USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 37
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ABRAHAM LOTT and ISAAC Low ; the former living at the old store of Lott & Low, and the latter nearly opposite to the Queen's Head Tavern, between Coenties Market and the New Exchange ; where they each continue to keep an Assort- ment of dry Goods, which they will sell on the most rea- sonable terms: And as our principal Motive of dissolving this Partnership is to collect the debts due to it. Those persons who are in Arrear upwards of twelve months must not take amiss (after the repeated and earnest Requests made them to discharge the same) to be now informed that this is the last Time of asking, and that if it should not have the desired Effect, Process will certainly commence against them. Debts will be received by either of the Parties, at their respective places of Abode above-mentioned."
Mr. Abraham Lott does not appear to have long re- mained in active business. On the death of Abraham De Peyster, Treasurer of the Colony, he was, on the 12th December, 1767, appointed to that office. MR. ISAAC Low appears at this time to have carried on an extensive business in the importation of dry goods. His first notice, issued in Holt's New York Journal and General Advertiser for Thursday, Nov. 6, 1766, announces that he "Has just im- ported an assortment of goods suitable to the season, con- sisting of friezes, coatings, broad cloths, flannels, embossed serges ; Penistons and half-thicks, spotted ermine, shalloons, rattinets, callimancoes, Oznabrigs, sheeting ; Russia drilling, dowlass, garlix, Callicoes, cottons, cambricks, lawns ; both muslen, taffaties, Persians, cotton, lungee and new silk romalls, bandannos and women's gloves ; worsted and cotton hose, &c., &c., which he will sell on the most reasonable terms at his store, between the Exchange and Coenties market .- Imported since the above : A fresh assortment of beautiful checks and callicoes from the fountain head ;
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Scots handkerchiefs, bed bunts, bed ticks, gartering, bind- ing, &c."
To this curious assortment he adds the next year, as appears in Gaine's N. Y. Mercury (Oct. 12, 1767), "red and beaver coatings, blue and red ratteen, best London strouds and Auroras, Shrewsbury cottons, felt hats, men's 4 thread worsted breeches patterns, women's worsted mitts, Marseilles quilting ; cloves, cinnamon, meal, and nutmegs ; best Scot's snuff, by the hogshead, tierce, or less quantity ; best Pistol Powder ; a few Pipes of Madeira Wine, &c., &c., for which he will take in barter most kinds of country produce, such as flour, pork, flax seed, bar iron, potash, beaver .- Has also to sell a few packs of best Michillimachinac beaver." A further notice in Holt's N. Y. Journal and General Adver- tiser (May 12, 1768) gives the further quaint names of flowered petticoating, silk Sooses, and Damascus silk Loret- tos, silk burdels, and dressed deer skins.
The Beaver and Deer Skins which MR. ISAAC Low here and often offers for sale, probably came to him from the northern border of the Colony, where his wife's con- nections (the Schuylers) had their great estates, and constant dealings with the Indians, whose chief staple of trade was the skins of the Beaver. He seems to have had almost a monopoly of the Fur trade at this time.
The great rivals of MR. Low at this time in the Dry Goods trade were the houses of Remsen and Beekman. Others, with foreign agencies, soon made their appearance.
At an early age MR. Low came into notice for his at- tention to political questions. In December, 1764, he was one of the " Committee on Agriculture and Oeconomy of the Society of the Promotion of Arts," the chief association of that period.
The year 1765 was marked by a serious attempt on
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the part of the Home Government to abridge the liberties of the Colonies, and to bring them to a state of vassalage to their mother Country. The French war had greatly added to the debt of England. Undertaken to check the power of France in the New World, it was really but an incident in the old rivalry of the neighbor kingdoms, and the British ministry were well content to try the wager of battle in a far-off land. The issue of such a struggle could not be doubtful. England, with her naval power and able seamen, aided by a hardy people with the better part of the Ameri- can continent at their back, entered into the war with every advantage. The struggle closed with the surrender of Canada. The fruits of victory had hardly been secured when the ministry brought into Parliament a bill to tax the Colonies to pay their cost. The Colonies, well versed in the principles of liberty, objected to pay a tax voted by a Parliament in which they were not represented. They claimed equality; they spurned inferiority or servitude.
