admin CHAPTER VIII
EXTINCTION OF FRENCH POWER IN AMERICA – THE NEW YORK JUDICIARY – THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.
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 intrusted 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 3d 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, where it embarked on the 5th of July for the fortress of Ticonderoga, which was held by Montcalm with about four thousand men. The troops 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 reinforcements 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, with the entire fleet on Lake Ontario, surrendered on the 26th of August.
The expedition against Fort Duquesne succeeded through the energy of George Washington. 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 after attacked by a body of French and Indians, but succeeded in repulsing them. On the 7th of July Prideaux appeared before Niagara, but soon after the siege began he was killed by the premature bursting of a shell. Johnson succeeded to the command, and the siege continued without cessation. On the 24th a force of nearly three thousand French and Indian troops made an effort to raise the siege. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the relieving force was defeated, and the next day the garrison surrendered.
General Amherst, with a force of nearly twelve thousand men, arrived at Ticonderoga on the 22nd 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 with eight thousand regulars to capture it. A fierce battle occurred before the city, which was held by the Marquis de Montcalm. Both Wolfe and Montcalm were slain; the French army was defeated, and on the 18th of September five days after, Quebec was surrendered to the English.
General Amherst appeared before Montreal on the 6th of September, 1760. De Vaudreuil, the Canadian governor general, despairing of a successful defense, 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 30th 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 commissions, 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 Monkton was appointed governor of New York, and assumed the reins of government in October, 1 761, 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 Delaware Bay. Controversies had arisen, growing out of the indefinite character of their respective charters, between the province 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 in order to stop these proceedings, Governor Colden, in December, 1 263, 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 own 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 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.
SOURCE: History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents; F. W. Beers & Co.; 1880