To John Jay from Charles De Witt, 22 January 1777
From Charles De Witt
Green Hill [Kill?], Jan. 22nd, 1777
Dear Sir
Many favourable accounts of Importance, respecting our Army to the Southward have reached our Ears here, for sometime past, some of which have been sufficiently authenticated, and others (I suppose) some clean Hands at the fashionable Vice of Lying have invented. However such as it is my Heart has exulted and even leaped for Joy in my Breast; my Ideas of Conquest run so High at present that nothing short of the Possession of New York the Destruction of the British Fleet at the Docks seem to satisfy. But you may say it could be easily done provided every one could stay at his own fire side; and I confess I should Blush with Guilt if my reasons for so long Absence were not sufficient which in order to exculpate myself from the Expected charge of Neglect, I must take the Liberty to give you, and if necessary to communicate them to Convention.1 When I left Fish Kiles my Son2 (who is the only Superintendant of my affairs) had Marched with the Militia to Jersey. He was out almost one Month. When he returned home he fell sick and is still in a Critical Situation tho I hope he will soon recover. While he was absent my Miller was Sick and is not yet entirely recovered, so that I have been closely confined to this spot. You may be assured Sir that I shall give my Attandance as soon as the situation of my Family will admit of it, which I hope will be soon, for I never have longed more to be at Convention than at present, as I expect I should know the Grand Councils of State now held for the entire Dismission of those troublesom fellows from our happy Shores. I am intirely in the Dark surrounded only with Rocks and Trees which afford me no more information than that the Beneficent maker has granted them for our Convenience and not to be destroyed by a Band of wicked men, should be exceedingly obliged to you to favor me with the news of the Season. Have expected you here once since the snow fall. Cannot you and Mr Duer spend a few days with me.
The Pamphlets distributed by the Convention are much liked; they are calculated to draw the attention of the Meanest capacity, seriously to consider our present situation. I have read it once, I wish I had one of them.3 A Resolve for the exemption of Coopers for two Months had Passed when I was at Convention, since which I understand another is Published which varies from the first. I have been told that printed exemptions are handed to Millers to Issue to such as furnish a proper Quantity of Casks. As I expect the Army will be in want of Flour, and though we cannot supply the country for want of Water, yet as soon as a thaw comes on, I shall want a Quantity to put flour in, which I shall be puzzled to get unless some Coopers stick to their Business, and as I cannot find that the officers here know of such Resolve, I shall take it as a favor of you to furnish me with Materials to accomplish this necessary work.4
The Committee of Kingston I suppose will apply to you for a Guard to watch the Tories in their Goal. It will in my opinion be very necessary.5 I have but just room to say that I am with great esteem Sir, Your most obedient and Humble Servant
Ch. D. Witt
Tr, NNC (EJ: 12504).
1. Charles De Witt (1727–87) of Kingston, owner of a gristmill at Green Kill, was a member of the provincial congress for Ulster County and served with JJ on the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies appointed on 21 Sept. 1776. He had attended the convention until it was adjourned on 5 Oct. 1776 and apparently did not attend again until March 1777, during most of which time the state was under the direction of a Committee of Safety. De Witt had not attended meetings of the conspiracy committee since early December and felt the need to justify his absence to JJ and the convention. , 1: 638–39, 821, 827. Minutes of Committee, 11 Dec. 1776–21 Jan. 1777, NHi (EJ: 3617).
2. John C. De Witt (1755–1833), an officer in the Marbletown militia. Cal. of Hist. Mss., 1: 151.
3. An Address of the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New-York to their Constituents, 23 Dec. 1776, printed above.
4. On 17 Sept. 1776 the New York Convention named De Witt an agent to purchase flour in Ulster County and arrange for its shipment by water to Joseph Trumbull, the Continental commissary general. Two resolutions were passed by the convention’s Committee of Safety the following month concerning the exemption of coopers from the militia draft: the first, passed 24 Oct., provided that coopers and other workmen employed in transporting and processing flour for the convention at Pierre Van Cortlandt’s mills at Croton River and Peekskill “be exempted from military duty of any kind whatsoever”; the second, of 29 Oct., is not printed in but is described merely as a resolution “to exempt coopers for two months from military duty.” In addition, several resolutions on militia duty were passed in the Committee of Safety during the period 1–14 Dec. 1776 for which is incomplete. A copy of one of these resolves is preserved in DNA: PCC, item 67, 1: 395, and provides for the appointment of a committee “empowered to discharge from the Militia such Mechanicks as the public Service, or the Necessity of the Inhabitants may render expedient.” No separately published copies of these resolutions have survived. , 1: 629, 689, 693.
5. A number of Loyalists considered “dangerous persons” were then housed in the Kingston jail. On 1 Feb. 1777 the New York Committee of Safety acted on an application of January 1777 from the Kingston committee and approved the action of a convention subcommittee that had ordered the posting of a guard at the Kingston jail and provided funds for the payment of the guard. , 1: 794.