Military preparations—Disinterested conduct, the surest road to
popularity—Fidelity
of the Mohawks.
THE first year of the colonel’s marriage was chiefly spent in New-York,
and in visits to the friends of his bride, and other relations. The
following years they spent at home, surrounded daily by his brothers and
their families, and other relatives, with whom they maintained the most
affectionate intercourse. The colonel, however, (as I have called him by
anticipation,) had, at this time, his mind engaged by public duties of
the most urgent nature. He was a member of the colonial assembly; and,
by a kind of hereditary right, was obliged to support that character of
patriotism, courage, and public wisdom, which had so eminently
distinguished his father. The father of Mrs. Schuyler, too, had been
long mayor of Albany—at that time an office of great importance—as
including, within itself, the entire civil power, exercised over the
whole settlement, as well as the town, and having attached to it a sort
of patriarchal authority; for the people, little acquainted with
coercion, and by no means inclined to submit to it, had, however, a
profound reverence, as is generally the case in the infancy of society,
for the families of their first leaders, whom they looked up to, merely
as knowing them to possess superior worth, talent, and enterprise. In a
society, as yet uncorrupted, the value of this rich inheritance can only
be diminished by degradation of character, in the representative of a
family thus self-ennobled, especially if he be disinterested. This,
though apparently a negative quality, being the one of all others that,
combined with the higher powers of mind, most engages affection in
private and esteem in public life. This is a shield that blunts the
shafts which envy never fails to level at the prosperous, even in old
establishments, where, from the nature of things, a thousand
obstructions rise in the upward path of merit, and a thousand
temptations appear to mislead it from its direct road; and where the
rays of opinion are refracted by so many prejudices of contending
interests and factions. Still, if any charm can be found to fix that
fleeting phantom, popularity, this is it. It would be very honourable to
human nature, if this could be attributed to the pure love of virtue;
but alas! multitudes are not made up of the wise or the virtuous. Yet
the very selfishness of our nature inclines us to love and trust those
who are not likely to desire any benefit from us in return for those
they confer. Other vices may be, if not social, in some degree
gregarious; but even the avaricious hate avarice in all but themselves.
Thus inheriting unstained integrity, unbounded popularity, a cool,
determined spirit, and ample possessions, no man had fairer pretensions
to unlimited sway, in the sphere in which he moved, than the colonel;
but of this, no man could be less desirous. He was too wise and too
happy to solicit authority, and yet too public-spirited, and too
generous, to decline it, when any good was to be done, or any evil
resisted, from which no private benefit resulted to himself.
Young as his wife was, and much as she valued the blessing of their
union, and the pleasure of his society, she showed a spirit worthy of a
Roman matron, in willingly risking all her happiness, even in that early
period of her marriage, by consenting to his assuming a military
command, and leading forth the provincial troops against the common
enemy, who had now become more boldly dangerous than ever. Not content
with secretly stimulating the Indian tribes, who were their allies, and
enemies to the Mohawks, to acts of violence, the French Canadians, in
violation of existing treaties, began to make incursions on the
slightest pretexts. It was no common warfare in which the colonel was
about to engage: but the duties of entering on vigorous measures, for
the defence of the country, became not only obvious but urgent. No other
person but he, had influence enough to produce any cohesion among the
people of that district, or any determination, with their own arms, and
at their own cost, to attack the common enemy. As formerly observed,
this had hitherto been trusted to the five confederate Mohawk nations;
who, though still faithful to their old friends, had too much sagacity
and observation, and, indeed, too strong a native sense of moral
rectitude, to persuade their young warriors to go on venturing their
lives in defence of those, who, from their increased power and numbers,
were able to defend themselves with the aid of their allies. Add to
this, that their possessions were on all sides daily extending; and that
they, the Albanians, were carrying their trade for furs, &c., into the
deepest recesses of the forests, and towards those great lakes which the
Canadians were accustomed to consider as the boundaries of their
dominions; and where they had Indians whom they were at great pains to
attach to themselves, and to inspire against us and our allies.
Colonel Schuyler’s father had held the same rank in a provincial corps
formerly—but in his time, there was a profound peace in the district he
inhabited; though from his resolute temper and knowledge of public
business, and of the different Indian languages, he was selected to head
a regiment raised in the Jerseys and the adjacent bounds, for the
defence of the back frontiers of Pennsylvania, New-England, &c. Colonel
Philip Schuyler was the first who raised a corps in the interior of the
province of New-York, which was not only done by his personal influence,
but occasioned him a considerable expense, though the regiment was paid
by the province; the province also furnishing arms and military stores;
their service being, like that of all provincials, limited to the summer
half year.
The governor and chief commander came up to Albany, to view and approve
the preparations making for this interior war, and to meet the congress
of Indian sachems, who, on that occasion, renewed their solemn league
with their brother, the great king. Colonel Schuyler, being then the
person they most looked up to and confided in, was their proxy on this
occasion, in ratifying an engagement, to which they ever adhered with
singular fidelity; and mutual presents brightened the chain of amity, to
use their own figurative language.
The common and the barn, at the Flats, were fully occupied, and the
hospitable mansion, as was usual on all public occasions, overflowed.
There the general, his aides-de-camp, the sachems, and the principal
officers of the colonel’s regiment, were received; and those who could
not find room there, of the next class, were accommodated by Peter and
Jeremiah. On the common was an Indian encampment, and the barn and
orchard were full of the provincials. All these last, brought, as usual,
their own food; but were supplied by this liberal family, with every
production of the garden, dairy, and orchard.
While the colonel’s judgment was exercised in the necessary regulations
for this untried warfare, Mrs. Schuyler, by the calm fortitude she
displayed in this trying exigence—by the good sense and good breeding
with which she accommodated her numerous and various guests—and by those
judicious attentions to family concerns, which, producing order and
regularity through every department, without visible bustle and anxiety,
enable the mistress of a family to add grace and ease to hospitality,
showed herself worthy of her distinguished lot.
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