History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 45

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 45

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At the appointed hour, on Monday, the sixteenth of May, the Long-room, in Sam. Franeis's Tavern,2 was crowded with anxious and determined men, evi- dently not entirely of one mind, and not indisposed, in some instances, at least, to enforce whatever differ- ences of opinion and purpose might arise, with some- thing more tangible than words, should such an enforcement, in their opinion, become necessary.

Those whom the " Advertisement" had invited were present, in large numbers, and evidently well-pre- pared for harmonious and dceisive action, limited only by the terms of the invitation ; and there were present, also, in much smaller numbers, including

some who were not " Merchants " and who had not been invited,3 those who assumed to be the leaders of the unfranchised masses, who had also sccured harmoni- ons action, among themselves, by previous factional consultation.4 Isaac Low,5 a prominent Merchant, was called to the Chair; and Resolutions were adopted, " by a great Majority," in each instance, First, that it was necessary, then, " to appoint a Com- " mittec to correspond with the neighbouring Colo- " nics on the present important Crisis;" Second, that "a Committee be nominated, on that Evening, for "the Approbation of the Public ;" and, Third, that the Committee consist of fifty persons.6

As the matter in dispute, between the two antagon- istic faetions, related only to the designation of those who should control the local politics of the day and what should be realized from those politics, it is not probable that any material opposition was made to the first and second of the three Resolutions which were adopted by the Caucus-none has been men- tioned by any contemporary writer-but when the third was proposed, those who assumed to represent the unfranchised masses made an attempt to reduce the number from fifty to twenty-five, by which means they hoped to be able to control the action of the Committee, notwithstanding they were so few in num- ber; but their proposed amendment to the original Resolution was promptly rejected, “ by a great Ma- "jority." 7

With very great good judgment, the majority of the Caucus evidently treated the minority with respectful consideration, notwithstanding the former steadily

1 The reader need only turn to the history of existing political parties, bekl togetber by " the cohesive power of public plunder," for an illus- tration of the structure, the aims, and the policy of that confederated party of the Opposition, in Colonial New York, and of the factional strng- gle, within itself, for the control of its united action and, most of all, for that of the distribution of such "spoils " as, in case of the party's suc- cess, should fall into the hands of the " victors."

"We are not insensible of the fact that the Caucus is generally stated to have been held at the Exchange, which occupied the middle of Broad- street, nearly opposite the Tavern ; and that an entry in the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence stated, specifically, that it was held in that building. But it was called, in the original " Advertisement," very definitely, " to meet at the house of Mr. Samuel Francis ; " in none of the contemporary descriptions of the Caucus which we have seen, was it said or intimated that the assemblage left the Tavern, for any purpose, before the formaladjournment of the Caucus ; and in the second " Ad- "vertisement," published on the day after the Caucus, by its officers and under its authority, inviting the body of the inhabitants of the City to meet at the Coffee-house, to confirm or amend the official acts of that ('ancus, it was said, in its description of that preliminary meeting, after a recital of the fact that it was called " to meet of the House of Mr. Sam- "uel Francis," that "a very respectable and large number of the Mer- "chants and other Inhabitants did accordingly appear at the time and " place appointed, and then and there nominated for the approbation of " the public, a Committee of fifty persons," etc. With these as our au- thorities, we prefer to differ from those who bave preceded ns; and to in-ist, as we do insist, that the C'aucus was held, without interruption or removal, in Sam. Francis's Long-roomu.

For the reasons stated, we prefer to differ, also, from our friend, Ed- ward F. de Lancey, who has stated, in his carefully prepared Votes to Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary Il'ur (i., 438, 439) that the l'aucus was hehl in "the Exchange, to which place it adjourned "from Fraunces's Tavern, where it was called, on account of the great "· attendance."

3 Compare the terms of the ".Advertisement" calling the Caucus, "in- "viting the Merchants to meet," etc., with the official description of those who had been present at that Caucus, which was contained in the pub- lished call for the meeting at the Coffee-house, to confirm or amend the doings of that Caucus-" a very respectable and large number of the " Merchants and other Inhabitants did accordingly appear."

