Notes on the Early Settlement of the North-western Territory

The grandfather and father of the author.-Where born and educated. The latter, engaged in the Revolutionary struggle in 1774.-Was chairman of the Committee of Public Safety.-Treatment of the Tories.-Dr. B. elected to Congress.-Appointed Physician and Surgeon General of the eastern department, April, 1777.-Stationed at West Point when the treason of Arnold was discovered.-Capture of Major Andre.-Measures to procure his liberation.-Threats used.-Offer to exchange him for Arnold.-Firmness of Washington.-Delicate treatment of Andre.—Tried, convicted and hung.— Military movements on Long Island.-York Island.-Retreat to the Delaware. Battle of Trenton.-Battle of Princeton.-American army put in winter quarters.-Attempts to injure the character of Washington.-His character defended.

THE writer of the following chapters is the son of Dr. William Burnet, the elder, of Newark, New Jersey; and the grandson of Dr. Ichabod Burnet, a native of Scotland, who was educated at Edinburgh-removed to America soon after his education was finished, and settled at Elizabethtown, in the province of New Jersey; where he practiced his profession with great success, as a physician and surgeon, till 1773, when he died at the advanced age of eighty years.

His only son, William, was born in 1730-educated at Nassau Hall, during the presidency of the Reverend Aaron Burr-and graduated in 1749, before the institution was removed to Princeton.

He studied medicine under Dr. Staats, of New York, and practiced it with assiduity and success, till the difficulties

with the Mother Country became alarmingly serious. Being a high-toned Whig, he took an active part in the measures of resistance which were resorted to, against the oppressive proceedings of the British government.

When the judicial courts of the province were closed and the regular administration of justice suspended, by a ministerial order, he relinquished the practice of his profession, which was extensive and lucrative, and took part in the political movements of the day, with great activity and zeal.

The protection of law having been withdrawn, by closing the judicial tribunals of the colony, the people assumed the reins of government from necessity, and administered law and justice as well as they could, circumstanced as they

were.

In some places it was done by county arrangements, and in others by township committees. In Newark, as a temporary expedient, the power was vested in a "Committee of Public Safety," appointed by the people of the township.

Similar measures of precaution were necessarily resorted to throughout the province; each county, town or neighborhood, devising and pursuing its own plan. The powers confided to these committees were dictatorial; and the entire whig population stood pledged to enforce their decisions. The tories were numerous, and had full confidence that the British troops would overrun the country, and reduce it to obedience, without encountering any serious resistance. They were therefore bold and insolent, and by their movements the public peace was constantly endangered, and was preserved only by the vigorous action of those conservative bodies.

The committee appointed at Newark, of which Dr. Burnet was chairman, was in session almost daily, hearing and deciding complaints, and adjudicating on the various matters referred to them. Some of the most obnoxious of the tories they banished: on others they imposed fines

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