USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884, Volume I > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
To New York merchants is due the honor of having invented those two powerful engines of resistance to the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament, and with so much potency at the beginning of the old war for independence-namely, the Committee of' Correspondence and the Non-importation League.
1
CHAPTER III.
F YROM the period of the Stamp Act until the beginning of the old war for independence, in 1775, the merchants of New York bore a conspicuous part in political events tending toward independence. They were leading " Sons of Liberty." For a while the liberal char- acter of the administration of the new governor, Sir Henry Moore, " allayed excitements and animosities ; but the stubborn king and stupid ministry, utterly unable to comprehend the character of the American people and the loftiness of the principles which animated them, con- tinued to vex them with obnoxious schemes of taxation, and kept them in a state of constant irritation.
Before the echoes of the repeal rejoicings had died away, troops were sent to New York, and under the provisions of the Mutiny Act they were to be quartered at the partial expense of the province. They were sent as a menace and as a check to the growth of republican ideas among the people there. Led by the Sons of Liberty, the inhabitants resolved to resist the measure for their enslavement. The Provincial Assembly steadily refused compliance with the terms of the Mutiny Act, and early in 1767 Parliament passed an act prohibiting the gov- ernor and Legislature of New York passing any bill for any purpose whatever. The assembly partially yielded, but a new assembly, con- vened early in 1768, stoutly held an attitude of defiance, and the colony was made to feel the royal displeasure. But the assembly remained faithful to the cause of liberty down to the death of Governor Moore, in 1769. Then Dr. Colden again became acting governor, and an un- natural coalition was formed between him and James De Lancey, son of Peter De Lancey, who was a leader of the aristocracy in the assembly.
Meanwhile the city had been almost continually disquieted by the insolent bearing and outrageous conduct of the troops, who were
* Sir Henry Moore was a native of Jamaica, W. I., where he was born in 1713. He became governor of his native island in 1756, and was created a baronet as a reward for his services in suppressing a slave insurrection there. From 1764 until his death, in September, 1709, he was governor of New York. He arrived in New York in the midst of the Stamp Act excitement in 1765, and acted very judiciously.
29
, OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
encouraged by their officers. On the king's birthday, in 1766, the citizens, grateful for the repeal of the Stamp Act, celebrated it with great rejoicing. On that occasion they erected a flagstaff which bore the words " The King, Pitt, and Liberty." They called it a Liberty Polo, and it became the rallying-place for the Sons of Liberty. This New York idea became popular, and liberty poles soon arose in other provinces as rallying-places for political gatherings of the patriots. When the soldiers came to New York this pole became an object of their dislike, and they cut it down. When, the next day, the citizens were preparing to set up another, they were attacked by the troops, and two of the leading Sons of Liberty were wounded. But the pole was set up. It, too, was soon prostrated, and a third pole was raised, when Governor Moore forbade the soldiers to touch it.
The next spring the citizens of New York celebrated the first anni- versary of the repeal of the Stamp Act around the liberty pole. That night the soldiers cut it down. Another was set up the next day, pro- tected from the axe by iron bands. An unsuccessful attempt to cut it down, and also to prostrate it with gunpowder, were made. The Sons of Liberty set a guard to watch it, and Governor Moore again forbade interference with it. That liberty pole stood in prond defiance until Jamary, 1770, when, at midnight, soldiers issued from the barracks on Chambers Street, prostrated it, sawed it in pieces, and piled them up in front of the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty. The bell of St. George's chapel was rung, and the next morning three thousand indig- nant people stood around the mutilated liberty pole, and by resolutions declared their rights and their determination to maintain them. The city was fearfully excited for three days. In frequent affrays with the citizens the soldiers were generally worsted, and in a severe conflict on Golden Hill, an eminence near Burling Slip at Cliff and Fulton Streets, several of the soldiers were disarmed. When quiet was restored another liberty pole was erected on private ground, on Broadway near Wall Street. This fifth flagstaff remained undisturbed until the Brit- ish took possession of the city in 1776, when it was hewn down by Cunningham, the notorious provost marshal. That fight on Golden Hill in the city of New York between its citizens and royal troops was the first battle of the Revolution. The last battle of that war was fought there between Cunningham and Mrs. Day, at the foot of Murray Street.