All America united in resistance; all classes joined together with a singleness of purpose to which the after- history of the long contest presents no parallel. The mer- chants of New York led the van, and the great popular triumph gained in the repeal of the Stamp Act may be fairly claimed as the result of their action. Not less than two hundred merchants signed their names to the solemn agreement of the 31st October, 1765, to trade no more with Britain till the Act was repealed. It is a never-ending source of regret to the inquirer into the early history of New York that the details of this struggle are nowhere preserved. The credit due to individuals has all been merged, in the lapse of time, into the honor of a class.
The part taken by MR. Low in these interesting move- ments has shared the common fate. Enough remains to show
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that there was no holding back by the young and high- spirited merchant.
His name appears with those of James De Lancey, William Walton, Jun., John Thurman, Jun., Henry White and John Harris Cruger, all leading men, "signed by order of and at the request of a considerable number of the respectable inhabitants of the City of New York," June 26th, 1766, to a petition to the City Members to ask the General Assembly to erect "an elegant statue of brass to William Pitt in honor of his manly stand in behalf of Colonial rights." The history of this statue has been too often written to need more than passing mention.
A few years later MR. Low again changes his place of business. In Holt's N. Y. Journal and General Advertiser of May 4th, 1769, he announces his removal "into the House of Mrs. Lawrence next door to Theodorus Van Wyck." The streets do not seem to have been numbered as early as this.
In the year 1770 he again appears in public positions of a nature which show that he was the trusted leader of his merchant associates. A record of his name as one of the " Committee of Merchants appointed to inspect the importa- tion of goods" is given in Holt's New York Journal of May 31st of that year.
The continued encroachments of the ministry had led to a second renewal of the old agreements as to non-importa- tion and exportation, into which all the Colonies had heartily entered. Yet the sequel showed that they were only faith- fully kept by New York.
The merchants of New York becoming aware of the continued importations of their neighbors, grew restive, and in the summer the Committee of Inspection directed MR. ISAAC Low, their chairman, to inform the Boston Com-
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mittee, composed of Thomas Cushing, John Hancock, and others, of their discontent. On the 24th July they reply, and express a doubt of the New York letter, because only signed by four of its numbers. To this the New York Committee, 18th Aug., 1770, returned an indignant rejoin- der, rejecting the idea that MR. Low could be unknown to them as the "chairman of the New York Committee and a gentleman of character," and renewing the charge of a breach of the agreements on the part of Boston merchants.
The letter is worthy of careful study as a proof of the early leaning of New York towards a Congress of the Colonies, and its resolve to enter into no new agreements except in that form. It explains the settled purpose which was evi- dent in the course of its merchants at a later period. A few extracts will give a clear idea of the tenor of the New York letter. It may be seen in Holt's New York Journal of 30th August, 1770.
" This Committee used every endeavour in their power to harmonize and act in concert with their neighbours, not only by the proposal of a CONGRESS, in consequence of in- structions from our inhabitants at a general and very full meeting, but by faithfully communicating their real senti- ments on every occasion afterwards. Your concurrence in so salutary a measure as that of a Congress would undoubt- edly have satisfied the minds of our inhabitants, and in all probability might have had a happy tendency to unite them in one system for the whole Continent. This was rejected, and gave much discontent-in so much that numbers said it was only a scheme in you to continue importing under pompous ostentatious resolves against it.
" The Bills of Entry made at the Custom House in London contain the Entries of all kinds of goods, as usually shipped for your Port, as if no Agreement existed, and at
4
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the same time the Pamphlet appearing of Imports and Ex- ports confirming those Entries at your Town, together with your former neglect (which some construed wilful) to give orders, to the masters of your vessels, not to take in any Goods contrary to Agreement.
