History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 44

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1 " The dispute between Great Britain and America commenced in the "year 1764, with an attempt to prevent smuggling in America."-A Collection of Interesting, Authentic Papers relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America. 1764 to 1775. London : 1777-commonly known as Almon's Prior Documents-3.

See, also, the following official announcement, which was published in Parker's New-York Gazette; or, the Weekly Post-boy, No. 932, NEW YORK, Thursday, November 13th, 1760, which tells the whole story :

"Custom-house, New-York, Nov. 11th, 1760.

"WHEREAS wo are informed, that soure of our Traders from Foreign "Ports, are now, and have been for some Time, hovering in the Sonnd "on the Coast, with the View, as it is supposed, clandestinely to discharge "their Cargoes ; a Practice highly prejudicial to His Majesty's Interest, "to the Trade of Great-Britain, and inconsistent with that Duty, and "Gratitude we owe to our Mother Country, almost exhausted with "Taxes raised for our Support and Defence. And not less injurious to "the fair Trader ; who having paid high Duties, cannot be supposed to "sell so cheap, as those that pay no Duties, and of Course must be great "Sufferers. That this has been the Case, and is like to be the Case "again, is notoriously known ; and all for the sake of enriching a few "Smugglers ; which together with that of supplying our Enemies with "Provisions,* will be an eternal Reproach to our Country. No good " MIan therefore, nor good Citizen, it is to be hoped, will hesitate in "giving all the Discouragement in his Power, to such ignominions " l'ractices. Informations, openly, or privately will be thankfully re- "ceived, and gratefully, if required, rewardled, by

"THE OFFICERS OF HIS MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS."

* At that time, Great Britain was nt War with France and Spain, to whose Colonies, in the West Indies especially, Provisions were taken, by the Colonial Merchants, in exchange for those Goods, of foreign growth and production, which they sought to smuggle into the British Colonies, on the Atlantic seaboard, as above stated.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ployed it, to resist the execution of the Stamp-Act, to prevent the landing of the East India Company's Tea, and to make other demonstrations of seeming popular approval or disapproval, on other subjects of public polity or of governmental policy, whenever the political or the pecuniary interests of those "Gentlemen in Trade" who had employed it, seemed to warrant the outlay of the means which had been required to produce a desired result: to our hand, meanwhile, can be assigned, of all the various impor- tant subjects comprising the political and military histories of the Colony or of the Continent, at all periods, only the description of those events, during the period of the American Revolution and that of the War which followed and established that political Revolution, which, in themselves or in the conse- quences arising from them, directly affected the peace, the happiness, or the interests of those who, during those eventful periods, were residents of the rural County of Westchester, in New York.

The urgent appeals with which the newspapers had been filled, year by year, and the inflammatory hand- bills which had been posted throughout the City, whenever the purposes of "the Merchants and " Traders " of the City of New York had required their powerful, but, sometimes, questionable, co oper- ation in opposing the Colonial policy of the Home Goverument, had gradually taught "the Inhabitants" of that City -as, on such occasions only, the unfran- chiscd Mechanics and Workingmen were delicately called, by those who had thus resorted to them-with more or less thoroughness, concerning the personal aud political " Rights of Man and of Englishmen," as those Rights had been defined, from time to time, by those " Merchants and Traders " or by their well-paid Counsel, for the promotion of the particular purposes of those more aristocratic gentlemen; and these " In- " habitants " had also learned, from all those varied teachings and from their own well-trained reflections, that the particular Rights which had been so earn- estly and learnedly claimed by their high-toned neighbors, were not less the Rights of the nnfran- chised masses, and equally the birthright of their children. Little by little, therefore, under the leader- ship of, probably, not more than half a dozen shrewd and able and ambitious men, generally of higher social and political standing than themselves, these "In- " habitants " began to grow uneasy and insubordinate, if not radically revolutionary ; and the confederated " Merchants and Traders " and the more aristocratic portion of the citizens who were not in Trade were as quickly made sensible that a power had been created and fostered, by themselves, for their own lawless purposes, which, because of its tendency to- wards a radical Revolution in both the social and politi- cal relations of the Colony, they were no longer able to control-a power, indeed, which, if it were not speed- ily and effectually checked, would surely overwhelm them and, probably, involve the Colony and the Con-

