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SIR JOHN JOHNSON 
 
 THE FI RST 
 
 ME 1MCAN-B( )R N BARONET 
 
 .1 A' JLDDIIKSS 
 
 KMVEI{EI> liKFOKKTIIK NKW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 AT ITS ANM'AL iMEE'riN<;, TITESDAY, 
 
 J.ANLAKY «)Tu, 18H0. 
 
 
 ...•V:: if :•::••': 
 
 • • • 
 
 BY 
 
 ,'• • • 
 
 AJ.-GEN. J. WATTS DE PEYSTER, M.A..LLD„F.R,H.S., 
 
 A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 

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 NO. 
 
 iSSJ 
 
SIR JOHN JOHNSON, 
 
 Horn nth Nov., l74'i~IHed 4th .ran., IS.tO. 
 
 It is well for men to reflect upon two or 
 three expressions in the Bible which demon- 
 strate that injustice is not always to exercise 
 omnipotent sway; and that even the "High 
 Song" of Odin, in the " Edda," was mistaken 
 when it sang: 
 
 •' One thing I know that never dies, 
 The verdict passed ui)on the dead." 
 
 Whoever assumed the name of the "Preacher 
 King" to present his own opinions in the 
 Apocryiihal book, styled the "Wisdom of Solo- 
 mon," uttered a multitude of truths worthy of 
 the divinely-inspired son of David, but no 
 grander enunciation than the assurance, "Vice 
 [Falsehood] shall not prevail against Wis- 
 dom" [Truth]; and St. Paul, the greatest human 
 being who, ns a fact and not a fiction, ever 
 trod this little world of man, promised that 
 even to humanity " every man's work shall be 
 made manifest." 
 
 It is in this interest — Truth — that the address 
 of the evening is delivered. 
 
 Victor Hugo,a truly bright, however erratic, 
 mind, has thrown off, from time to time, sen- 
 tences which are undoubted sparks of genius. 
 One of these is his denunciation of the delusive 
 lights of Success. "Success," says this great 
 writer, "has a dwjoe — History!" It has another 
 dupe — Public Opinion ; and this latter is no- 
 where blinded by such obliquity, if not actual 
 opacity, of vision as in thiscountry; preferring 
 gilt to gold, and bestowing the highest |)rizes 
 on men, who, in comparison with demigods 
 like Thomas, are of mere clay. 
 
 The whole of our Revolutionary history is a 
 myth. A member of this very society has 
 torn some of tne coverings from apparently 
 slight scratches and revealed festering sores. 
 Tt would be well if there were other prac- 
 titioners as daring. 
 
 The effort of this evening will be simply the 
 
 vindication of a gentleman who has borne up, 
 
 like an Atlas, under the hundred years of ob- 
 
 I loquy heaped upon his memory, a load of 
 
 I which he can alone be relieved by outspoken 
 
 i truth. 
 
 The present King of Sweden has just pub- 
 llished a species of vindication of one who was 
 |a grand hero and a great soldier, although his- 
 
 srian, poet and playwright have united in 
 lamning his memory with faint praise, sum- 
 
 led up in the epithet: "The Madman of the 
 forth." Could this opprobrious term be heard 
 t>y Charles the Twelfth, he might exclaim with 
 %. Paul, and with equal justice^ "I am not 
 
 lad?" for Charles was a patriot King, a 
 
 aldier, a General, a Man— the latter 
 the grandest sense of the word — without 
 
 any vice, with manifold virtues. He failed, 
 anil he fell ; and the curs that barked from 
 afar off at the living lion howled in triumyth 
 over the kingly creature which Fortune not 
 their fangs tore down. 
 
 The royal author — Oscar 11.^ in the follow- 
 ing eloquent passages quoted, doubtless refers 
 to the misjuclgments f)f his couni;rymen in re- 
 gard to prominent men who sustained the los- 
 ing side in the civil wars of his country, as 
 well to those of Swedes and foreigners upon his 
 pre<lecessor: 
 
 "The past appeals to the impartiality of the 
 future. History replies. But, often, genera- 
 tions pass away ere that reply can be given in 
 a determinate form. For not until the voices of 
 contemporaneous panegyric and censure are 
 hushed; not until passionate pulses have 
 ceased to beat ; until fiattej-y ha-s lost its power 
 to charm, and calumny to villify, can the ver- 
 dict of history be pronounced. Then from the 
 clouds of error and prejudice the sun of truth 
 emerges, and light is diffused in bright rays, 
 of ever increasing refulgency and breadth. * * 
 Every age has its own heroes — men who 
 seem to embody the prevailing characteristics 
 of their relative epochs, and to present to after 
 ages the idealized expression of their chief 
 tendencies. Such men must be judged by no 
 ordinary standard. History must view their 
 actions as a whole, not subject them to sepa- 
 rate tests, or examine them through the lens 
 of partial criticism and narrow-minded preju- 
 dice." 
 
 In this connection old ^sop steps in with 
 one of the remarkable fables which have out- 
 lived his ^ods and cosmogony by over a decade 
 of centuries. A lion, observing the sculptured 
 group of a hunter strangling one of the lords of 
 the forest, growls out: "What a different piece 
 of art— if lions were sculptors — would be stand- 
 ing on yonder pedestal! It would be the 
 hunter torn in pieces by the lion." 
 
 To no class who have ever lived can such re- 
 marks as these apply as to the Loyalists, nick- 
 named "Tories," of the American Revolution. 
 Modem Italy has sought to efface the remem- 
 brance of wrongs done to the Waldenses. 
 Bigoted Spain is opening her eyes to the mir^- 
 gl^ chivalry and industry of tide Moors, who 
 made their peninsula the world's cen- 
 tre for learning; who clothed the southern 
 sides of her rugged sierras with luscious 
 vineyards; and made her arid valleys to blos- 
 som like the rose. France wails for the Hugu- 
 not element which her priest-ridden, lecherous 
 King drove out to scatter its seed throughout 
 the world, and enrich his enemies with their 
 invincible swords,, but, far better, their in- 
 
Sir John Johnhox. 
 
 ilninitablH onton>riso and em'r(?y. ThiH coun- 
 try— ourH— is yt't nnwllliiip to accord justice 
 to the riic*' or ('l«ss it op])rc>H8tHl nnd 
 •■x{ieil(Mt, ihiriiiK tli*' llcvoliitioii, l)ocaii»K> 
 Ut reveive the verdict would Int to condunui 
 tho Huccewful party to a judgment inoro dlK- 
 (^reditable and deserved tnan that meted out 
 to the victims of fidelity —the Loyalists of 
 177H. The Waldenses oi- persecuted Protes- 
 tants of Savoy, under their pastor and col- 
 onel, Arnaud, in AuKust-Septembor, ltt89, by 
 "their thii-ty days inarch," and attempt to 
 reconquer their native seats, furnished "un- 
 questionably the most epic achievement of 
 modem times," and won world-wirle celebrity 
 and glory through seeking, sword in hand, to 
 recover their desecrated ancestral homes. 
 Why, then, should the slightest breath of cen- 
 sure cloud the crystalline memories of the 
 Loyalists, who imitated their ireso- 
 lution and perilled all, not for gain 
 but for duty; not for pay but for principle; 
 and all, in this, were eminently faitnful, pay- 
 ing, in many cases, what Lincoln styled the 
 last full measure of devotion." The patriots, 
 so-called, had much to gain individually, and, 
 with cdhiparatively few exceptions, very iittle 
 to lose. All these considerations suggest a 
 direct appeal to the calm thought ami honest 
 judgment of the generation which has just 
 lived through "the Great American Conflict." 
 The Loyalists of the Revolution were identi- 
 cal with the Union ptuiiy in the Rebel (not 
 Confederate) States during the "Slave- 
 holders' Rebellion;" and the very title, "Loy- 
 al men," was applied to the party that sus- 
 tained the national govenmient in 1860-65, as 
 was, justly, the term "rebels" to those who 
 sought its overthrow. 
 
