USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 38
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GENTLEMEN :
The alarming measures of the British Parliament relative to your ancient and respectable town, which has so long been the Seat of Freedom, fills the inhabitants of this city with inexpressible concern. As a sister Colony, suffer- ing in defence of the rights of America, We consider your
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injuries as a common cause, to the redress of which it is equally our duty and our interest to contribute. But what ought to be done in a situation so truly critical, while it em- ploys the anxious thoughts of every generous mind, is very hard to be determined. Our citizens have thought it neces- sary to appoint a large committee of fifty-one persons to correspond with our sister Colonies in this and every other matter of public moment ; and at ten o'clock this forenoon we were first assembled. Your letter, enclosing the vote of the Town of Boston and the letter of your Committee of Correspondence were immediately taken into considera- tion.
While we think you justly entitled to the thanks of your sister Colonies for asking their advice in a case of such ex- tensive consequences, we lament our inability to relieve your anxiety by a decisive opinion. The cause is general and con- cerns a whole Continent who are equally interested with you and us, and we foresee no remedy can be of any avail unless it proceeds from the joint act and approbation of all. From a virtuous and spirited union much may be expected, while the feeble efforts of a few will only be attended with mischief and disappointment to themselves, and triumph to the adversaries of our liberty. Upon these reasons we con- clude that a Congress of deputies from the Colonies in gen- eral is of the utmost moment ; that it ought to be assem- bled without delay, and some unanimous resolutions formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances, but for the security of our common right. Such being our sentiments it must be premature to pronounce any judgement on the expedient which you have suggested. We beg, however, that you will do us the justice to believe that we shall continue to act with a firm and becoming regard to American Freedom, and to co-operate with our sister colonies
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in every measure which shall be thought salutary and condu- cive to the public good.
We have nothing to add but that we sincerely condole with you in your unexampled distresses, and to request your speedy opinion of the proposed Congress, that if it should meet with your approbation we may exert our utmost en- deavours to carry it into execution.
By order of the Committee of Correspondence,
ISAAC Low, Chairman.
This letter is ascribed by Sparks to John Jay, but no authority is given. There is little doubt but that it was written by MR. Low. The style is that of MR. Low in the many communications, which appeared in the journals of the period, known to be from his pen, and is in thorough accord with that of the subsequent letter to Boston, by a committee of which Mr. Jay did not make part. Nor is it probable that one of the first merchants of the time, who had presided over their earlier committees, and whose habit was that of the pen, would have given way to any person at this impor- tant crisis.
The merchants of New York had not yet forgotten the result of the old non-importation agreements, which, dating from the original resolve in 1765, had been often renewed, nor the bitter correspondence between the New York Com- mittee of Inspection, of which Mr. ISAAC Low was Chairman, and the Boston Committee. This agreement, rigidly ad- hered to by New York Merchants to their great detriment, had been broken by all the other Colonies. As the New England historian of the United States, Mr. George Bancroft, strikingly states it : " Canada, Carolina and Georgia, and even Maryland and Virginia, had increased their importations, and New England and Pennsylvania had imported nearly one half
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as much as usual; New York alone had been perfectly true to its agreements, and its imports had fallen off nearly five parts in six. It was impatient of a system of voluntary re- nunciation which was so unequally kept, and the belief was common that if the others had adhered to it as strictly, all the grievances would have been shortly redressed."
The Merchants of New York had set their faces as flint against any plan but that of a General Congress of the Colo- nies, similar to the famous Stamp Act Congress, in which most of the Colonies took part, in 1765, and the results of which were so happy.
A strange mistake occurred at this time which, for some time unexplained, gave rise to doubts in the minds of many of the Committee, and has surely been the cause of grave errors since by all historians who have written of the action of New York in the spring of 1774. This error has left a shadow on the fame of the Committee of Fifty-one.
