Part 1 (1/2)
Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold.
by Archibald Murray Howe.
THE BRAVE ACCUSER OF BENEDICT ARNOLD.
John Brown, of Pittsfield, Ma.s.s., now almost forgotten, was a patriot in our Revolution of 1775 whose career has been described more than once by men in New York and in Berks.h.i.+re County, but, as it is now time to give more impartial views of the controversy, perhaps another sketch of the life of this leader may encourage others to search for clearer views of the ways by which our ancestors established the inst.i.tutions which we hope are to endure.
Daniel Brown, the father of Colonel John Brown, came from Haverhill, Ma.s.s., to the western part of the Commonwealth in 1752, when his son John was eight years old. He seems to have been first in the beautiful town of Sandisfield to take part in its local government, both secular and ecclesiastical. ”Deacon Brown” is called prosperous when this new town on the banks of the Farmington River, east of the hills of the Housatonic, bade fair to equal Pittsfield as a trading-place. ”The Deacon” was a local magistrate under the king, when laymen served as judges. John, his youngest son, is described as tall and powerful, an athlete able to kick a football over the elm-tree on the college green at New Haven when he entered at twenty-three years of age, older in years than most college students of the year 1767.
It is believed that he prepared for college with some citizen of the neighborhood, and it is known that he married before graduating in 1771.
While at New Haven, he was fully informed of the peculiarities of Benedict Arnold, then a storekeeper, already disgraced in the eyes of respectable citizens because of his desertion from the British army and his reckless disregard for the rights of his creditors; for then the debtor was not allowed to retain his respectability, if he failed dishonestly. Furthermore, his self-a.s.sertion was recognized as too often a display of arrogance and vanity. Brown's sister Elizabeth had married Oliver Arnold, attorney-general of Rhode Island, a cousin of Benedict, and it is reasonable to suppose that he was well informed of Arnold's misdeeds, which thus became known to John Brown.
In 1771, when he was graduated from Yale, only twenty men were of his cla.s.s. Quite a large number of Yale graduates took part with the patriots, and Humphreys, one of the cla.s.s of 1771, was aide-de-camp to Was.h.i.+ngton. He, I believe, is the only writer in verse who extolled this John Brown. How often we are indebted to poets for our heroes! If this John Brown had incited an insurrection and been hanged for killing his fellow-men contrary to law in time of peace, ”his soul might be marching on.” If, when he rode from Ticonderoga on horse at a high rate of speed to Philadelphia, to inform the Continental Congress that his friend Ethan Allen had taken possession of the fortress with its guns and materials for war, some poet had described his ride, as Longfellow portrayed Paul Revere's, the school children would still recall Brown of Pittsfield; but, my friends, 'tis of little moment that we are soon forgotten, if it be certain that, while we live, we live with moral courage in the life of every day.
I do not intend to put much emphasis upon military glory. I am trying to show that Brown's life by reason of its entire sincerity, although at times unsuccessful, was led, so far as we can know, by ”_a man every inch a man_,” holding fast to his ideals, fearless in the a.s.sertion of truth as he saw it, and directed by high principle; that, having all these n.o.ble attributes, his part in public affairs should now and then be rehea.r.s.ed to show the value of goodness even amid the horrors of war.
On December 10, 1772, a few months after graduation from Yale College, he was admitted to practise law in New York in the courts of Tryon County, a part of which is now Montgomery County, bearing the name of one of our n.o.blest American generals, who led the attack on Quebec in December, three years later, where Brown served under him as a major of a Berks.h.i.+re County regiment. Some writers call Brown king's attorney at Caughnawaga, whether rightly I know not, nor do I know why he came to the Mohawk Valley from Berks.h.i.+re, for Pittsfield was a growing frontier town. Perhaps Sir William Johnson's influence and his busy settlement offered some inducement to the young attorney, but it did not long have weight with him, for we find him in 1773 at Pittsfield, where another attorney of Loyalist tendencies had left town under coercion.
Before I attempt to describe the civil and military career of John Brown from 1773 to his thirty-sixth birthday, when he was killed at Stone Arabia, I wish to call your attention to the peculiarities of the political situation in Berks.h.i.+re County and its vicinity. On the north the New Hamps.h.i.+re Grants (now Vermont) had recently been disputed territory where local partisans, Ethan Allen and others, used coercion to maintain the claims of settlers against New York men claiming t.i.tle. New York Colony on the west, though directed largely by men of high character like Philip Schuyler, was torn by bitter political differences, the Loyalist element being strong in social and political affairs. Then, although the Berks.h.i.+re towns were active from the earliest days of 1774 in sharing with other towns the plans for resistance to royal authority, they were very jealous of any continuance of unnecessary power in the Provincial Congress.