 The father of Sir John Johnson — the subject 
 of this address— was the famous Sir William 
 Johnson, Baronet, Major-Gteneral in the Royal 
 Service and British Superintendent of Indian 
 Affairs. This gentleman was, perhaps, the 
 most prominent man in the province of New 
 York dui*ing the decade which preceded the 
 Declaration of Independence. Wnether a Jan- 
 sen— a descendant of one of those indomitable 
 Hollanders who went over with William III. to 
 subdue Ireland, and anglicised their names — or 
 of English race proper,Sir William was a strong 
 example of those common-sense men who 
 know how to grapple fortune by the fore- 
 lock and not clutch m vain the tresses which 
 flowed down her receding back. He opened 
 two of the most productive valleys m the 
 world— the Mohawk and Schoharie — to emi- 
 gration; and with the development of their 
 riches rose to a height of opulence an«l influence 
 unequalled in the "Thirteen Colonies." Just 
 in hu dealings with all men, he was particular- 
 ly so with the Indians, and acquired a power 
 over the latter such as no other individual ever 
 possessed. Transferred from civil jurisdiction 
 to military command he exhibited no less 
 ability in the more dangerous and laborious 
 exigendes of war. He, it was, who first stem- 
 med successfully the tide of French invasion, 
 and turned it back at Lake G«orge, 
 in 1755; receiving from his sovereign, 
 in recognition of his able services, 
 the first hereditary baronetcy in this country. 
 At "Johnson Hall'' he lived in truly baronial 
 state, and no other provincial magnate ever 
 
 exhibited such affluence and grandeur as was 
 displayed by him in his castle and home on 
 the MohawK. 
 
 His greatest achievement, perhaps, was the 
 defeat of a sujMjrior French force seek- 
 ing to relieve Fort Niagara and his 
 capture of this noted stronghold 
 m 1751>. The distinguished British general 
 and military historian, Sir Edward Gust, in 
 his "Annals of the Wars," refers in the fol- 
 lowing language to this notable exploit of Sir 
 William: "This gentleman, like Clivo, was a 
 self-taught general, who, by dint of innate 
 courage and natural sagacity, without the 
 help of a military odiication' or military ex- 
 perience, rivalled, if not oclii»sed, the gi'oatest 
 comniantlei's. Sir William Jolinson omitted 
 nothing to continue the vigorous measures of 
 the late general [Prideaux Killed] and added to 
 them everything his own genius could suggest. 
 The troops, who resjiected, and the provin 
 cials, who adored, him," were not less devote<i 
 than the Six Nations of Indians who gladly 
 followed the banner of himself and his less for 
 tunate son. 
 
 Thus, with a sway inconipi-ehensible in tin- 
 
 fn-esent day, beloved, respected and feared by 
 aw breakers and evil doei-s, the mortal ene 
 mies of his semi-civiUzed wards — the Six 
 Nations — he lived a life of honor; and died, 
 not by his own hand, as stated by prejudiced 
 tradition, but a victim to that energy, which, 
 although it never bent in the service of king or 
 country, had to yield to yeai-s and nature. 
 Sick, and thereby unequal to the demands 
 of public busines, he jn-esided at a council, 1 1 
 July, 1774, spoke and directed, until his ebbing 
 strength failed, and could not be restored by 
 the inadequate remedial measures at hand on 
 the borders of the wilderness. To no one 
 man does Central New York owe so much of 
 her physical development as to SirWUliam 
 Johnson. 
 
 Wedded in 1739, to a Hollandish or German 
 maiden, amply endowed with the best 
 gifts of nature, both physical and mental, 
 "good sound sense, and a mild and gentle ; 
 disposition," Sir William was by her the 
 father of one son, boi-n in 1743, and 
 several daughters. The latter are sufficiently 
 described in a charming, \rell-kno\vn book, 
 entitled "The Memoirs of an American 
 Lady" — Mrs. Grant, of Laggan. The 
 former was Sir John Jobjison, a grander 
 representative of the tiansition era of 
 this State, than those whom Success and 
 its Dupe — History, have placed in the 
 national "Walhalla." While yet a youth 
 this son a(^companied his father to his 
 fields of battle, and when the generality, of } 
 boys are at school or college, witnessed two of " 
 the bloodiest conflicts on which the fate of the ' 
 colony depended. He had scarcelv attained i 
 majority when he was entrusted witlh an inde-i 
 pendent command, and in it displayed an abili- 
 ty, a fortitude, and a judgment, worthy of rip- 
 er years and wider experience. 
 
 Jfent out to England by his father in 1765, 
 "to try to wear oflf the rusticity of a country! 
 education," immediately upon "his presentation! 
 at court he received from his sovereign an ac-i 
 knowledgment — partly due tiO the reputation; 
 of his parent, and partly to his own tact and 
 capacity— such as stancb alone in colonial his- 
 
 
 I 
 
8iu John Joiinhon. 
 
 iry. Although his fatlior, Hir William, wan 
 ,dy a kuigiit anil l«ronet for service to the 
 .uiwn, John was himself knighted, at the age 
 I twenty-three ; and thus the old-new baronial 
 at Johnstfjwn sheltereti two recipient*, 
 the same family and generation, of the 
 ionor of kniKhthofxl. There is no parallel to 
 his double distinction in American biography, 
 and but few in the family aimals of older coun- 
 tries. When they occur they have been made 
 the theme of minstrel, poet and historian. 
 
 This was the era when "New York was in 
 Its happiest state." 
 
 In tne Summer of 1773, and in his thirtieth 
 year, Sir John Johnson married the beautiful 
 Mary — or, as she was affectionately called, 
 "Polly"— Watts, aged nineteen. She was 
 born in New York 27th Oct., 1753, and died 
 7th August, 1S15, at Mount Johnson, near 
 Montreal. Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, has left us 
 a charming pen jxirtrait of this bright maiden: 
 "Returmng for a short time to ttiwn in 
 Spring I foimd aunt's house nmch enlivened 
 by a very agreeable visitor; this was Miss 
 W.(att8), daughter to the Hon. Mr. W.(attH), 
 of the coimcil. Her elder sister was afterwards 
 Countess of Cassilis, and she herself was, long 
 afterwards, married to the only native of the 
 continent, I b+ilieve, who ever succeeded to the 
 title of baronet. She jjosses-sed much beauty, 
 and understanding and vivacity. Her playful 
 humor exhilerated the whole household. I re- 
 
 farded her with admiration and delight, and 
 er fanciful excursions afforded' great amuse- 
 ment to aunt, and wei-e like a gleam of sun- 
 shine amidst the gloom occasioned by the 
 spirit of contention which was let 
 loose among all manner of people." 
 The graces which the authoress commemorated 
 are corroborated by others. Even after many 
 years of trial and sorrow, her portrait bears 
 out the characteristics attributed to her. Her 
 features are most familiar to the relator, as 
 her portrait bung in the chamber occupied by 
 him in youth. Tne elder sister referred to was 
 likewise a bright and charming woman, as ap- 
 pears from her picture in Colzean Castle, one 
 of the hereditary abodes of her husband, the 
 eleventh Earl, who built the stately mansion, 
 No. 1 Broadway, in this city. The Castle, 
 from its commanding site, looks forth over 
 the Frith of Clyde, upon a remakable freak 
 of nature, the stupendous insulated rock, or 
 rather mountain, from which her son derived 
 his title as first Marquis of Ailsa. Her family 
 had long been distinguished in colonial annals. 
 Her grandfather was of the Watt family of 
 "Rose Hill," near— now within— the limits of 
 Edinburgh, and as "of that ilk," had been so 
 known for over a centuiy. The old family 
 mansion is yet standing, and although de- 
 graded into the service of a rail- 
 road company, still in its degenera- 
 tion and partial ruin attests its former 
 stateliness. Her father. Hon. John Watts, 
 Senior, was one of the first men of the colony. 
 Be had vindicated the rights of his fellow citi- 
 zens against the military oppressions of the 
 day. Nevertheless, the "Sons of Liberty" — or 
 
 ather "License," made him one of their first 
 
 ictiras. To save his life he became an exile ; 
 
 nd an exile he died in Wales, and his bones, 
 'ar away from those of kith and kin, found a 
 
 esting place in the parish church of St. James, 
 
 in Piccadilly. London, near the remaiim of his 
 slHter. Lady Warren, the wife of the famous 
 Admiral who took Louisburg in 1745. "John 
 Watts, Em\., was an eminent merchant of 
 New York, a gentleman of family, of 
 character and reputation, opulent and of a 
 disitosition remarkable for the most unbounded 
 hosi)itality. He serveil many years an a rep- 
 resentative for the city of New York, and 
 more i>erhap8, afterwards, as one of his . 
 Majesty's Council. He wasjproscribed by the 
 reljel Legislature of New York, his person 
 attainted, and his estate confiscated," although 
 he had not been in the country for over a year 
 before the Declaration of Indei>endence. 
 