While the Merchants of New York were weighing their course, the letter of the Vigilance Committee of the 14th, pledging them in advance to non-importation agreements, had reached the Boston Committee of Correspondence, whose reply came to the hands of the Committee of Fifty- one. The Committee met on the 6th June, and ordered an answer signifying their adherence to the measures of a Con- gress at any time or place, requesting the names of the Bos- ton Committee, and informing them of their mistake in an- swering the letter which mentioned not a word of the " sus- pension of trade," a measure they leave entirely to the Con- gress. It appears from this and abundant other proofs, that the mind of New York was set on a Congress. The Boston Letter called forth a second statement of their fixed views. From it as from the first it is clear that New York was resolved on a Congress, and nothing but a Congress, of the Colonies :
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"NEW YORK, June 7, 1774.
"GENTLEMEN:
" We have received your favor of the 30th May, and you may rest assured we shall eagerly embrace all proper opportunities of contributing our mite towards bringing to a favorable issue the unhappy disputes which at present ex- ist between the Parent State and her Colonies.
" You say that 'a speedy and united and vigorous effort is certainly all that can be depended upon to yield us any effectual relief, and that this effort is on all hands acknow- ledged to be the suspension of trade so wisely defined by you.' To the first we entirely concur; but in the last we apprehend you have made a mistake, for on revising our let- ter to you, far from finding a word mentioned of a ‘ suspen- sion of trade,' the idea is not even conceived. That and every other resolution we have thought most prudent to leave for the discussion of the proposed General Congress.
" Adhering, therefore, to that measure, as most conducive to promote the grand system of politics we all have in view, we have the pleasure to acquaint you that we shall be ready on our part to meet at any time and place that you shall think fit to appoint ; either of Deputies from the General Assem- blies, or such other Deputies as shall be chosen, not only to speak the sentiments, but also to pledge themselves for the con- duct of the people of the respective Colonies they represent.
" We can undertake to assure you in behalf of the peo- ple in this Colony that they will readily agree to any measure that shall be adopted by the General Congress. It will be necessary that you give a sufficient time for the Deputies of the Colonies as far southward as the Carolinas to assemble and acquaint them as soon as possible with the proposed measure of a Congress. These letters to the southward we will forward with great pleasure.
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" You may have seen all the names of our Committee in the public prints, and as we have never heard the names of those which constitute your Committee, we request the favor of you to give us that satisfaction in your next.
" We beg that your letters for the future may be sealed and directed to our Chairman.
" We are, Gentlemen, your friends and most humble servants. By order of the Committee,
"I. Low, Chairman."
In July the concurrence of other Colonies being obtained, and the Boston Committee, acting upon the suggestion of New York, having named Philadelphia as the place and September as the time for the meeting of the Congress, the Committee of Correspondence, on the 4th (July, 1774), nominated Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, ISAAC Low, and John Jay, as delegates for the City and County of New York, and called a public meeting to ratify their choice.
The " Body of Mechanics," whose leaders, John Morin Scott and Alexander McDougall, had been refused by the Committee of Fifty-one as Delegates, presented a new ticket, upon which Alexander McDougall and Leonard Lispenard were named in the place of James Duane and John Alsop. Some difference of opinion arose as to the true mode of choos- ing the delegates, but the Committee holding firmly to their purpose the rival candidates withdrew their names. All dif- ferences were finally healed by an appeal to the people at the polls, and at an election held in the seven wards of the City on the 28th July, the candidates of the Committee were chosen. Three of these delegates were merchants and mem- bers of the Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile the radical leaders, discontented with their loss
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of control, and without doubt urged by the Boston Commit- tee with whom they were leagued in close and friendly ties, called a public meeting in the Fields, on the 6th July, over which Mr. McDougall (a member of the New York Committee of Fifty-one) presided. This meeting, among other expressions of opinion, resolved " That a non-importa- tion agreement would prove the salvation of North America;" instructed the deputies to Congress to establish a non-impor- tation act; and ordered that the Committee of Correspond- ence be instructed to carry their resolutions into effect.
