230 On the Correspondence of Governor, I). D. Tompkin, 



that occasion, and the governor's private property was sold by the 

 sheriff, it having been the bank's security for that federal loan. Mrs. 

 Tompkins, three days after her confinement, was carried out of her 

 home on her bed, and laid in the street with her infant a few days old, 

 bv the sheriffs officers penniless and homeless. The officers and crew 

 of the (Jnited States revenue cutter then lying off Staten Island, who 

 had witnessed the barbarism of the law, picked up the bed, the mother, 

 and the babe, and carried them on board the cutter." ^ ^ ^ 



to the Governor's children. The interest was never paid: and the 

 property which was wrested from him by the sheriff to pay what he had 

 borrowed for the United States, is to-day worth millions. * * * I 

 fear that these papers will be lost to New York, and fifty of General 

 Washington's coats, seals, walking canes anil whatnot, would not repay 

 the world for such a loss." Mr. Dawson here refers perhaps to the sum 

 of 820,000 which was appropriated by this State in 1871 to pay for some 

 memorials of Washington, certainly of great value, but not in any 

 wise so important to the State of New York as these papers of Governor 

 Tompkins. He adds: " I hope you will do entire justice to that noble 

 man; and that you will not permit any thing to prevent you from 

 exposing the villainy which drove him to drink and to an early end." 

 This is all that I will quote from Mr. Dawson's eloquent letters. Al- 

 though Mr. Dawson uses severe and strong language, he is rarely mis- 

 taken in his statements of facts. 



I had the same convictions with Mr. Dawson that we cannot expect 

 to obtain materials for the history of this State, of its towns and its 

 families of greater value, from any quarter and at any price than the 

 papers of Governor Tompkins. It is the events in this particular period 

 of the war of 1812 to 1815, and the marshalling of troops by the State 

 in the years preceding which have procured so much honor to our State 

 and to Governor Tompkins. And as we repeat the names of the towns 

 which were the theatre of the war in this State, we see the grounds for 

 the perpetual interest which will always attach to even minute par- 

 ticulars regarding this period. Some of the familiar names recorded 

 on the historical column of New York, are Pittsburgh, Sacketts Harbor, 

 Oswego, Niagara, Buffalo, Chippewa, Craney Island, Beaver Dams, 

 Fort Erie, Ogdensburg, Ontario, Fort Queenstown, St. Regis, Thames 



The most exact and critical history of the war of 1812 that has been 

 written is by Charles J. Ingersoll of Philadelphia. In that history, 



