New Windsor 3d July 1776.
[Extract]
Yesterday I was informed that all the Carpenters have Quit work on the Frigates at Poughkeepsie, the report is on acc't of their wages being lower'd;2 if this report be true no doubt the Honorable Congress have solid Reasons for it which at present I cannot devise, but think now's the time that the greatest Harmony should subsist, and that labour undone may be of much worse consequence than giveing a little Extra wages. In times of Public commotion there will allways be a shifting of Property that's very visible, But (as I have often mentioned to you) I cannot see the differance is very great as to the Public welfare, who are in Possession of it, nay I thinkits much better shifted out of the hands of Numbers (who now Possess largeQuantities of it) even to ship Carpenters; than that they should much longer enjoy it.
1. Hugh Hastings, ed., The Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (New York and Albany 1899), I, 245.
2. According to the narrative of Abraham Leggett, the reason does not seem to be because of wages. He wrote: "in '75 the Troubles with England commenced, and nothing to be done, and I had an oppertunity to get in public service. I agreed to go on to Pokipsey and do work on the two frigates that was. to be built there by order of the Continal Congress then sitting in Philadelphia. On the first of Febru'ry 1776 several that was Engadgd and walk'd to Pokipsey eighty-three miles ー there I was Engadg'd Till the first July. I then with several others formed ourselves in a company under the command of Bamardus Swartout all Volunteers ー the times began to appear very Interesting ー the British Fleet and large army was at Staten Island." Charles J. Bushnell, ed., "The Narrative of Major Abraham Leggett," The Magazine of History, XXVI, Extra No. 101 (New York, 1924), 45.
