TORIES.

BY BENSON J. LOSSING.

The Tories of the Revolution were the most bitter and annoying foes of
the patriots who were struggling for their independence. The relation of
the Whigs and Tories was that of belligerents in a civil war--cruel and
uncompromising.

General Philip Schuyler, whose sleepless vigilance acquired for him the
title of "the Eye of the Northern Department," was the terror of the
Tories in Northern New York, from Sir John Johnson down to Joe Bettys.
Schuyler was, for a long time, commander of the Northern Department. In
1781 he was not in military command. He lived at his country-seat at
Saratoga a part of the year, and the rest of the time at his fine
mansion situated in the southern suburbs of Albany. The British, under
Burgoyne, having destroyed his mansion at Saratoga, and that place being
exposed to incursions of the British and Indians, he made his residence
permanently at Albany.

Early in August, 1781, an attempt was made by some Tories and Indians to
capture him, that he might be used in exchange for some prominent
British prisoner, and also to get rid of the watchfulness of that
dreaded "Eye." In Saratoga lived a man named Walter Myers, who knew
Schuyler well. He had eaten at his table in Albany, and knew the
character of his house and its surroundings. Myers had joined the Tory
Rangers of Colonel Robert Rodgers--a famous partisan on the northern
frontier. The British authorities in Canada employed Myers, who had
become a captain under Rodgers, to seize General Schuyler, Governor
Clinton, and other prominent patriots in the region of the Hudson River,
as far down as Poughkeepsie. Myers was at the head of the party of
Tories and Indians above alluded to, who attempted to carry off
Schuyler. I will let the General tell the story of that attempt in the
following letter to General Washington, dated "Albany, August 8, 1781."
I copied it from the original:

"On Saturday, the 29th, while with the commissions for detecting
conspiracies, I received information that a certain Captain Myers,
of Rodgers's Rangers, from Canada, lurked in the vicinity of this
place, with an intent to take or assassinate me. This corroborated
intelligence given to General Clinton by a person escaped from
Canada. On the Monday following I was informed by a Tory (whose
gratitude for favors received surmounted the influence of his
principles) that a reward of 200 guineas had