 (1904–5?); pp. 32. Contents: Familyhistory and other personalia.

Partly annotated, and arranged in alphabetical order by surnames,with some cross references.

McPike, Eugene Fairfield. Genealogy in America. (Notes and Queries, London,tenth series, 2:63.) [Relates to the attitude of Washington, Adams,Franklin, Garfield and Oliver Wendell Holmes toward genealogicalresearch. Authorities cited.]

Clark, A. Howard. List of publications of the American Historical Association,1885–1902, and the American Society of Church History, 1888–1897.Contents of American Historical Review, 1895–1902, by A. HowardClark, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903, p. 65,paged 575–639.

Reprinted from the Annual Report of the American Historical Associationfor 1902, vol. 1, pp. 575–639. Gives titles of all articles formingcontents of each publication, and concludes with an excellent index.

[Deshler, C: D.] A Glimpse of “Seventy-six.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine,49, No. 290 (July, 1874): 230–245.

An interesting account by one who was personally acquainted withmany survivors of the American Revolution. Accompanied by illustrationsof colonial furniture.

Finney, B. A. Public libraries and local history. (Public Libraries, 10, No. 1[Jan., 1905]: 1–6.) [Read before the Ann Arbor Library Club, March12, 1903.] Same. Also issued separately.

Guest, Captain Moses. 1755–1828. Poems on several occasions. To which areannexed extracts from a journal kept by the author while he followed thesea, and during a journey from New Brunswick, in New Jersey, toMontreal and Quebec Ed. 2. Cincinnati: Looker & Reynolds,1824. 160 pp., 12^o in half sheets.

Most of these poems were written during the American Revolution.Captain Guest belonged to the New Jersey militia and captured Lt.-Col.J. G. Simcoe, of the Queen’s Rangers, Oct. 26, 1779. This incidentis described in his journal, which, however, begins 16 March,1784. He removed to Cincinnati in 1817.

[McLaughlin, Andrew C.] [Descriptions of work undertaken by the Bureau ofHistorical Research, established by the Carnegie Institution of Washington.](Am. Hist. Review, 9, No. 3 [April, 1904]: 635–636; captionNotes and News: America.)

McLaughlin, Andrew C. Historical research. (In Carnegie Institution of Washington,Year book, No. 3 [1904], pp. 65–67.)

Describes the work and plans of the Bureau of Historical Research,established by the Carnegie Institution; includes mention of its (completed)351Guide to the Archives of the Government of the U. S., atWashington; of preliminary report by Prof. Chas. M. Andrews of BrynMawr, on the character, extent and location (in British archives) ofmaterial for the study of American history; of a bibliography of current(1903) writings on American history, etc. As the director is the editorof the American Historical Review, some of the material collectedby the Bureau appears in that periodical.

[Putnam, Herbert.] Publication of historical material by the Government. (Inhis report of the librarian of Congress for the... year endingJune 30, 1904; pp. 66–70; 171–181.)

“The library seems in a peculiarly favorable position to publish suchof the MSS. in its possession as seem to deserve publication. It willbegin with those that most obviously require it. The first of these isthe Journals of the Continental Congress, of which admittedly no oneof the three existing editions is either complete or accurate.” Extract,p. 69. Other important historical collections mentioned.

Richardson, Ernest Cushing, and Morse, Anson Ely. Writings on American history,1902. An attempt at an exhaustive bibliography of books andarticles on United States history, published during the year 1902, andsome memoranda on other portions of America. Princeton, N. J.: TheLibrary Book Store, 1904. P. xxi + 294.

A similar collection for 1903 has been undertaken by the Bureau ofHistorical Research, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C.

Tarbell, Ida M. The Story of the Declaration of Independence. (In McClure’sMagazine, 17, [July, 1901]: 223–235.)

“Illustrated with portraits and autographs of the signers.”

Chicago.

Although the year now nearly ended has been one of extreme laboron the part of the Editor, he feels a reasonable degree of pride in that hisefforts to produce a magazine worthy of being known as the successor ofMrs. Lamb’s Magazine of American History, have been recognizedas successful, by many of his subscribers. That the venture could befinancially profitable the first year, was not expected—yet the deficiencyis not large, and may even yet be extinguished by the receipt of a comparativelysmall number of subscriptions before the New Year is upon us.