tinent in revolution and disaster. At the same time, it was clearly seen by those careful observers of the signs of the times, that any attempt to abridge the existing power of the unfranchised "Inhabitants " of the City, and, especially, that of those who were less scrupulous iu the selection of their means, by open and direct measures, would, probably, induce the latter to employ, in their own behalf, that system of violence which they had been taught to regard as commenda- ble and praiseworthy, when they had employed it in behalf of others; and it was seen, also, by those who had become alarmed by the strength and the audacity of that new element in Colonial politics, strengthened, as it evidently was, by its affiliation with the radically revolutionary elements in New England, the ma- chinery of the by-gone Committees of Correspondence being controlled by it, that, in order to check its growing power, or to secure any change whatever, in the control of it, or to retain the control of the poli- tics of the Colony, great caution and great tact, if not great promptness and great boldness, at some auspi- cious moment, would be absolutely necessary. An evident danger silenced those who, under other cir- cumstances, would, probably, have favored the employment of other and more direct mcans: wise counsels prevailed among those who were thus con- sidering in what manner the evidently rising power and audacity of the unfranchised and revolutionary masses could be controlled, without disturbing the peace of the City and the Colony: and it was deter- mined, with much shrewdness, to resort to "art," at the earliest favorable opportunity, for the accom- plisliment of their well-concealed purposes.1 Such an opportunity as was desired for the purposes referred to, was very soon afforded.

The tea-laden Nuncy, Captain Lockyer, had been turned back to Europe, without having been permit- ted to enter the harbor ; 2 the cargo of the London, Captain Chambers, had been overhauled, in Whitehall- slip, in open day, by men wearing no disguises; and eighteen chests of Tea, which had been concealed in her hold, had been emptied into the East-river ; 3 and the populace was quietly reposing on the revolution-

1 Although there is abundant evidence to support this statement, it has been so completely and so graphically presented by Gouverneur Morris, in a letter addressed to Mr. Penn, which will be printed, in extenso, on page 12-32, post, that no other is regarded as necessary, in this place.

2 Holt's New - York Journal, No. 1633, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 21, and No. 1634, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 28, 1774; Gaine's New- York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1174, NEW-YORK, Monday, April 25, 1774; Lieutenant-governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK, 4th " May, 1774," and the enclosure therein ; the same to Governor Tryon, " NEW " YORK, 4th May, 1774 ; " Dunlap's History of the New Netherlands, Pror- ince of New York, and State of New York, i., 452, 453 ; Leake's Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb, 81-84 ; Dawson's The Park and its Vicinity, in the City of New York, 29-31 ; Graham's History of the United States, iv, 329; Hildreth's History of the United States, iii., 31 ; Gordon's History of the American Revolution, i., 332-334 ; etc.

3 Holt's New- York Journal, No. 1634, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 28, 1774 ; Gaine's New- York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1174, NEW-YORK, Mon- day, April 25, 1774 ; Lieutenant-governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW-YORK, 4th May, 1774," and the enclosure therein ; the same to Gov-

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

ary honors which, in the interest of the commercial classes, it had again secured.1 The master-spirits of

ernor Tryon. "NEW YORK, 4th May, 1774 ; " Dunlap's New York, 1., 452, 453; Leake's Lamb, 82-84; Dawson's Park and its l'icinity, 30, 31; Hildreth's l'aited States, iii., 31.

Notwithstanding the greater significance of the cpposition of New York to the Tea-tax, which was seen in the resolute refusal to allow the storm-shattered Nancy to enter the harbor; in the examination of the cargo of the Loudou, and the open destruction of her concealed Tea, in the light of day, by known men who saw no reason for disguising them- selves ; and in the return of the Nancy, to England, by the Committee who had taken possession of her, at Sandy Ilook ; it has been the cus- tom of New England writers to withhold whatever of honor or dishonor there was in those doings of the party of the Opposition, in New York, while the less significant "tea-party " of Boston has been elaborately presented as a feat of great daring and of the highest grade of patriot- IsDI.