 Had the crown been victorious this John 
 Watts would have been the Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor and Acting Governor of this Province, 
 succeeding his wife's grandfather, the 
 famous Cadwallader Colden. His son and 
 namesake, John Watts, was the last 
 royal Recorder of the city of New York, 
 remained here during the revolution; and 
 after it, was Speakei- of the State Assembly 
 and Member of Congress. Defeated at the {Mils 
 by the scion of a family aristocratic in 
 sentiment however democratic in politics, 
 who aroused the people against him'by dis- 
 seminating hand bills demanding if freemen 
 could trust the kinsman, connection and friend 
 of the English nobility, he retired from public 
 life. This disappointment did not dim his phi- 
 lanthropy ; and to him this city owes one of the 
 noblest charitable institutions in its midst — the 
 Leake and Watts Orphan Home. A younger 
 brother, Stephen, "an elegant and charming 
 youth," entered the Britfih service; and fol- 
 lowing the fortunes of his brother-in-law, Sir 
 John Johnson, left a limb and nearly his life on 
 the bloody field of Oriskany. So fearfully man- 
 gled that few officers have survived such a com- 
 plication of wounds and barbarous treatment, 
 he was saved through the fidelity of Indians 
 and his own soldiers, and carried back to Que- 
 bec — a long and weary transit. He lived to a 
 good old age in England, and left a progeny of 
 sons, who rose to high and honorable trusts in 
 various branches of the royal service. 
 
 The eldest brother, Robert, married Mary, 
 eldest daughter of Ma j. -Gen., titular Lord, or 
 Earl of, Stirling, who disinherited her because 
 she had married a Loyalist, and clung to the 
 fortunes of her husband. 
 
 Inheriting his father's dignities and respon- 
 sibilities. Sir John Johnson could not have 
 been otherwise than a champion of his sover- 
 eign's rights. If he had turned his coat to 
 save his projwrty, like some of the prominent 
 patriots, he would have been a renegadfe, if not 
 worse. Some of the greater as well as the les- 
 ser lights of patriotism had already cast long- 
 ing glances upon his rich possessions in the 
 Mohawk Valley. Its historian tells us that in 
 a successful rebellion the latter counted upon 
 dividing his princely domains into snug little 
 farms for themselves. The spei-m of anti-rentism 
 was germinating already; although it took 
 over sixty to seventy years to thoroughly en- 
 list legislative assistance, and perfect spolia- 
 tion in the guise of modem agrarian law. 
 Surrounded by a devoted tenantry, backed by 
 those "Romans of America,"the "Six Nations," 
 it was not easy "to bell the cat" by force. It, 
 is not politic to revive hereditary animosities * 
 
6 
 
 Sir John Joiinhon, 
 
 by the raentlon of nameH in thJH hall. Hufti- 
 cient t<) Hay, iniKht provaiksl over riKht, ami 
 Sir John wan plao«Ml iiii<l«>r what the Albany 
 Committee choMO to detiiie a "i»aroh»." M(m1- 
 em eourtH of inquiry, espeiiallv in the 1 Inited 
 Htaten Hineo 1H<H), have deciiied that such a 
 HyHteui of i>aroliiig in in itHelf invalid, and that 
 individualH Hubjecteil to such a proct>(lure are 
 absolved de facto from any nhitlgeH. 
 
 The Albany Committee had no lef^itimate 
 power to impoHii a parole u{)on a dutiful mib- 
 lect, more iiarticularly an ottlcer of the Kin^;. 
 This was certainly the caHe at any peri<Ml prior 
 to the Declaration of Independence. All tbcHe 
 events occurred from six weeks to Hix monthH 
 prior to the date of this instrument. It was 
 simply an operation of mob law. The rioters 
 in New Yorlc, in July, l»i!{, had just as much 
 rightful authority to place under ])arole a Na- 
 tiounl or Munici]ml officer cajjtured while sup- 
 portin^f the law and endeavoring to maintain 
 order, or even a private citizen opposed to 
 these riotous })roceedings, as this Albany 
 Committee, in a great measure self-constitut- 
 ed, to put and hold under what they chose to 
 call a parole in the Winter and Spring of 1776, 
 an ituimrtant agent of the crown, exercising 
 authority by the appointment and conunission 
 of lef^timato government. 
 
 This address has now reached a })oint where 
 it seems proper to invite the attention of the 
 audience to the consideration of the charge in 
 relation to the violation of this parole which 
 the rebels or patriots, or whatever thev may 
 be most properly styled, have brought for- 
 ward HO prominently and persistently to brand 
 the charatiter of Sir John. They say he vio- 
 lated his parole and fled their tender mercies. 
 This common charge of American historical 
 writers, that Sir John broke his parole, is 
 proven to be "without foundation and 
 untrue." The testimony as to the untruth 
 of this popular charge, can be found in publi- 
 cations on the shelves of the library of tbds 
 very institution. To cite it textually would 
 occupy more time than can be devoted to the 
 whole address; sufficient will be presented 
 to establish the main facts. It may be as well, 
 however, to premise; that Count d'Estaing, the 
 first French Commander who brought assist- 
 ance to this country, had notoriously bi'oken 
 his parole, and yist no American writer has 
 ever alluded to the fact as prejudicial to his 
 honor. It did not serve their purpose. The 
 French held that Washington violated his 
 parole; and Michelet, a devoted friend 
 to liberty and this country, feelingly 
 refers to this to demonstrate* one 
 of the heart-burnings which Prance had 
 to overcome in lending assistance to the revolt- 
 ed colonies. How many Southern officers, in 
 spite of their paroles, met us on battlefield 
 aiter battlefield. Regiments and brigades, if 
 not divisions, paroledat Vicksburg, were en- 
 countered within a few weeks in the conflicts 
 around Chattanooga. FYench generals, pa- 
 roled by the Pru.ssians, did not hesitate to ac- | 
 cept active commands in even the shortest ; 
 spaces of time. Under the circumstances this 
 cnarge against Sir John was a pretext: but, 
 weak as it is, if is not true. Power in all ages 
 has not been delicate in its choice of means to : 
 destroy a dangerous antagonist. 
 
 The magnificent Louis XIV. never hesitat- 
 
 ed to iruit^te the employment of hireling assas- 
 sins HO Huccessfiilly initiatetd by that champion 
 of the I'aiml Church, rhllip II. Thus the 
 Duke of Alvu lured Horn and Eguiont into 
 the toils which they exchanged for the scaf- 
 fold. Alxl-el-Kader surrendered on terms 
 which were only grunted to Ih) violated. And 
 blackest of exuiiipleH, how was the chivalric 
 Osceola inveigled into chains. Had Sir John 
 violated his parole, circumxtances justified him, 
 but he did not do so. 
 
 What is the truth f)f this charge i 
 
 Not satisfied w ith putting him under parole, 
 the Albany Committee, egged on by the patri- 
 ots (sic) of Tryou county, determined to seize 
 Sir John Johnson's person. 
 
 It may be stated that "the antipathy" of the 
 prominent family and its friends in Albany to 
 the Johnsons and their connections arose from 
 the Indian trade. The close relationship of 
 blcKxl never seems to have had the slightest 
 power over the gnawing thirst for gain. The 
 Johnson influence hatl l)«en for a hundred and 
 thirty-ijight years in favor of the Indians and 
 against the Albany tradei-s. This was the 
 leaven whose fermentation grew gradually 
 stronger and stronger in its power to foment a 
 bitterness which was augmented to the in- 
 tensest degree of political antagonism. 
 