It is not the Editor’s custom to make unlimited promises for a comingyear—he much prefers to let the performance of 1905 stand as a fairsample of what may be expected in 1906, and promises only to improveon it if he can. It is so obvious that the standard of a periodical dependson the growth of its subscription list, that he alludes to it only to emphasizethe fact that an historical periodical is particularly so dependent, as advertisingreceipts from such an one can never be large—advertisers as arule seeking only those of great circulation. Hence the need that all whoclaim to be interested in our Nation’s history should prove that interest bysubscribing to this, the only monthly devoted to the subject and not confiningitself to any one section of the United States.

Its value can also be enhanced by the receipt of queries or historicalitems appropriate to its columns—and the Editor wishes such whetherfrom subscribers or those who may read it only in our public libraries.

To those who have aided him by contributing MSS. during theyear, he returns his warmest thanks, appreciating fully that only by suchaid has it been possible to successfully conduct the publication.

The irregularity in publishing the monthly parts, has been unavoidable—butsubscribers may rest assured that all possible will be done toreduce this to a minimum. It has been as much of an annoyance to theEditor as to his subscribers, but may be occasionally inevitable in theabsence of the usual “quantity of matter awaiting publication,” whichmore fortunate editors have been known to mention to aspirants for literaryfame.

[The description of the vast flocks of the wild pigeons (Ectopistes migratoria), given inMr. Ryman’s article in the October Magazine, makes the following article, from a recentnumber of Forest and Stream, of timely interest. The Editor remembers that in 1892, whenhe desired to give a game dinner in New York, he was unable to add these birds to his list,although making application to dealers as far west as Minneapolis. The description of aflight of pigeons, given by Audubon and Wilson in their works, is of remarkable value, asshowing the great change wrought in a comparatively short period of time by the increaseof population in the former haunts of these valuable birds.—Ed.]

Being old enough at the time to fully appreciate the grand sight ofthe myriads of wild pigeons as they moved back and forth throughthe Mississippi valley in the late seventies, it did not occur to thewriter when they suddenly disappeared that it meant they had done sofor all time.

As the years pass and no satisfactory explanation has been advanced,the subject fairly nettles the thoughtful lover of nature. Superficialhumane zealots as usual credit the trapshooters with wanton slaughter,which is positively silly when it is remembered that a single flock, one ofa hundred that passed in a day, would supply pigeons for trapshootingfor several years. That disease exterminated them is not impossible, andis by far more reasonable than the trap or net explanation, twenty-five ormore years of guessing having failed to locate or account for the birds.

The suggestion here offered (for what it is worth), which wasbrought about by a dream, may, if followed up, give a clew to the whereaboutsor fate of the birds which sportsmen of the last generation willever remember as the most graceful and skillful flyers known. Thedream above mentioned need not be given in detail, nor could it be atthis time; however, the writer dreamed of a pow-wow with a venerableIndian who, when asked what had become of the pigeons, stated, toquote him literally (as dreamed), that “Pigeon heap d——n fool, flyin big water [meaning the Gulf of Mexico], no come back.”

I am without any element of superstition, but this dream and Indian354affirmation have haunted me for months. I have just returned from theGulf coast, where, strange as it may seem, the dream has in a measurebeen confirmed as follows:

Having waded through a slough several times in quest of jack snipe,which were there in large numbers, and having killed and bagged many,I came to an inviting log near the edge of the swamp, which made a goodresting place for a tired shooter. While seated there making up mymind whether I should quit shooting or go back after the snipe again,an old negro driving an antiquated mule attached to a creaking, ramshacklewagon with dished wheels, drove up. A few pieces of webbing,some chains for traces, and a bridle and reins of common clothesline madea perfectly harmonious outfit.

“Whoa, Jake!” commanded the old man as he rolled up to my restingplace. “Good mo’nin’, sah. You all been spo’tin’ some dis mo’nin’.”