Thins, Mercy Warren ( History of American Revolution ;) " Paul Allen " (History of American Revolution ;) Thacher (Military Journal ;) Morse (Annals of the American Revolution ; ) Pitkin (Ilistory of the U'united States ;) Frothingham ( Rise of the Republic ;) Lodge (Short History of English Col- onies ;) and a multitude of others, make no mention whatever of the subject of the opposition in New York ; and Bancroft, in the octavo edi- tion of his Ilistory of the l'uited States, after alluding, in a dozen words, to the storm which had driven the New York tea-ship to the West In- dies, very conveniently said no more on the subject-a suppression of the truth which he shabbily attempted to mitigate, in his centenary and "thoroughly revised" edition of that work, hy an interpolation of five lines, nearly two of which have no relation whatever to the subject of New York's opposition to the tax ; and nearly two others state, in con- nection with the Nancy, what every novice in the history of those times knows is entirely untrue, in ono of its only two statements concerning her.

Strange to say, Lossing, a New York writer, with all the original ma- terial within his reach and perfectly accessible, in his Seventeen hundred and seventy-six (page 111, ) stated that the Nancy was returned to Europe, only " because no one could be found that would venture to receive the "tea," without an allusion to her having been stopped at Sandy-hook, and returned, thence, to Europe ; and, also, without the slightest allusion to the Loudon and to what hecame of her tea. In his History of the Uni- ted States, (page 221) all that appears, concerning either tho Nancy or the London is that they " returned to England with their cargoes " ; althoughi the Nancy was the only one which thus returned, and then only because she was compelled to return. In his Field Book of the Revolution, after having devoted five pages to the Boston "Tea-party" (i., 497-502) he ventured to appropriate ten lines to the greatly more significant doings of New York, on the same subject.

1 On the fifth of Marcb, 1770, while the motion of Lord North for " leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the Tax Act, as far as related to the " tax on Paper, Glass, and Painters' Colours," was under consideration, before the House of Commons, Governor l'ownall, than whom no one was, then, better informed on every subject connected with America and tho Americans, replied to the Minister, and moved an amendment, to in- clude Tea, also, in the proposed Bill.

In the course of his exceedingly important Speech, on introducing his motion to amend, the Governor said, "The drawback npon those " Teas, exported to America, of twenty-five per cent, does not amount, "as this argument supposes, to one shilling per pound-it amounts to i "only sevenpence half-penny, or thereabouts-so that, did it operate as " a bounty, at all, it would amount to only fourpence half-penny. But "this is not material to the point ; for it does not operate as a hounty, "at all, beranse whatever duty the East India Company pays, originally, "at the Custom-house, on the importing of Teus from Asia, that suun is " added to the price of their Tea, in their sales ; so that, although the "exporter to America may he allowed a drawback, yet he draws back " that sum only which he hath already paid in the price of his purchase, " by which means, as this article of supply now stands, there is an advantage " in farour of the Dutch Tens imported into the Colonies, against the British " Teus, of twenty five per cent. difference."-(Debrett's History, Debates, und Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, 1543 to 1774, v., 204).

The reader will perceive, therefore, that the opposition to the importa- tion of Tea, into America, with its parliamentary tax imposed on it, which the Merchants instigated and encouraged, in the seaports-the opposition was seen no where else than within the shadows of those port- -was composed less of "patriotism " than of love of pelf. The Dutch Teus

the confedcrated party of the Opposition-the Gov- ernment and those who favored it having no part in that matter of division among those who were oppos- ing its policy-were evidently sensible, however, as has been said, that that unseemly confederation of radically antagonistic elements, entirely for the pro- motion of the interests of one of those elements without securing a corresponding advantage to the other, was unnatural, and could not be lasting ; and it was evident, also, to every one, that an open conflict between the conservative aristocratic and the revolutionary democratic elements of the population, without reference to matters of governmental policy, and only for the control of the political power, within the City and Colony, was likely to be commenced, at any moment.

