Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/414

 the crowd, broke his press, and carried off the type. This was looked upon as a high-handed measure, and was justly complained of to the next Provincial Congress.

In October's letter was laid before Congress, written by some credible person in London, stating that the secret policy of the British government was to gain possession of New York and the Hudson River, and in this way, by opening communication between Canada and New York, distract and divide the colonial forces, expose Massachusetts and the eastern colonies to the inroads of the Indians in the pay of the government, and finally succeed in reducing the country to absolute subjection. This information excited no little solicitude respecting the Hudson, and its importance in the present juncture; and when it was known, at the close of the year, that great preparations were under way in Boston harbor, for some secret expedition, Washington at once surmised, that the object of Sir Henry Clinton, who was to command it, was to seize upon New York. Steps were immediately taken to meet the emergency; although, as we may here state, the event showed that Clinton's present aim was to make a descent upon North Carolina.

Early in 1776, as the Committee of Safety was considered to be rather lukewarm. General Lee was ordered to take command of the troops sent from Connecticut, to sustain the authority of Congress, and prevent, as far as possible, the machinations of Tryon and the loyalists. Sir Henry Clinton looked in upon New York, on his way to Carolina; and Lee declared, "that he would send word on board the men-of-war, that, if they set a house on fire, he would chain a hundred of their friends by the neck, and make the house their funeral pile;"—a threat, by the way, which he was just the man to put into execution.

But it was not simply in the city of New York and its vicinity, that the loyalists were formidable. They possessed considerable strength in Tryon County, that part of the province west of the Schoharie River, where the Johnson family exercised preponderating influence. There were firm Whigs there, but many Tories also; and General Schuyler thought it necessary, in January, to send a detachment from Albany, to disarm the Johnsons and the Highlanders, and compel them to give hostages. Guy Johnson had gone to Canada, and carried off most of the Mohawks to serve the British. Sir John Johnson gave his parole, not to take up arms against America, but later, in May, when it was attempted to arrest him on suspicion, he fled to Canada, raised two battalions of "Royal Greens," and became quite a terror on the frontiers of New York. Brant, the famous Indian chief, was Guy Johnson's secretary, and was very active against the Americans.

In consequence of Lord Dunmore's course, in Virginia, as stated on a previous page, it was feared that Mount Vernon might be attacked. Washington, therefore, seeing that his duties would not admit of his visiting home, sent an invitation to Mrs. Washington, to join him at the camp before Boston.