With the coalition between Colden and De Lancey a gradual change Itt the political complexion of the Provincial Assembly was apparent. The laven of aristocracy had begun a transformation. A game for
30
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
political power, based upon proposed financial schemes, was begun. A grant for the support of the troops was also made. These things men- aced the liberties of the people. The popular leaders sounded the alarm. Among the most active at that time were Isaac Sears, John Lamb," Alexander McDougall, t and John Morin Scott #-names which will be ever associated as efficient and fearless champions of liberty in the city of New York when the tempest of the Revolution was impending.
In December, 1769, a handbill signed " A Son of Liberty" was posted throughout the city calling a meeting of " the betrayed inhabi- tants" in the Fields. It denounced the money scheme and the assem- bly, and pointed to the coalition as an omen of danger to the State. The call was heeded, and the next day a large concourse of citizens assembled around the Liberty Pole, where they were harangued by John Lamb, one of the most ardent patriots of New York. By unani-
* John Lamb was born in New York on January 1, 1735, and died there May 31, 1800. He was at first an optician, but in 1760 he engaged in the liquor trade. In the ten years' quarrel between the American colonists and the British ministry, Lamb was an earnest and active patriot. He accompanied Montgomery to Quebec in 1775, where he was wounded and made prisoner. He was then a captain of artillery. Exchanged the next summer, he returned to New York, was promoted to major, and attached to the regiment of artillery under General Knox. From the expedition to Quebec at the begin. ning of the war to the siege of Yorktown at the end of it, Lamb was a gallant and most useful officer. He became a member of the New York Assembly. He was appointed collector of customs at the port of New York by President Washington, which office he held until his death.
+ Alexander McDougall was born in Scotland in 1731 ; died in New York June 8, 1786. He came to New York about 1755, and was a printer and seaman when the quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies was progressing. He issued an inflammatory address in 1769, concerning the action of the Provincial Assembly, headed " To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the Colony," and signed " A Son of Liberty." This, the assembly declared, was an infamous and seditious libel. MeDougall was put in prison, and was there visited and regaled by patriotic men and women. He was finally released, and became one of the leading men in civil and military life throughout the war for independence. He entered the army as colonel, and was a major-general in 1777. A delegate in Congress in 1781, he was soon appointed " Minister of Marine" (Secretary of the Navy), but did not hold the office long. He returned to the army. He was chosen a senator of the State of New York in 1783, and held that position at the time of his death.
' # John Morin Scott was born in New York in 1730 ; died there September 14, 1784. He was a graduate of Yale College, became a lawyer, and holding a forcible pen, he joined William Livingston in writing against ministerial measures for years before the breaking out of the war for independence. He was a most active and influential member of the Provincial Congress of New York, and of committees. In 1776 he was made a brigadier-general, and fought in the battle of Long Island. In 1777 he was chosen State senator ; was Secretary of the State of New York, and was a member of Congress 1780-83.
:
Eng-cy CouE Perine NY
JOHN JACOB ASTOR
OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
os vote the proceedings of the assembly were disapproved. Lottee presented the proceedings of the meeting to the assembly, and ser courteously received. Another handbill from the same hand. ened " Legion," appeared the next day, in which the action of the wembly was denounced as " base and inglorious," and charged that tauly with a betrayal of their trust. This second attack was pro- youneed a libel by the assembly, only the stanch patriot Philip Schuy- Wr voting No. They offered a reward for the discovery of the writer. The printer of the handbills, menaced with punishment, told them it was Alexander McDougall, a seaman, who was afterward a conspicuous Glicer in the Continental army. He was arrested, and refusing to prad or give bail, was imprisoned many weeks before he was brought to trial. Regarded as a martyr to the cause of liberty, his prison was the scene of daily public receptions. Some of the most reputable of the citizens sympathizing with him frequently visited him. Being a sailor, he was regarded as the true type of " imprisoned commerce." On the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, his health was drank with honors at a banquet, and the meeting in procession visited him in his prison. Ladies of distinction daily thronged there. Popular songs were written, and sung under his prison bars, and emblematic swords were worn. His words when ordered to prison were, " I rejoice that I am the first to suffer for liberty since the commencement of our glorious struggle." He was finally released on bail, and the matter was wisely dropped by the prosecutors. McDougall was a true type of what is generally known as the " common people"-the great mass of citizens who carry on the chief industries of a country-its agriculture, com- merce, manufactures, and arts-and create its wealth.
