Memoirs of an American lady

Front matter

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MEMOIRS

Dedication

If truth, both of feehng and narration, which are its only merits, prove a sufficient counterbalance to carelessness, laxity, and incoherence of style, its prominent faults, I may venture to invite you, when you unbend from the useful and honorable labors to which your valuable time is devoted, to trace this feeble dehneation of an excellent though unembellished character ; and of the rapid pace with which .an infant society has urged on its progress from virtuous simplicity to the dangerous " knowledge of good and evil ;" from tremulous imbecility to self-sufficient independence.

To be faithful, a delineation must necessarily be minute. Yet if this sketch, with all its imperfections, be honored by your indulgent perusal, such condescension of time and talent must certainly be admired, and may perhaps be imitated, by others.

^ I am, sir, very respectfully.

Contents

Page.

Introduction' 13

Chapter I. — Province of New York. — Origin of the Settlement of Albany. — Singular Possession held by the Patroon. — Account of his Tenants 17

Introduction

TO .

Dear Sir, —

Others as well as you have expressed a wish to see a memoir of my earliest and most valuable friend.

To gratify you and them I feel many inducements, and see many objections.

To comply with any wish of yours is one strong inducement.

To please myself with the recollection of past happiness and departed worth, is another ; and to benefit those' into whose hands this imperfect sketch may fall, is a third. For, the authentic record of an exemplary life, though delivered in the most unadorned manner, and even degraded by poverty of style, or uncouthness of narration, has an attraction for the uncorrupted mind.

It is the rare lot of some exalted characters, by the united power of virtues and of talents, to soar above their fellowmortals, and leave a luminous track behind, on which successive ages gaze with wonder and delight.

But the sweet influence of the benign stars that now and then enlighten the page of history, is partial and unfrequent.

They to whom the most important parts on the stage of life are allotted, if possessed of abilities. undirected by virtue, are too often

" Wise to no purpose, artful to no end,"

that is really good and desirable.

They, again, in whom virtue is not supported by wisdom, are often, with the best intentions, made subservient to the

14 INTRODUCTION.

short-sighted craft of the artful and designing. Hence, though we may be at times dazzled with the blaze of heroic achievement, or contemplate with a purer satisfaction those •' awful fathers of mankind," by whom nations were civilized, equitable dominion established, or liberty restored ; yet, after all, the crimes and miseries of mankind form such prominent features of the history of every country, that humanity sickens at the retrospect, and misanthropy finds an excuse amidst the laurels of the hero, and the deep-laid schemes of the politician : —

" x\nd yet this partial view of things Is surely not the best." Burns.

Where shall we seek an antidote to the chilling gloom left on the mind by these bustling intricate scenes, where the best characters, goaded on by furious factions or dire necessity, become involved in crimes that their souls abhor ?

It is the contemplation of the peaceful virtues in the genial atmosphere of private life, that can best reconcile us to our nature, and quiet the turbulent emotions excited by

" The madness of the crowd."

But vice, folly, and vanity are so noisy, so restless, so ready to rush into public view, and so adapted to afford food for malevolent curiosity, that the still small voice of virtue, active in its own sphere, but unwilling to quit it, is drowned in their tumult. This is a remedy, however,

" Not obvious, not obtrusive."

If we would counteract the baleful influence of public vice by the contemplation of private worth, we must penetrate into its retreats, and not be deterred from attending to its simple details by the want of that glare and bustle with which a fictitious or artificial character is generally surrounded.

INTRODUCTION. 15

But in this wide field of speculation one might wander out of sight of the original subject. Let me then resume it, and return to my objections. Of these the first and greatest is the dread of being inaccurate. Embellished facts, a mixture of truth and fiction, or, what we sometimes meet with, a fictitious superstructure built on a foundation of reality, would be detestable on the score of bad taste, though no moral sense were concerned or consulted. 'Tis walking on a river half frozen, that betrays your footing every moment. By these repulsive artifices no person of real discernment is for a moment imposed upon. You do not know exactly which part of the narrative is false ; but you are sure it is not all true, and therefore distrust what is genuine, where it occurs. For this reason a fiction, happily told, takes a greater hold of the mind than a narrative of facts, evidently embellished and interwoven with inventions.