Pittsfield by the quill of a cousin of Ethan Allen, the Rev. Thomas Allen, a.s.serted that the town would remain ”in a state of nature” [see Note 1] (i.e., simple democracy without representative government) unless it obtained new privileges. If the right of nominating to office is not vested in the people, they said, ”_we are indifferent who a.s.sumes it, whether any particular persons on this or the other side of the water_.” They did not want any bosses, but no doubt would have voted for Governor Hughes. They were of the belief that the government of the respective committees (County and Town, Committees of Correspondence and Inspection) was lenient and efficacious, but they hoped for a new Const.i.tution ”on such a broad basis of civil and religious liberty as no length of time will corrupt as long as the sun and moon shall endure.” They wished to elect judges by votes of the people of the county, justices of the peace by the voters of the towns, and of course allow soldiers to elect their company officers.
Brown was chosen judge of the Common Pleas by the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts for 1779, but never held court, probably because his fellow-citizens were not submissive to the existing authority of the General Court as exercised before the adoption of the new Const.i.tution of Ma.s.sachusetts. In such a state of affairs Berks.h.i.+re took her part largely in her way when she sent men to fight the battles of the United Colonies. Her officers and men were often too independent to submit willingly to proper military authority, and in some trying emergencies the Berks.h.i.+re men were insubordinate or were disposed to follow their leaders in attacks not always wisely chosen. It was Captain Asa Douglas, of Hanc.o.c.k, the man who had done much to promote the capture of Ticonderoga by skilful recruiting and by pledge of his estate, who in May, 1776, was Chairman of a convention of Berks.h.i.+re towns which, deluded by false rumors and influenced by their own prejudices against the n.o.ble General Schuyler, sent to General Was.h.i.+ngton their doubts concerning his loyalty, although expressing their hope that his name might be handed down to posterity as one of the great pillars of the American Cause. Their hope is grandly fulfilled, but the Berks.h.i.+re men have left us with some doubt as to their skill in judging of current events. However, on the twenty-sixth day of May, 1776, Mark Hopkins, as Secretary of this Convention, wrote to Was.h.i.+ngton to tell him their fears concerning Philip Schuyler were groundless.
John Brown was twenty-nine years of age when he began his active citizens.h.i.+p at Pittsfield. He had lived in Berks.h.i.+re more than one-half his life. His experience on a farm, at college, near the sea, and for a short time in the Mohawk country among the Indians and white men of varying views about the king, made him worthy the confidence of Berks.h.i.+re men; and he always had their support and their respect. What his literary attainments were we cannot tell. A few letters to General Lincoln and letters relating to military affairs which appear in the archives give little opportunity for judging of his literary and professional skill. The inventory of his estate, giving in detail the names of law books, a surveyor's guide, a theological treatise, and a Bible, with farm implements and military clothing, show something of the life of his time, when a man was farmer, surveyor, lawyer, and soldier altogether, and, if as active as John Brown, not much more able to write well-considered essays and books than if he had never seen Yale College. Alas! his fate in that regard is not unlike many graduates of our present time, who, having fine natures, strong traits of character, and ability enough to express themselves, are driven by commercial or other present activities to and fro from typewriter to telephone, often to die without using their minds calmly and without imparting to others much that they might have given to help the world, had they been able to have peace in the midst of their busy lives.
Pittsfield frequently employed Brown. In January, 1774, he was chosen to instruct the representative to the General Court in reference to the destruction of the tea at Boston. He was quite discriminating.
While he opposed the useless waste of property by disguised men, he strongly denounced the British tyrannies. Within six months he was one of the Committee of Correspondence and a delegate to the County Congress at Stockbridge. In the fall of 1774 he acted as arbitrator with others to settle disputes following the common law and the Province laws when they did not interfere with the democracy of Berks.h.i.+re.
He was chosen Ensign of the Company of Minute Men, and finally delegate to the First Provincial Congress. This Congress appointed him to a very important Committee on Correspondence with Canada, and that winter the committee sent him to Canada with full power to get information, confer with Canadians, whether English or French, and report back the condition of affairs and whether they would act with the Colonies. This mission was peaceful in its aim. He conferred with men from Montreal and Quebec, a.s.suring all whom he met that the Colonies desired peace with Great Britain, but, if war came, they would surely respect the rights of all men to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in their own way and would maintain a democratic form of government.