I assured him I had bagged a lot of jacks.

“I dun hear pow’ful lots o’ gun firin’ as I come along back.”

His aged and gray head was set with bright eyes, and his old facebeamed with good nature. I decided to do some of the questioning, soI started in with an inquiry as to whether Jake, who stood within reach ofmy seat on the log, had been or was a kicker. His owner assured me hewas gentle and “never was a fool mule.”

“How long have you lived here, uncle?” I inquired.

“I don’t live here; I lives up dis road ’bout fo’ miles.”

“Yes, but how long have you lived in Texas, or near the Gulf?” Iasked.

“Good Lo’d! I dun always been here,” and, as if to emphasizethe statement, his old face wrinkled more than usual.

“Do you remember the pigeons, years ago?” I asked.

“I shore does, sah.”

“What became of them?” I asked, recalling the dream.

“Whar you all come from to ast dis nigg*r such fool things! Ofcou’se I knows.”

355“Well, I don’t,” I remarked; “but would like to very much.”

“You never dun heard of de black fog and the ‘norther’ on disbeach ’bout twenty-five years ago?”

“I never have; but what has that to do with it?”

“Beg your pa’don, sah, I guess you-all ain’t jokin’?”

I assured him I was not, and he began the story of the disappearanceof the pigeons something like this:

“When me and Tom Clay was out huntin’ ’coons and bob cats oneday, de fog came so thick it was most pitch dark in dis woods, and we was’fraid to go to the island where Mars Judge Tobin lived, and we wasworkin’, and jes had to stay right dar in dat timber fo’ days and fo’nights—coze we shore would git lost if we rowed de boat in dat fog.Well, de second mo’nin’ along come de ‘norther’ an’ dun blowed distimber most to pieces, but not de fog. By an’ bye I hear a sound, I dunheard befo’, pigeons was a-flyin’ over, and de sound kep’ up all dat daytill mos’ dark. Den dey come fallin’ thro’ de trees around us with theirwings busted, and heads busted, like they was plum crazy; an’ when deyseen our fire dey fluttered into it and put it clean out. Yas, sah, dat’sGod’s truf, I dun tole you all. Next mo’nin’ all dat could fly started offto’d the ocean, an’ the noise of more a-comin’ kep’ up all day till mos’night. Dat noise was shore mighty bad, an’ we dun been ’bout scared todeath when de fog lifted, an’ we started fo’ home in de boat. Den wewas scared agin, fo’ de bay was mos’ covered with dead pigeons an’ bloodan’ feathers, an’ mos’ every kind of a fish was dar jes helpin’ hisself, an’so thick we could jes row de boat. We dun busted right into a nest ofsharks feedin’ on pigeons, an’ one throwed his tail so hard he knockedde oar out of de boat mos’ ten feet. Next mo’nin’ all the pigeons wasdun gone, excep’ on de beach was some washed up, an’ a pow’ful lot ofdead fish, little ones’ s’pose got killed in de rush for pigeons. I neberdid see a big flock since, an’ ain’t seen nary one fo’ yeahs now.”

“Then you think they perished in the Gulf?” I asked.

“I dun seen um, I knows I know it!” he replied.

Will some kind reader help me in this matter and interview some oldsea dog who may have met the unfortunate birds further out to sea, andverify this negro’s story, and the characteristic statement that “pigeonheap fool, fly in big water, and no come back,” of the visionary Indian?

Among the legends which the traveler frequently hears, while crossingthe prairies of the Far West, I remember one which accounts ina most romantic manner for the origin of thunder. A summer stormwas sweeping over the land, and I had sought a temporary shelter inthe lodge of a Sioux or Dacotah Indian on the banks of the St. Peter’sRiver. Vividly flashed the lightning, and an occasional peal of thunderechoed through the firmament. While the storm continued my host andhis family paid but little attention to my comfort, for they were all evidentlystricken with terror. I endeavored to quell their fears, and forthat purpose asked them a variety of questions respecting their people, butthey only replied by repeating, in a dismal tone the name of the LoneBuffalo. My curiosity was of course excited, and it may readily beimagined that I did not resume my journey without obtaining an explanationof the mystic words; and from him who first uttered them in the Siouxlodge I subsequently obtained the following legend:

There was a chief of the Sioux nation whose name was the MasterBear. He was famous as a prophet and hunter, and was a particularfavorite with the Master of Life. In an evil hour he partook of thewhite man’s fire-water, and in a fighting broil unfortunately took the lifeof a brother chief. According to ancient custom blood was demandedfor blood, and when next the Master Bear went forth to hunt, he waswaylaid, shot through the heart with an arrow, and his body deposited infront of his widow’s lodge. Bitterly did the woman bewail her misfortune,now mutilating her body in the most heroic manner, and anon narratingto her only son, a mere infant, the prominent events of her husband’slife. Night came, and with her child lashed upon her back, the womanerected a scaffold on the margin of a neighboring stream, and with noneto lend her a helping hand, enveloped the corpse in her more valuablerobes, and fastened it upon the scaffold. She completed her task just asthe day was breaking, when she returned to the lodge, and shutting herselftherein, spent the three following days without tasting food.

357During her retirement the widow had a dream in which she wasvisited by the Master of Life. He endeavored to console her in hersorrow, and for the reason that he had loved her husband, promised tomake her son a more famous warrior and medicine man than his fatherhad been. And what was more remarkable, this prophecy was to berealized within the period of a few weeks. She told her story in thevillage, and was laughed at for her credulity.

On the following day, when the village boys were throwing the ballupon the plain, a noble youth suddenly made his appearance among theplayers, and eclipsed them all in the bounds he made, and the wildness ofhis shouts. He was a stranger to all, but when the widow’s dream wasremembered, he was recognized as her son, and treated with respect.But the youth was yet without a name, for his mother had told him thathe should win one for himself by his individual prowess.

Only a few days had elapsed, when it was rumored that a party ofPawnees had overtaken and destroyed a Sioux hunter, when it was immediatelydetermined in council that a party of one hundred warriorsshould start upon the war-path and revenge the injury. Another councilwas held for the purpose of appointing a leader, when a young man suddenlyentered the ring and claimed the privilege of leading the way. Hisauthority was angrily questioned, but the stranger only replied by pointingto the brilliant eagle’s feathers on his head, and by shaking from hisbelt a large number of fresh Pawnee scalps. They remembered thestranger boy, and acknowledged the supremacy of the stranger man.

Night settled upon the prairie world, and the Sioux warriors startedupon the war-path. Morning dawned and a Pawnee village was inashes, and the bodies of many hundred men, women and children were leftupon the ground as food for the wolf and vulture. The Sioux warriorsreturned to their own encampment when it was ascertained that the namelessleader had taken more than twice as many scalps as his brother warriors.Then it was that a feeling of jealousy arose, which was soon quieted,however, by the news that the Crow Indians had stolen a number ofhorses and many valuable furs from a Sioux hunter as he was returningfrom the mountains. Another warlike expedition was planned, and asbefore the nameless warrior took the lead.

The sun was near his setting, and as the Sioux party looked downupon a Crow village, which occupied the center of a charming valley, the358Sioux chief commanded the attention of his braves and addressed themin the following language:

“I am about to die, my brothers, and must speak my mind. To befortunate in war is your chief ambition and because I have been successfulyou are unhappy. Is this right? Have you acted like men? I despiseyou for your meanness and I intend to prove to you this night that I amthe bravest man in the nation. The task will cost me my life, but I amanxious that my nature should be changed and I shall be satisfied. I intendto enter the Crow village alone, but before departing, I have onefavor to request. If I succeed in destroying that village, and lose mylife, I want you, when I am dead, to cut off my head and protect it withcare. You must then kill one of the largest buffaloes in the country andcut off his head. You must then bring his body and my head together,and breathe upon them, when I shall be free to roam in the Spirit-landat all times, and over our great prairie-land wherever I please. Andwhen your hearts are troubled with wickedness remember the LoneBuffalo.”