I do not mean to discredit my own veracity. I certainly have no intention to relate any thing that is not true. Yet in the dim distance of near forty years, unassisted by written memorials, shall I not mistake dates, misplace facts, and omit circumstances which form essential links in the chain of narration ? Thirty years ago, when I expressed a wish to do what I am now about to attempt, how differently should I have executed it. A warm heart, a vivid imagination, and a tenacious memory, were then all filled with a theme which I could not touch without kindling into an enthusiasm, sacred at once to virtue and to friendship. Venerated friend of my youth, my guide, and my instructress ! are then the dregs of an enfeebled mind, the worn affections of a wounded heart, the imperfect eflforts of a decaying memory, all that remain to consecrate thy remembrance, to make known thy worth, and to lay on thy tomb the offering of gratitude ?

My friend's life, besides being mostly passed in unruffled

16 INTRODUCTION.

peace and prosperity, affords few of those vicissitudes which astonish and amuse. It is from her relations to those with whom her active benevolence connected her, that the chief interest of her story (if story it may be called) arises. It includes that of many persons, obscure indeed but for the light which her regard and beneficence reflected upon them. Yet without those subordinate persons in the drama, the action of human life, especially such a life as hers, cannot be carried on. Those can neither appear with grace, nor be omitted with propriety. Then, remote and retired as her situation was, the variety of nations and characters, of tongues and of complexions, with which her public spirit and private benevolence connected her, might appear wonderful to those unacquainted with the country and the times in which she lived ; without a pretty distinct view of which my narrative would be unintelligible. I must be excused too for dwelling, at times, on the recollection of a state of society so peculiar, so utterly dissimilar to any other that I have heard or read of, that it exhibits human nature in a new aspect, and is so far an object of rational curiosity, as v/ell as a kind of phenomenon in the history of colonization. I forewarn the reader not to look for lucid order in the narration, nor for intimate connection between its parts. T have no authorities to refer to, no coeval witnesses of facts to consult. In regard to the companions of my youth, I sit like the " voice of Cona," alone on the heath ; and, like him too, must muse in silence, till at intervals the " light of my soul arises," before I can call attention to " a tale of other times," in which several particulars relative to my friend's ancestry must necessarily be included.

SKETCHES

MANNERS AND SCENERY IN AMERICA

Chapter I

Province of New York. — Origin of the Settlement at Albany. — Singular Possession -held by the Patroon. — Account of his Tenants.

It is well known that the province of New York, ancientlycalled Munhattoes by the Indians, was originally settled by a Dutch colony, which came from Holland, I think, in the time of Charles the Second. Finding, the country to their liking, they were followed by others more wealthy and better informed. Indeed, some of the early emigrants appear to have been people respectable both from their family and character. Of these the principal were the Cuylers, the Schuylers, the Rensselaers, the Delancys, the Cortlandts, the Tenbroecks, and the Beekmans, who have all of them been since distinguished in the civil wars, either as persecuted loyalists or triumphant patriots. I do not precisely recollect the motives assigned for the voluntary exile of persons who were evidently in circumstances that might admit of their living in comfort at home, but am apt to think that the early settlers were those who adhered to the interest of the Stadtholder's family, a party which, during the minority of King William, was almost persecuted by the high republicans. Thev who came over at a later period probably belonged to the ^rty which opposed the Stadtholder, and which was then in its turn depressed. These persons afterwards distinguished themselves by an aversion, nearly amounting to antipathy, to the British army, and indeed to all the British

2* colonists. Their notions were mean and contracted ; their manners blunt and austere ; and their habits sordid and parsimonious. As the settlement began to extend they retired, and formed new establishments, afterwards called Firkkill, Esopus, &c.