Mr. Brown showed himself to be diplomatic and faithful. He endured much personal hards.h.i.+p and risk during the winter, and his report was most valuable. The part of it best known is under date of March 29, 1775, wherein he recommended that, if war came, Ticonderoga should be taken. ”The people in the New Hamps.h.i.+re Grants,” he wrote, ”have engaged to do the job.” Recently it has been stated that in February, 1775, he was at Chesterfield, Ma.s.s., and that about that time he led a party of Berks.h.i.+re and Hamps.h.i.+re men to Deerfield and arrested a Tory or some Tories who were suspected of being in direct communication with General Gage at Boston. April 27, 1775, there appeared in the Hartford _Courant_ a notice signed ”John Brown” by order of the Committee of Inspection in the towns of Pittsfield, Richmond, and Lenox, in the following words: ”Whereas Major Israel Stoddard and Woodbridge Little Esq., both of Pittsfield in the County of Berks.h.i.+re, have fled from their respective homes and are justly esteemed the common pests of society and incurable enemies of their country and are supposed to be somewhere in New York Government moving sedition and rebellion against their country, it is hereby recommended to all friends of American liberty and to all who do not delight in the innocent blood of their countrymen, to exert themselves that they may be taken into custody and committed to some of his Majesty's jails till the civil war which has broken out in this Province shall be ended.” Surely, Brown was an active partisan, though not at Lexington in April, 1775. In May he was at Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen, not holding any military rank. Allen commended him to the government as fit for military command.
The oft-told tale of how Ethan Allen took the fortress, proclaiming its capture in the name of ”Almighty G.o.d and the Continental Congress,” need not be rehea.r.s.ed here. Allen took possession of Ticonderoga, its garrison, and its valuable military property with the aid of Connecticut and Berks.h.i.+re men, and at his request Brown rode his horse rapidly to Philadelphia to announce to the Continental Congress the capture which was attained without their authority or aid. At this point Benedict Arnold must be referred to. In April, 1775, he had broken open an a.r.s.enal at New Haven, and with his militia company hurried to Cambridge. As he rode one day from New Haven towards Cambridge, he met Captain Parsons, who was going to Hartford to plan with some Connecticut leaders for the capture of Ticonderoga.
Hearing Parsons's plan, Arnold pushed on to Watertown and got a commission from the Ma.s.sachusetts government as colonel as well as an order for power to recruit men, for horses and ammunition. Meeting Ethan Allen on his way to Ticonderoga, Arnold produced his Ma.s.sachusetts authority, but not his men, on the same day that Allen was fully prepared for his work. Arnold began his interference with the concerted plan, hoping for a separate command and the glory of victory. He promised payments of money to Berks.h.i.+re men from the southern towns, which he failed to pay from funds given him for that purpose. This was the beginning of an angry and long-continued dispute between Easton, Brown's colonel, and Brown, on the one hand, and Arnold, on the other. Unhappily for Easton and Brown, as for all men who possess the truth about the characters of men who are undoubtedly able to fight battles, though brutal and even wicked in their lives, the controversy was long and bitter, but, while war exists, the common law and legal procedure rarely have weight and even martial law becomes ineffective.
”War is h.e.l.l,” said the great Sherman. h.e.l.l is irrational, as is war.
Reason fails to have even its usual part in man's destiny during all wars. Chance has sway, and men often get what is called glory when others, almost unknown to fame, should win the approval of all men.
Whether Was.h.i.+ngton had his doubts about Arnold's character may never be known, but more than once he gave him opportunities to hold high command because he fought battles through. So Lincoln, when told that Grant drank whiskey, asked for more such whiskey for other generals.
Sparks, the historian, a Unitarian clergyman, when writing Arnold's life, detailed his sins, his youthful desertion from the British army, his financial dishonor at New Haven, his overbearing self-a.s.sertion, and yet he added, when telling of the att.i.tude of the members of Congress towards Arnold, that ”these stern patriots, regarding virtue as essential to true honor, did not consider great examples of valor, resource, and energy even of arousing and sustaining the military ardor of a country as an adequate counterpoise to a dereliction of principle and a compromising integrity.” ”How far a judicious policy and a pure patriotism were combined on this occasion,” writes Sparks, ”as to what extent party zeal contributed to warp the judgment, we need not now inquire.”