The attack upon the Crow village was successful, but according to hisprophecy the Lone Buffalo received his death wound, and his brotherwarriors remembered his parting request. The fate of the hero’s motheris unknown, but the Indians believe that it is she who annually sends fromthe Spirit-land the warm winds of spring, which cover the prairies withgrass for the sustenance of the Buffalo race. As to the Lone Buffalo, heis never seen even by the most cunning hunter, excepting when the moonis at its full. At such times he is invariably alone, cropping his food insome remote part of the prairies; and whenever the heavens resound withthe moanings of the thunder, the red man banishes from his breast everyfeeling of jealousy, for he believes it to be the warning voice of the LoneBuffalo.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN EDMUND MUNRO AND JOHN SELLON

[Edmund Munro of Lexington, Mass. [1736–1778], lieutenant in the French and Indianwar. Served at the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775; Lieutenant, Captain Miles’s company,Colonel Reed’s regiment, also Quartermaster at Ticonderoga and with the Northernarmy in the campaign ending with Burgoyne’s surrender; also Captain, Colonel Bigelow’s(13th Mass.) regiment, Continental army; killed in the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778.

The agreement between him and Sellon, executed at Crown Point, is a curious proof ofthe caution of the New England nature. Sellon practically insures him against loss, for apremium of £3. It is a unique document, as far as we know.—Ed.]

Whereas Mr. Edmund Munro Has Served as an Adjutant in theMassachusetts forces Last Winter, by order of the Gov^r of this Place, andby Virtue of a Warrant Granted to Him Last Year by Gov^r Bernard AndWhereas the Afors^d Munro is under some Apprehensions that the MassachusettsGovernment will not grant Him Pay for His Doing the Duty ofan Adjutant, from the 17^th Day of Nov^r Last till the 4^th day of March1762

For and in Consideration of a Note of Hand Given to me the SubscriberPayable to me or my Order for the Sum of Three Pounds Law^lMoney Bearing Equal Date with this I Do hereby Covenant, Seal andmake Sure, and if the Province does not Pay Him, the afors^d Munro,for the Service aforementioned, in that case I Promise to pay or Cause tobe paid unto him the Pay allowed for the Service of Adjutant for theterm of time afors^d in Six Months, and Witness my Hand N. B.—if theafores^d Munro did not Receive a Warrant or Commission to serve asAdjutant Last Year in Col Hoar’s Regt then the above Obligation to bevoid and of None Effect But if he did Receive a Warrant or Commissionto act as Adjutant then the above obligation to Remain in full Forceand Virtue

Test. Thomas Cowdin

I arived at this place the 12^th Instant after a very fatiguing marchthrough the woods with 75 of the Company, the Capt. Lieut. Ensign withthe remainder of the Company are not arived yet. We had rain almostevery day, we are well fortified and Ready for the King’s troops if theysee cause to pay us a visit The troops that have been here this Summerare sickly Moses Harrington died about ten days ago. Daniel Simonds& Samuel Munro are sick but Like to recover, there is none sick of theSmall Pox & it is thought there is no Danger, By the last account fromCanada it is thought that the King’s troops will not be like to come nearus this summer, our whole army are Employed in fortifying this placewhich will soon be strong enough if well man^d to stand a rangle with allBrittain. Francis Bowman & Wm Crosby are well & desire to be rememberedto their friends Lexington men are in good Health If you willleave a letter at Buckmans the Post will bring it to me I shall be gladyou could write me as I shall not rest easy till I hear from you, by the nextpost I hope to send you some money. my love to our little ones as you& they are never out of my mind My compliments to all friends I remainmy Dear your Loving Husband

I send these lines with my warmest love & respect to you & theLittle ones Wishing they may find you & them & all friends in perfectHealth & Prosperity. I am in good Health through divine goodness.I have nothing new to write you; the Lexington men are in a good Stateof health, Except Levi Mead & pomp,[14] they are not well, but so that(they) keep about. I am going on command tomorrow morning down361to the Enemy’s lines, there are two thousand going on the command Iam of the mind that we shall have a dispute with them before we returnGive my dutifull respects to Father & Mother Compliments to all Friends.I conclude, Wishing you & the little ones the Best of Heaven’s Blessings,and remain, my dear,

