Read Ebook: The magazine of history with notes and queries Vol. II No. 6 December 1905 by Various

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In reality this was one of the great decisive battles of the Revolution, for it broke forever the power of the Iroquois. Throughout the war, except in small parties, neither Tories nor savages were able to gather for raids. As a military factor the warriors of the Six Nations never again appeared in or with an army. Sullivan and his soldiers had ended the flank attacks on the army, and opened the way for civilization into western New York and Pennsylvania. Indeed, for over half a century, or until the railways dictated the lines of travel, "Sullivan's Road" was the main highway into New York from Pennsylvania.

IN THE WONDERFUL LAKE REGION

It began to rain on Sunday shortly after the battle firing was over, and the next day, Monday, August 30, was a day of rest.

It was also necessary, in consequence of the very poor and insufficient provisions, as well as the want of enough pack horses, to cut down to one-half the rations of flour, salt and meat. However, as the country through which they were to march was rich in vegetable food, Sullivan issued orders, stating the facts, and asking that "the troops will please to consider the matter and give their opinion as soon as possible." So late that afternoon the whole army was drawn up in the separate brigades and regiments. Then the question was put whether they would advance, taking the risk of hunger.

"Without a dissenting voice, the whole army cheerfully agreed to the request of the General, which was signified by unanimously holding up their hands and giving three cheers." Neither the remembered horrors of Valley Forge, nor the risk of possible starvation could discourage the army. With many a laugh and joke, the men moved forward to their "Succotash Campaign." They were happy to know that the heavier artillery, the two howitzers and brace of six pounders were to be sent back. The labor of drawing ammunition wagons and heavy cannon up and down hills would be much reduced. Nevertheless, the four three pounders and caissons, taken along with the Coehorn, meant much chopping in the woods to make a path.

On Tuesday, the line of march was taken up through the broken, swampy, and mountainous country. For their night's camp the men were happy to find a level plain, but the next day they had to go through Bear Swamp, which was then a horrible dark quagmire six miles long. Having a clay bottom, the black mire held the water which flowed tortuously through the spongy soil, in which the vegetation of centuries had made a peaty mass, which the recent rains had made as unstable as a jelly and slippery as soap. Here was the divide of waters between the Susquehanna and the Saint Lawrence rivers, flowing into the Atlantic at Labrador or Hatteras. The Indian trail through this soggy country passed through defiles, over mounds and through ravine after ravine, rough and scrubby, while through all meandered a stream of dark water. Only with the most tremendous toil were the Continentals able to get through, and the rear guard did not reach hard ground until long after noon next day. The cannon were pulled through only by the toil of hundreds of men at the drag ropes, or by laying on the worst places corduroy, or a rough road of trees and brushwood. Many horses were mired and abandoned, and scores of packs with precious bags of flour and ammunition were lost. Altogether it was a most terrible experience, much worse than in the Pennsylvania swamp, called "The Shades of Death," which they had traversed.

For years afterwards, that horrible night formed the blackest memory and gave the most disturbing element to the dreams of the old soldiers. In our time, as we travel through this drained and dry valley between the green walls of the hills on either side, we wonder as we look over the celery gardens where Bear Swamp was. Within half a century after Sullivan's march and return, the forests were cleared and the Chemung canal, bearing millions of cubic feet of timber to the great cities, and especially to build the Maryland privateers for the War of 1812, traversed and drained the swamp. To-day smiling farms and vegetable gardens on either side of the well laid beds of the steam railway and electric trolley line fill the sunny and beautiful valley.

Just beyond this horrible swamp of 1779 lay the village of Sheaquaga, or "French Catherine's town," three miles from Seneca Lake, on the site of the present town of Havana, or Montour Falls. It was the capital of the Indian Queen Catherine Montour, and contained her "palace." It consisted of about forty "long," or apartment, houses of timber and bark, with splendid cornfields, orchards, and fenced enclosures, in which were horses, cows, calves and hogs. It looked as though the army would have, for a little while at least, meat rations. Here had been the home of Catherine, sister of Queen Esther and granddaughter of Adam Montour, who was the offspring of Count Frontenac. A Dutch family had also lived here among the Indians. It seemed strange to our men to find feather beds and other evidences of civilization so far in the wilderness. Some of it was the plunder from Cherry Valley and Wyoming.

The town was deserted, but our troops had to wait all day Thursday for the pack horses and cattle that emerged one by one, or in parties, from the darkness of the dreadful swamp. They found an old squaw, whom they compelled to give information about the Indians. Then they built for her a hut and left her some provisions. Moving northward along the eastern shores of Seneca Lake, through open woods and level country, they found corn roasting in the fire, their supper left untasted and all the evidences of the hasty movement of a large body of Indians.

