LEISLER'S FATE.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, and all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour:----
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
--Gray.
In order to explain the sudden danger which menaced the father of
Adelpha Leisler, and which she, like a true, heroic daughter, hastened
to brave, we will be compelled to narrate some events in our story of a
historical nature. Jacob Leisler was an influential colonist of an old
Dutch family, as has been stated, and a Presbyterian.
Under the reign of James II. the Presbyterians had suffered, and no one
rejoiced more at the accession of William and Mary than did the Dutch of
New York.
Sir Edmond Andros, the weak tool of the Duke of York, had rendered
himself decidedly unpopular as governor of New York, Connecticut and
Massachusetts. Every one rejoiced when he was finally arrested at
Boston and sent to England, and no one rejoiced more than the New
Yorkers themselves.
The accession of William and Mary to the throne of England was hailed
with joy throughout the American Colonies. In New York, a general
disaffection to the government prevailed among the people. Under the
smiles of Governor Andros, papists began to settle in the colony. The
collector of the revenues and several principal officers of King James
threw off the mask and openly avowed their attachment to the doctrines
of Rome. A Latin school was set up, and the teacher was strongly
suspected of being a Jesuit. The people of Long Island were disappointed
in their expectations of the favors promised by the governor on his
arrival, and became his personal enemies, and in a word the whole body
of the people had begun to tremble for the Protestant cause.
Here the leaven of opposition first began to work. Intelligence from
England of the designs there in favor of Orange elevated the hopes of
the disaffected; but until after the rupture in Boston, no man dared to
act. Sir Edmond Andros, who was perfectly devoted to the arbitrary
measures of King James, by his tyranny in New England had drawn upon
himself the universal odium of a people animated with a love of liberty,
and in the defense of it resolute and courageous. Therefore, when
unable longer to endure his despotic rule, he was seized, imprisoned and
afterward sent to England as has been stated. The government was, in the
meantime, vested in a committee of safety, of which Mr. Bradstreet was
chosen president.
Already, information of the popular uprising in England for the Prince
of Orange had reached New York and was stirring the blood of the
progenitors of the old Knickerbockers, who longed to have their own
beloved prince with them. On receiving news of the arrest of the
detested Andros, several captains of the New York militia convened
themselves to concert measures in favor of the Prince of Orange. Among
them was Jacob Leisler, Adelpha's father, who was most active of all. He
was a man of wealth and considerable esteem among the people, but
destitute of the qualifications essential to such an enterprise. His
son-in-law, Milborne, a shrewd Englishman, directed all his councils,
while Leisler as absolutely influenced the other officers.
The first thing they contrived was to seize the garrison of New York;
and the custom, at that time, of guarding it every night by militia gave
Leisler a fine opportunity of executing the design. He entered it with
forty-nine men and determined to hold it till the whole militia should
join him. Colonel Dougan, who was about to leave the province, then lay
embarked in the bay, having a little before resigned the government to
Francis Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor. The council, civil officers
and magistrates of the city were against Leisler, and therefore many of
his friends were at first fearful of espousing a cause opposed by so
many noted gentlemen. For this reason, Leisler's first declaration in
favor of the Prince of Orange was subscribed by only a few among several
companies of the train-bands. While the people, for four successive
days, were in the utmost perplexity to determine what party to choose,
being solicited by Leisler on the one hand and threatened by the
lieutenant-governor on the other, the town was alarmed with a report
that three ships were coming up with orders from the Prince of Orange.
This report, though false, served to further the interests of Leisler;
for on that day, June 3d, 1689, his party was augmented by the addition
of six captains and four hundred men in New York and a company of
seventy men from East Chester, who all subscribed a second declaration,
mutually covenanting to hold the fort for that prince. Until this time,
Colonel Dougan continued in the harbor, waiting the issues of these
commotions, and Nicholson's party, being unable longer to contend with
their opponents, were totally dispersed, the lieutenant-governor
himself absconding on the very night after the declaration was signed.
Leisler, being in complete possession of the fort, sent home an address
to King William and Queen Mary, as soon as he received the news of their
accession to the throne. The address was a tedious, incorrect, ill-drawn
narrative of the grievances which the people had endured and the methods
lately taken to secure themselves, ending with a recognition of the king
and queen over the whole English dominion. This address was soon
followed by a private letter from Leisler to King William, which, in
very broken English, informed his majesty of the state of the garrison,
the repairs he had made to it, and the temper of the people, and
concluded with a strong protestation of his sincerity, loyalty and zeal.
