[FN] Campbell's Annals.
Added to these multifarious duties, was the necessity of keeping a vigilant watch over the motions of Sir John Johnson, whose position and conduct were alike equivocal, and the numerous loyalists by whom he was surrounded. By these people every possible obstacle was thrown in the way of the Committee, and no method of annoying and embarrassing them left untried. They laboured to destroy the confidence of the people in the Committee; called public meetings themselves, and chose counter-committees; now attempted to cover the Whig Committees with ridicule, and now again charged them with illegal and tyrannical conduct.[FN-1] The consequence was mutual exasperation—sometimes between near neighbours; and the reciprocal engendering of hostile feelings between friends, who ranged themselves under opposing banners. These incipient neighbourhood quarrels occasioned, in the progress of the contest that ensued, some of the most bitter and bloody-personal conflicts that ever marked the annals of a civil war. Several members of the Committee subsequently acted a distinguished part in the field; many of them sacrificed their estates; and some of them fell. Among them, Christopher P. Yates, the first Chairman, accompanied General Montgomery as a volunteer to Ticonderoga and Canada, and afterward raised and commanded a corps of rangers.[FN-2] The fate of Nicholas Herkimer is well known, though his death will be invested with new and additional interest in the progress of this narrative.[FN-3]
[FN-1] Idem.
[FN-2] Campbell's Annals.
[FN-3] The following extract is from a letter of the State Committee of Safety, under date of December, 1775, signed by John McKesson, Clerk of the Provincial Congress:—"I was directed by this Congress to assure you of the high esteem and respect they have for your vigilant, noble-spirited County Committee." The following was from General Schuyler in the summer of 1776:—"The propriety of your conduct, and your generous exertions in the cause of your country, entitle you to the thanks of every one of its friends; please to accept of mine most sincerely." Campbell's Annals.
In regard to Sir John, matters were now fast approaching to a crisis. On the 7th of September the Committee wrote to the Provincial Congress in New-York, denouncing his conduct and that of his associates—particularly the Highlanders, who, to the number of two hundred, were said to be gathered about him, and by whom the Whigs "were daily scandalized, provoked, and threatened." They added—"We have great suspicions, and are almost assured, that Sir John has a continual correspondence with Colonel Guy Johnson and his party." [FN]
[FN] It was afterward ascertained that such a correspondence was carried on through the Indians, who conveyed letters in the heads of their tomahawks and in the ornaments worn about their persons. The Indians also brought powder across from Canada.—Campbell's Annals.