Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Colonel Ludington also served with some distinction as a member of Assembly in the State Legislature, for Dutchess County, some of such service being during the Revolutionary War. He thus served in the Third Session, which met at Kingston from August 18, 1777, to October 25, 1779, at Albany from January 27 to March 14, 1780, and at Kingston again from April 22 to July 2, 1780; in the Fourth Session, which met at Poughkeepsie from September 7 to October 10, 1780, at Albany from January 17 to March 31, 1781, and at Poughkeepsie from June 15 to July 1, 1781; in the Ninth Session, which met in New York City from January 12 to May 5, 1786; and in the Tenth Session, which met in New York City from January 12 to April 21, 1787. He appears to have been a prominent and influential member. At the meeting of January, 1786, he was made a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and of a special committee to prepare a bill for the regulation of the militia and the establishment of magazines. The records of that meeting show that Colonel Ludington was in constant attendance and was an active participant in the business of the House. He is recorded as voting at almost every division, and generally appears to have been a member of the majority. On March 1 it was represented to the Legislature that a number of prisoners confined in the jail of New York for debt were reduced to great extremity for want of wood and firewood, and were in danger of perishing for want of such necessaries; wherefore a committee of three, Colonel Ludington being one, was appointed to inquire into the matter—one of the first steps toward the abolition of imprisonment for debt. On March 6, 1787, the Legislature proceeded to the nomination and appointment of “delegates to meet with delegates as may be appointed from other States, for the sole purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation”—to wit, the Constitutional Convention of the United States. Colonel Ludington, who was a staunch Federalist, voted for the appointment of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Yates, and John Lansing, Jr.

Soon after there arose a remarkable illustration of the dilatory disposition of governments of that day in dealing with some matters of real importance in which honor and good faith were involved. Away back in April, 1784, Colonel Ludington had submitted to the Legislature a petition relative to certain certificates for depreciation of soldiers’ pay, which he had lost or which had been stolen from him. Mr. Pell, of the committee to which the petition was referred, had reported that the facts were as stated in the petition, and that the petition for relief ought to be granted. Leave was granted for the introduction of a bill to that effect, and the bill was introduced and passed by the Assembly. Either it was not concurred in by the Senate, however, or for some reason it was not put into effect. For now, on April 14, 1787, we find Colonel Ludington again presenting to the Assembly, of which he was a member, a petition setting forth that certain depreciation certificates, amounting in all to 407 pounds 4 shillings, had been stolen from him, and that after passing through divers hands were paid to the Commissioners of Forfeitures for the purchase of a forfeited estate, and were then in the treasury of the State, wherefore he prayed for a law directing the treasurer to return them to him. Mr. Hamilton, from the committee to which the petition was referred, reported that the facts were found to be as stated, that the petitioner’s case would be very unfortunate if he were to be finally deprived of the benefit of the certificates which had been stolen from him, and that it would be a proper act of generosity in the State to direct the treasurer to return them to him. The committee recommended that a clause to that effect be inserted in some bill then before the House. The House, however, voted not to concur in the report of the committee, and it does not appear that any further step toward doing him justice was taken at that time. Finally, however, on March 12, 1792, the Legislature adopted the following act:

Whereas certain certificates issued by the auditors appointed to liquidate and to settle the accounts of the troops of this State in the service of the United States have been received by the Commissioners of Forfeitures, and are now in the treasury of this State, which it appears to this Legislature were lost by Henry Ludenton, and which certificates at the time they were lost were not transferable, otherwise than by assignment; And whereas the said Henry Ludenton has prayed relief in the premises; Therefore, Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That whenever the United States shall direct that the residue of the twelve hundred thousand dollars may be subscribed, which by the act of the United States entitled “An act for making provision for the debt of the United States,” passed the 4th day of January, 1790, had not been subscribed before the last day of September last, then the Treasurer of this State is hereby authorized and directed to deliver unto Henry Ludenton the aforesaid certificates … being the certificates lost by the said Henry Ludenton.

Thus nearly eight years after the original appeal for relief, which was acknowledged to be valid and worthy, the Legislature voted to grant such relief at some indefinite time in the future, conditioned upon the fulfilment of obligations by the federal government, which had already shown itself dilatory in the matter!

One of the most important divisions in which Colonel Ludington voted in the minority was that concerning the independence of the State of Vermont, a matter over which there had been danger of a civil war. Said the “County Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser” for April 4, 1787: “Last Wednesday morning the important question for declaring the Independence of Vermont was debated in the House of the Assembly. It was carried in the affirmative, as follows:” The poll of the House as given shows 32 votes in the affirmative, and 21 in the negative, Colonel Ludington’s name being among the latter, although his friends Hamilton and Lansing voted in the affirmative.

In the “New York Packet and American Advertiser” of February 27, 1783, appeared this notice:

“Notice is hereby given to the Debtors and Creditors of Stephen Ludinton, deceased, who was by a jury of inquest said to have been murdered by John Akins, to meet me at the House of Alexander Mills in Fredericksburgh on Monday the 10th day of March next, at 10 o’clock in the morning, in order to discharge the debts due the said estate, and receive payment as far as the estate will go as it is supposed he died insolvent.

“Henry Ludington Executor.”

An act of the Legislature on March 9, 1810, made Colonel Ludington one of the incorporators of “a body corporate and politic” for the purpose of “making a good and sufficient turnpike road to begin at the Highland turnpike road near the house of Joseph C. Voight in the town of Cortlandt and County of Westchester, and from thence to or near the house of James Mandeville and to or near the house of Samuel Owens, in the town and county aforesaid; from thence to or near the house of Jonathan Ferris, and to or near the house of Edward Bugby and Solomon Avery in Philipstown in the county of Dutchess; from thence running up Peekskill Hollow, to or near the house of Rowland Bailey, and to or near the house of Henry Ludington in the town of Frederick; from thence running to the great road west of Quaker Hill, to or near the house of Thomas Howard.”

It should be added, to complete the record, that Colonel Ludington was in 1771 an overseer of the poor for South Precinct; in 1772 he was assessor of Fredericksburgh; and in 1776, 1777, and 1778 he was supervisor of the town of Fredericksburgh.