To the Schuylers, Cuylers, Delancys, Cortlandts, and a few others, this description did by no means apply. Yet they too bore about thern the tokens of former affluence and respectability, such as family plate, portraits of their ancestors executed in a superior style, and great numbers of original paintings, some of which were much admired by acknowledged judges. Of these the subjects were generally taken from sacred history.

I do not recollect the exact time, but think it was during the last years of Charles the Second, that a settlement we then possessed at Surinam was exchanged for the extensive (indeed at that time boundless) province of Munhattoes, which, in compliment to the then heir-apparent, was called New York. Of the unexplored part of that country, the most fertile and beautiful was situated far inland, on the banks of the Hudson River. This copious and majestic stream is navigable 170 miles from its mouth, for vessels of sixty or seventy tons burden. Near the head of it, as a kind of barrier against the natives, and a central resort for traders, the foundation was laid of a town called Oranienburgh, and afterwards by the British, Albany.

After the necessary precaution of erecting a small stockaded fort for security, a church was built in the ce'ntre of the intended town, which served in different respects as a kind of landmark. A gentleman of the name of Rensselaer was considered as in a manner lord paramount of this city, a pre-eminence which his successor still enjoys, both with regard to the town and the lands adjacent. The original proprietor obtained from the High and Mighty States a grant of lands, which, from the church, extended twelve miles in every direction, forming a manor twenty-four Dutch miles in length, and the same in breadth, including lands not only of tha best quality of any in the province, but the most happily situated for the purposes both of commerce and of agriculture This great proprietor was looked up to as much as republicans in a new country could be supposed to look up to any one. He was called the Patroon, a designation tantamount to lord of the manor. Yet, in the distribution of these lands, the sturdy Belgian spirit of independence set limits to the power and profits of this lord of the forests, as he might then be called. None of these lands were either sold or alienated. The more wealthy settlers, as the Schuylers, Cuylers, &c., took very extensive leases .of the fertile plains along the river, with boundless liberty of woods and pasturage to the westward. The terms were, that the lease should hold while water runs and grass grows, and the landlord to receive the tenth sheaf of every kind of grain the ground produces.

Thus, ever accommodating the rent to the fertility of the soil, and changes of the seasons, you may suppose the tenants did not greatly fear a landlord, who could neither remove them, nor heighten their rents. Thus, without the pride of property, they had all the independence of proprietors. They were like German princes, who, after furnishing their contingent to the emperor, might make war on him v/hen they chose. Besides the profits (yearly augmenting) which the patroon drew from his ample possessions, he held in his own hands an extensive and fruitful demesne. Yet, preserving in a great measure the simple arid frugal habits of his ancestors, his wealth was not an object of envy, nor a source of corruption to his fellow-citizens. To the northward of these bounds, and at the southern extremity also, the Schuylers and Cuylers held lands of their own. But the only other great landholders I remember, holding their land by those original tenures, were Philips and Cortlandt ; their lands lay also on the Hudson River, half way down to Ne.w York, and were denominated Philips's and Cortlandt's manors. At the time of the first settling of the country, the Indians were numerous and powerful along all the river ; but they consisted of wandering families, who, though they established some sort of local boundaries for distinguishing the hunting grounds of each tribe, could not be said to inhabit any place. The cool and crafty Dutch governors, being unable to cope with them in arms, purchased from them the most valuable tracts for some petty consideration. They affected great friendship for them ; and, while conscious of their own weakness, were careful not to provoke hostilities ; and they silently and insensibly established themselves to the west.

CHAPTER 11.

Account of the Five Nations, or Mohawk Indians. — Building of the Fort at Albany.— John and Philip Schuyler.