 In January, 1776, a raid was made upon 
 "Johnson Hall" in consequence of the afllda 
 vit of an imposter. This reflected no credit 
 on those engaged in it. Then it was that Sir 
 John found uimself placed uniler what has 
 been styled his i)arole. From this time for- 
 ward Sir John was harassed and hounded to 
 the utmost extent of human patience and en- 
 durance. Finally, in March, the evacuation 
 of Boston by the British gave a fresh stimulus 
 to the successful colonists, and the Albany 
 Committee made up their minds that the time 
 had now come to deprive Sir John of his 
 personal liberty. To justify such an outrage 
 they bad either to violate their own compact 
 or release him from it. As the party endan- 
 gered was not destitute of intelligence, it was 
 necessary, in order to entrap him, to resort to 
 deception. The principal agent in this design 
 has left a letter, ii which he emphasizes that 
 care must be taken to prevent Sir John's being 
 apprized of the real design of his opponents, 
 and he therefore dispatched a commimication, 
 which, though cunningly conceived, was not 
 sufficiently so to conceal the latent treachery. 
 As Van der Does on Leyden wrote to Valdes, 
 the Spanish General besieging and trying to 
 tempt him to surrender : 
 
 "Fistula dulce canit volucrem, dum decipit 
 anceps." 
 
 "iTie fowler plays sweet notes on his pipe 
 when he spreads his net for the bird." 
 
 So Sir John was not deluded by the specious 
 words of his enemies seeking to enmesh him. 
 
 Sir John was to be simultaneously released 
 from his parole and made a prison- 
 er. The officer who carried the com- 
 munication discharging Sir John from 
 his parol was the bearer of directions to ar- 
 rest him as soon as he had read it, 
 "and make him a close prisoner, and careful- 
 ly guard him that he may not have the least 
 opportunity to escape." Sir John still had some 
 friends ambn^ those who were now in power, 
 and received intelligence of what was going 
 
 \ 
 
 S 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
Sir John Joiinho.v. 
 
 III. He exercistnl ordinary dlscretlon,and,fol- 
 )wo(l by devote<l frlejulu and retainent, es- 
 iped before the trap could be Hijrung upon 
 kini. 
 [Thitre wan nt) real wniblance of jfoverninent 
 iitil the Htates began to orKanlze. New York 
 lid not do so until 1777. The Thirtt-eii (Colonies 
 pere not dp jure IwUigerentu in any wiHe until 
 Se Mother Country eMtabliKhe<l a regular ex- 
 tiange of priHoners. They were not bi'lliger- 
 itH t<) the world in the real Kenue of the term 
 itil their acknowledgment aH a power by 
 ranee, and LouIh XVL entered into a treaty 
 ' alliance with them. Great Britain conceilod 
 ill belligerent rights when it appointe<l com- 
 JHHioners, in 1778, to treat with the Federal 
 )ngres8. Previous to this the Thirteen 
 slonies occupied an abnormal position with- 
 it anything beyond a very limite<l recogni- 
 m as a legitimate govemment. CVmsotiuent- 
 what right had the Albany Committee to 
 pace a servant of the crown under parole? 
 If)reover, according to all just principles of 
 iroles, the parties arrogating to themselves 
 le right to place Johnson under parole, were 
 [)un(f, when they undertcK)k U) rescind it, to 
 ice him in the same position as when the 
 trole was exacted — the same as to means of 
 distance or escape — and not to revoke his 
 irole and instantly and simultaneously ar- 
 8t and to incarcerate him.] 
 ^ There is, to rei)eat and emphasize, an am- 
 le sufficiency of evidence in existence andac- 
 Bssible in this building to prove that the com- 
 mon charge of American historical writers is 
 vithout fovndation and tintr^te.'^ 
 I Sir John fled, but he did not fly unaccom- 
 lied ; and among his subsequent associates, 
 leers and soldiers, were men of as good 
 iding as those who remained behind to 
 )flt by the change of authority. Many of 
 latter, however, expiated tneir sins or 
 rors on the day of reckoning at Oriskany. 
 [Not able to seize the man, disappointed 
 chery determined to capture a woman, 
 tie victim this time was his wife. Why? The 
 jswer is in the words of a letter pre- 
 rved in the series of the well- 
 lown Peter Force, which says: "It is the 
 ^neral opinion of people in Tryon county 
 it, while Lady Johnson is kept a kind of 
 stage. Sir John will not carry matters to 
 tcess." Lady Johnson must have been a 
 icky woman; for even when imder con- 
 lint, and in the most delicate condition that 
 iroman can be, she exulted in the prospects 
 I soon hearing that Sir John would soon rav- 
 the country on the Mohawk river. To 
 3te {mother letter from the highest au- 
 ority, "It has been hinted that she is a good 
 curity to prevent the effects of her husband's 
 lence." 
 
 Tith a determination even superior to that 
 ^hibited by her husband, because she was a 
 Oman and he a man, Ladv Johnson in mid- 
 iter, January, 1777, in disguise, made her 
 cape through hardships which would appal a 
 "•son in her position in the present day. 
 rough the deepest snows, through the ex- 
 |ime cold, through lines of ingrates and ene- 
 she made her way into this lo val city. Her 
 reads like a romance. People cite Flora 
 )onald, Grace Darrell, Florence Nightin- 
 le. We had a heroine in our midst who 
 
 disi)laypd a courage as lofty as theirs, but sh" 
 forgot ' 
 
 IN 
 
 ottcn, l)eoauMe Hh«» wns the wife of a man 
 who had the courage to aveng<> her wrongs, 
 even uixm the victors, andchaHtisc h(>reneraiot 
 and tiersecutors as well as his own. 
 All this occurred prior to the Hjtring of 1777. 
 Sir Guy (,'arleton, undoubtedly the grandest 
 character among the British military chieftains 
 in America, received Sir John with <)|)enarms; 
 and immediately gave him op|)ortunities to 
 raise a regiment, which made itself known and 
 felt along the frontier, throughout the war. 
 With a fatal pai-simony of judgment and its 
 appliciition, the Crown never accumulated 
 suftlcient trooi)8 at decisive (K)ints, but either 
 delayed their arrival or afterward di- 
 verted or frittered their strength 
 away. In 1777, when Burgoyne was 
 preparing for his invasion of New York, 
 down the Hudson, St. Leger was entrusted 
 with a siiiiilar advance down the Mohawk. 
 Sir Henry Clinton, an able strategist 
 and a brave soldier, but an indo- 
 lent, nervous mortal, an<l an inefficient 
 commander, recorded a sagacious opinion on 
 this occasion, viz. : that to St. Leger was as- 
 signed the most important part in the pro- 
 gramme with the most inadequate means to 
 carry it out. To play this part successfully 
 required a much larger force ; and vet to take 
 a fort garrisoned by nine himdred and fifty 
 not inefficient troops, with sufficient artillery, 
 and fight the whole available itopnlation of 
 j Tryon county in arms beside, St. Leger had 
 I onlv i;7.") whites and an aggregation of about 
 I 1000 Indians from twenty-two different tribes, 
 I gatht-red from the remotest points adminis- 
 : tertMl by British officers, even from the ex- 
 I trenie western shores of Lake Superior. To 
 I batter this f()rt> he had a few small pieces of 
 i ordnance, which were about as effective tm 
 I pop-giuis: and were simply adequate, as he 
 says in his rejiort, to "tease," without injuring, 
 I the gannson. His second in command was w 
 John .lohnsmi. 
 
 For the i-clief of Fort Stanwix, Maj.-Gen. 
 I Harklieimer. Sir John's old antagonist, gath- 
 ! ered up all the valid men in Tryon county, 
 I variously stated at from 800 and «00 to 1000, 
 ] constituting four or five regiments of militia, 
 j and some <"hieida Indians. These latter, 
 I traitors to a fraternal bond of centuries, 
 j seemed about as useless to their new associates 
 ' as tht\ were faithless to their old ties. To 
 meet Harkheimer, St. Leger sent forward 
 Sir John Johnson, and it is now 
 clearly established beyond a doubt that 
 his ability planned and his determination 
 fought the battle of Oriskany. Had the Indians 
 shown anj'thing like the pluck -of white men, 
 . not a provinciaTwould have escaped. In spite of 
 their mefficiencv. Sir John's whites alone wo«ld 
 have accomplished the business had it not been 
 for "a shower of blessing" sent by Providence, 
 and a recall to the assistence of St. I^eger. As 
 it wa.s, this, the bloodiest battle of the Revolu- 
 tion at the North, was indecisive. Harkeimer 
 lost his life, likewise hundreds of his foUow- 
 I ers. and Tryon county suffered such a terrific 
 calamity, that to use the inference of ita his- 
 torian, if it smiled again during the war iv*; 
 smiled through t«ar8. The iron will of Schuyw 
 ler, another old antagonist of Sir John, sent 
 : Arnold, the best soldier of the Revolution, U> 
 
 \ 
 
Sii{ John JoiiNrtON. 
 
 nave Fort Htauwix, thf k»<y t<) the Mohawk 
 yall«y. The rapid advaiu-n of this brillinnt 
 leader and thedoHtardly ooiuhict and defection 
 of the IndianH.pruMTvtKl the lK^l«>iii(uurHd work ; 
 and Ht. I^s'tr and Hlr John wore forced to re- 
 tire. On tiiiM Ralvation of F'ort Htanwix. and 
 not on Renniu)(ton, profjerly Hofwic or Wul- 
 loomHcoik nor on Haratogu, hingtMl the fate of 
 the Bursoyne invaMion and the eventual cer- 
 tainty of indet)endencu. No part of the fail- 
 ure Ih (ihargeaole to Hir John. 
 
