can disenthralment. Soon after this act was consummated, he returned home, and was immediately appointed by Governor Trumbull and the Council of Safety, to the command of a detachment of Connecticut militia (consisting of fourteen regiments) destined for the defence of New York. After the battle of Long Island, he returned to Connecticut, and in November of that year, he resumed his seat in Congress, and was in that body when they fled to Baltimore at the approach of the British toward Philadelphia, at the close of 1776.

During the latter part of the summer of 1776, he was actively engaged in the recruiting service, and after sending General Putnam (then on the Hudson river), several thousands of volunteers, he took command of a body of recruits, and joined General Gates at Saratoga. He aided in the capture of Burgoyne and his army in October, 1777, and soon afterward, he again took his seat in Congress, then assembled at York, in Pennsylvania,* where he continued until July, 1778. In the summer of 1779, he took command of a division of Connecticut militia, and undertook, with success, the defence of the southwestern sea coast of that State, then invaded by a British army. From that time, until 1783, he was alternately engaged in civil and military duties in his native State, and occasionally held a seat in Congress. In 1784 and 1785, he was an

* During the Revolution, Congress held its sessions in Philadelphia, but was obliged on several occasions to retreat to a more secure position. At the close of 1776 it adjourned to Baltimore, when it was expected Cornwallis would attack Philadelphia, after his successful pursuit of Washington across New Jersey. Again, when Howe marched upon Philadelphia, in September, 1777, Congress adjourned to Lancaster, and three days afterward to York, where its sessions were held during the winter the American army were encamped at Valley Forge.

+ The British force was led by Governor Tryon, of New York. It was a plundering and desolating expedition. Fairfield and Norwalk were laid in ashes, and the most cruel atrocities were inflicted upon the inhabitants, without regard to sex or condition. Houses were rifled, the persons of the females abused, and many of them fled half naked to the woods and swamps in the vicinity of their desolated homes.

active Indian Agent, and was one of the Commissioners who prescribed terms of peace to the Six Nations of Indians who inhabited Western New York.*

In 1786, General Wolcott was elected Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, and was re-elected every year, until 1796, when he was chosen Governor of the State. He was re-elected to that office in 1797, and held the station at the time of his death, which event occurred on the first day of December, of that year, in the seventysecond year of his age. As a patriot and statesman, a christian and a man, Governor Wolcott presented a bright example; for inflexibility, virtue, piety and integrity, were his prominent characteristics.

*The five Indian Tribes, the Mohawks, the Oncidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, had formed a confederation long before they were discov. ered by the whites. It is not known when this confederation was first formed, but when the New England settlers penetrated westward, they found this pow. erful confederacy strongly united, and at war with nearly all of the surrounding tribes. The Onondagas seemed to be the chief nation of the confederacy, for with them the great council fire was specially deposited, and it was kept always burning. Their undisputed domain included nearly the whole of the present area of the State of New York. They subdued the Hurons and Algonquins in 1657; and in 1665 they almost annihilated the Eries. In 1672 they destroyed the Andastes, and in 1701 they penetrated as far South as the Cape Fear River, spreading terror and desolation in their path. They warred with the Cherokees, and almost exterminated the Catawbas; and when, in 1744, they ceded some of their lands to Virginia, they reserved the privilege of a war-path through the ceded domain. In 1714 they were joined by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, and since that time the confederacy has been known as the Six Nations. They uniformly took sides with the British, and entered into a compact with them against the French, in 1754. In the war of the Revolution, "The whole confederacy," says De Witt Clinton, "except a little more than half the Oneidas, took up arms against They hung like the scythe of Death upon the rear of our settlements, and their deeds are inscribed, with the scalping knife, and the tomahawk, in characters of blood, on the fields of Wyoming, and Cherry Valley, and on the banks of the Mohawk."

us.

ALES, in Great Britain, was the fatherland of WILLIAM FLOYD. His grandfather came hither from that country in the year 1680, and settled at Setauket, on Long Island. He was distinguished for his wealth, and possessed great influence among his brother agriculturists.

The subject of this memoir was born on the seventeenth day of December, 1734. His wealthy father gave him

every opportunity for acquiring useful knowledge. He had scarcely closed his studies, before the death of his father called him to the supervision of the estate, and he performed his duties with admirable skill and fidelity. His various excellences of character, united with a pleasing address, made him very popular; and having espoused the republican cause in opposition to the oppressions of the mother country, he was soon called into active public life.

Mr. Floyd was elected a delegate from New York to the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and was one of the most active members of that body. He had previously been appointed commander of the militia of Suffolk County; and early in 1775, after his return from Congress, learning that a naval force threatened an invasion of the Island, and that troops were actually debarking, he placed himself at the head of a division, marched toward the point of intended debarkation, and awed the invaders into a retreat to their ships. He was again returned to the General Congress, in 1775, and the numerous committees of which he was a member, attest his great activity. He ably supported the resolutions of Mr. Lee, and cheerfully voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence.

While attending faithfully to his public duties in Congress, he suffered greatly in the destruction of his property and the exile of his family from their home. After the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, and the retreat of the American army across to York Island, his fine estate was exposed to the rude uses of the British soldiery, and his family were obliged to seek shelter and protection in Connecticut. His mansion was the rendezvous for a party of cavalry, his cattle and sheep were used as provision for the British army, and for seven years he derived not a dollar of income from his property. Yet he

abated not a jot in his zeal for the cause, and labored on hopefully, alternately in Congress and in the Legislature of New York.* Through his skilful management, in connection with one or two others, the State of New York, was placed, in 1779, in a very prosperous financial condition, at a time when it seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy. The depreciation of the continental paper money had produced alarm and distress wide-spread, and the speculations in bread-stuffs threatened a famine; yet William Floyd and his associates ably steered the bark of state clear of the Scylla and Charybdis.

On account of impaired health, General Floyd asked for and obtained leave of absence from Congress, in April, 1779, and in May he returned to New York. He was at once called to his seat in the Senate, and placed upon the most important of those committees of that body, who were charged with the delicate relations with the General Congress.

In 1780 he was again elected to Congress, and he continued a member of that body until 1783, when peace was declared. He then returned joyfully, with his family, to the home from which they had been exiled for seven years, and now miserably dilapidated. He declined a re-election to Congress, but served in the Legislature of his State until 1778, when, after the newly adopted Con

*After the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the States organized governments of their own. General Floyd was elected a Senator in the first legislative body that convened in New York, after the organization of the new government, and was a most useful member in getting the new machinery into successful operation.

The amount of paper money issued by Congress before the close of 1779, amounted to about two hundred millions of dollars. The consequence of such an issue was a well grounded suspicion that the bills would not ultimately be redeemed; and this suspicion, at the close of 1779, became so much of a certainty, that the notes depreciated to about one fourth of their value. An attempt was made by Congress to make these bills a legal tender at their nominal value, but the measure was soon perceived to be mischievous, and they were left to their fate.