O New England, the nursery of the revolutionary spirit, I next turned my attention, and to that interesting field of research I proceeded, after visiting the battle-ground of Bennington, upon the Walloomscoick. I went up the Hudson on the morning of the 25th of September as far as Poughkeepsie, * where I passed the afternoon, 1848 and in the evening proceeded to Kingston, or Esopus, memorable in our Revolutionary annals for its destruction by the British.
Poughkeepsie is one of the finest villages in New York. It lies principally upon an elevated plain, half a mile from the east bank of the river, and in the midst of a region remarkable for its beauty and fertility. Although an old town, having been founded by the Dutch more than one hundred and fifty years ago, and lying directly in the path of travel between New York and Canada, it was spared the infliction of miseries which other places far more isolated suffered during the Revolution; and it has but little history of general interest beyond the fact that a session of the state Legislature was held there in 1778, and that, ten years afterward, the state Convention to consider the Federal Constitution assembled there.
When the state government was organized, in 1777, by the adoption of a Constitution, the city of New York was in the possession of the enemy, and the first session of the Legislature under the new order of things was appointed to be held at Kingston, in July of that year. But the invasion of the state at several points—by Burgoyne on the north, by St. Leger and his Tory and Indian associates on the west, and by Sir Henry Clinton on the south—compelled Governor Clinton to prorogue that body until the 1st of September. Greater still, however, was the excitement in the state at that time, for Burgoyne was pressing triumphantly toward Albany, and General Clinton was making active preparations to form a junction with him. No quorum was present until the 9th, and early in October, before any
* Poughkeepsie is a corruption of the Iroquois word Ap-o-keep-sinek, which signifies safe harbor. On an old map of the Hudson River in my possession it is spelled Pocapsey; and I have heard many of the old inhabitants of Dutchess pronounce it as if so spelled, the a in the penultimate having the long sound, as in ape.
Meeting of tbo Legislature at Kingston and Poughkeepsle—State Convention.—Federal Constitution.—Ann Lee.
laws could be matured, the session was broken up, on the rapid approach of the enemy up the Hudson, after the fall of the forts in the Highlands. Kingston was laid in ashes, and all was confusion.