 As liefore nientione<l, the EnsUHh war ad- 
 miniHtration soemed utterly inadeiiuate to the 
 occasion. They had not Imh'u able to ^I'^Pple 
 with itH exi>?encleH whiln the coloiiien were ''do- 
 inK for them.selveH," an Mazzini expreHHed it. 
 when France and Kpuiii entered the liHt, and 
 Burgoyne'H army had Ixtcn eliminated from 
 the war problem, they seem to have loct their 
 heads; and, in 177H, abandoned ail the fruitN 
 of the mindire<'te«l efTorts of then- main nrmy. 
 Clinton HucceiHled to Howe in the Held, and 
 Haldimand to Carlettin in Canada. Ilaldi- 
 mand, a Swiss by birth and a veteran by 
 service, was as deficient in the piicelens 
 practical abilities in which his prede- 
 cessor excelle<l. Thowi who know 
 him considerod him an excellent 
 professional soldier, but for administraticm 
 and orRanizution his nitttt were small. Ho 
 was so afraid that the French and Provincials 
 would invade and dismoml)er the roinaining 
 British jjossessions in North Anierico, that ho 
 not only crippled Clinton in a measure, by 
 constant demands for troops, but he wasafraiil 
 to entrust such brilliant partisans as Sir John 
 Johnson with forces sufflciont to accomplish 
 anythini? of irnijortance. Ho sufrerod 
 raids when he should huvo launched invasions, 
 and ho kept every comjiauy and battalion 
 for the defence of a territory, which, excejrt 
 in its ports, was amnly i)rotectod by nattiro 
 and distonce. Wasniiigton plaj'od on his 
 timidity just as he afterward fliiKored the ner- 
 vousness of CJintcn. Thus the rest of 1777, 
 the whol ' of 1778, and the gi-eater part of 177!t 
 wa« passed by Hir John in compulsory inac- 
 tivity. He was undoubtedly bnsy. But, like 
 thousands of human efforts which cost such an 
 expenditure of thought and preparation, but 
 are fruitless in marked results, their records 
 are "writ in water." 
 
 In 1771> occurred the famous invasion 
 of the territory of the Six Nations 
 by Sullivan. In one sense it was tri- 
 umphant. It did the devil's work thorough- 
 ly. It converttjd a sei"ie»of blooming gardens, 
 teeming orchards and productive fields into 
 wastes and asht-s. It was a disgrace to devel- 
 oping civilization, und, except to those writei-s 
 who worship nothing but temiwrary success, 
 it called forth some of the most scatning con- 
 demnations ever penned by historians. 
 When white men scftlp and flay Indi- 
 •ans, and convert the nUns of the latter's 
 thighs into boot-tops, the question sug- 
 fijests itself, which were the savages, 
 the Continental troops or the Indians. It is 
 scarcely an exaggeration to say that for ev- 
 ery Indian slain and Indian hut consumed in 
 this campaign, a thousand white men, women 
 and children paid the ptmalty; and it is al- 
 most unexceptionally aomitted that the inex- 
 tinguishable natred of the r^kins to the United 
 
 States dat«^ from this raid of Sullivan worthy 
 of the ScH)ttiMh chief who smoked his enemies 
 to death in a cavcni, or of a Pelliiwier, a St, 
 Amaud or a Pretorius. 
 
 Sullivan's military objective was Fort Nia 
 gara, the basis, for about a century, of in- 
 roads, French an<l British, u|s)n New York. 
 Why he did not make the attempt requires a 
 consideration which would occupy more time 
 than is assigned to this whole atldreiis. There 
 were adversaries in his front who did not fear 
 pop-gun artillery like the Intiians, and were 
 not to Im) dismayed by a liveiy (*annonade as at 
 Newtown. Haldimand had sent Sir John 
 Johnson to organize a b«Niy of about two hun- 
 dred and fifty white trooiw, b4>sides the Indians, 
 and these were rapi<lly concentrating upon 
 Sullivan, when the latter countermarched. 
 American historians give their reasons for this 
 retreat; British writers explain it very differ- 
 ently. In any event this expedition was the 
 last military command enjoyed by Sullivan. 
 The Scripture hero affords an expression 
 which may not be inap|)Ucablo. "He departed 
 without Inking desired. 
 Sir John's further aggressive movements 
 I were prevented by the early setting in of Win 
 ! ter, wnich rendered the navigation of Lake 
 ' Ontario too dangerous for the certain dis|)atch 
 ; of the necessary troops and adequate supplies. 
 The extreme search for inforuuitiim m re- 
 I gard to the details c^f the movements upon 
 this frontier, has Ijeen liitherto baffled. Ac- 
 cording to a reliable contemporary record, 
 Sir John Johnson, Col. Butler and Capt. 
 Brandt captui'ed Fort Stanwix on the 2d of 
 November, 1 7T}), This is the only aggressive 
 oiM^ration of the year attributed to him. 
 
 In 1780 Sir John was given head, or let loose, 
 and he made the most of his time. In this year 
 he made two incursions into the Mohawk Val- 
 ley, the first in May and the second in Octo- 
 ber. 
 
 There is a very curious circumstance con- 
 nected with this raid. The burial of his valu- 
 able plate and papers, and the guarding of the 
 secret of this deposit by a faithful slave, al- 
 though sold into the hands of his master's ene- 
 mies ; the recovery of the silver through this 
 faithful negro, and the transport of the treas- 
 ures, in the knapsacks of forty soldiers, 
 through the wilderness to Canada, has been 
 related in so many books that there is no need 
 of a repetition of the details. One fact, 
 however, is not generally known. Through 
 dampness the papera had been wholly or par- 
 tially destroyed ; and this may account for a 
 great many gaps and involved questions in 
 narratives connected with the Johnson family. 
 The "treasure-trove" eventually was of no ser- 
 vice to anyone. God maketh the wrath of 
 man to praise Him ; and although Sir John 
 was the rod of His anger, the staff of His in- 
 dignation and the weapon of His vengeance for 
 the injustice and barbarisms shown by the 
 Americans to the Six Nations, but especially 
 during the preceding year the instrument was 
 not allowed to profit, personally, by the ser- 
 vice. T he silver , etc. , retrieved at such a cost of 
 peril, of life, of desolation and of suffering was 
 not destined to benefit anyone. What, amid 
 fire and sword and death and devastation, had 
 been wrenched from the enemy was placed on 
 shipboard for conveyance to England, and, by 
 
Sir John Johnhon. 
 
 e "Irony of fate," th« v(>wm1 foundered in 
 o (Jtilf of Ht. Iiawren<'«' and it* preoiouH 
 viuhi, liico thatdi^wi-ilMNi in tho " NietwlunKen 
 it'd," Hunlc int«» the tivawury of mo much of 
 rth'H ric'hHHt niKtilH and [HwmMHionH, the abysH 
 tim Hua. 
 