Your Most Effectionate Husband

Inclosed is a Lancaster news paper which you will see the accountof the grand fue de joy we had on the Sixth of May instant which is atrue & particular account of that day

I send these lines with the Most effectionate love & Respect, to you& the children, wishing they may find you in Perfect Health & prosperity.I am well & in High spirits through divine goodness Lexington men areall well; news we have none except the Commissioners are arived fromGreat Brittain at Philadelphia in order to settle the dispute between us &them They have Sent a Flag of truce, what they had to offer is forwardedto Congress The new establishment of the army is arived incamp; there is to be a Large Reducement of officers, but as it has nottaken place as yet, it is not known who are to be Reduced The new arrangementis on a Better footing than it was before. As it is to takeplace soon I will let you know my destiny by Mr Williams who is in a fairway to recover of the Small Pox; by him I am in Hopes to send you somemoney. I receiv^d you letter & a Pair gloves I hope to reward you foryour kindness to your satisfaction Be kind enough to let me knowwhether you have Drawn a Blank or a Prize in States Lottery

My due respects to all Friends

[An extremely valuable Lincoln document, perhaps the best that was ever offered atpublic sale. It was accompanied by a letter from Mrs. E. J. Grinsley of Springfield, Ill.,dated April 10th, 1866, presenting the Speech to the Rev. E. P. Hammond.

Mrs. Grinsley in her letter calls it “part of an address,” but it reads like a short butcomplete speech.]

The following is the text:

Upon those men who are in sentiment opposed to the spread andnationalization of slavery, rests the task of preventing it. The Republicanorganization is the embodyment of that sentiment; though, as yet,it by no means embraces all the individuals holding that sentiment. Theparty is newly formed; and in forming, old party ties had to be broken,and the attractions of party pride and influential leaders were wholly wanting—Inspite of old differences, prejudices, and animosities, its memberswere drawn together by a permanent common danger—They formedand manœuvered in the face of the disciplined enemy, and in the teeth ofall his persistent misrepresentations— Of course, they fell far short ofgathering in all their own—And yet, a year ago, they stood up, an armyover thirteen hundred thousand strong—That army is, to-day, THE BESTHOPE OF THE NATION AND OF THE WORLD— Their work is beforethem; and FROM WHICH THEY MAY NOT GUILTLESSLY TURN AWAY.

MAJOR JAMES M’HENRY TO GEN. GREENE

[Part of letter of Major Jamel McHenry, member of the Continental Congress, militarysecretary to Washington, and afterwards Secretary of War, to General Greene. It is datedat Ambler’s Plantation, (opposite James Island, Va.), July 8, 1781. It is not signed, but isof great historical interest. He says:]

On the 4th Instant, the Enemy evacuated Williamsburg, where someStores fell into our Hands, and retreated to this Place, under the Cannonof their Shipping. Next Morning we advanced to Bird’s Tavern and aPart of the Army took Post at Narrell’s Mills about nine Miles from theBritish Camp.—The Sixth I detached an advanced Corps under Gen’lWayne, with a View of reconnoitering the Enemy’s Situation. Theirlight Parties being drawn in, the Pickets which lay close to their Encampment363were gallantly attacked by some Riflemen, whose Skill was employedto great Effect, Having ascertained that Lord Cornwallis had sent offhis Baggage, under a proper Escort and posted his Army in an open Fieldfortified by the Shipping, I returned to the Detachment which I foundmore generally engaged. A Piece of Cannon had been attempted by theVan Guard under Major Galvan, whose conduct deserves high Applause.Upon this the whole British Army came out and advanced to the thinWood occupied by Gen’l Wayne. His Corps chiefly composed of Pennsylvanians,and some light Infantry did not exceed eight hundred Men,with three Field Pieces. But notwithstanding their Numbers at Sight ofthe British Army, the Troops ran to the encounter, a short Skirmish ensuedwith a close Warm and well directed firing, but as the Enemy’s Rightand Left, of Course greatly out flanked ours, I sent Gen’l Wayne Ordersto retire Half a Mile to where Colonels Vose and Barber’s light InfantryBattalions had arrived by a rapid Move and where I ordered them toform, In this Position they remained ’till some Hours after Sunset,The Militia under Gen’l Lawson had been advanced and the Continentalswere at Narrel’s Mill, when the Enemy retreated in the Night to JamesIsland, which they also evacuated, crossing over to the South Side of theRiver. Their Ground at this Place and the Island was successively occupiedby Gen’l Muhlenberg, many valuable Horses were left on theirRetreat. From every account the Enemy’s Loss has been very great andmuch Pains taken to conceal it. Their Light Infantry the Brigade ofGuards and two British Regiments formed the first Line. The Remainderof their Army, the Second, the Cavalry paraded, but did nothing.By the enclosed Returns you will see what Part of General Wayne’s DetachmentSuffered most. The services rendered by the Officers make mehappy to think that although many were wounded, we have lost none.Most of the Field Officers had their horses killed. The same accident toevery Horse of two Field Pieces made it impossible to move them unlessmen had been sacrificed. But it is enough for the Glory of Gen’l Wayne,and the Officers and Men he commanded, to have attacked the wholeBritish Army, with a reconnoitering Party only, close to their encampment,and by this severe Skirmish hastened their Retreat over the River.Colo. Bayer of the Riflemen is a Prisoner.