Just at that critical period, in May, 1774, advices were received from Europe,2 of the Government's pro- posal to close the Port of Boston, with a possibility that that of New York would shortly share the same fate ; and it was also said that the Home Government also intended to remove the principal offenders against the Laws, within the Colonies, that they might be tried and punished in England.3 With great tact and plau- sibility and a greater pretension to patriotism, the confederated " Merchants and Traders" and those who possessed their confidence promptly seized that much desired opportunity, for the accomplishment of their sinister purposes; and, with that end in view, they boldly and promptly occupied the place of leaders of the entire City and Colony, in protesting against those measures of the Home Government, and in pro- viding for a systematic opposition to those measures, under their own particular direction, without, how- ever, having recognized the existence or invited the co-operation of the respectable popular element, within the City, nor those of the very few who really repre- sented and controlled that more unruly element of which mobs were composed, both of which omissions, the meaning of which was very evident, subsequently produced serious, if not unexpected and unwelcome, consequences.

For the purposes of the promoters of the proposed change in the leadership of the politicians of the City, to which reference has been made, " an Advertisement" was posted at the Coffee-house, in Wall-street, a noted place of resort for Shipmasters and Merchants, recit- ing "the late extraordinary and very alarming advices " from England; " and "inviting the Merchants to " meet at the house of Mr. Samuel Francis, on Mon- " day evening, May 16, in order to consult on mea-

afforded a much larger profit ; and a disturbance of that line of trade was not, therefore, desirable.

" They were received on Thursday, May 12, by the Samsou, Captuin Couper, the latest ship from London.

3 " Extracts from private letters from London, dated April Tand &, to " persons in New York and Philadelphia," printed on the backs fropies et the Boston Port Bill, and circulated, In broadside form, in New York, May 14, 1774.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"sures proper to be pursued on the present critical "and important occasion." 1

It will be seen that no others than " the Merchants " of the City were invited to attend the proposed Caucus, at Sam. Francis's Long-room ; 2 and that the published purpose was only " to consult on measures proper to "be pursued on the present critical and important "occasion," in neither of which features of the " Ad- " vertisement," prima facie, can it be reasonably said that any stretch of authority had been attempted by those who had called the proposed Caucus-surely, it will not be said there might not be consultations, among Merchants as well as among other classes of the citizens, on any subject whatever, especially on subjects in which they were especially interested, without interference from any other class; and it will hardly be pretended by any one, that, in the instance now under consideration, the Merchants of the City were not peculiarly interested in the subjects of "the " late extraordinary and very alarming advices from " England; " that they might not properly "consult," among themselves, " on measures proper to be pur- "sued on the present critical and important occa- " sion ; " that, for the purpose of such a " consulta- "tion," they might not invite whomsoever they pleased, to meet at a place and time designated, with- out consulting with any other persons or asking permission from any others; and that such a Caucus, thus invited, might not be had, without any interfe-

1 Minutes of the New York Committee of Correspondence. Monday, May 19, 1774 ; Lieutenant-governor Colden to Gorernor Tryon, "SPRING HILL, "31st May, 1774 ;" the same to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW YORK, Ist "June, 1774 ;" Gouverneur Morris to Mr. Penn, "NEW YORK, May 20, " 1774 ;" Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 34 ; etc.

2 " Sam. Francis, " at that time and during many years subsequently, was a noted restaurateur, known to and respected by every one, of every sect and party, in the City of New York, during the later Colonial period, during the entire War, and after the restoration of Peace.

"Francis's Tavern," where this Caucus was held, had been, at an ear- lier period, the residence of the De Lancey Family. It was built in 1701, hy Etienne De Lancey, on a lot of ground which Stephanus Van Cort- landt had given to his daughter, Anne, when, in the preceding year, that lady was married to Mr. De Lancey; and it is still standing on the north- eastern corner of Broad and Pearl-streets, the oldest building in the City of New York.

"Francis's Long-room," in which this Caucus was held, subsequently became more famous than it had previously heen, because it was the room in which the Officers of the Army of the Revolution assembled, on Thursday, the fourth of December, 1783, after the enemy had evacnated the City and the Peace had been entirely established, to take their final leave of their illustrious Chief ; and from which, accompanied by his sorrowful friends-" a solemn, mute, and mournful procession, with " heads hanging down and dejected countenances "-he walked, directly, to Whitehall-slip, and was rowed, thence, to Powle's Hook, now Jersey City, on his way to Annapolis, to which place the Congress had ad- journed, to resign the Command of the Army, with which he had heen invested, in 1775,-(Gordon's History of the War of the Revolution, iv., 383, 384 ; Marshall's Life of Washington, (Phila. Eilit.) iv., 619, 620 ; etc.)