" Your merchants coming into Connecticut, particularly Middletown, soliciting the custom of people there, alledg- ing that as NEW YORK WAS OUT OF GOODS, and they having GENERAL Assortment, it must be of great advantage to them to come to Boston and trade; and the Goods run into this City from your Province and Rhode Island, were all very aggravating circumstances, which conspired to raise such murmurings and clamours in our Inhabitants as no arguments could appease, unless at the proposed general Congress sufficient evidence had appeared to their Deputies to have assured their constituents at their Return that the dif- ferent Reports which had been current were void of all JUST foundation, and the Pamphlet SPURIOUS.
"We would long since have inclosed you one of the Pamphlets you mention, if we could have possibly supposed you ignorant of its true contents, especially as it was origin- ally sent us from Boston, and not New-Port as is suggested.
" That you may not, however, any longer plead ignorance of matters it so highly Concerns you to know and clear up, too, if possible, we now inclose you the Pamphlet for those Purposes.
"The Conduct of the Merchants of this City has always been agreeable to their public declarations and agreements ; they have never DECEIVED their Neighbours, but have most religiously maintained their engagements."
This letter was addressed to Messrs. Cushing, Hancock, and others, the Committee at Boston. There could not have been any ignorance of the facts charged or the pamphlet 31
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concerning them. The Boston Chronicle of Thursday, Feb. 8, 1770, both makes the charges and provides the proof in the publication of the manifests. It even accuses the Com- mittee of a neglect to expose those " who are deceiving the Public by false accounts."
The plan of a Congress was generally entertained in New York. An anonymous suggestion of the kind so much in fashion, published in Holt's N. Y. Journal and General Advertiser, June 20, 1770, says : "a suitable place for a Congress, provided a convenient time be given for a meeting from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, is an open and eligible mode of proceeding."
The New York Committee went so far as to address their correspondents, desiring a Congress of Merchants to meet at Norwalk. But nothing seems to have come of this plan. The neighboring Colonies found their advantage in what New York felt to be a great burden. Failing in their efforts, there was a general resumption of trade by New York, except as to Tea.
Whether a strict adherence to these agreements, and an entire stoppage of British trade, would have caused such suffering in Great Britain as to force the withdrawal of the obnoxious Acts of Parliament, is mere matter of conjecture. Many of the wisest observers of that day differed in idea. From their failure the Colonies, at least New York, which was the greatest sufferer, learned one great lesson, that agree- ments were useless, unless there were some power to enforce their observance.
This was the germ of the idea of American Union. The Committees of Inspection were the forerunners of the Dele- gations to Congress. Indeed, the only act of the first Con- tinental Congress was to recommend the Colonies to give legal powers to new Committees regularly chosen to enforce
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the observance of the agreements. So at a later period when the old Colonies, then new States, had won their freedom, they turned from the weak Confederacy they had formed to " a more perfect union." It is an error to suppose that the great Republic which to-day stands first in power among the nations of the earth, self-sustained and self-sustaining, was the result of the deliberations of any body of men. It was the growth of years of experience, and the wisest of its statesmen were little in advance of the spirit of the age.
In the first days of May, 1774, the agitation in America was at fever-heat. The Colonies waited in anxiety for news from the mother country. Each in turn had added action to protest. Boston had boarded the tea-ships and thrown their cargoes into the sea ; New York and Philadelphia had forced the vessels to return ; Charleston had permitted a landing, but refused to drink the offered cup. A nameless Nation had with one accord defied a Power beneath whose heavy hand kingdoms had crumbled to decay. The letters of their agents had given word to the Colonies of the King's purpose to force them to submission. Every eye was turned seaward in eager watching for the coming messenger ; every ear was strained to catch the first note of England's answer to the Colonial defiance.
On the 12th of May, the Packet-Ship Samson, Coupar master, sailed into the offing. In the letters to merchants came copies of a Bill which had passed the Commons and the Lords without a dissenting voice, and received the King's sanction on the 31st March. This Bill closed the Port of Boston, removed the Board of Customs to Marblehead, and its seat of government to Salem. News came too that Gen- eral Gage had been named civil Governor of the Massachu- setts Colony, and was about to sail in the Lively Frigate for his new government. The news spread rapidly through the 1
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city. To indignation at the arbitrary measures of the Ministry, was added consternation and surprise that all Par- liament had joined in the cruel measure. Even the great Whig leader Fox had been content to suggest that the powers of relief should be lodged with Parliament and not in the Crown, and when the final vote was taken his voice was still. The excitement in the city was heightened by the report of a captain of a schooner that "as they came past Boston, Tuesday, the 10th, they heard great firing, by which there was reason to suppose General Gage had arrived there." This was an error. The firing was from the Castle in honor of the appointment, the news of which reached Boston that day by a merchant-vessel. The Lively Frigate did not ar- rive till the 13th.
