Manhattan in modern times, few have reached the eminence attained by the celebrated lawyer, Charles O'Conor, of whom Judge Charles P Daly said: "He has filled a place in the jurisprudence of this State greater than that of any lawyer who has ever lived in it.'" We are nearing the end of Manhattan Island. The wooded, inviting knoll of Inwood rises above the haunted waters of Spuyten Duy vil creek, itself the home of many a spirit, if it be true that ghosts walk. The Indians long ago gave it a name of unpronounceable gutturals, and sowed its rocky soil with arrow-heads and tradi- tions. Along the ridges and through the woods where they disputed titles with their neighbours, the bears and the catamounts, generations of white men have Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Riverside to Inwood 159 come with their feuds and friendships, their loves and their hates, and have also passed away. From the great city, less and less distant every year, the rumble and the roar of approaching activity warn the dweller among green lawns and trees that the days of his seclusion are numbered. Digitized by Microsoft® Chapter XI The Island and the River in 1776 BRITISH plans to gain possession of New York in order to command the entrance of the Hudson, were reported to Congress in Octo- ber, 1775. Inquiries, it was said, had been made by Englishmen high in authority as to the feasibility of erecting forts in the Highlands, thus controlling the navigation of the river. Albany was also included in these designs for keeping open communication be- tween Quebec and the lower provinces. Such reports, whether well or ill founded, had the desirable effect of inciting the Continental leaders to measures for the protection of the river and its shores. The military importance of the Hudson in the impend- ing struggle could not be overestimated, and although the scene of conflict shifted from Canada to the Caro- linas, and the fields of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were devastated, yet from first to last the great river was the key to the continent for which both sides con- tended. On suspicion that New York City was the destina- tion of the fleet preparing to sail under command of 160 Digitized by Microsoft® o a z? o < Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® The Island and the River in 1776 163 Sir Henry Clinton, from Boston, General Lee urged Washington to permit him to recruit for its defence a force of Connecticut troops. The commander ap- proved this plan, but doubted apparently whether his authority was sufficient to warrant such an exercise of power. John Adams, being near at hand at the time, was consulted, and strongly endorsed the pro- posed measure, considering as a sufficient warrant the extraordinary authority with which Washington had recently been invested by Congress. Lee was thereupon commissioned to raise volunteers in Connecticut, secure military aid from New Jersey, disarm the Tories in the neighbourhood of New York, and to put the city and river in a condition for defence against the contemplated attack of the British. After some difficulty he succeeded in accomplishing the greater part of this task, and proceeded to take pos- session of New York. But the first movement in that direction brought a hornet's nest buzzing about his ears. Clearly the citizens dreaded nothing so much as being defended. The merchants and householders saw in the im- petuous and often impolitic Lee and his hastily gath- ered levies of raw troops a menace to their well being much greater than they discovered in the ships of his Majesty that were in the harbour. That staunch patriot, Pierre Van Cortlandt, Chairman of the Com- mittee of Safety, addressed a letter to General Lee, protesting that the city was not capable of acting Digitized by Microsoft® 1 64 The Hudson River hostilely against the British ships, as it lacked both military works and munitions. He urged the ad- visability of doing nothing to provoke attack and more than hinted that his correspondent's room would just then be greatly preferred to his company. We, therefore [continued the letter], ardently wish to remain in peace for a little time, and doubt not we have assigned suffi- cient reasons for avoiding at present, a dilemma, in which the entrance of a large body of troops into the city, will almost certainly involve us. Should you have such an entrance in design, we beg at least the troops may halt on the western confines of Connecticut, till we have been honoured by you with such an explanation on this important subject, as you may conceive your duty may permit you to enter upon with us, the grounds of which, you may easily see, ought