Huddlestone, the famous spy, who was captured upon Wild Boar Hill, near Yonkers, in West Chester county, was tried, condemned, and hung at Poughkeepsie in April, 1780. The place of his execution was upon a verge of the plain on which the town stands, known as Forbus's Hill. I have heard the late venerable Abel Gunn, of Poughkeepsie, who was a drum major in the Continental army, speak of Huddlestone and of his execution. He described him as a small man, with a large head and thick neck. He was accompanied to the scaffold by the county officers and a small guard of militia enrolled for the purpose.
The state Convention to consider the Federal Constitution assembled at the Vankleek House, in Poughkeepsie, on the 17th of June, 1788. There were fifty-seven delegates present, and Governor George Clinton was chosen the president of the Convention. In that Assembly were some of the most distinguished men of the Revolution, and the debates were of the most interesting character. In no state in the Union was hostility to the Federal Constitution more extensive and violent than in the state of New York. Forty-six of the fifty-seven delegates, including the governor, were anti-Federalists, or opposed to the Constitution. The principal advocates of the instrument were John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Livingston. Mr. Hamilton had been a leading member of the National Convention that framed the Constitution, and also one of the principal writers of the Federalist. * He felt the responsibility of his situation, and the Convention readily acknowledged the value of his judgment. He was perfectly familiar with every topic included in the wide range which the debates embraced, and he was nobly sustained by his colleagues, Jay and Livingston. The hostile feelings of many of the anti-Federalists gradually yielded, and on the 26 th of July the final question of ratification was carried in the affirmative by a majority of three votes.
A little more than a mile below Poughkeepsie, on the bank of the Hudson, is the residence of the late Colonel Henry A. Livingston, a grandson of Philip Livingston, one of the
* When the Constitution, adopted by the National Convention, was submitted to the consideration of the people, extensive and violent opposition was observed, founded principally upon the undue jealousy with which the doctrine of state rights was regarded. The friends of the Constitution saw that general public enlightenment upon the subject was necessary to secure the ratification of the instrument by the requisite number of states to make it the organic law of the republic. To this end Jay, Hamilton, and Madison commenced a series of essays in explanation and vindication of the principles of government. They appeared successively every week in the New York papers, between October, 1787, and the spring of 1788. The whole work, which is called The Federalist, consists of eighty-five numbers. Mr. Jay wrote six numbers, * Mr. Madison twenty-five, and Mr. Hamilton the residue. They had a powerful effect upon the public mind and contributed largely to the success which finally crowned the efforts of the friends of the Constitution.
* Mr. Jay and other gentlemen armed and placed themselves under the command of Colonel Hamilton, to suppress a riot it New York known as The Doctors' Mob. He was nearly killed by a stone thrown by one of the rioters, and was confined to his bed for some time. He had written the fifth number of the Federalist essays when that event occurred. He recovered in time to write the sixty-fourth.
The Livingston Mansion.—Henry A. Livingston, Esq.—Kingston, or Esopua.—Its Dutch Name
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and son of the late John H. Livingston, D.D., president of the College of Now Brunswick. It was built by his paternal grandfather, Henry Livingston, in 1714, and is a fine specimen of a country mansion of that period.