On the Mohawk River, about forty miles distant from Albany, there subsisted a confederacy of Indian tribes, of a very different character from those mentioned in the preceding chapter ; too sagacious to be deceived, and too powerful to be eradicated. These were the once renowned five nations, whom any one, who remembers them while they were a people, will hesitate to call savages. Were they savages who had fixed habitations ; who cultivated rich fields ; who built castles, (for so they called their not incommodious wooden houses, surrounded with palisadoes ;) who planted maize and beans, and showed considerable ingenuity in constructing and adorning their canoes, arms, and clothing? They who had wise though unwritten laws, and conducted their wars, treaties, and alliances, with deep and sound policy; they whose eloquence was bold, nervous, and animated ; whose language was sonorous, musical, and expressive ; who possessed generous and elevated sentiments, heroic fortitude, and unstained probity — were these indeed savages ? The difference

" Of scent the headlong lioness between And hound sagacious, on the tainted green,"

is not greater than that of the Mohawks in point of civility and capacity, from other American tribes, among whom, indeed, existed a far greater diversity of character, language, &c., than Europeans seem to be aware of. This little tribute to the memory of a people who have been, while it sooths the pensive recollections of the writer, is not so foreign to the subject as it may at first appear. So much of the peace and safety of the infant community depended on the friendship and alliance of these generous tribes ; and to conciliate and retain their affections so much address was necessary, that common characters were unequal to the task. Minds liberal and upright, like those I am about to describe, could alone excite that esteem, and preserve that confidence, which were essential towards retaining the friendship of those vahiable allies.

From the time of the great rebellion, so many English refugees frequented Holland, that the language and manners of our country became familiar at the Hague, particularly among the Stadtholder's party. When the province of New York fell under the British dominion, it became necessary that everybody should learn our language, as all public business was carried on in the English tongue, which they did the more willingly, as, after the revolution, the accession of the Stadtholder to the English crown very much reconciled them to our government. Still, however, the English was a kind of court language ; little spoken, and imperfectly understood in the interior. Those who carried over with them the French and English languages soon acquired a sway over their less enlightened fellow-settlers. Of this number were the Schuylers and Cuylers, two families among whom intellect of the superior kind seemed an inheritance, and whose intelligence and liberality of mind, fortified by well-grounded principle, carried them far beyond the petty and narrow views of the rest. Habituated at home to centre all wisdom and all happiness in commercial advantages, they would have been very ill-qualified to lay the foundation of an infant state in a country that afforded plenty and content, as the reward of industry, but where the very nature of the territory, as well as the state of society, precluded great pecuniary acquisitions. Their object here was to tame savage nature, and to make the boundless wild subserv^ient to agricultural purposes.

Commercial pursuits were a distant prospect ; and before they became of consequence, rural habits had greatly changed the character of these republicans. But the commercial spirit, inherent in all true Batavians, only slept to wake again, when the avidity of gain was called forth by the temptation of bartering for any lucrative commodity. The furs of the Indians gave this occasion, and Avere too soon made the object of the avidity of petty traders. To the infant settlement at Albany the consequences of this short-sighted policy might have proved fatal, had not these patriotic leaders, by their example and influence, checked for a while such illiberal and dangerous practices. It is a fact singular and worth attending to, from the lesson it exhibits, that in all our distant colonies there is no other instance where a considerable town and prosperous settlement has arisen and flourished, in peace and safety, in the midst of nations disposed and often provoked to hostility, at a distance from the protection of ships, and from the only fortified city, which, always weakly garrisoned, was little fitted to awe and protect the whole province. Let it be remembered that the distance from New York to Albany is 170 miles; and that in the intermediate space, at the period of which I speak, there was not one town or fortified place. The shadow of a palisadoed fort,* which then existed at Albany, was occupied by a single independent company, who did duty, but were dispersed through the town, working at various trades,: so scarce, indeed, were artisans in this community, that a tradesman might in these days ask any wages he chose.

