the earth, the loudness of the sounds was much increased. In considering the probable truth of this tradition, it must not be forgotten that the intervening space between Charlestown and Pittsfield was, in 1775, free from the disturbing noises of railroads, manufactories, and cities, which now abound.1 1 Another remarkable instance of the transmission of sounds among the hills occurred on the 26th of November, 1822. On that day, Samuel Charles, an Oneida Indian, was hung at Lenox for the murder of a negro in Richmond; and the Berkshire Greys, a Pittsfield military company, attended as sheriff's guard. At the hour fixed for the execution, Dr. Oliver S. Root was in a field, near where the Medical College in Pittsfield now stands, when he heard the sound of a drum and fife apparently close at hand. Surprised at the early return of the Greys, he went to the brow of the declivity made by the road at that point, expecting to see them on its southern slope, but was still more surprised when he found no signs of the company there. It afterwards appeared, that it was at that moment just leaving Gallows Hill, seven miles distant. On the same occasion, fishing-parties at the north end of Pontoosuc Lake, ten miles from the place of execution, heard, as distinctly as though in the next street, the mournful strains as the procession wended its melancholy way to the gallows, and the lively notes struck up on the return. Since the above was written, I have seen an account in "The Springfield Republican," that persons in that city heard distinctly the sound of three explosions, which, following each other in rapid succession, recently destroyed a powder-mill at Poughkeer, N.Y. These instances go far to remove any improbability which might erwise attach to the old tradition. CHAPTER XIV. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE TORIES. — BATTLES OF WHITE PLAINS AND THE DELAWARE. [1776-1777.] King George's Name expunged from Military Commissions. The Town instructs its Representative in Favor of Independence and a Free Republic. Committees of Correspondence, etc. Their Rules of Practice. The Tories. - The Hue and Cry. Hiding-place of the Tories. - The Ban of Community. Its Effect illustrated by an Incident. John Graves aids the Escape of a Royal Officer, and is punished therefor. - An ex-post fucto Fright. Infliction of Confiscation and Banishment. Case of Elisha Jones and Others. Enlistment of a Slave. - Woodbridge Little and Israel Stoddard. Six Tories induced by Energetic Measures to take the Oath of Allegiance. — Anecdote of a Soldier returned from a British Prison. — Mr. Allen's Diary at White Plains. - Patterson's Regiment rejoins Washington. Its reduced Condition. OTED, That the field-officers proceed to regulate the North District or Regiment with the erasement of George's name." Such was the quiet resolution by which, on the 25th of March, 1776, more than three months previous to the Declaration of Independence, and two months before the famous resolution of the Continental Congress, "that the exercise of every kind of authority under the king ought to be suppressed," the people of Pittsfield signified that they were done with his Majesty King George the Third, and regarded him much as their Puritan ancestors did "the man Charles." Independence was, with them, a foregone conclusion; and, for their part, they were sick of the sham of fighting the king under his own commission. For the person of the man George, it was absurd any longer to profess affection; and they had early learned a theory of government which paid hardly more regard to the royal office. They had also acquired among the hills a habit of carrying political principles to their full legitimate conclusions, with a hopeful belief that a higher Power would take care of the consequences, a habit and a pious faith which we shall find them exercising in other relations of state, as well as in this. Having passed the vote which practically renounced all allegiance to the king, but which is recorded with no more note or comment than that by which the same meeting enacted that hogs should not run at large,”—the town went on with its ordinary business. Two months later, in May, it gave to Valentine Rathbun, its representative in the General Court, the following emphatic instruction: “You shall, on no pretence whatever, favor a union with Great Britain, as to becoming, in any sense, dependent upon her hereafter; and we instruct you to use your influence with the Honorable House, to notify the Honorable the Continental Congress that this whole Province is waiting for the important moment which they, in their great wisdom, shall appoint for the Declaration of Independence and a free Republic." A town thus impatient for the birth of the nation must have hailed its actual occurrence with enthusiastic joy. But no account has been handed down, even by tradition, of the mode in which it was celebrated. Even the great Declaration, which the General Court ordered to be "spread upon the records of the several towns for a memorial forever," does not appear on those of Pittsfield; probably on account of the practice, to which allusion has been made, of keeping the minutes of town-meetings for a long while upon loose sheets of paper. The permanent records at that time appear to have been written up at long intervals. The General Court having recently sanctioned the committees of correspondence, inspection, and safety, consolidated them in one, and ordered the towns to choose them annually, the Pittsfield March meeting elected to the office, Dea. Josiah Wright, Valentine Rathbun, William Francis, Stephen Crofoot, Joseph Keilar, William Barber, and Aaron Baker: Capts. Eli Root, James Noble, and John Strong were added at the May meeting.1 1 The committees of subsequent years were as follows:- -- 1777. Lieut. William Barber, Valentine Rathbun, Col. John Brown, Capt. Eli Root, Joshua Robbins, Dea. Josiah Wright, Capt. William Francis, Lebbeus Backus, Licut. Stephen Crofoot. 