And here, my friends, is our solemn warning against war. No inquiry will ever justify war. War is justified only upon the sad a.s.sumption that, as men are ”poor weak mortals” and naturally wicked, they will go to war, and justice fails where might makes right. Who thinks I can here and now fully justify John Brown as a soldier, if he was too aggressive in attack or too ardent in his antagonism of a dastardly traitor whom he knew through and through, but whom Was.h.i.+ngton, Schuyler, and other generals felt obliged to support? Perhaps not fully justify on the grounds that seem necessary to the success of war, but I can fully support Brown as a man who fought n.o.bly for his country and in defence of the unprotected inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley, who was never false to his aims as an American patriot, who served with distinction under Allen, Montgomery, Schuyler, Arnold, Lincoln, and Van Rensselaer, and finally died while attempting to defend the Canajoharie settlements from the hostile attack of a murderous foe and acting in obedience to the command of his superior officer.
When the Ma.s.sachusetts government understood the situation at Lake Champlain, Brown was appointed major of the Berks.h.i.+re Regiment, and sent again to Canada with four scouts. This time the business was very dangerous. The French Canadians often helped him, but he might have been treated as a spy, and a military police chased him for many miles with two parties of fifty men each. On his return he reached Crown Point within a day of the time General Schuyler had expected him, after five days on the lake in a canoe. Early in August, 1775, he urged by letter and every other means in his power the immediate invasion of Canada. Soon he was put in command of a flotilla on Lake Champlain, and then followed his well-known exploits at St. Johns and Chamblee, where he co-operated with James Livingston, a brave New Yorker. His capture of Chamblee on the 19th of October, 1775, just five years before his death, brought promises of reward from Congress.
Then came the reckless expedition of Ethan Allen which led to his capture, and which has long been believed to be the result of a failure on the part of Brown to co-operate with Allen when he could have supported him. Here the burden of proof rests on the accusers of Brown, and they never have had other proof than an implication drawn from the ”Allen's narrative” that he did not make his best effort to help him, although Allen does not make any direct charge. Furthermore, the narrative is often far from correct; and as Allen was reckless in act and statement, and as Brown was continued in service under Montgomery, who was friendly to him, we may infer that Brown's failure was unavoidable. Allen's plan was not approved by Schuyler or Montgomery. Was.h.i.+ngton hoped that Allen's misfortune ”would teach a lesson of prudence and subordination to others who may be anxious to outs.h.i.+ne their general officers.”
It has been intimated that Brown was one of these junior officers who chafed under the limitations set by his superiors, but he certainly retained his position as a regimental officer, and achieved such results in this Canadian invasion during the advance to Quebec that he was highly commended by his a.s.sociates, promised promotion by Montgomery, and finally given his Lieutenant-colonelcy by Congress. He took part in the attack of December 31, 1775, on Quebec, and on the death of Montgomery served under Arnold for months, commanding a detachment of Berks.h.i.+re and other men who were willing to re-enlist if he stayed. [See Note 2.] One of his letters written to his wife, March 15, 1776, when commanding an outpost near Quebec, says he expects to be ”another Uriah because he does not agree very well with Mr. General Arnold.” He had been ”ordered to attack with his attachment of two hundred men, one-half of whom were sick in the hospital” (his brave brother, Captain Jacob Brown, died of small-pox). He himself marched out with his men, but the enemy retired into their fort too soon for him to attack them. He ”expected another storm from Arnold, or to be punished for disobedience to orders.” Truly, he was not easily subordinate to Arnold, but he was not again ”set in the forefront of the battle, that others might retire from him and that he might be smitten and die,” as David planned for Uriah, because he was truly loyal to the cause he so n.o.bly served, and Arnold did not dare to destroy him.
To fully describe his conduct in denouncing Arnold and Arnold's tergiversation and intrigues against him would lead me far afield. No doubt his accusations interfered with Arnold's promotion by Congress,--promotion he earned as a great leader in battle,--but as an officer responsible for property he was repeatedly unsuccessful. Brown again and again renewed his charges against the arch-traitor, but was not able to get proper attention from the tribunals that should have relieved him from Arnold's false charges. [See Note 3.]
Again and again historians declare that Arnold was led to treason because he had been unjustly treated by the Continental Congress. What a false view this is! He is willing enough to throw himself into battle for glory and for his country's honor at Saratoga without definite authority, and again he was ready for a fight or an expedition for the relief of this valley _when he could lead_, but he was always in trouble financially. His Philadelphia extravagances and the increase of his indebtedness did not escape all censure.