Jost Stoll, an ensign, on delivering this letter, had the honor to kiss
his majesty's hand; but Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor, and one
Ennis, an Episcopal clergyman, arrived in England before him, and by
falsely representing the late measures in New York, as proceeding rather
from their aversion to the Church of England than zeal for the Prince of
Orange, Leisler and his party were deprived of the rewards and notice
which their activity for the revolution justly warranted. Though the
king made Stoll the bearer of his thanks to the people for their
fidelity, he so little regarded Leisler's complaints against Nicholson,
that the latter was soon after made the governor of Virginia, while
Dougan returned to Ireland and became Earl of Limerick.
Leisler's sudden rise to supreme power over the province, with fair
prospects of King William's approbation of his conduct, could but excite
the envy and jealousy of the late council and magistrates, who had
refused to join in aiding the revolution; and hence the cause of all
their aversion both to the man and his measures. Colonel Bayard and
Courtland, the mayor of the city, headed the opposition to Leisler, and,
finding it impossible to raise a party against him in the city, they
very early retired to Albany, and there endeavored to foment the
opposition. Leisler, fearful of their influence, and to extinguish the
jealousy of the people, thought it prudent to admit several trusty
persons to a participation in that power which the militia, on the first
of July, had committed solely to himself. In conjunction with these,
who, after the Boston example, were called the committee of safety, he
exercised the government, assuming to himself only the honor of being
president of their councils.
This mode of government continued till the month of December, when a
packet arrived with a letter from the Lords Carmarthen, Halifax and
others, directed to "Francis Nicholson, esq., or, in his absence, to
such as, for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and
administering the laws, in their majesty's province of New York, in
America." This letter was dated the 29th of July and was accompanied by
another from Lord Nottingham, dated next day, which empowered Nicholson
to take upon him the chief command, and to appoint for his assistance as
many of the principal freeholders and inhabitants, as he should deem
necessary, also requiring him "to do every thing appertaining to the
office of lieutenant-governor, according to the laws and customs of New
York, until further orders."
As Nicholson had absconded before the letter reached New York, Leisler
considered the letter as directed to himself, and from this time issued
all kinds of commissions in his own name, assuming the title and
authority of lieutenant-governor. It was while he was thus acting as
governor that his daughter made a visit to Salem as was stated in the
preceding chapter. On the 11th of December, he summoned the committee of
safety and, agreeably to their advice, swore in the following persons
for his council. "Peter De Lanoy, Samuel Stoats, Hendrick Jansen and
Johannes Vermilie, for New York; Gerardus Beekman, for King's County;
Thomas Williams for West Chester, and William Lawrence, for Orange
County."
Except the eastern inhabitants of Long Island, all the southern part of
the colony cheerfully acquiesced to Leisler's command. The principal
freeholders, however, by respectful letters, gave him hopes of their
submission, and thereby prevented his taking up arms against them, while
they were privately soliciting the colony of Connecticut to take them
under its jurisdiction. It was not so much an aversion to Leisler's
authority, as a desire to unite with a people from whom they had
originally sprung, which prompted the Long Islanders to desire a union
with Connecticut, and when Connecticut declined their offer of
annexation, they appeared to openly advocate Leisler's cause.
At Albany, the people were determined to hold the garrison and city for
King William, independent of Leisler, and on the 26th of October, before
the arrival of the packet from Lord Nottingham, they formed themselves
into a convention to resist what they called the usurpation of Leisler.
As Leisler's attempt to reduce this country to his command was the
original cause of divisions in the province, and in the end brought
about the ruin of himself and his son-in-law, it may not be out of
place here to give the resolution of the convention at large, a copy of
which was sent down to the usurping governor.
"Peter Schuyler, mayor, Dirk Wessels, recorder, Jan Wendal, Jan Jansen
Bleeker, Claes Ripse, David Schuyler, Albert Ryckman, aldermen, Killian
Van Rensselaer, justice, Captain Marte Gerritse, justice, Captain Gerrit
Teunisse, Dirk Teunisse, justices, Lieutenant Robert Saunders, John
Cuyler, Gerrit Ryerse, Evert Banker, Rynier Barentse.
"Resolved: since we are informed by persons coming from New York, that
Captain Jacob Leisler is designed to send up a company of armed men,
upon pretence to assist us in this country, who intend to make
themselves master of their majesties' fort and this city, and carry
divers persons and chief officers of this city prisoners to New York,
and so disquiet and disturb their majesties' liege people; that a letter
be written to Alderman Levinus Van Schaic, now at New York, and
Lieutenant Jochim Staets, to make narrow inquiry of the business, and to
signify to the said Leisler, that we have received such information; and
withal acquaint him, that, notwithstanding we have the assistance of
ninety-five men from our neighbors of New England, who are now gone for,
and one hundred men upon occasion, to command, from the county of
Ulster, which we think will be sufficient this winter, yet we will
willingly accept any such assistance as they shall be pleased to send
for the defence of their majesties' county of Albany; provided they be
obedient to, and obey such orders and commands as they shall, from time
to time, receive from the convention; and that by no means they will be
admitted to have the command of their majesties' fort or this city;
which we intend, by God's assistance, to keep and preserve for the
behoof of their majesties, William and Mary, King and Queen of England,
as we hitherto have done since their proclamation; and if you hear that
they persevere with such intentions, so to disturb the inhabitants of
this county, that you then, in the name and behalf of the convention and
inhabitants of the city and county of Albany, protest against the said
Leisler, and all such persons that shall make attempt for all losses,
damages, bloodshed, or whatsoever mischiefs may insue thereon; which you
are to communicate with all speed, as you perceive their design."