The next day they moved as far as North Hector, to a village consisting of one very large apartment house with several rooms and fires. To this day the new timber, grown up in the place of the old forest cut through for the artillery, can be easily discerned. Resuming their march, they came on Sunday, September 5, to Kendaia, or Apple Town. This was an Indian village of the first class, over twenty large, long apartment houses built of timber and bark, some of them well painted. There were apple and peach orchards, with many hundreds of trees ripening their fruit, and a cemetery, in which there were tombs erected to the chiefs and made of hewn and painted planks. Here they met with a white captive, Luke Sweetland, whom the Indians had kept employed in making salt. All this lake region is underlaid with beds of the purest chloride of sodium, and in times of peace the Senecas and Onondagas drove a thriving trade with the other tribes in this necessity of life. They made their salt by boiling the brine from salt springs. To-day at Ithaca and Ludlowville the white crystals fill daily a freight train.

On the sixth of September the evening gun sounded at Indian Hollow. On the seventh day they reached the great Seneca town of Kanadesaga, lying on both sides of Castle Creek near what is now Geneva, N. Y. Here had dwelt Old Smoke, the Indian King, and his son who married a daughter of Catherine Montour. In 1756, during the Old French War, Sir William Johnson had built a fort, or stockade, in this town, which was regularly laid out with the open square, in which the fort stood, in the center. Orchards and gardens were plentiful, especially on the north and northeast. Although Sullivan had expected to fight a battle here, and had deployed his regiments for assault, yet the town was found to be entirely deserted, except that a little white boy three years old, captured from one of the settlements, was found playing, though nearly starved. The circular mound, on which the councils of the chiefs and orators were held, still stands, a monument of a nearly vanished race. Gleefully the troops marched in and through the town, with pumpkins and squashes skewered on their bayonets.

The Continentals were now in that renowned lake region of New York famous among the Indians not only for its salt springs, but for its abundance of fish and fruit, and the general fertility of the soil. The forest was still dense all around them, except the more frequent openings, but the Indian villages were numerous and with luxuriant vegetable gardens. In these, onions, peas, beans, squashes, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cucumbers, watermelons, carrots and parsnips were plentiful, while great cornfields stretched farther off into the clearings and to the very edge of the forest, and orchards of apple, peach and mulberry trees were within easy reach.

It was this great store of vegetable food found everywhere ready that decided Sullivan and his brigade commanders, after a council of war, to push on further westward, despite the very scanty supplies of meat and flour rations. So the horses and the men unable to proceed further by reason of sickness or lameness, were sent back to the fort at Tioga Point, Captain Reed of Massachusetts with fifty men forming the escort. Thence he was to return again, as we have seen, to Kanawaholla, near the present city of Elmira, with supplies for the army on its return.

It may be wondered what had become of the motley British force after their defeat at Newtown. As a matter of fact, two hundred fresh Indian warriors had joined Brant just after the battle. They were clamorous to advance at once against the Americans, but those who had a taste of grape shot and bursting bombs were unwilling to make a stand. So the whole force of red and white allies of King George had retreated to the north and west, making camp near Avon, in Livingston County. Keeping out their scouts on the hilltops, they were well informed of Sullivan's movements.

Now, knowing that he had left Conesus, evidently to attack the big town of the Senecas, Brant and Butler chose a strong position. It was remarkably like that of Braddock's field, in Pennsylvania, wherein the pride of England's infantry were changed, from red-coated soldiers, in the glory of lusty life, to heaps of bleaching bones. On a bluff, parallel with the western side of Conesus Lake, well forested, but full of deep ravines, Butler posted his men in ambush. He hoped that Sullivan would advance with his men up the well known trail between two ravines. He had broken down the old, rude bridge over the stream, but he knew that the Continental pioneers would be likely to build another out of the oak and hickory which abounded here. Here he expected to post his men and watch for the opportunity when the scouts should announce the nearness of Sullivan, who was without artillery. With his fresh reinforcements Butler was confident of victory.

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS.

ITHACA, N. Y.

THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS

IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CONDITIONS IN THE ROYAL COLONY OF NEW YORK.

It is also important to remember that the press appealed to a very much smaller percentage of the population in colonial times than it does to-day. "In Boston with a population of 8000, Campbell succeeded in selling but 3000 copies of his News Letters when it was the only newspaper printed in America." Later the circulation of all the papers increased, but it was still but a small proportion of the colonists who received first hand the opinions of the editor. And this body of subscribers was for the most part of the professional class or the wealthier part of those in trade, persons naturally of a conservative temper and apt to look with disfavor on any strong attack on or disregard of legalized and established authority.

In New York, owing to the peculiar way in which the press was introduced, it for the first forty years of its existence did nothing to put itself in antagonism to the government; in Massachusetts it at first was given a subvention by the General Court; in South Carolina a comparatively large sum was offered to any printer who would brave the dangers of the climate and establish a press. With these exceptions its early days were passed under governments which viewed with dislike or suspicion any attempts on the part of the printers to take an intelligent part in the questions that were interesting the people. For this reason the press in all the colonies early assumed a position of antagonism to the constituted authority and in return the government took every opportunity to hurt it by means of prosecutions in the courts or inquisitorial proceedings before the Governor and his Council. It is interesting to note however that these proceedings lost almost all their terrors as the period of the Revolution approached, for the press received more and more the support of the people, who had learned to appreciate the wide circulation which the newspapers gave to the new doctrines; thus we constantly find the grand juries refusing to find true bills against the printers, in this way reducing the Governor to the use of Informations which were looked on with suspicion by the people and seldom resulted in a verdict of Guilty.

