History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties byF. W. Beers & Co. Chapter 7

OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

CHAPTER VII.

THE EXTINCTION OF THE FRENCH POWER IN AMERICA--THE NEW YORK JUDICIARY-INTERNATIONAL CONTENTIONS.

By these repeated failures the spirit of the English ministry in meeting the exigencies of the occasion was aroused, and William Pitt, a very able statesman, was entrusted with the management of affairs. His accession gave a new impulse to the national energies, and the campaign for 1758 opened under more favorable auspices. Three formidable expeditions were projected for this year against Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Duquesne respectively. Admiral Boscawen, with twenty, ships of the line and fifteen frigates, together with twelve thousand men under General Amherst, arrived before Louisburg on the 2d day of June, and entered vigorously upon the siege of that fortress; and on the 26th of July the French commander, finding farther opposition useless, surrendered at discretion. The army destined for the reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point under General Abercrombie, consisting of nine thousand provincials and seven thousand regulars with a fine train of artillery, assembled at the head of Lake George, from whence they embarked on the 5th of July for the fortress at Ticonderoga, which was held by Montcalm with about four thousand men. They landed the next day and began their march, necessarily leaving their artillery behind until the bridges which had been destroyed by the enemy could be rebuilt. It was the purpose of Abercrombie to hasten forward and carry Ticonderoga by storm before re-inforcements which were expected could arrive. The advance party fell in with a body of the enemy and Lord Howe, the second in command and the soul of the expedition, was killed. The loss of Howe was severely felt and the incompetent Abercrombie, uncertain what course to pursue, fell back to the landing place. Colonel Bradstreet advanced, rebuilt the bridges and took possession of some saw mills destroyed by the enemy about two miles from Ticonderoga, to which place Abercrombie advanced with his army, and sent forward an engineer with a party of rangers to reconnoitre. They reported that the works could be easily taken. Stark, who led the rangers, thought differently, and so advised Abercrombie, but he rejected his advice and ordered an attack without artillery which, after a desperate struggle, was repulsed with the loss of nearly two thousand men. With the great force still at his command Abercrombie, instead of bringing up his artillery to bombard the French works, sounded a retreat, and unpursued by the enemy, returned to the head of Lake George and sent his artillery and stores to Albany. Colonel Bradstreet, anxious to do something to retrieve the disgrace of this shameful retreat, asked to lead an expedition against Fort Frontenac which had been, with the entire fleet on Lake Ontario, surrendered on the 26th of August. The command of the expedition against Fort Duquesne was given to General Forbes. Con trary to the advice of Washington, Forbes insisted on having a new road cut to the fort. With this and other delays, on the 5th of November the English forces were still forty miles from their destination, when it was resolved to go into winter quarters. Washington, satisfied of the inability of the garrison to resist an attack, asked and obtained permission to push forward with his Virginians, and, on his approach, the French set fire to the fort and fled. On the 25th, Washington took possession of the ruins, and changed the name from Duquesne to Pittsburg.

Although Louisburg and Fort Duquesne had been retaken, still there could be no security for the frontier so long as Fort Niagara and the posts on Lake Champlain were held by the French, nor even while Canada remained unsubjugated. Accordingly, adequate preparations were made for the campaign of 1759. Abercrombie was superseded in the command of the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point by General Amherst. General Wolfe was directed to ascend the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and General Prideaux was to take Fort .Niagara and proceed to Montreal. He was joined by General Johnson at Oswego, from which point he sailed for Fort Niagara, leaving Haldimand with a force at Oswego. The latter was soon afterwards attacked by a body qf French and Indians, but succeeded in repulsing them. On the 17th of July, Prideaux appeared before Niagara, but soon after the siege began he was killed by the bursting of a shell, carelessly discharged by one of his gunners. Johnson succeeded to the command and the siege continued without cessation. In the meantime, D'Aubrey, aware of the danger of this important post, collected a force of nearly three thousand French and Indian troops and made an effort to raise the siege. Apprised of their approach, Johnson, leaving a force to prevent the garrison frqm co-operating with D'Aubrey, marched against the advancing enemy. A sharp conflict ensued in which D'Aubrey's forces were defeated and himself taken prisoner, and the next day the garrison surrendered. General Amherst, with a force of nearly twelve thousand men arrived at Ticonderoga on the 22d of July, and in four days thereafter the garrison abandoned the post and withdrew to Crown Point, which also was abandoned on the approach of Amherst.