 tit ill said that hiH WH'ond invaHion of thin 
 par WBH co-ordinat<* with th»' plan of Hlr 
 [•■riry Clinlon, of which the banlM waH tho Hur- 
 S'lider of Wi'wt l*«)int l)y Arnold. If so, tho 
 irmer Ijore to the hitt^jr the Mann* relation 
 " nt the advance of Ht. lij^ner did in respect 
 UnrRoyne. St. L«>Ker'H failure burht tho 
 niibinedf movement «)f 177T; and Arnold's 
 ilK)rtive attempt explcKlml the conception 
 df 17«(l. H» that Hir John's move- 
 
 ment, which was to have been one 
 •f a Krand military Hcries, unhappily for 
 bis repuf;ation iH'canie an apparent "missitm 
 ©r venj^eance,"' oxeniteil, however, with a 
 ihoiou^iuiess wliifli was felt far lieyond the 
 jPistrict uiMiii whic'li tlie visitation came— came 
 II such a tcrril.'li' K'"isc, that a hundred 
 'I'ins have scarcely weakened tht» bitt«'mo88 of 
 s memories. VVIiatevei- else may l)e debited 
 «> him, it can Imi Niiiit of him, as (if llraham of 
 'laverhonse, (hat iuHJid his work effectively. 
 AIMioukIi one hundred yeai-s have scarcely 
 assed away since the events considered in this 
 ddress, there are almost /IS c<mflictinK accounts 
 f the ixM*sonal appi-aranco of Hir John as there 
 re aaitagonistic jiuhnnenta in rcs[>ect to his 
 hnractor. By some he has been r(!pi'osented 
 over six feet in heip^ht; by others as not 
 allei- than tho ordinary run of men in his dis- 
 rict- Doubtless in mature years he was a 
 itout or stalwart flgiu'c, and this, always at 
 east to some extent, detracts from height, and 
 eceives unless everything is in exact nropor- 
 "on. The only likeiiehs in existence whicn is 
 I accordance with descriptions, an engraving 
 )f F. Bartolozzi, R. A. , is a rare one from 
 lome contemporary work, representing him in 
 lis unifonn. It is not inconsistent with the 
 rictures of him ordinarily produced in well 
 mown works. These, however, from the cos- 
 tume and expression, seem to have Ijeen taken 
 at an earlier date. 
 
 [Mr. do Lancey, at page H42 (Note Iv.), Vol. 
 i, apijended tn Jones' ''Hititory of New York," 
 etc., furnishes a description of Hir John, which 
 tallies exactly with the colored engraving by 
 Bartolozzi, in the speaker's possession. 
 
 "He was a handsome, well-made man, a lit- 
 tle short, with blue eyes, light hair, a fresh 
 complexion, and a firm but pleasant expression. 
 He was quick and decided in disiKwition and 
 manner, and possessed of great endurance."] 
 
 He has been "described as cold, haughty, cruel 
 and implacable, of questionable" courage, and 
 with a feeble sense of pei-sonal honor. Mr. Wil- 
 liam C. Bryant, in his admirable biographical 
 sketch, disposes of this repulsive picture with 
 a single honest sentence: "The detested title of 
 Tory, in fact, was a synonym for all these 
 unamiable qualities." 
 
 According to a recently found sketch of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, published in 1864. 
 it would appear that every American opptwed 
 to French Jacobinism was stigmatized as an 
 aristocrat; and when Washington approved 
 of Jay's treaty of 1795, six prominent advo- 
 cates of his poflcy were hung in eflSgy and pol- 
 luted with every mark of indignity; taen 
 
 burned. Even the likeneiw of Washingtoii, at 
 full len^h, on a sign, is reporti*d to have lM>eii 
 much abused by the ram)le. These iwtrlots 
 experiencu«l the same treatment accorde.l to 
 the character of Hir John. The procession at 
 PouijhkeeiiHie, in this Htate, to ratify the ailo|H 
 tion of the hiMleral Constitution, came near 
 ending in bl(N)dshed. Any one oi)nose<l to 
 slavery, when it existi'd, risked his fife, south 
 of "Mason ami Dixon's line," if he uttere«l 
 his Hentini|>nts in public. No virtues would 
 havesave<l him from vlf)leiice. On the other 
 hand, there were classes ami communities at 
 the North who would not concede a redtHuiiing 
 quality to a slaveholder. Passion intensities 
 public opinion. The niaswN never retlect. 
 
 Here let a distinction be drawn which very 
 few, even thinking pei-sons, duly appreciate. 
 The rabble are nut the |»eople. Knox, in his 
 "Races of Men," draws this distinction most 
 clearly. And yet in no country t<i such an 
 extent as in the United Htates is this mistake 
 so oft«'n made. f)ld Rome was styled by its 
 own b<mt thinkers and annalists "the ccssikkiI 
 of the world:" and if any nuMieni Htiite do- 
 serves this scathing im))utation, it is this very 
 Htat;«( of New York. Count Tidlyrand- 
 Perigord said that as long as there 
 is sutficient virtue in tho thinking 
 classes to assimilate what is good, and 
 reject what is vicious in immigration, then? is 
 true progress and real prosperity. When the 
 poison becomes superior to the resistive and 
 assimilative power, the descent begins. It is 
 to pander to the rabble, not tho people, that 
 sucn men as Sir John Johnson are misrepre- 
 sented. Huch a course is politic for dema- 
 gogues. To them the utt«)rance of the truth is 
 suicidal, because they only could exist through 
 such perversions worthy of a Machiavclli. 
 They thrive through ix)litical Jesuitism. 
 The Roman populace wore mahitained and 
 restrained by ^'panem et. r'»wn<v.'*." The mod- 
 em voting rabble feed like theiu — to use the 
 Scripture expression — on the wind of delusion ; 
 and it is this method of portraiture which ena- 
 bled the Albany Committee to strike down Hir 
 John, confiscate his proiierty and drive him 
 forth ; and carry out like purposes in our veiy 
 mlrlst to-day. 
 
 People of the present day can scarcely con- 
 ceive the vimlence of vituperation which char- 
 acterized the political literature of a century 
 since. Hough, in his ^'■Northern Invasion," 
 has a note on this subject which applies to 
 every similar case. The gist of it is this: The 
 opimons of local populations in regard to 
 prominent men were entirely biased, if not 
 founded upon their popularity or tho reverse. 
 If modem times were to judge of the charac- 
 ter of Hannibal b> the pictures handed down 
 by the gravest of" Roman historians, he would 
 have to be regarded as a man destitute of 
 almost every redeeming trait except courage 
 and ability or astuteness j whereas, when the 
 truth is sifted out, it is positively certain 
 that the very vices attributed to the great 
 Carthagiiuan should be transferred to bis 
 Latin advei'saries. 
 
 Sir John was not cold. He was one of the 
 most affectionate of men. Mr. Bryant tells us 
 that he was not "haughty," but, on the con- 
 trary, displayed qualities which are totally 
 inconsistent with coldness. "His manners were 
 
10 
 
 Sir John Johnson. 
 
 peculiarly mild, gentle and winning. He was 
 remarkably fond of the wxiety of ehildren, 
 who. with their marvellous insignt into char- 
 acter, bestowed upon him the full measure of 
 their unquestioning love and faith. He was 
 also greatly attached to all domestic animals, 
 and notably very humane and kinder in his 
 treatment of them." Another writer, com- 
 menting upon these traits, remarks: "His pe- 
 culiar (•haracteristic of tenderness to children 
 and animals, makes me think that the stories 
 of his inhumanity during the War of the Rev- 
 olution cannot be true." 
 
 He was not "cruel." A number of instances 
 are recorded to the contrary, in themselves 
 sufficient to dism-ove such a sweeping charge. 
 
 The honest Bryant ijenned a paragraph 
 which is pertinent here in this connection. 
 
 "Sir John, certainly, inherited many of the 
 virtues which shed lustre upon his father's 
 name. His devotion to the interests of his gov- 
 ernment; his energetic and enlightened ad- 
 ministration of important trusts ; his earnest 
 championship of the barbarous race which 
 looked up to nim as a father and a friend; his 
 cheerful sacrifice of a princely fortune and 
 estate on what he conceived to be the altar of 
 patriotism, cannot be controverted by the 
 most virulent of his detractors. The atroci- 
 ties which were perpetrated by the invading 
 forces under his command are precisely tho^e 
 which, in our annals, have attached a stigina 
 to the names of Montcalm and Burgoyne. To 
 restrain an ill-disciplined rabble of exiled 
 Tories and ruthless savages was beyond the 
 power of men whose humanity has never in 
 other instances been questioned." 
 