Comparative quiet prevailed in New York from the time of the MeDougall excitement until the arrival of the news of Lord North's famous Tea Act, which set the colonies in a blaze. The people every. where resolved to oppose, and not allow a cargo of tea to be landed anywhere. The earliest public meeting to consider the reception that should be given to the tea-ships, which had actually sailed for America, was held in the city of New York on the 13th of October, 1773. Inti- mations had reached the city on the 11th that a tea-ship had been ordered to that port ; and at the meeting held at the Coffee-House in Wall Street, grateful thanks were voted to the patriotic American merchants and shipmasters in London who had refused to receive tea as freight from the East India Company.
When the tea-ship (Nancy) arrived at Sandy Hook (April IS, 1774) the captain was informed by a pilot of the drift of publie sentiment in
32
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
New York, and he wisely went up to the city without his vessel. IIc found that sentiment so strong against allowing him to land his cargo that he resolved to return to England with it. While he was in the city a merchant vessel arrived with eighteen chests of tea hidden in her cargo. The vigilant Sons of Liberty discovered them and cast their contents into the waters of the harbor, and advised the captain of the vessel to leave the city as soon as possible. As he and the commander of the Noney put off in a small boat at the foot of Broad Street for their respective vessels, a multitude on shore shouted a farewell, while the thunders of cannon fired in the Fields shook the city, and the people hoisted a flag on the Liberty Pole in token of triumph. This New York Tea Party occurred several months after the famous Boston Tea Party.
At this juncture the state of political society in New York was pecul- iar. Social differences had produced two quite distinct parties among professed republicans, which were designated respectively Patricians and Tribunes ; the former were composed of the merchants and gentry. and the latter mostly of mechanics. The latter were radicals, and the former joined with the Loyalists in attempts to check the influence of the zealous democrats. Most of the influential merchants were with these Conservatives, and were, as usual, averse to commotions which disturb trade. They hesitated to enter into another non-importation league. They held a public meeting, and appointed a Committee of Fifty-one as " representatives of public sentiment in New York." They publicly repudiated a strong letter which the radicals had sent to their brethren in Boston ; and while the people of other colonies approved non-intercourse, New York, as represented by this Grand Committee, stood alone in opposition to a stringent non-intercourse league. The Loyalists rejoiced, and a writer in Rivington's Gazette exclaimed with exultation :
" And so, my good masters, I find it no joke, For York has stepp'd forward and thrown off the yoke Of Congress, Committees, and even King Sears, Who shows you good nature by showing his ears."
The "Committee of Vigilance" appointed by the Radicals disre- " garded the action of the Grand Committee. They called a mass- meeting of the citizens in the Fields on the 19th of June, 1774. That meeting denounced the lukewarmness of the Committee of Fifty-one. and resolved to support the Bostonians in their struggle. The port of the latter had been closed to commerce by a royal order. It was an insult
.
33
OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
and an injury to the whole continent, and ought to be resented by the whole. Another meeting was called in the Fields at six o'clock in the evening of the 6th of July, " to hear matters of the utmost importance to the reputation of the people and their security as freemen." It was an immense gathering, and was ever afterward known as The Great Meeting in the Fields. A strong resolution in favor of non-importation was adopted, and other patriotic measures were approved. In the crowd was a lad, seventeen years of age, delicate and girl-like in per- sonal grace and stature. Some who knew him as a student at King's (now Columbia) College, of much intellectual vigor, urged him to make a speech. After much persuasion he complied. With rare eloquence and logic he discussed the principles involved in the controversy, de- picted the sufferings Americans were enduring from the oppression of the mother country, and pointed to the means which might secure redress. All listened in wonder to the words of widsom from the lips of the youth, and when he ceased speaking there was a whispered murmur in the crowd, " It is a collegian ! it is a collegian !" That young orator was Alexander Hamilton.