The strength of Quebec was well known, and General Wolfe left Louisburg under convoy of a large fleet and eight thousand regulars to capture it. It was intended that Amherst should sweep Lake Champlain, capture Montreal, and form a junction with Wolfe before Quebec, but he failed to accomplish his part, and Wolfe alone had the glory of taking that strong fortress. On .the 27th of June he landed on the Isle of Orleans, a few miles below the city. Montcalm occupied the place with thirteen thousand men, and a strongly entrenched camp extended below the city from the river St. Charles to the Montmorenci. General Monckton took a position at Point Levi, opposite Quebec, with but little opposition, and erected batteries from which, the lower town was considerably damaged, but no impression could be made on the walls of the city. General Wolfe crossed the St. Lawrence and encamped on the left bank of the Montmorenci within cannon shot of the enemy on. the opposite side, and resolved to storm their strong camp. Monckton crossed the St. Lawrence a little above the Montmorenci, and at the same time the forces on the opposite side forded that stream and joined his division. The grenadiers, impatient of restraint, rushed up (he bank before the troops that were to support them could be made available, and were consequently repulsed with fearful loss, when they took shelter behind a redoubt which had been abandoned by the enemy in the commencement of the action. At this time a tempestuous thunder-storm broke over the belligerents, and before it abated, night came on, and the English were obliged to recross the river. Weeks passed, and the capture of Quebec seemed as far off as ever. The arrival of Amherst was looked for in vain, and Wolfe and his officers, weary and impatient of delay, concerted a plan for scaling the Heights of Abraham, back of Quebec, and thus forcing the French into an engagement. The camp at Montmorenci was broken up and the troops conveyed to Point Levi. Admiral Holmes ascended the river with apart of the troops and artillery. At night the remainder proceeded up the river, and Montcalm, thinking they were about to raise the siege, remained in his camp, while Bourgainville marched up the river to prevent their landing. Before daylight, the British returning silently down the river, unperceived by the French, landed and ascended the precipice. The French guard was dispersed, and by daylight five thousand regulars were drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham. When this intelligence reached Montcalm he saw at once the danger of his garrison, and marched his army across the St. Charles to attack the English. A fierce battle followed in which both Wolfe and Montcalm were slain and the French army defeated, and on the 18th of September, five days after, Quebec was surrendered to the English.

In the following Spring, De Levi, the successor of Montcalm, attempted the recapture of Quebec, which had been left in charge of General Murray with seven thousand men. De Levi advanced upon the city with an army of ten thousand, and Murray, marching out to attack him, was defeated and forced to retreat to the city. De Levi followed up his success, but on the arrival of the English fleet in the St. Lawrence he retired in great alarm to Montreal. General Amherst appeared before that city on the 6th of September, 1760. Murray approached from Quebec on the same day, and on the day following Colonel Haviland arrived with his division from Crown Point. De Vaudreuil, the governor-general, despairing of a successful defence, capitulated on the 8th. As the result of this campaign, Canada, with all her dependencies, fell into the hands of the English, and hostilities between the colonies of the two nationalities ceased. Peace, however, was not concluded between England and France until February 10th, 1763, when France ceded to England all her possessions in Canada.

On the 3oth of July, 1760, Governor De Lancey suddenly died, and Cadwallader Colden took charge of the government, being president of the council. In August, 1761, he received his commission as lieutenant-governor. The death of De Lancey left the seat of chief-justice vacant, and the remaining judges, having doubted their ability to issue processes since the death of King George II., under whom they had held their old com-missions, urged Colden to appoint a successor. Colden requested the Colonial Secretary of State to nominate a chief-justice, and he not only nominated but appointed Benjamin Pratt, a lawyer from Boston, to hold the position at the pleasure of the king instead of. during good behavior, as formerly. The people regarding this as an encroachment on their rights and liberties, vigorously protested, and the remaining judges even refused to act longer unless they could hold their commissions during good behavior. When the assembly met, Colden requested that the salary of the chief-justice should be increased, but that body not only refused to increase it, but refused to provide for it unless the judges' commissions secured them their seats during good behavior. The chief-justice having served some time without a salary, the income of the royal quit-rents of the province was appropriated to his compensation.

General Robert Monckton was appointed Governor of New York, and assumed the reins of government in October, 1761, but left on the 13th of the following month to command an expedition against Martinique, leaving the administration of affairs again in the hands of Colden. In 1763 the boundary line between New York and New Hampshire became a subject of much controversy. The disputed territory was the tract of land between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain, comprising what is now known as the State of Vermont. The patent granted to the Duke of York in 1664 included all the land west of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. Controversies had arisen growing out of the indefinite character of their respective charters between the provinces of New York and those of Connecticut and Massachusetts relative to their boundaries, which had been adjusted by negotiation and compromise. The line agreed upon was to extend north and south twenty miles east of the Hudson River. New Hampshire, regardless of justice or title, insisted upon having the same western boundary. Against this claim New York vigorously protested, but the protests were unheeded, and the Governor of New Hampshire continued to issue grants until, in 1763, one hundred and thirty-eight townships had been granted. Alarmed at this encroachment, and oin order to stop these proceedings, Governor Colden, in December, 1763, issued a proclamation claiming jurisdiction to the Connecticut River under the patent granted to the Duke of York, and commanded the sheriff of Albany county to return the names of all persons who, by virtue of the New Hampshire grants, had taken possession of lands west of the Connecticut River. This was followed by a counter proclamation from the Governor of New Hampshire, declaring that the grant to the Duke of York was obsolete, and that his grantees should be protected in the possession of their lands. Through the Board of Trade the disputed question was referred to the crown, and in 1764 a decision was obtained pronouncing the Connecticut River the boundary between the provinces of New York and New Hampshire. Upon this decision the government of New York declared the grants from the Governor of New Hampshire illegal, and insisted that the grantees should surrender or re-purchase the lands upon which they had settled. To this unjust demand the greater part refused to accede, and the Governor of' New York thereupon granted their lands to others, who brought ejectment suits against the former occupants, and obtained judgment at the courts of Albany. All attempts, however, of the executive officers to enforce these judgments met with a spirited resistance and led to continual hostilities between the settlers and the government of New York.