It is proper to be said, in that connection, that Sammel Francis was " a man of dark complexion," probably a mulatto ; that he was known, ordinarily, as "Black Sam ; " and that, when General Washington en- tered the City, on the twenty-fifth of November, " he took up his head- " quarters at the Tavern " of that dusky landlord .- (Dunlap's History of New York, ii., 233, the anthor of which related these circumstances from his own personal knowledge of them.)

rence from any one. There was no appearance of deception in the " Advertisement" through which the Caucus had been invited, in the instance under con- sideration ; and, subsequently, when the Caucus assembled, no attempt appears to have been made to do anything more than the " Advertisement" had authorized, notwithstanding those who had been spe- cifically invited and were present, so largely outnum- bered those uninvited intruders who opposed them, that any change from the terms of the " Advertisement" which they were inclined to make, could have been made-indeed, it appears to have been intended, by the Merchants, only for consultation and for the orderly preparation of measures to be submitted to the body of the inhabitants of the City, at a Meeting to be called for that purpose, for their approval or disapproval, without losing sight, however, of what was the real, substantial purpose of the movement. But those who had hitherto assumed to be the leaders of the unfran- chised masses-the leaders, in fact, however, of only the radically revolutionary portions of those masses, -saw, or assumed to have seen, in that proposed Caucus, a movement which promised to break the hold on the unfranchised element which, since the era of the Stamp Act, they had unceasingly claimed to have maintained ; 3 and to transfer, to some extent, at least, some portion of the leadership of that uncer- tain and, sonictimes, unruly element, in the political affairs of the Colony, to others; and Isaac Sears and his handful of kindred associates, with that audacious disregard of the unquestionable Rights of others which, subsequently, became so conspicuously noto- rious and oppressive, not only determined to thrust themselves into a Caucus to which they had not been invited, but to turn the action of that Caucus from the purposes of those who had called it, and to give to that action a character and direction which would be entirely foreign to the purposes for which the Caucus had been invited. The consequences of that proposcd intrusion and the ill success of that scheme to oust those who had invited the Caucus and to turn into other channels than those which the latter had pro- posed, the action and influence of the Caucus itself, will be seen in the published narrative of the proceed- ings of that notable assemblage-meanwhile, it will be evident to every careful observer, that that separa- tion of the radically antagonistic social and political elements which, united, formcd, at that time, the

3 The Meeting, at Burns's Coffee-honse, on the evening of the thirty- first of October, 1765, for the adoption of measures to prevent the execu- tion of the Stamp-Act, appointed a Committee of Correspondence, com- posed of Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson, to give better effect to its Resolutions, by securing harmonions action, thereon, throughout the entire Continent. The re- peal of that obnoxions Statute, of course, rendered that appointment inoperative ; bnt those who had constituted that Committee, with a half dozen associates, continned to exercise an authority and leadership, among the unorganized and marketahle elements, in the City, until the opening of the War, in 1775, when several of those leaders secured of- fices, and ceased to be the "patriotic " leaders of those who, then, more than ever, needed intelligent leaders.

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

political conglomerate in which had been combined, for purely selfish purposes, the fragmentary opposition, in the Colony of New York, to the Home Govern- ment which was then in authority (each of those antagonistie elements being, in pretension, if not in fact, equally zealous in its loyalty to their common Sovereign) was produced by less of respect for righteousness in politics and of a genuine patriotism than of thirst for individual gain to be derived, as was then supposed, from the internal control of the party of the Opposition and of what should be gained through it-just such a factional contest, within a party composed of radically discordant elements, united for purposes which had served to combine those elements into one body, indeed, as have been seen, very frequently, and such as may be scen, now, not only in New York, but in every other commun- ity in which such ill-formed parties are permitted to exist, and to intrigue, and to deceive.1

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 44

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354