Preparations were now on foot for a general council of the English- American colonies. The citizens of New York took the first step in that direction. The Sons of Liberty, whom the Loyalists called " The Presbyterian Jesuits." moved by the injustice and menaces of the Boston Port Bill, proposed, in May, 1774, by their representative committee, a General Congress of delegates. They sent this proposition to Boston, urging the patriots there to second the proposal. They also sent the same to the Philadelphia committee, and through them to the southern colonies. There was general acquiescence, and early in September delegates from twelve of the colonies met in Philadelphia and formed the First Continental Congress.
This was the beginning of a new era in the world's history. The tempest of revolution which the British king, lords and commons had engendered was about to sweep over the English-American colonies, and by its energy dismember the British Empire and create a new power among the nations of the earth. In the preliminary events which ushered in that era the inhabitants of the city of New York had borne a conspicuous part. They had first planted the seeds of democracy in America, first vindicated the freedom of the press, and first suggested the use of three great forces which led in the successful struggle for the independence of the American people-namely. Com- mittres of Correspondence, Non-importation Leagues, and a General Congress which foreshadowed a permanent union. In that Congress
34
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the city of New York was represented by James Duane, " John Jay, Philip Livingston, and Isaac Low-men who took an important part in its deliberations. One of them (John Jay), then only twenty-nine years of age, wrote the able Address to the People of Great Britain, adopted by the Congress, and formed one of those admirable state papers put forth by that body, concerning which William Pitt said in the British Parliament : " I must declare and avow that in all my reading and study of history (and it has been my favorite study-I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world)-that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia."
At that time the city of New York contained a population of about twenty-two thousand. The city had expanded northward on the narrow island. Streets were opened on the west side of Broadway as far as Reade Street, at which point had just been erected the New York Hospital. It was so far out of town that nobody dreamed the little city would extend so far inland within a hundred years. Up the Bowery Lane (now the Bowery), then running through the open country to Stuyvesant's country seat, the streets were laid out as far as Hester Street, and up Division Street, then also a country road, as far as Orchard Street.
There were three newspapers published in the city at that time -- Hugh Gaine's New York Mercury, John Holt's New York Journal, and James Rivington's New York Gazette. The two former were in sympathy with the patriots ; the latter favored the royal side in political discussions. The Journal was the successor of Zenger's Jour- nal, revived by Holt in 1767. When the war for independence broke out, and the British took possession of the city, Gaine and Holt fled, the first to New Jersey, the second up the Hudson River to Kingston. and resumed the publication of their respective papers at the places of
* James Duane was born in the city of New York, February 6, 1733 ; died in Duanes- burg, N. Y., February 1, 1797. He began a settlement in 1765 on the site of Duanes- burg, a part of a large estate which he inherited. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston of the " manor." An active patriot, he was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1774 ; was a member of the New York Provincial Conven- tion,' and was on the committee that drafted the first Constitution of the State of New York. After the British evacuation in 1783 he returned to the city of New York, and was elected the first mayor under the new Constitution. In 1783-84 he was a member of the council and State Senator, and was also a member of the convention of the State of New York which adopted the National Constitution. Mr. Duane was United States District Judge from 1780 to. 1794.
1753002
35
OUTLINE HISTORY, 1600-1830.
their exile. At that time John Anderson, a Scotchman, was publish- ing a small Whig newspaper entitled the Constitutional Gazette. Ile fled to Connecticut. Rivington, who had become zealous in the cause of the crown. remained. Ilis vigorous, sharp, and witty thrusts at the patriotic party so irritated the Sons of Liberty that Isaac Sears, * in the fall of 1775, at the head of a hundred light-horsemen from Con- necticut, went to the city at noonday, entered Rivington's printing establishment at the foot of Wall Street, destroyed his press, and put- ting his type into bags carried them away and made bullets of them.