To return to this settlement, which evidently owed its security to the wisdom of its leaders, who always acted on the simple maxim that honesty is the best policy ; several miles north from Albany a considerable possession, called the Flats, was inhabited by Colonel Philip Schuyler, one of the most enlightened men in the province. This being a frontier, he would have found it a very dangerous situation had he not been a person of singular worth, fortitude, and wisdom. If I were not afraid of tiring my reader with a detail of occurrences which, taking place before the birth of my friend, might seem irrelevant to the present purpose, I could relate many instances, almost incredible, of the power of mind displayed by this gentleman in governing the uninstructed, without coercion or legal right. He possessed this species of power in no common degree ; his influence, with that of his brother, John Schuyler, was exerted to conciliate the wandering tribes of Indians ; and by fair traffic, (for he too was a trader,) and by fair liberal dealing, they attained thei^object. They also strengthened the league already formed with the five Mohawk nations, by procuring for them some assistance against their enemies, the Onondagoes of the Lakes.

Queen Anne had by this time succeeded the Stadtholder.

* It may be worth noting, that Captain Massey, who commanded this non-effective company for many years, was the father of Mrs. Lennox, an estimable character, well known for her literary productions, and for being the friend and protegee of Doctor Johnson.

AND SCENERY IN AMERICA. S3

The gigantic ambition of Lewis tlie Fourteenth actuated the remotest parts of his extensive dominions ; and the encroach, ing spirit of that restless nation began to discover itself in hostilities to the infant colony. A motive for this could scarce be discovered, since they possessed already much more territory than they were able to occupy, the limits of which were undefined. But the province of New York was a frontier ; and, as such, a kind of barrier to the southern colonies. It began also to compete for a share of the fur-trade, then very considerable, before the beavers were driven back from their original haunts. In short, the province daily rote in importance ; and being in a great measure protected by the Mohawk tribes, the policy of courting their alliance^ and of impressing their minds with an exalted idea of the power and grandeur of the British empire, became obvious. I cannot recollect the name of the governor at this time ; but whoever he was, he, as well as the succeeding ones, visited the settlement at Albany, to observe its wise regulations and growing prosperity, and to learn maxims of sound policy from those whose interests and happiness were daily promoted by the practice of it.

Chapter III

Colonel Schuyler persuades four Sachems to accompany him to England. — Their Reception and Return.

It was thought advisable to send over some of the heads of the tribes to England to attach them to that country : but to persuade such of them as were intelligent, sagacious, and aware of all probable dangers ; who were strangers to all the maritime concerns, and had never beheld the ocean ; to persuade such independent and high-minded warriors to forsake the safety and enjoyments of their own country, to encounter the perils of a long voyage, and trust themselves among entire strangers, and this merely to bind closer an alliance with the sovereign of a distant country-r— a female sovereign too ; a mode of government that must have appeared to them very incongruous ; this was no common undertaking, nor was it easy to induce these chiefs to accede to the proposal. The principal motive for urging it was, to counteract the machinations of the French, whose emissaries in these wild regions had even then begun to style us, in effect, a nation of shopkeepers ; and to impress the tribes dwelling within their boundaries with vast ideas of the power and splendor of their Grand Monarque, while our sovereign, they said, ruled over a petty island, and was himself a trader. To counterwork such suggestions, it was thought requisite to give the leaders of the nation (who then in fact protected our people) an adequate idea of our power, and of the magnificence of our court. The chiefs at length consented, on this condition only, that their brother Philip, who never had been known to tell a lie, or to speak without thinking, should accompany them.

