Key to the Northern Country

Introduction JAMES M. JOHNSON IF ANY BRITISH ARMY had chosen to play “The for its strategic and tactical advantages, its cen- World Turned Upside Down” as it marched into tral role in communication and trade, and its captivity, it should have been Lieutenant Gen- primary role as the major agricultural producer eral John Burgoyne’s Convention Army. With in North America. For the same reasons, the its surrender to the American Northern Army American revolutionaries mustered all of their commanded by Major General Horatio Gates resources to retain and control the region. From on 17 October 1777, the diplomatic world did 1776–1780, the region was the central battle- turn upside down. On 6 February 1778 Con- ground of the Revolution, with major battles rad Alexander Gerard, representing King Louis fought at White Plains, Saratoga, Fort Mont- XVI of France, signed a Treaty of Amity and gomery, and Stony Point. It also witnessed some Commerce in Paris with the three American of the most dramatic and memorable aspects envoys, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and of the war, including Benedict Arnold’s failed Arthur Lee. Not only did this document rec- conspiracy at West Point, the burning of the ognize the independence from Great Britain of New York capital at Kingston, the chaining of the “United States of North America,” it also the river, and the over 600-mile march of Gen- pledged that the French would be America’s eral George Washington and the Continental principal ally should war develop between her Army and Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, and the British, “their common Enemy.” Gen- comte de Rochambeau and his French Expe- eral George Washington would call Fortress ditionary Corps—the expédition particulière to West Point on the Hudson River in New York Yorktown, Virginia. All but three of the chap- “the key of America.” From July 1776 until 25 ters in this volume have previously appeared in November 1783, the Hudson River would be either the Hudson Valley Regional Review or The one of the most important strategic locations in Hudson River Valley Review, published by the the colonies. As the central seat of the war in Hudson River Valley Institute. We have cho- the thirteen colonies, New York would be the sen 20 articles, from the more than 194 pub- center of political, social, and military activities lished in these two regional journals, which we throughout the war. believe illustrate the richly textured history of The North River Valley, as it was first known, this supremely important place in the Ameri- was distinguished by its central role in the Amer- can Revolution. We hope that this anthology of ican Revolution, the region that George Wash- representative pieces of writing about the Hud- ington referred to as the “Key to the Northern son River Valley will inspire you to enjoy many Country.” The region was prized by the British other issues of The Hudson River Valley Review. xiv © 2013 State University of New York Press, Albany Johnson et al_Key.indd 14 5/10/13 3:55 PM Introduction xv OVERVIEW Michael Diaz, a former intern at the Hudson River Valley Institute and the recipient of the “The American Revolution in the Hudson Open Space Institute’s first Barnabas McHenry River Valley” by Dr. James M. Johnson and Dr. Hudson River Valley Award, introduced the Thomas S. Wermuth provides an overview of plight of key Loyalists (Tories) who sided with the region’s important role in the Revolutionary King George III against their neighbors, the War and the reasons that it was one of the most Whigs, who were determined to separate them- embattled areas in North America. Ultimately, selves in a civil war from his control. Inspired by as “the nexus of the conflict,” it was the region’s States Dyckman of Boscobel, Diaz looked at the strategic importance, rich bounty, proximity to most influential Loyalist families in the Hudson New York City, and leading role in trade that River Valley: the DeLanceys, the Philipses, the led both Revolutionaries and Redcoats to prize Van Cortlandts, the Coldens, the Van Schaacks, the region. and the Robinsons. He concluded that rather than being “disaffected,” the politics of the men POLITICS AND LOYALTIES in these families “were determined by strong social forces such as family ties, religious con- Kenneth Shefsiek’s “A Suspected Loyalist in the viction, and a respect for civil obedience, law, Rural Hudson Valley” tells the story of New Pal- and order.” tz’s Roeloff Josiah Eltinge, who was accused of Former West Point instructor Major Colin being a Tory by his neighbors and the conspir- Williams in his article, “New York’s Com- acy commissioners. His primary crime seems to mittees in the American Revolution,” reveals have been disinterest in the Revolutionary cause the mysteries of the political system used by as revealed by his refusal to accept Continental the Whigs during the rage militaire before the currency. As Edward Countryman has pointed approval of the New York State Constitution