Taking it for granted that Leisler at New York and the convention at
Albany were equally affected by the revolution, nothing could be more
egregiously foolish than the conduct of both parties, who, by their
intestine divisions, threw the province into convulsions, sowing the
seeds of mutual hatred and animosity, which, for a long time after,
greatly embarrassed the public affairs of the colony. When Albany
declared for the Prince of Orange, there was nothing else that Leisler
could properly require; and, rather than sacrifice the public peace of
the province to the trifling honor of resisting a man who had no civil
designs, Albany ought to have delivered the garrison into his hands,
until the king's orders were received; but while Leisler was intoxicated
with his new-gotten power, Bayard, Courtland and Schuyler, on the other
hand could not brook a submission to the authority of a man, mean in his
abilities and inferior in his degree. Animated by these feelings both
sides prepared for hostilities. Mr. Livingston, a principal agent for
the convention, retired into Connecticut to solicit aid for the
protection of the frontier against the French. Leisler, suspecting that
these forces were to be used against him, endeavored to have Livingston
arrested as an aider and abettor of the French and the deposed King
James.
The son-in-law of Leisler, Jacob Milborne, was commissioned for the
reduction of Albany. Upon his arrival before the city, a great number of
the inhabitants armed themselves and repaired to the fort, then
commanded by Mr. Schuyler, while many others followed the members of the
convention to a conference with him at the city hall. In order to win
the crowd over to his side, Milborne declaimed much against King James,
popery and arbitrary power; but his oratory was lost upon the hearers,
who, after several meetings, still adhered to the convention. Milborne
drew up a few of his men in line of battle and advanced to within a few
paces of the fort with bayonets fixed. Mr. Schuyler had the utmost
difficulty to prevent both his own men and the Mohawks, who were then in
Albany, and perfectly devoted to his service, from firing upon
Milborne's party, which consisted of an inconsiderable number. Under
these circumstances, he thought proper to retreat, and soon after
departed from Albany. A second expedition in the Spring proved more
successful, for he gained possession of the city and fort. No sooner was
he in possession of the garrison, than most of the principal members
absconded, upon which, their effects were arbitrarily seized and
confiscated, which so highly exasperated the sufferers, that their
posterity, for a long time, hurled their bitterest invectives against
Leisler and his adherents.
It was during these intestine troubles and the threatened Indian wars,
that Governor Leisler's daughter was in Salem out of the way of danger.
The New Englanders were keeping up a petty warfare with the Owenagungas,
Ourages and Penocooks. Between these and the Schakook Indians, there
was a friendly communication, and the same was suspected of the Mohawks,
among whom some of the Owenagungas had taken sanctuary. This led to
conferences between commissioners from Boston, Plymouth, Connecticut and
other places, for it was essential to the peace of the English colonists
to preserve peace and general amnesty with the powerful Five Nations,
and hold them as allies against the hostile French in Canada and the
Indians of the east.
Colonel Henry Sloughter had been commissioned governor of New York,
January 4, 1689; but he did not arrive to take possession until 1691,
over two years after his commission, when the vessel bearing the new
governor, _The Beaver_, arrived in the harbor.
Fair historians have acquitted Mr. Leisler of any blame in what others
have been pleased to call his usurpation. He was a man not wholly
without ambition, yet he was honest and did what he thought right. He
had much of the stubbornness as well as honesty of the Netherlands in
his composition, and believing himself in the right, determined to
persist in it. Jacob Milborne, his English son-in-law, was the more
ambitious of the two, and had guided and directed the affair. Leisler
was sitting in his house when informed by Milborne that a vessel called
_The Beaver_ had arrived, bearing Colonel Sloughter, who purported to
have a governor's commission.
"Then we will greet him as our governor," said the honest Leisler.
"Wait until you know he is not an impostor, and that this is not a trick
to seize our fort," cautioned Milborne. Then Leisler, reconsidering the
matter, decided to wait.