The next day the call for the "Meeting in the Fields" and the course of Mr. McDougall in acting as its Chairman were discussed in the Committee-room. It was justly claimed that it was unfair to the Committee for a member of it to submit " resolves calculated for partial purposes, no motion having been made for such resolves in the Committee." Warm feeling was shown on both sides, and on the passage by a vote of 21 to 9 censuring such proceedings as calculated to throw an odium upon the Committee, as well as create dis- union in the city, the minority withdrew from the room and proclaimed that the Committee was dissolved.
The Committee then proceeded to express their views of the Boston Port Bill, and of the measures proposed for the relief of the sister colony.
In a report, made on the 13th July, they urged that " the proposed Congress of Delegates is the most prudent measure that could be devised;" that the whole subject should be left in the hands of Congress; . .. that no mea- sures calculated to "injure our brethren the manufacturers, traders, and merchants in England " should be adopted, ex- cept in case of dire necessity (and expressed reliance on the co-operation of friends in England) ; ... "that if a non- importation agreement be adopted by Congress, it ought to be
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very general and faithfully adhered to, and that a non-impor- tation, partially observed like the last, would answer no good purpose, but, on the contrary, serve to expose all the Colonies to further injuries; . . . . finally, that the Delegates should be so instructed that they may be able to pledge themselves for the good conduct of the people of the Colonies they represent."
With the election of the delegates to Congress, the object for which the Committee was raised was attained. Although occasional meetings were held afterwards, no other action was ever taken by it, and on the 15th November it was finally ordered, that after a Committee to enforce the association of the Congress should be elected, they should consider themselves dissolved. There was no later meeting.
From first to last this Committee never lost sight of the object which it set forth in its first letter. Every effort was made at the time to force it to adopt again the old and weak measure of a breaking up of commercial intercourse with Great Britain, and both in that day and in this their refusal has been harshly judged and misrepresented. Had they yielded, the scheme of a Congress would, for the time at least, have fallen to the ground. It was only when Massa- chusetts found that New York would be satisfied with noth- ing else than a Congress, that she came into the often pro- posed but always rejected scheme.
Towards the end of August the Eastern delegates ar- rived in the city on their way to Philadelphia, to the first Continental Congress, and were entertained with great hospi- tality. John Adams' account alludes to the courtesy with which they were received. "We dined in the Exchange Chambers at the invitation of the Committee of Correspond- ence, with more than fifty gentlemen, at the most splendid dinner I ever saw; a profusion of rich dishes, &c., &c."
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He has left a record, too, of the style in which MR. Low then lived, and of the charms of his family. His house was at this time in Little Dock Street. " We breakfasted with MR. Low, a gentleman of fortune and in trade. His lady is a beauty. Rich furniture, again, on the tea-table."
Abundant concurrent testimony bears witness to the fas- cination of the wife of MR. Low.
Mrs. Grant, in her "Memoirs of an American lady" (Ma- dame Schuyler), pays a beautiful tribute to the merits and graces of the two unmarried daughters of Mr. Cuyler, nieces and constant companions of Mrs. Schuyler. "They were, from their beauty and their manners, the ornaments of her society, while their good sense, ripened by being called early into action, made these amiable and elegant young women more a comfort and assistance than a care or charge. . . . . The eldest niece, a remarkably fine young woman, was mar- ried to Mr. C. (Cortland) of C. (Cortland) manor, which was accounted one of the best matches, or rather the very best, in the province. She was distinguished by a figure of uncommon grace and dignity, a noble and expressive countenance, and a mind such as her appearance led one to expect. .... Her younger sister, equally admired, though possessing a different style of beauty, more soft and debo- nair, with the fairest complexion, and a most cheerful sim- plicity of aspect, was the peculiar favorite of her aunt above all that she ever had charge of. She, too, was soon after married to that highly esteemed patriot, the late ISAAC L(ow), revered, through the whole continent, for his sound good sense and genuine public spirit. He was indeed hap- pily tempered, mild, and firm."