1778. Valentine Rathbun, Caleb Stanley, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, Dea. Josiah Wright, Capt. William Francis, Lieut. Rufus Allen, Lebbeus Backus. Re-elected in 1779. The unhappy Tories who were "handled," as it was quaintly phrased, by the Revolutionary committees, were never satisfied, whoever might compose them; but they took advantage of the change of persons to demur to the jurisdiction of the new body in cases commenced before the old; whereupon the committee made application to the town, at its March meeting, for "directions how to recover pay for handling persons that appeared inimical to their country." The subject was referred to Valentine Rathbun, David Bush, William Francis, William Williams, Charles Goodrich, James Noble, and John Strong, on whose report the town determined, — "First, That said committees, consisting, or having consisted, of whom they may, are one and the same, from their first appointment to this day; and that all their transactions and determinations ought to be considered the acts and proceedings of an adjourned court; consequently, all matters and things that have not been finally determined, still have day with them; and, if there be any matters and things before them that are not yet determined upon, they, the committee as it now stands, have as full power and authority to act upon them as ever they had; and if any person upon trial appeared inimical to his country, or hereafter upon trial shall appear so, they are hereby empowered, so far as our united influence can support them, to tax such persons for their time therein expended on trial, and all other necessary charges, and, on refusal, to be committed to the common jail, or be otherwise confined, till the same be paid; and, in all other respects, to deal with them, as to punishment, according to the direction of the Continental Congress, Provincial Congress, or General Assembly. Second. Voted, That if said committee shall apprehend and convene before them any person or persons whom they suspect to be inimical to their country, or to be guilty of any other misdemeanor, and upon trial are found innocent, in that case the said committee have no pay for their time or cost. Third. Voted, That if any complaint shall be brought before said committee by any person or persons, and supported, then the offender shall pay all costs, and, refusing, shall be confined in the common jail, or elsewhere, until he comply and pay the cost, together with the confinement, with the costs thereof; and, in case any complainant shall not support his complaint, said complainant shall be holden to pay all costs, and, on his refusal, shall be holden and committed as aforesaid." These rules, perhaps, made as fair a provision for impartial justice as could be then attained; but it still left an inducement for 1780. Licut. Stephen Crofoot, Col. John Brown, Col. James Easton, Capt. Eli Root, Capt. William Francis. The State Constitution being adopted in 1780, no more committees of this character were chosen. the committee, sitting as judges, to sustain their own suspicions as prosecutors, and thus obtain their costs. The confusion of functions rendered this difficulty inevitable. The period from the spring of 1776 until the victories at Saratoga in Oct. 1, 1777, was one of those in which the spirit of Toryism was most rampant in Berkshire and the neighboring districts. The miserable failure of the Canada expedition, from which so much had reasonably been expected, spread dissension and mutual distrust in the Whig ranks, disheartening the patriots, and giving courage to those "inimical to their country." The Declaration of Independence, while it gave firmness and consistency to the Whig party, and inspirited its clear-sighted and determined members, disaffected not a few half-hearted men, who could not even yet admit the impossibility of reconciliation with the mother country upon honorable terms, or who, weary of the conflict, were willing to seize upon any pretext for abandoning it. The disasters to the army of Washington near New York, which looked more like utter ruin and disintegration than simple defeat, spread a gloom over the country, so discouraging that many were seduced by the liberal offers of pardon and favor which the royal commanders extended; and the danger that the defection would become infectious was so great that the sternest measures for its repression were justified. Of those measures, the favorite was to place the offender under the ban of the community, by proclaiming him in the public prints to be an enemy of his country, and raising the hue and cry upon him. The effect of this proceeding was to deprive the culprit of the protection which law and public sentiment ordinarily accord against petty depredations and annoyances, and, holding him up to the contempt and hatred of his 1 The hue and cry was not literally a pursuit with shout and halloo, although that sometimes came of it; but an advertisement, like the following from “The Hartford Courant:" "Whereas, Major Israel Stoddard and Woodbridge Little, Esq., both of Pittsfield, in the county of Berkshire, have fled from their respective homes, and are justly esteemed the cominon pests of society, and incurable enemies of their country, and are supposed to be somewhere in New-York government, moving sedition and rebellion against their country, it is hereby recommended to all friends of American liberty, and to all who do not delight in the innocent blood of their countrymen, to exert themselves, that they may be taken into custody, and committed to some of his Majesty's jails, till the civil war, which has broken out in this Province shall be ended. "By order of the Committees of Inspection in the towns of Pittsfield, Richmond, and Lenox. JOHN BROWN. "PITTSFIELD, April 27, 1775." |