General Philip Schuyler - Revolutionary War Patriot

Philip Schuyler
Major, British Army
Colonel, New York Militia
Continental Congressman
Major General, Continental Army
New York State Senator
U.S. Senator from New York
Father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton
Federalist Party 

(Editor's Note - For a change of pace this winter we will do profiles of some of the Federalists who helped create this great nation. They gave us Liberty. But would they even recognize the centralized, authoritarian and socialistic Big Brother nation that calls itself the United States?)


Philip John Schuyler (November 20, 1733 – November 18, 1804) was a general in the American Revolution and a Federalist Party United States Senator from New York.

Philip Schuyler was born in Albany, New York, on November 20, 1733, to John (Johannes) Schuyler, Jr. (1697–1741), third generation of the Dutch family in America, and Cornelia Van Cortlandt (1698–1762).

Prior to his father's death on the eve of his eighth birthday, Schuyler attended the public school at Albany. Afterward, he was educated by tutors at the Van Cortlandt family estate at New Rochelle. He joined the British forces in 1755 during the French and Indian War, raised a company, and was commissioned as its Captain by his cousin, Lt. Governor James Delancey. Later in that war, he served as a quartermaster, purchasing supplies and organizing equipment.

From 1761 to 1762, Schuyler made a trip to England to settle accounts from his work as quartermaster. During this time his home in Albany, later called Schuyler Mansion, was built. His country estate (General Schuyler House) at Saratoga (now Schuylerville, New York) was also begun. After the war he also expanded the Saratoga estate to tens of thousands of acres, adding slaves, tenant farmers, a store, mills for flour, flax, and lumber. His flax mill for the making of linen was the first one in America. He built several schooners on the Hudson River, and named the first Saratoga.

Schuyler began his political career as a member of the New York Assembly in 1768, and served in that body until 1775. During this time his views came to be more opposed to the colonial government. He was particularly outspoken in matters of trade and currency. He was also made a Colonel in the militia for his support of governor Henry Moore.

Invasion of Canada (1775)
As commander of the Northern Department, General Schuyler helped plan and organize the American invasion of Canada.  Among those in the invasion were the Green Mountain Boys, Daniel Morgan, Benedict Arnold and a very young Aaron Burr.

Revolutionary War

Schuyler was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775.  He served until he was appointed one of four Major Generals of the Continental Army in June. General Schuyler took command of the Northern Department, established his headquarters at Albany and planned the Invasion of Canada (1775).

Soon after the Canadian expedition started Schuyler was prostrated by rheumatic gout, and the actual command devolved upon General Richard Montgomery. Schuyler returned to Ticonderoga and later to Albany, where he spent the winter of 1775-1776 in collecting and forwarding supplies to Canada and in suppressing the Loyalists and their Indian allies in the Mohawk Valley.

Philip Schuyler

Early in 1776 he directed an expedition to Johnstown, where he seized the military stores that had been collected by Sir John Johnson.

As department commanding General, he was active in preparing a defense against the Saratoga Campaign, part of the "Three Pronged Attack" strategy of the British to cut the American Colonies in two by invading and occupying New York State in 1777.

In the summer of that year General John Burgoyne marched his British army south from Quebec over the valleys of Lakes Champlain and George. On the way he invested the small Colonial garrison occupying Fort Ticonderoga at the nexus of the two lakes.

On the death of Montgomery and the failure to take Quebec the army retreated to Crown Point, and its commander, General John Sullivan, was superseded by General Horatio Gates. Gates claimed precedence over Schuyler and, on failing to secure recognition, intrigued to bring about Schuyler's dismissal.

The controversy was taken into Congress. The necessary withdrawal of the army from Crown Point in 1776 and the evacuation of Ticonderoga in 1777 were magnified by Schuyler's enemies into a retrograde movement, and, on the 19th of August 1777, he was superseded. A court martial appointed in 1778 acquitted him on every charge. He resigned from the army in April 1779.



Burned by the British
The General Philip Schuyler House was built in 29 days in November 1777. This home is now part of Saratoga National Historical Park. During the American Revolution, the British Army occupied this area. The beautiful home of American General, Philip Schuyler, was burned to ground.
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Following the surrender of the British, General Schuyler lost no time in replacing his home. He rebuilt this house using much of the glass, nails, locks and hinges salvaged from the burned home. From here, the General ran his extensive business affairs.
Village of Schuylerville.org

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Tory Plot to Kidnap Schuyler

Account of a loyalist attempt to capture the general.

Schuyler's daughter Catharine was born at Albany on the 20th of February, 1781, nine months before the surrender of Cornwallis, she was almost literally rocked in the cradle of revolution. She was baptized in the Dutch Reformed church, General and Mrs. Washington being two of her sponsors. Her name was the same as that of her mother, who was a daughter of the distinguished family of Van Rensselaer. When only six months old she was the central figure of a most romantic yet terrifying scene.