The departure of the city delegates for this the first Continental Congress on the 1st September, was the occasion of a popular demonstration, of which MR. Low received a
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marked share. "Gaines's New York Gazette " of Septem- ber 5th thus describes it: "MR. Low being under the Neces- sity of going by Way of Powles Hook, he was escorted to the Ferry Stairs by a considerable number of respectable persons, with Colours flying, Music playing, and loud Huz- zas at the End of each Street. When they got down to the River, he in a very polite Manner took Leave of the Inhab- itants, six of whom accompanied him and his Lady over, with Music playing GOD SAVE THE KING. The Inhabitants then returned to the Coffee House to testify the like Respect to the other delegates."
On the 5th September, 1774, the Congress assembled at the Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. All the New York members were present.
The next day two Committees were appointed, one upon the Rights of the Colonies; the other "to examine and report the several statutes which affect the trade and manufactures of the Colonies." Upon this latter, composed of eleven delegates, one from each Colony represented in the Congress, Mr. ISAAC Low sat for New York.
The opinions of MR. Low are given in John Adams' sketches of the debate. On the 6th of October MR. Low said,
"Gentlemen have been transported by their zeal into reflections upon an order of men who deserve it the least of any men in the community. (It is clear that he was defending the merchants from some unjust attack.)
" We ought not to deny the just rights of our mother country. We have too much reason in this Congress to suspect that independency is aimed at.
" I am for a resolution against any tea, Dutch as well as English.
" We ought to consider the consequences, possible as
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well as probable, of every resolution we take, and provide ourselves with a retreat or a resource.
" What would be the consequence of an adjournment of the Congress for six months ? or a recommendation of a new election of another to meet at the end of six months ? Is not it possible they may make it criminal, as treason, misprision of treason, or felony, or a præmunire, both in the Assemblies who choose and in the members who shall accept the trust? Would the assemblies or members be intimi- dated ? Would they regard such an act ?
" Will, can the people bear a total interruption of the West India trade ? Can they live without rum, sugar, and molasses ? Will not this impatience and vexation defeat the measure ? This would cut up the revenue by the roots, if wine, fruit, molasses, and sugar were discarded as well as tea.
" But a prohibition of all exports to the West Indies will annihilate the fishery, because they cannot afford to lose the West India market, and thus would throw a multitude of families in our fishing towns into the arms of famine."
On the 20th October the Congress formed itself into an ASSOCIATION of Non-Importation and Non-Exportation, and to this agreement Mr. Low subscribed his name.
The first Continental Congress, although but ill fitted, from the want of uniformity in the representation of the different Colonies to assume the functions of government, was a great step towards union. They styled themselves " the guardians of the rights and liberties of the Colonies." They walked in the old beaten track trodden in 1765. They put forth a "Declaration of Rights," but their sole measure of redress was the Non-Exportation Act, to take effect after the 10th of September, 1774, and the Non-Im- portation Act, to date from the 1st of December of the
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same year. It finally dissolved itself on the 26th October, 1774.
Agreeably to the resolution of Congress, the Committee of Correspondence appointed a day for an election of sixty Persons, who were styled " The Committee for carrying into execution the Association entered into by the Continental Congress." Of this Committee of Sixty, or Observation, as it is generally called, elected by the freeholders at large of the city, MR. Low was also the Chairman.
In March, 1775, the New York Assembly, having re- fused to appoint delegates to the second continental Con- gress, the Committee of Observation (of Sixty) recommend- ed the voters of the city to elect deputies to a Provincial Convention, " for the sole purpose of appointing out of their own Body delegates for the next Congress." This election was the occasion of a fresh dispute in the city. MR. Low, and the more moderate men of the old Committee of Cor- respondence, were desirous of confining the number of the New York Delegates to Five, well satisfied that the dele- gates to the First Congress would be renominated, while the friends of McDougall, determined to put him upon the Convention, proposed to raise the number to eleven, and carried this point in the Committee Chamber.
An election was held in the city the 15th March, 1775, and Philip Livingston, John Jay, James Duane, John Al- sop, ISAAC Low, Francis Lewis, Abraham Walton, Abraham Brasher, Alexander McDougall, Leonard Lispenard and Isaac Roosevelt were returned by a great majority of the Delegates for New York.
The next day the counties were asked to join in the Convention.