_The Beaver_ brought with it one Ingoldsby, who had a commission as
captain. When Ingoldsby appeared, Leisler offered him quarters in the
city:
"Possession of his majesty's fort is what I demand," Ingoldsby replied,
and he issued a proclamation requiring submission. The aristocratic
party, which had long been chafing under the rule of the republican
uprising under Leisler, thus obtained as a leader one who held a
commission from the new sovereign. Leisler, conforming to the original
agreement made with his fellow-insurgents, replied that Ingoldsby had
produced no order from the king, or from Sloughter, who, it was known
had received a commission as governor, and, promising him aid as a
military officer, refused to surrender the fort. The troops as they
landed were received with all courtesy and accommodation; yet passions
ran high, and a shot was fired at them. The outrage was severely
reproved by Leisler, who, on March 10th, the day of the landing of the
troops issued proclamations and counter proclamations, promising
obedience to Sloughter on his arrival.
It was on the evening of March 19th, that this profligate, needy, and
narrow-minded adventurer, who held the royal commission, arrived in New
York, and Leisler at once sent messengers to receive his orders.
Leisler's messengers were detained, and next morning he sent the new
governor a letter asking him to whom he should surrender the fort. His
letter was unheeded, and Sloughter, who had already come to hate the
republican Leisler, ordered Ingoldsby to arrest him and all the persons
called his council.
The prisoners, eight in number, were promptly arraigned before a special
court, constituted for the purpose by an ordinance, with inveterate
royalists as judges. Six of the inferior insurgents, who made their
defence, were convicted of high treason and reprieved. Leisler and
Milborne denied to the governor the power to institute a tribunal for
judging his predecessor, and appealed to the king. In vain they plead
the merit of their zeal for King William, since they had so lately
opposed his governor. Leisler in particular attempted to justify his
conduct from the standpoint that Lord Nottingham's letter entitled him
to act in the capacity of lieutenant-governor; but through ignorance, or
sycophancy, the judges, instead of delivering their own opinion on this
branch of the prisoner's defence, referred it to the governor and
council, praying their opinion, whether that letter, "or any other
letters, or papers, in the packet from Whitehall, can be understood, or
interpreted, to be and contain any power or direction to Captain
Leisler, to take the government of this province upon himself, or that
the administration thereupon be holden good in law."
Of course the decision was against Leisler, and they were arraigned at
the bar of justice for the crime of high treason. On their refusal to
plead, they were condemned of high treason as mutes, and sentenced to
death. Joseph Dudley of New England, but at this time chief justice of
New York, gave it as his opinion that Leisler had no legal authority
whatever, while Sloughter wrote:
"Certainly, never greater villains lived; but I have resolved to wait
for the royal pleasure, if, by any other means than hanging, I can keep
the country quiet."
Jacob Leisler was tried and condemned early in May, 1691, while Charles
Stevens and Adelpha were hastening to New York. Charles, who had heard
something of the offence of Governor Leisler, and who, young as he was,
had come to realize that royalty yielded nothing to the republican
ideas, began to fear the worst. The acts of Leisler had the semblance
of popular government, and even the liberal William and Mary had their
dread of the people. Charles knew Sloughter by reputation as a
narrow-minded, bigoted knave, who would scruple at nothing which tended
to elevate him in the eyes of the aristocratic party, of which he was a
conspicuous devotee. Charles could offer but little consolation, and, as
he contemplated Adelpha's sad future, he asked himself:
"Has the wheel of fortune changed its revolutions, and is the sun which
has ever shone bright for Adelpha to be clouded? God forbid!"
Charles Stevens and Adelpha reached New York on the very day the
assembly was convened (May 14th, 1691) to determine the fate of Leisler
and Milborne.
It was evening, and when they entered the town and the once beautiful
home now despoiled, was dark and sad. The weeping mother met her
daughter at the door.
The character of the assembly was thoroughly royalist. It passed several
resolutions against Leisler, especially declaring his conduct at the
fort an act of rebellion, and on the 15th of May, the second day of
their session and the next after the arrival of Adelpha, Sloughter, in a
moment of excitement, assented to the vote of the council, that Leisler
and Milborne should be executed. "The house, according to their
opinion given, did approve of what his excellency and council had done."
[Illustration: Eight men, bearing litters, were at the door. All were
dripping with water.]
The families of the doomed were notified that on the next day, the 16th
of May, 1691, Leisler and Milborne would be hung. The morning of the
16th dawned gloomy and dark. The rain poured in torrents; but Mrs. Alice
Leisler and her family, accompanied by Charles, went to bid the doomed
men adieu at the jail. Then Charles hurried the weeping women and
children home. Great thunder-bolts seemed to rend Manhattan Island. The
lightning spread a lurid glare on the sky, and the rain fell in
torrents. All of the household knew what was being done, and, falling on
their knees, they prayed God for strength. Two hours wore on, and then
there came a rap at the door.
Charles went and opened it. Eight men, bearing litters, on which were
stretched two lifeless forms, were at the door. All were dripping with
water.
"Come in!" said Charles, and he sprang to seize Adelpha, who had fallen
to the floor in a convulsion.