If Parliament was of one mind, there were those in Eng- land who held other views, and looked upon the issue to be tried in the Colonies as a common cause. Letters from some of these friends of America were received by the Samson, three by private hand. Those dated 5th, 7th, and 8th of April, were of an important nature. One was " from a military officer of eminence, both on account of his rank and literary abilities." Who this officer was is uncertain. It was prob- ably Colonel Barre, a leading Whig, and an officer of high merit, well known in America ; he had been the bosom friend of Wolfe; was with him at Quebec ; and, badly wounded himself, had seen his friend and commander fall in the moment of victory. Colonel Barre had greatly en- deared himself to the Colonies by his manly and eloquent appeals in their defence in Parliament in opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. To him was by many as- cribed the authorship of the Letters of Junius (1769-1772). He had held the post of Adjutant-General of the British army, and his military talents were of a high order. He
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fully answers the description given of the author of one of these Letters.
The letter of the 7th pointed out the encroachments of the Ministry on Constitutional rights, the weakness of the minority to " stem the torrent of corruption," and urged that nothing stood in the way of an assumption of arbitrary power but the struggles of the Americans to preserve their liber- ties. It warned the Americans to firmness and vigilance. " It behooves the Colonies to be united in their intelligence, council, and measures; it is a matter of the last importance to them to stand by and support one another : the most favoured can only expect to be the last devoured. The Ministry are determined to try your metal to the utmost. Depend upon it, every Colony is to be subdued into a slavish obedience to the tyrannical imposition of Great Britain : nothing less will suffice ; nothing less is intended."
The letter of the 8th urged instant reprisals, and added : " the preservation of England itself and her excellent Consti- tution require it of you."
These vigorous letters, printed on the back of the Boston Port Bill, and spread over the city in handbills, aroused the city to a high pitch of excitement.
At this period the political state of New York was pecu- liar. The harmony which marked the movement of 1765, in resistance to the Stamp Act, had been broken. Party feeling was warm on more than one ground of difference. The old struggle between the Episcopalians and the Pres- byterians had been carried to the polls. The Church-party and the landed aristocracy held the Government House and its patronage. The Dissenters had their voice in the As- sembly, and the ear of the tradesman and the mechanic. More than all, the people were restless; the spirit of lib- erty was abroad, and would not be restrained. And it is
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as true that license is often the first assertion of liberty as that oppression is the last stage of arbitrary power. The nightly processions and effigy-burnings alarmed the men of property. The merchants saw with uneasiness that their interests were jeopardized by men whom they could not influence or con- trol.
They now resolved to guide the movement. On Satur- day, the 14th, while handbills were freely passing through the city, a notice was posted in the Coffee-house, calling a meeting of merchants and others at the house of Samuel Fraunces, then known as " The Queen's Head Tavern." The same day the Vigilance Committee of the Sons of Liberty, an order kept alive by the radical leaders of the old organization so famous in 1765, addressed a letter to the Committee at Boston, announcing the intended meeting, and pledging the merchants to a line of conduct not yet adopted by them. " The merchants are to have a meeting tomorrow evening to agree upon a non-Importation and non-Exporta- tion of Goods to and from Great Britain." This step was not known until a later day, when a curious mistake gave rise to much ill feeling and caused a serious division in the city.
The assemblage, proving too large for the rooms of Mr. Francis, adjourned to the Exchange, a few paces distant. Two parties appeared at this meeting, with printed lists of candidates. The one, a list of twenty-five members, was offered by the Sons of Liberty-the mechanics and traders ; the other, of fifty members, had been arranged by the merchants. One of these tickets was the base of both; there are but two names upon the smaller not found in the same order on the larger ticket. Both, in their original form, may be seen in the admirable collection of the New York Historical Society : as neither is dated, it is at this day
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impossible to say whether that of fifty had been enlarged from the one of twenty-five, or that of twenty-five reduced from that of fifty. Both were headed with the name of John Alsop, and both were chiefly made up of merchants.