A Letter addressed to them by MR. Low, on this occa- sion, urged " that the Honour, as well as the Interest of
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the Provinces, requires that New York also should be fully and properly represented in the next Congress," and express- ed the belief that they are "fully sensible that the Happiness of this Colony, and the Preservation of our Rights and Liberties, depend on their acceding to the General Union, and observing such a Line of conduct as may be firm as well as Temperate."
Upon the organization of the Convention, which met at the Exchange in New York, 20th April, 1775, MR. Low did not appear with his colleagues, and, on being called upon by the Secretary, to inform the Convention whether it was to consider him as a member, (as by the terms of their appointment delegates could only be selected out of their own body,) he replied, that as he had given notice to the Committee that, if the number of Delegates for New York was raised to eleven, he should decline to serve and had afterwards published a declaration to the same effect, that the city might fill the vacancy, he should not serve in the Convention. The old wound given by McDougall the year before was not yet healed, and with his usual inde- pendence and tenacity, MR. Low refused to recede from the position he had taken. The respect in which he was held is seen in the mode in which the Convention excuse them- selves from not renominating him to the Congress. They Resolved unanimously " that this Convention, sensible of the services of the Delegates from this Colony, who attended the Continental Congress, in order to express their approba- tion of their conduct, and as a mark of the confidence re- posed in them, have unanimously re-elected all of their Delegates to attend the next Continental Congress at Phila- delphia, except MR. ISAAC Low, who had previously de- clared that the Convention was not to consider him as a member of this Convention, and is therefore ineligible."
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The Convention adjourned on Saturday the 22d.
The next day, Sunday, 23d April, "reports were received from Rhode Island and New London, that an Action had happened between the King's Troops and the Inhabitants of Boston which were not credited ;" but about 12 o'clock an express arrived from Watertown with the details of the fight at Lexington, and later a second Express from Fairfield, with an account of the affair, attested to (as a "true copy, as received by Express from New Haven") by Jonathan Sturges and others of the Fairfield Committee of Correspondence.
" The news,"-says Colonel Willet, an eye-witness and actor in the scenes he narrates,-" produced a general in- surrection of the Populace, who assemblyed and not being able to procure the key of an arsnell where a number of arms belonging to the Colonial Government were deposited, forced open the door and took possession of those arms, consisting of about 600 muskets, with Bayonets and Car- tridge boxes to each, filled with ball cartridges. These arms were distributed among the most active of the citizens who formed themselves into a Voluntary Corps, and assumed the Government of the City. They possessed themselves of the keys of the Custom House, and took possession of all the public stores. There was a general stagnation of busi- ness. The armed citizens were constantly parading about the city without any Definite object."
The letter to the Counties, dated 28th April, alluded to " the distressed and alarming situation of our country, occasioned by the sanguinary measures adopted by the British ministry (to enforce which the sword has actually been drawn against our brethren in the Massachusetts), threatening to involve this Continent in all the horrors of a civil war," as obliging the Committee to "call for the united aid and council of the Colony at this dangerous
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crisis;" and urged that no arguments could be wanting to evince the "necessity of a perfect union ;" and that there was no method in which the united sense of the people of the Province could be collected but the one proposed.
This state of affairs called for new powers, and the Com- mittee of Observation resolved to propose to the people the choosing of a new Committee, and the calling of a Provincial Congress.
NEW YORK COMMITTEE CHAMBER, 26th April, 1775.
The Committee, having taken into consideration the commotions occasioned by the sanguinary measures pur- sued by the British Ministry, and that the Powers with which this Committee is invested respect only the Associa- tion, are unanimously of opinion that a new Committee be elected by the Freeholders and Freemen of this City and County for the present unhappy exigency of Affairs, as well as to observe the Conduct of all Persons touching the Asso- ciation; That the said Committee consist of 100 Persons; that 33 be a Quorum, and that they dissolve within a Fort- night next after the end of the next Session of the Conti- nental Congress ... And this Committee is further unani- mously of Opinion, That, at the present alarming Juncture, it is highly advisable that a Provincial Congress be imme- diately summoned, &c. &c. ISAAC Low, Chairman.
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