 The majority of wnters absolve Montcalm ; 
 and Burgoyne disclaimed, and almost conclu- 
 sively proved, that he was not responsible for 
 the charges brought again.st him by the gran- 
 diloquent Cxates and others, who did not hesi- 
 tate to draw upon their imagination to make 
 a point. Sir John, with his own lips, declared, 
 in i"egard to the cruelti s suflfered by the 
 Whigs during his first Inroad, that "their 
 Tory ncighboi-s, and not himself, were blama- 
 ble for those acts." It is said that Sir John 
 much regretted the death of those who were 
 esteemed by his father, and censured the 
 murderer. But how was he to punish ! Can 
 the United States at this day, with all its 
 power, punish the individual perpetrators of 
 cruelties along the Western frontier and 
 among the Indians! It is justly remarked 
 that if the "Six Nations" had an historian, 
 the Chemung and Genesee valleys, desolated 
 by Sullivan, would present no less glowing a 
 picture than of those of the Schoharie and 
 Mohawk, which exi)erienced the visitations of 
 Sir John. He, at all events, ordered churches 
 to be spared. Sullivan's vengeance was indis- 
 criminate, and left nothing standing in 
 the shape of a building which his flres 
 could reach. Sir John more than once inter- 
 posed his disciplined troops between 
 the savages and their intendetl victims. 
 He redeemed captives with his own money; 
 and while without contradiction he punished a 
 guilty district with military execution, it was 
 not dii-ected by his orders or countenance 
 against individuals. Hough, for himself, and 
 quoting others, admits that "no violence was 
 oflfereato women and children." There is 
 
 nothing on rec«)rd or hinttni to show that hel 
 reftisen mercy to prisoneix; no instance of 
 what was t«nned "Tarleton's quarter" if 
 cited; and it is very questionable if cold-blood 
 e«i peculation in the American administrative 
 corps did not kill off incalculably more in the 
 course of a single campaign, than foil at the| 
 hands of all, white and red, directe<l by John 
 son, during the war. 
 
 As to the emthet "implacable," that amountsl 
 to nothing. To the masses, anyone who pun-' 
 ishes a majority, even tempering justice with I 
 mercy, provided he moves in a sphere above! 
 the plane of those who are the sub.iects of the I 
 discipline, is always considered not only unjust I 
 but cruel. T\m patriots or reltels oi Tryon I 
 county had worked their will on the pei-son-sj 
 of the family and the pi-operties of Sir Johnl 
 Johnson; and he certamly gave them a I 
 good deep draught from the goblet I 
 they had originally forced upon his lips.[ 
 He did not live up to the Christian code which I 
 all men preach and no man practices, and as-r 
 suredly did not turn the other cheek to the! 
 smiter, or offer his cloak to him who nad all 
 ready stolen his coat. I claim there was great! 
 justification for his conduct. The masses cani 
 underatand nothing that is not brought home! 
 to them in lettei-s of tire and of suffering.l 
 Tlieir compassion and their fury are both the| 
 blaze of straw; and their cruelty is as endiu'- 
 ing Jis the heat of red hot steel. The manner I 
 in which the construction of elevated i-ailroadsl 
 has been pemiitted in the city of New York. [ 
 to the detriment and even comparative ruin of I 
 indivrjduals, shows how little the public care if I 
 the few suffer provided it is benefited. Sir I 
 John may be taken as representing the parties] 
 who were mo.st deeply injured by such a sys- 
 tem. If these blew up a ixirtion of the road | 
 with the trains upon it containing the direc- 
 tors and prominent stockholders, the laws of I 
 this StatCj like those favoring "Anti-rcntism," 
 and seemingly adjusted for the protection of 
 wrong, would term such an act conspiracy and 
 murder. Whereas disinterested parties, know- 
 ing the facts, might esteem it a righteous ret- 
 ribution, which, although punishable as a 
 crime against society, was not without excuse | 
 as humanity is constituted. 
 
 There is only one more charge against Sir I 
 John to dispose of, viz., that "his courage was 
 questionable." The accusation in regard to 
 his having a "feeble sense of pei"sonal honor" 
 rests upon the stereotyped fallacy in regard to | 
 the violation of his pai'ole. This has already 
 been treated of and shown to be unsustaineH I 
 by evidence. In fact, it was proved that he | 
 did not do so. In this connection it is neces- 
 sary to cite a few more pertinent words from 
 the impartial William C. Bryant. This author I 
 says: "Sir John's sympathies were well I 
 known, and he was constrained to sign a | 
 pledge that he would remain neutral during | 
 the struggle then impending. There is no 
 warrant for supposing that Sir John, when he 
 submitted to this degradation, secretly- deter- 
 mined to violate his promise on the convenient 
 plea of duress, or upon grounds more rational 
 and «iuieting to his conscience. The jealous 
 espionage to which he was afterwards exposed 
 —the plot to seize upon his person and i-estrain 
 his liberty— doubtless furnished the coveted 
 pretext for breaking faith with the 'rebels.'"' 
 
Sir John Johnson. 
 
 n 
 
 The charge of "questionable courage" is ut- 
 terly ridiculous. 
 
 In the first place, it originated with his per- 
 lonal enemies, and if such evidence were ad- 
 missible, it is disproved by facts. There is 
 scarcely anv amount of eulogy which has not 
 been lav&hed upon Arnold's exp6di- 
 ion from the Kennebec, across the 
 great divide between Maine and Canada, 
 down to the siege of Quebec, and the same 
 praise has been extended to Clarke for his 
 famous march across the drowned lands of In- 
 diana. Arnold deserves all that can be said for 
 him, and so does Clarke, and everyone.who has 
 displayed equal energy and intrepidity. It is 
 only surprising that similar justice has not 
 been extended to Sir John. It is 
 universally conceded that when he made 
 his escape from his persecutors, in 1770, and 
 plunged into the howling wilderness to pre- 
 serve his liberty and honor, he encountered all 
 the suffering that it seemed possible for a man 
 to endure. As a friend remarks, one who is 
 well acquainted with the Adirondack wilder- 
 ness, such a travei"se would be an astonishing 
 feat, even under favorable circumstances and 
 season, at this day. Sir John was nineteen 
 days in making the transit, and this, too, at a 
 season when snow and drifts still blocked the 
 Indian paths, the only recognized thorough- 
 fares. No man deficient in spu'it and fortitude 
 would ever have made such an attempt. Both 
 of the invasions under his personal leading 
 were characterized by similar daring. The 
 cowardice was on thepart of those who hurled 
 the epithet at him. Their own writera admit 
 it by inference, if not in so many words. 
 
 One of the traditions of Try..' county, 
 which must have been well-krown to be re- 
 membered after the lapse of a century, is to 
 he effect that in the last battle, variously 
 known as the fight on Klock's field, or Fox's 
 Mills, both sides ran away from each other. 
 Were it time of both sides, it would not be an 
 extraordinary example. Panics, more or less 
 in proportion, have occurred in the best of 
 armies. There was a partial one after Wa- 
 gram, after Castalla, after Solferino, and at 
 )ur first Bull Run. But these are only a few 
 among scores of instances that might be cited. 
 What is still more curious, while a single 
 pei-sonal enemy of Sir John charged him with 
 quitting the field, the whole community 
 abused his antagonist, Gten. Van Rensselaer, 
 for not capturing Sir John and his troops, 
 when a court martial decided that while the 
 General did all he could, his troops were very 
 "bashful, "as the Japanese term it.about setting 
 under close fire, and they had to be withdrawn 
 from it to keep^the majority from running 
 home bodily. The fact is that the American 
 State levies, quasi-regulai-s, under the gallant 
 Col. Brown, had experienced such a terrible 
 defeat in the morning, that it took away from 
 the militia all their appetite for another fight 
 with the same adversaries in the evening. Sir 
 John's conduct would have been excusable if 
 he had quitted the field, because he had been 
 wounded, and a wound at this time, in the 
 midst of an enemy's country, was a casualty 
 which might have placed hiiiw^t.t))^ merey^of 
 an Administration which wa^,<ot»t,gi<^w, Jwtft 
 or without law, at inflicting,* eni^$ej,:&i(f 
 even aangingin haste and trying at leisure. 
 