Though General Schuyler had withdrawn from the army, he was still active in the cause of his country, and the British and Tories were anxious to get possession of his person. He was aware of the fact, and a guard of six soldiers had been furnished him, three of whom were on duty at a time.
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Nevertheless, a bold ruffian named Waltermeyer, accompanied by a gang of Tories, Canadians, and Indians, made the hazardous attempt. Just at twilight on a sultry August day the general and his family were collected in the front hall of his house in the suburbs of Albany. The three guards off duty were asleep in the basement; the others were lying on the grass outside and not very vigilant. A servant announced that a stranger wished to speak with the general at the back gate. A trap was at once suspected, the doors were instantly barred, the family ran up-stairs, and the general sprang for his arms.
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Waltemeyer's gang surrounded the house, the three guards who were barred out fled, and the doors were soon broken in. The three soldiers below rushed up to the back hall where they had left their arms, but these had been removed by some of the family, and they were quickly overpowered. At that moment it was discovered that the infant Catrina was asleep in its cradle in the basement. Margarita, the general's third daughter (then a brave girl of twenty-two, afterwards the wife of the celebrated patroon, General Stephen Van Rensselaer), instantly rushed down the two flights of stairs, snatched up the child, and bore it to the upper rooms.
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As she fled up-stairs one of the cut-throats flung a tomahawk at the heroic girl. It whizzed past the head of little Catrina, slightly cut the dress of Margarita, and was buried in the railing of the stair. A moment after Waltermeyer met her, but supposing her to be a servant allowed her to pass, exclaiming, "Hello, wench, where is your master?"
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"Gone to alarm the town," replied the quick-witted girl. The general heard her, flung up a window, and called at the top of his voice,-  "Come on, my brave fellows, surround the house and secure the scoundrels!" A panic seized on the marauders, who immediately fled, carrying off their three prisoners and a large quantity of silver plate.                     

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Later Career

Schuyler was an original member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.

After the army he served in two more sessions of the Continental Congress in 1779 and 1780.

He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1780 to 1784, and at the same time New York State Surveyor General from 1781 to 1784 and helped to settle the New York boundary disputes with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Afterwards he returned to the State Senate from 1786 to 1790.

In 1788 he joined his son-in-law Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and others in leading the Federalist movement for the ratification by New York of the new Federal Constitution.

In election of 1789, he was elected a U.S. Senator from New York to the First United States Congress, serving from July 27, 1789, to March 4, 1791. After losing his bid for re-election in 1791, he returned to the State Senate from 1792 to 1797.

In the election of 1797, he was elected again to the U.S. Senate as a Federalist and served in the 5th United States Congress from March 4, 1797 until his resignation because of ill health on January 3, 1798.

He was also active for many years as Indian commissioner. He prepared plans for the construction of a canal between the Hudson river and Lake Champlain before 1776, and, in 1792-1796, carried to a successful conclusion a more pretentious scheme for connecting the Hudson with Lake Ontario by way of the Mohawk, Oneida Lake and the Onondaga river.

He died in Albany on the 18th of November 1804.

Grave of General Philip Schuyler

Statue of General Schuyler outside Albany City Hall.

(nndb.com)        (Find a Grave.com)        (iment.com)        (Philip Schuyler)

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The Federalist eagle prevents Jefferson from burning the Constitution on
the alter of despotism and mob rule.

Life, Liberty and Property.
“Citizens choose your sides. You who are for French notions of government; for the tempestuous sea of anarchy and misrule; for arming the poor against the rich; for fraternizing with the foes of God and man; go to the left and support the leaders, or the dupes, of the anti-federal junto. But you that are sober, industrious, thriving, and happy, give your votes for those men who mean to preserve the union of the states, the purity and vigor of our excellent Constitution, the sacred majesty of the laws, and the holy ordinances of religion.” - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - A New York Federalist Newspaper (Spring of 1800)

The Federalist Party was the first American political party. In Presidential politics the Federalists operated from the early 1790s to 1816, the era of the First Party System. Remnants of the Party lasted until 1830. The Federalists totally controlled the Federal government until 1801.

The party was formed by Alexander Hamilton, who, during George Washington's first term, built a network of supporters, largely urban bankers and businessmen, to support his Conservative fiscal policies. These supporters grew into the Federalist Party committed to a fiscally sound and nationalistic government. The United States' only Federalist President was John Adams; although George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, he remained an independent his entire presidency.

Read some profiles of the great Federalist leaders who helped build a free United States.

THE FEDERALIST - Founding Father Jared Ingersoll

THE FEDERALIST - General William Richardson Davie

THE FEDERALIST - General Thomas Pinckney

THE FEDERALIST - Josiah Quincy III - Federalist Patriot
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THE FEDERALIST - Robert Goodloe Harper - "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."

THE FEDERALIST - Edmund Randolph - Founding Father

THE FEDERALIST - Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge - George Washington's Spy

THE FEDERALIST - Colonel John Hoskins Stone

THE FEDERALIST - Revolutionary War General Henry Lee

THE FEDERALIST - John Quincy Adams

THE FEDERALIST - Thomas Jefferson and political attack ads
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