Gentlemen.—I am extremely happy in the occasion now affordedme to express my sense of your goodness, and to declare the sincere andaffectionate gratitude which it inspires.

The retrospect of past scenes, as it exhibits the virtuous character ofour country, enhances the happiness of the present hour, and gives themost pleasing anticipation of progressive prosperity—

The individual satisfaction, to be derived from the grateful reflection,must be enjoyed in a peculiar degree by the deserving citizens ofGeorgia—a State no less distinguished by its services, than by its sufferingsin the cause of freedom.

That the city of Savannah may largely partake of every public benefit,which our free and equal government can dispense, and that the happinessof its vicinity may reply to the best wishes of its inhabitants is mysincere prayer.

LETTER OF MARTHA WASHINGTON

My Dear Fanny.—Your Letter of the 2d of November came tomy hands yesterday—I am truly glad that the Major has had some littlerelief, and I trust ere this he has found ease from the pain in his breastand side. I beg my dear Fanny to write one day in every week and thatwe shall know when to expect her letters, we are very anxious when thesouthern post comes to hear from you. I write to you by every MondaysPost, your letters come to us on Saturday.—I hope you will pay some attentionto your own health, as I feared you were in very delicate situationwhen I left you at Mount Vernon. Thank god we are all tolerable wellhear—Tho I know you are with your friends that is ready to give youevery assistance and kindness, yet if there is any thing hear that you cannotget whare you are that you may want, I beg you will let us know andit will give us pleasure to supply you with it.

I am happy to hear that your dear little Babes keep well.

Our compliments to Mr. Bassett—my love and good wishes to yourself and the Major,—Your Brothers and Sisters,—Kiss the childrenfor me.

1. A plan destined to be tried on a larger scale, but with equal futility, at CharlestonHarbor, in 1861—so does History repeat herself.

2. Ancestor of the poet Landor.

3. Min. of Legislative Council, and of General Assembly, Dec. 23 and 30, 1767.

4. Letter of Colden to Earl of Shelburne, Jan. 21, 1768. Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y.,VIII, p. 6.

5. Minutes, General Assembly, Feb. 6, 1768.

6. Vide Isaac Q. Leake, “Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb,” ChaptersII and III.

7. Minutes, General Assembly, Dec. 18th and 19th, 1769.

8. Minutes, General Assembly, Dec. 31, 1769.

9. Minutes, General Assembly of that date.

10. Original in a book in the Office of the General Court, labelled “Inquisitions &c.,1665–1676” p. 239, printed in Hening’s Statutes at Large, II, 517.

11. Burke, Hist. Virginia, II, 237.

12. Quoted by Hening, Statutes at Large, II, 518.

13. Chalmer’s Annals, Vol. I, p. 345.

14. Pomp was a black man, wounded at the battle of Lexington, and probably a servant toCaptain Munro.