out, Eltinge was by no means unique among in Kingston on 20 April 1777—the extra-legal people in the region and elsewhere, who chose committees of safety, “which ran the local gov- no side in the conflict and preferred to watch the ernance in the colonies upstate counties.” After growing struggle from the sidelines. The term gaining “legitimacy by giving as many residents “Tory” was usually understood by generations as possible a role in fighting the rebellion,” the following the Revolution to mean someone who committees “handled the challenges of local stayed loyal to the Crown—a “Loyalist.” How- security, commodity distribution, military pro- ever, the term had much wider meaning during visioning, and collecting the money needed to the war years and soon after. It connoted folks pay for the war.” Ultimately, committees for who were not “patriotic” enough or who simply detecting and defeating conspiracies “became seemed disinterested in the struggle. At times the government’s most powerful instrument in it referred to those who didn’t seem to do their prosecuting New York’s civil war.” share to win the war, while other times it might Claire Brandt shows in “Robert H. Living- be used to describe a local price-gouger. In the ston, Jr.: The Reluctant Revolutionary” that story of Roeloff Eltinge, we see the difficult Robert R. Livingston, Jr., “the Chancellor,” world of the Revolutionary Hudson and how a might not deserve to be mentioned among the citizen could be driven into the Loyalist camp names of George Washington, Thomas Jef- by the harsh treatment of his neighbors. ferson, George Clinton, and other prominent In his article, “‘Can you on such principles figures of the American Revolution. Nonethe- think of quitting a Country?’ Family, Faith, less she gives him his due as she explores the Law, Property, and the Loyalists of the Hud- numerous contributions that he made to the son Valley during the American Revolution,” Whig cause in New York’s Hudson River Valley. © 2013 State University of New York Press, Albany Johnson et al_Key.indd 15 5/10/13 3:55 PM xvi JAMES M. JOHNSON He was the chancellor of New York, a nominal SUFFRAGE AND SOCIETY member of the committee that drafted the Dec- laration of Independence, the Secretary of For- Denis P. Brennan provides insights into the eign Affairs, and the Minister to France as the Revolutionary era newspaper business in New United States negotiated the acquisition of the York and the other colonies in his article, “Open Louisiana Purchase. For a leader of the demo- to All Parties: Alexander and James Robert- cratic Whig cause in America’s first civil war, son, Albany Printers, 1771–1777.” Of partic- he proved to be a reluctant revolutionary who ular interest, Alexander and James Robertson regarded the masses “as irresponsible, immoder- published Albany’s first newspaper,The Albany ate, and injudicious” and thus not to be trusted Gazette, from 1771–1772. Although they ini- with political power. According to Brandt, Liv- tially appeared “to have been most interested in ingston hungered “for recognition, fame, and the newspaper as a tool of the enlightenment power” and in the end achieved only political and not as a weapon of the political wars,” the ruination. Albany Committee of Correspondence thought Lincoln Diamant, in his article about Skinners their later printing trade to be overly supportive in the Neutral Ground of Westchester County, of the Crown, causing James to flee Albany and answers the question in his title—“Patriot Alexander and his apprentice to be imprisoned. ‘Friends’ or Loyalist Foes?”—as emphatically Brennan concludes that they “deserve more Loyalist foes. Diamant provides a penetrating than a footnote in Albany’s history.” analysis that rejects the legend started by James Jonathan Clark in “Taxation and Suffrage in Fenimore Cooper that Cowboys were affiliated Revolutionary New York” reexamines the rela- with the British and Skinners with the Patri- tionship between taxation and the franchise in ots. The name Skinners in fact can be traced Revolutionary New York based on its Consti- to Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner, com- tution adopted in the capital of Kingston on mander of a New Jersey Loyalist brigade. His 20 April 1777. Investigating poll and tax lists article is a cautionary tale for all historians— in Dutchess County, Clark concluded that “the find the bedrock evidence and avoid the quick- suffrage requirements may not have excluded sand of hearsay. as many men as currently accepted estimates Dr. Thomas S. Wermuth in “The Central would have it.” He discovered that the Revo- Hudson Valley and the American Revolution,” lutionary founders may have “held somewhat originally published in The Other New York, more democratic leanings” as they allowed focused his research on the central counties of those who voted for assemblymen, unlike for the Hudson River Valley: Dutchess, Orange, governor or senator only, to have to “own a bit and Ulster Counties.

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