 •f • •• • •• • 
 
 **. • • « • • t 
 
 But Sir John did not quit the field premature- 
 ly. He was not there to fight, to 
 oblige his adversaries; his tactics 
 were to avoid any battle which was 
 not absolutely necessary to secure his retreat. 
 He repulsed his pursuers and he absolutely re- 
 turned to Canada, carrying with him as 
 prisoners an American detochment which 
 sought to intercept and impede his move- 
 ments. While Van Rensselaer, the scion of a 
 race which displayed uncommon courage in 
 the Colonial service, was being tried and 
 sought to be made a scape-gout for the short- 
 comings of his superiors and inferiors. Sir 
 John was receiving the compliments, in public 
 ordera, of his own superior. Gen. Haldimand, 
 to whom the German officers in America have 
 given in their published correspondence and 
 narratives the highest praise as a professional 
 soldier and therefore judge of military merit. 
 What is more, as a farther demonstration of 
 the injustice of ordinary history, the severe 
 Governor Clinton was either with Van Rensse- 
 laer or near at hand,and consequently as much 
 to blame as the latter for the escape of Sir John. 
 Stone, who wrote at a time when as yet there 
 were plenty of living contemporaries, dis- 
 tinctly says that Gov. Clinton was with Gen. 
 Van Rensselaer just before the battle and re- 
 mained at Fort Plain, while the battle was 
 taking place a few miles distant. Finally, 
 the testimony taken before the court martial 
 indicates that the Americans were vastly 
 superior in numbers to, if not more than 
 double. Sir John's whites and Indians ; and it{ 
 was the want, as usual, of true fighting pluck 
 in the Indians, and their abandonment ofl 
 their white associates which made the result] 
 at all indecisive for the Loyalists. Had the 
 redskins stood their ground it is very doubtfu 
 if the other side would have stopped short o 
 Schenectady. All accounts agrse that the in 
 vaders had been overworked and were over 
 burdened, having performed extraordinary 
 labors and marches; whereas, except as i 
 ordinary expeditiousness, the Americans 
 quasi regulars and militia, were fresl 
 and in Ught marching order, for the 
 were just from home. So much stress h 
 been laid on this fight because it has been al 
 ways unfairly told, except before the cour 
 martial which exonerated Van Rensselaer 
 Ordinary hmnan judgment makes the philoso 
 pher weep and laugh : weep in sorrow at thi 
 fallacy of history, and laugh in bitterness a 
 the follies and prejudices of the uneducate< 
 and unreflecting. 
 
 Some of the greatest commanders who hav 
 ever lived have not escaped the accusation o 
 want of spirit at one time or another. Evei 
 Napoleon has been blamed foi* not sufferin, 
 himself to be killed at Waterloo, thus endini 
 his career in a blaze of glory. Malice vente( 
 itself in such a charge against the gallan 
 leader who saved the middle zone to the Union 
 and converted the despondency of retreat an 
 defeat into victory. It is perhaj 
 a remarkable fact that the mo| 
 always select two vituperative charges 
 most yepugnant to a man of honor, perha] 
 beoause/jb^ey >are -those to which they thei 
 ielVsi lt^e•In^fA, (&)&ii— falsehood and poltrooi 
 frjr; (DtgeV^i^.t^^it is not the business of 
 commanoer to throw away a life which dr 
 
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12 
 
 Sut John Joh^tson'. 
 
 not belong to himself Individually but to the 
 general welfare of his troops. Mer j 'physical 
 courage," as has been well said by a veteran 
 soldier, "is largely a question of nerves." 
 Moral courage b thk Ood-like quality, the 
 lever which mall ages has moved this world. 
 Moreover it is the comer-stone of progress ; and 
 without it brute insensibility to danger would 
 have left the nineteenth century in the same 
 condition as the "Stone Aft«." A man, bred as 
 Sir John had been, who had the courage to 
 give up everything lor principle, and with less 
 than a modem battalion of whites, plunge 
 again and again into the territory of his ene- 
 mies, bristling with forts and stockaded posts, 
 who could put in the field forty-five regiments, 
 of which seventeen were in Albany and five in 
 Tryon counties, the actual scenes of conflict, 
 besides distinct corps of State levies raised for 
 the protection of the frontiers, in which every 
 other man was his deadly foe, and the ma- 
 jority capital marksmen, that could shoot off 
 a squirrers head at a hundred yards 
 — such a man must have had an 
 awful amount of a hero in his com- 
 position. Americans would have been 
 only too willing to crown him with this halo, 
 if he had fought on their side instead of fight- 
 ing so desperately against them. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let me call the 
 brief attention of this audience to a few addi- 
 tional facts. Sir William Johnson was the 
 son of his own deeds and the creature of the 
 bounty of his sovereign. He owed nothing to 
 the people. They had not added either to his 
 influence, affluence, position or power. If this 
 was trae of the father as a beneficiary of the 
 Crown, how much more so was the son. The 
 people undertook to deprive the latter of that 
 which ^ey had neither bestowed nor 
 augmented. They injured him jn every 
 way that a man could be injured; 
 and they made that which was the 
 most commendable in him— his loyalty to a 
 gracious benefactor, his crime, and punished 
 him for that which they should have honored. 
 They strack ; and he had both the courage, the 
 
 g>wer. and the opportunity to strike back, 
 is reialiation may not have been consistent 
 with the literal admonition of the Gk)spel, but 
 there was nothing in it inconsistent with the 
 ordinaiy temper of humanity and manliness. 
 Ladies and gentlemen, the people of this era 
 have no conception of the fearful significance 
 of Loyalty, 100 years since. Loyalty, then, 
 wasalmostpantmount to religion: nest after 
 a man's duty to his Gkxl was his allegiance to 
 his prince. "^Noblesse oblige" has been blazoned 
 as the highest commendation of the otherwise 
 vicious aristocracy of Prance. It is charged 
 that when the perishing Bourbon dynasty 
 was in direst nee 1 of defenders it discovered 
 
 them "neither in its titled nobilit 
 in its native soldiers," but in meroe 
 Whereas in America Gh9orge III. found ( 
 champions in the best citirana of the Ian 
 foremost in the front rank of these sto 
 John Johnson. Hume, who is anything 
 imaginative or enthusiastic writer, 
 LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM together; an< 
 his philoeoi^cal words this vmdication 
 John Johnson is committed to your call 
 impr^udiced judgment: "T/ie moat invi 
 atiOAshment to the laws of our ooun 
 everywhere acknowledged a capital 
 and where the people are not so happy 
 have any legislature but a single 
 
 THK STRICTEST LOYALTY IS, IN THAT CAS 
 TRUEST PATRIOTISM." 
 
 " Hopes have precarious life; 
 They are oft oUghted, withered, snapt 8he< 
 But FAiTHViTUfESB Can feed on scrrsRiNO, 
 And knowa no diaappointment." 
 
 MOTE. 
 
 A letter lies before the author of the 
 Address, which is too pertinent and cor 
 ative to be omitted. It is from the pe 
 distinguished officer and one of the 
 fleeting men of this generation, who 
 wise a collateral rolaraon of one of the 
 prominent Continental generals. In 
 writer sajrs: 
 
 "The more I read and imderstand the 
 ican Revolution, the more I wonder 
 success. I doubt if there were more the 
 States decidedly Whig — Massachusett 
 Virginia. Massachusetts [morally] over 
 New Hampshire and the northern 
 Rhode Island — diagged them after her 
 Massachusetts people were Aryan [by 
 with a strong injection of Jewish [inst 
 The population of HOHthem Rhode Islat 
 Connecticut were divided— more Loya 
 Rebel. New York was Tory. New 
 — eastern part, followed New York; 
 
 Sirt, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was 
 aryland was divided. North Carolina 
 followed her, partly South Carolina. 
 Carolina had many Tories. Georgia to 
 South Carolina. Two paities constitut 
 sta«ngth of the Whigs— the Democratic 
 numists of Massachusetts, and wherevei 
 organization extended, and the [ProV 
 aristocracy of Virginia, which was 
 the King, out would not bend to the 
 cratic Parliament. The Scotch [Protest 
 Papist] Irish in New York, Pennsylva 
 North Carolina were Rebels to the ' 
 The Dutch families in New York, the 
 note in South Carolina, likewise. The (^ 
 party, the Gtermans, the Catholic 
 the Quakers were loyalist. The 
 everywhere were Rebels. 
 
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