The First Continental Congress took a strong position in opposition to the obnoxious measures of the British Government. They adopted a general non-importation league under the name of " The American Association." They denounced the slave trade, put forth some able state papers, above mentioned, and sent a copy of their proceedings to Dr. Franklin, then in England. Vigilance committees were appointed to see that the provisions of the association were not evaded. The Congress adjourned to meet again the following May, if public necessity should require them to do so.
The patriotic party in the New York Assembly tried in vain to have that body officially sanction the proceedings of the Continental Con- gress. The leaven of loyalty was at work in that body, and there was much timidity exhibited as the great crisis approached. Conservatism was too strong for the patriots in that body to effect more than the adoption of a remonstrance, but it was so bold in its utterances that Parliament refused to accept it.
When the assembly adjourned in April, 1775, it was final. It never met again. The people in the city took public matters into their own hands. They had appointed a committee of sixty to enforce the regu-
* Isaac Sears was born at Norwalk, Conn., in 1729; died in Canton, China, October 28, 1786. He was one of the most zealous and active of the Sons of Liberty in New York, when the war for independence was a-kindling. When political matters arrested his attention, Sears was a successful merchant in New York, carrying on trade with Europe and the West Indies. Previous to engaging in trade he commanded a privateer. He lost his vessel in 1761, and then settled in New York. In the Stamp Act excitement he became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, and so bold and active did he become that he received the name of " King Sears." The Tories and the Tory newspaper (Riving- ton's) maligned, ridiculed, and caricatured him without stint. Sears retaliated ou Rivington. One day in November, 1775, he entered the city at the heart of a troop of Connecticut horsemen, and in open day destroyed Rivington's printing establishment. He became General Charles Lee's adjutant in 1776, but did not remain long in the mili- tary service. When the war was ended his business and fortune were gone, and in 1785 he sailed for Canton as a supereargo, He siekened on the passage, and died soon after his arrival in China.
36
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
lations of the association. The assembly having refused to make provision for the appointment of delegates to the Second Continental Congress, it was determined to organize a Provincial Congress. Dele- gates from the several counties met in New York on the 20th of April and appointed delegates to the Congress-namely, Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Simon Boerum, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, Philip Schuyler, George Clinton, Lewis Morris, Francis Lewis, and Robert R. Livingston.
When news of the conflicts at Lexington and Concord reached New York, five days after their occurrence, the citizens were greatly excited. All business was suspended. The Sons of Liberty, who had gathered arms, distributed them among the people, and a party formed them- selves into a revolutionary corps under Captain Samuel Broome, and assumed temporarily the functions of the municipal government, for it was known that the mayor was a loyalist. They obtained the keys of the Custom-House, closed it, and laid an embargo upon every vessel in port. This done, they proceeded to organize a provisional government for the city, and on the 5th of May the people assembled at the Coffee- House, chose one hundred of their fellow-citizens for the purpose, invested them with the charge of municipal affairs, and pledged them- selves to obey the orders of the committee. It was composed of the following substantial citizens :
Isaac Low, chairman ; John Jay, Francis Lewis, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, James Duane, Evert Duyckman, William Seton, William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinkerhoff, Henry Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beekman, Isaac Roosevelt, Gabriel HI. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jav, Samuel Broome, John De Lancey, Augustus Van Horne, Abraham Durvee, Samuel Verplanck. Rudolphus Ritzema, . John Morton, Joseph Hallet, Robert Benson, Abraham Brasher, Leonard Lispenard. Nicholas Hoffman, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Thomas Marsten. Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazer Miller, Jr., John Broome, John B. Moore, Nicholas Bogart, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, William Goforth. Hercules Mulligan, Alexander McDougall. John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony. Thomas Smith, Richard Yates, Oliver Templeton. Jacobus Van Landby, Jeremiah Platt, Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacob Lefferts. Anthony Van Dam. Abraham Walton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roosevelt, Cornelius P. Low. Francis Bassett. James Beekman, Thomas Ivers, William Dunning. John Berrien. Benjuinin
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.