But the greatest influence of the press was exerted through the flood of hand-bills and pamphlets which ever increased in volume as the period of the Revolution drew near. Printed in large numbers and circulating everywhere, we find Governors reporting to the home government that it was impossible to stop them, and that they were doing incalculable harm.

If now we attempt in a very brief way to review the whole matter of the struggle for the liberty of the press we shall find:

First: That the system in vogue in America, as in England, up to the close of the seventeenth century, was a system of administrative control by the Crown through appointed officers called Censors, to whom all writings had to be submitted before publication and who either gave or refused permission to print. That this Censorship was shared by Church and State in some instances only complicated the situation.

Second: With the failure to pass the Licensing Bill in 1695 the press became in all parts of the English dominion freed from this censorship; but a system of judicial control took its place, for all publications were now subject to the law of libel, and an attack on the dominant party was held by the courts to be a libel, and a censure of the Governor to be a personal reflection on the King. In Franklin's case in England in 1731, it was laid down by Lord Raymond that the court alone was to judge of the criminality of a libel, to the jury was given only the right to decide as to the fact of publication.

In England that doctrine continued in force until the passage of Mr. Fox's Libel Bill in 1792. But fifty-eight years earlier the Zenger case had established in principle the freedom of the press in the colonies, by settling the right of juries to find a general verdict in libel cases. We have said "in principle," for this right, which the colonists soon grew to consider as a part of their common law, was yet in practice more or less nullified in the different colonies according as the Governor was able to impose his will on the courts or was opposed by an intelligent public opinion.

In other words, liberty of the press did not and could not exist in the colonial period, but the people accepted the principle and when they obtained the opportunity incorporated it in Bills of Rights and State Constitutions. The Continental Congress in issuing, on Oct. 21st, 1774, an "Address to the people of Canada" proceeded to detail and enlarge upon the rights to which English subjects were entitled, and among them placed the freedom of the press.

We see the same point made by State after State.

Maryland, 1776: "That the liberty of the press ought to be inviolably preserved."

Virginia, 1776: "That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments."

Pennsylvania, 1776: "That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing, and of publishing their sentiments; therefore the freedom of the press ought not to be restrained."

Georgia, 1777: "Freedom of the press and trial by jury to remain inviolable forever."

Vermont, 1777: "That the public have the right to freedom of speech and of writing and publishing their sentiments; therefore the freedom of the press ought not to be restrained."

South Carolina, 1778: "That the liberty of the press be inviolably preserved."

Massachusetts, 1780: "The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state; and ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth."

New Hampshire, 1784: "The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state; and it ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved."

Pinckney's Plan of 1787: "The Legislature of the United States shall pass no law touching or abridging the liberty of the press."

Delaware, 1792: "The press shall be free to every citizen who undertakes to examine the official conduct of men acting in a public capacity, and any citizen may print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. In prosecutions for publications investigating the proceedings of officers, or where the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libels, the jury may determine the facts and the law, as in other cases."

After the Federal Convention came together in 1787 it was proposed to insert in the Constitution, "the liberty of the press shall be inviolably preserved." This was defeated by six states against five. But when the different States afterwards sent to the first Congress the proposals from which the first ten Amendments were selected we find in nearly all some reference to the liberty of the press. The article on the subject from Massachusetts was selected and now appears as a part of the First Amendment to the Constitution, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." And since that time nearly every Constitution drawn up by the different States has contained an admission of the principle so long contended for by supporters of the rights of the press, that, as David Hume says, "its liberties, and the liberties of the people must stand or fall together."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrews, Alexander--History of British Journalism; 2 vols. London, 1859.

Anson, Sir Wm. R.--Law and Custom of the Constitution; 2 vols. Oxford, 1886.

Barry, John Stetson--The History of Massachusetts; 3 vols. Boston, 1855.

Booth, Mary L.--The History of the City of New York. New York, 1880.

Bradford, Wm.--New England's Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsylvania. New York, 1693.

Brodhead, John Romeyn--History of the State of New York; 2 vols. New York, v.d.

Brown, David Paul--The Forum; 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1856.

Brown, Henry B.--The Liberty of the Press; Am. Law Review, 34, 321.

Buckingham, Joseph T.--Specimens of Newspaper Literature, with Personal Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Reminiscences; 2 vols. Boston, 1852.

Burk, John D.--The History of Virginia from its first Settlement to the Present Day; 4 vols. Petersburg, Va., 1805.

Burn, John Southerden--The Star Chamber. London, 1870.

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