However this gentleman's wisdom and integrity might qualify him for this employment, it by no means suited his placid temper, simple manners, and habits of life, at once pastoral and patriarchal, to travel over seas, visit courts, and mingle in the bustle of a world, the customs of which were become foreign to those primitive inhabitants of new and remote regions. The adventure, however, succeeded beyond his expectation ; the chiefs were pleased with the attention paid them, and with the mild and gracious manners of the queen, who at different times admitted them to her presence. With the good Philip she had many conversations, and made him some valuable presents, among which, I think, was her picture ; but this, with many others, was lost, in a manner which will appear hereafter. Colonel Schuyler, too, was much delighted with the courteous affability of this princess ; she offered to knight him, which he respectfully, but positively refused : and being pressed to assign his reasons, he said he had brothers and near relations in humble circumstances, who, already his inferiors in property, would seem as it were depressed by his elevation ; and though it should have no such effect on his mind, it might be the means of awakening pride or vanity in the female part of his family. He returned, however, in triumph, having completely succeeded in his mission. The kings, as they were called in England, came back in full health, deeply impressed with esteem and attachment for a country which to them appeared the centre of arts, intelligence, and wisdom ; where they were treated with kindness and respect ; and were neither made the objects ol' perpetual exhibition, nor hurried about and distracted with a succession of splendid, and to them incomprehensible sights, the quick shifting of which rather tends to harass minds which have enough of native strength to reflect on what they see, without knowledge sufficient to comprehend it.

It is to this childish and injudicious mode of treating those uncivilized beings ; to this mode of rather extorting from them a tribute to our vanity, than of taking the necessary pains to inform and improve them, that the ill-success of all subsequent experiments of this kind has been owing. Instead of endeavoring to conciliate them by genuine kindness, and by gradually and gently unfolding to them simple and useful truths, our manner of treating them seems calculated to dazzle, oppress, and degrade them with a display of our superior luxuries and refinements ; which, by the elevated and self- denied Mohawk, would be regarded as unmanly and frivolous objects, and which the voluptuous and low-minded Otaheitan would so far relish, that the privation would seem intolerable, when he returned to his hogs and his cocoas. Except such as have been previously inoculated, a precaution which voyagers have rarely had the prudence or humanity to take, there is scarcely an instance of savages brought to Europe that have not died of the smallpox ; induced either by the infection to which they are exposed from the indiscriminate crowds drawn about them, or the alteration in their blood, which unusual diet, liquors, close air, and heated rooms, must necessarily produce.

The presents made to these adventurous warriors were judiciously adapted to their taste and customs. They consisted of showy habits, of which all these people are very fond, and of arms made purposely in the form of those used in their own country. It was the fortune of the writer of these memoirs, more than thirty years after, to see that great warrior and faithful ally of the British crown, the redoubted King Hendrick, then sovereign of the five nations, splendidly arrayed in a suit of light blue, made in an antique mode, and trimmed with broad silver lace ; which was probably an heir-loom in the family, presented to his father by his good ally, and sister, the female king of England.

I cannot exactly say how long Colonel Schuyler and his 3

26 SKETCH CS OF MANNERS

companions stayed in England, but I think they were nearly a year absent. In those primeval days of the settlement, when our present rapid modes of transmitting intelligence were unknown, in a country so detached and inland as that at Albany, the return of these interesting travellers was like the first lighting of lamps in a city.

Chapter IV

Return of Colonel Schuyler and the Sachems to the interior. — Literary acquisitions. — Distinguishes and instructs his favorite niece. — Manners of the Settlers.

# This sagacious and intelligent patriot thus brought to the foot of the British throne the high-spirited rulers of the boundless wild, who, alike heedless of the power and splendor of distant monarchs, were accustomed to say with Fingal, " sufficient for me is the desert, with all its deer and woods." It may easily be supposed that such a mind as Philip's was equally fitted to acquire and to communicate intelligence. He who had conversed with Addison, Marlborough, and Godoiphin, who had gratified the curiosity of Oxford and Bolingbroke, of Arbuthnot and of Gay, with accounts of nature in her pristine garb, and of her children in their primitive simplicity ; he who could do all this, no doubt received ample returns of various information from those best qualified to give it ; he was, besides, a diligent observer. Here he improved a taste for literature, native to him, for it had not yet taken root in this uncultivated soil. He brought home the Spectator and the tragedy of Cato, Windsor Forest, Young's poem on the Last Day, and in short all the works, then published, of that constellation of wits which distinguished the last female reign. Nay more, and better, he brought Paradise Lost ; which in after-times afforded such delight to some branches of his family, that to them