The merchants' party was headed by MR. ISAAC Low. On him all eyes were turned at this crisis. The vigor of his intellect, the independence of his character, and his manly self-reliance, marked him as a leader of men; he had long since proved his abilities in the political discussions which were the fashion of the day, and had for many years been the favorite chairman of public meetings. A handbill, preserved in the New York Historical Society Collection of Broadsides, gives a clear account of the proceedings at the meeting.
" At a Meeting at the Exchange, 16th May, 1774, ISAAC Low chosen Chairman,
1st. Question put,-Whether it is necessary for the present to appoint a Committee to correspond with the neighboring colonies on the present important crisis ? Car- ried in the affirmative by a great Majority."
2d. Whether a Committee be nominated this evening for the Approbation of the Public ? Carried in the affirma- tive by a great Majority.
3d. Whether the Committee of 50 be appointed, or 25? Carried for 50 by a great Majority."
The handbill then names the Committee.
From a subsequent notice it appears that a quorum was fixed at 15 members. This was a bitter disappointment to the more radical, who hoped to retain the direction of affairs. But the wisdom of the merchants, the wider range of interest represented on their ticket, the high character of the persons named and their great stake in the community, and, above
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all, the demand for union and harmony, happily met by them in the appointment of some of the more respected of their opponents, carried the day.
On the 17th, another public notice summoned a meet- ing of the inhabitants of all ranks at the Merchants' Coffee- house to confirm the choice. Previous to the vote being taken, as is related in the journals of the day-
" MR. Low addressed his fellow citizens in the following words, viz. :
" Gentlemen,-You have been duly apprised, both by Hand Bills and Advertisements in this Day's Papers of the intention of your present meeting. I hope, gentlemen, you will manifest by your conduct that you are actuated by the Dictates of calm reason only in the choice of the Committee I am to propose for your approbation.
" It is but charitable to suppose we all mean the same thing, and that the only Difference amongst us is, or at least ought to be, the mode of affecting it,-I mean the Preser- vation of our just Rights and Liberties. Let us then call down Wisdom to our aid, and endeavor to walk in her hal- lowed paths. Zeal in a good cause is most laudable ; but when it transports beyond the Bounds of Reason, it often leaves Room for bitter Reflection. We ought therefore, Gentlemen, to banish from our Hearts all little Party Dis- tinctions, Feuds, and Animosities-for to our Unanimity and Virtue we must at last recur for Safety, and that Man will approve himself the best Friend to his Country whose highest Emulation is to inculcate these Principles both by Precept and Example."
The Committee, of fifty nominated at the meeting of the 16th, was then carried, and the honored name of Francis
.
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Lewis was added to the list, thus raising the number to Fifty- one.
The manuscript minutes of the Committee hint at no difference of sentiment on this occasion, and the journals are discreetly silent ; but a letter of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, who was present, addressed to Mr. Penn the next day, the 20th May, shows that there was a warm contest.
The Committee organized on the 23d, with the appoint- ment of MR. ISAAC Low Chairman, and Mr. John Alsop Deputy-Chairman. At this meeting a letter was read from the Body of Mechanics, signed by Jonathan Blake, Chairman, concurring in the nomination. At this first meeting Paul Revere, the active and patriotic Liberty Boy, and Express from Boston to Philadelphia, delivered in the official Report of the town meeting held at Boston on the 13th May, which had adopted strong importation reso- lutions, and recommended a similar course to the other Colonies. McDougall, an active and radical son of Liberty, ISAAC Low, James Duane, and John Jay, were appointed to prepare a reply, and the same evening the general com- mittee met and ordered the signing of the following letter.
This letter, as an early announcement of the settled pur- pose and views of the majority of the Committee, is of great value, and is in itself a sufficient defence against all the attacks made upon its course in that day or this.
NEW YORK, May 23, 1774.
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