4 A small broadside, containing a list of twenty-five names of persons who were " nominated by a Number of respectable Merchants and tho " Body of Mechanics of this City, to be a Committee of Correspondence "for it, with the Neighboring Colonies," may be seen in the Library of the New York Historical Society. It was evidently the result of a con- sultation of those who assumed to have been the leaders of the masses of the nnfranchised inhabitants of the City.

It is a noticeable fact, however, that that list of nominees, with only three of the names stricken from it, was incorporated in the larger list which was nominated by the Caucus.

5 " Low belonged to the Church of England, a person unboundod in "ambition, violent and turbulent in his disposition, remarkably obsti- " nate, with a good share of understanding, extremely opinionated, fond "of being tho head of a party, and never so well pleased as when " Chairman of a Committee or principal spokesman at a mob meeting. " His principles of government inclined to the republican system."- (Jones's Ilistory of New York during the American Revolution, i., 35.)

Mr. Low, subsequently, became a Loyalist ; was stripped of his prop- erty, by confiscation ; was attainted ; and retired to England, where he died in 1791 .- (Sabine's Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, original edition, 430 ;- the same, second edition, ii., 32, 33.)

6 Proceedings of the Concus, printed ou a broadside, for general circu- lation, a copy of which is in the Library of the New York Ilistorical Society.

: Proceedings of the Caucus, original edition ; de Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New York, i., 439 ; Leake's Memoir of General John Lumb, 87 ; Dawson's Park and its Vicinity, 33 ; Bancroft's United States, original edition, vii., 41, 42 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 326, 327.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

maintained its own ground and voted down every at- tempt to oust it, which was made by the latter; and in making the nomination of the fifty whom it pro- posed for the Committee of Correspondence, it did no more than to drop the names of three of those whom the minority had already selected, as its proposed Committee of Twenty-five, and to slip into the list of the twenty-two who were retained, without breaking the order in which they had been arranged on the original list, the names of twenty-eight other persons with whom the promoters of the Caucus were better pleased-as nearly the entire minority was included in the list of nominees, giving it a small share of the responsibilities and of the honors or dishonors of the proposed Committee, its opposition to the action of its aristocratic and conservative opponents appears to have ceased ; and the establishment of the proposed Committee of Fifty, by the body of the inhabitants, was, thereby, assured.

It appears to have been a part of the plan of those who had called and controlled the Caucus, to submit the result of its deliberations to the body of the in- habitants of the City, for its consideration and ap- proval ; and nothing had occurred, within the Cau- cus, to make any change in that plan necessary. Accordingly, on the day after the meeting of the Caucus [Tuesday, May 17] they published a Card, ad- dressed "To the Public," in which "the Inhabitants " of this City and County " were " requested to attend " at the Coffee-house, on Thursday, the 19th instant, "at 1 o'clock, to approve of the Committee nominated " as aforesaid, or to appoint such other persons as, in "their discretion and wisdom, they may seem meet." 1

Notwithstanding the meeting at the Coffee-house was called at one o'clock, an hour when every Me- chanic and Laborer would probably be employed in his daily labor, it is said that "a great concourse of " the Inhabitants " assembled at that place,2 at the ap- pointed time, [Thursday, May 19, 1774, at one o'clock;] and we are also told that the assemblage was addressed by Isaac Low, who was in the Chair; that some dis- cussion arose, which resulted in the addition of Fran- cis Lewis to the proposed Committee, increasing the

1 Advertisement " To the Public," calling the Meeting at the Coffee- honse, dated " NEW-YORK, Tuesday, May 17, 1774," copied into the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence.

See, also, the same Advertisement and an editorial note thereon, in Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1637, NEW-Yoak, Thursday, May 19, 1774 ; and Rivington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 57, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 19, 1774; Gaine's New York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1178, NEW- YORK, Monday, May 23, 1774 ; Lientenant-gorernor Colden to Governor Tryon, " SPRING-HILL, 31st May, 1774 ;" the same to the Earl of Dart- mouth, "NEW-YORK Ist June 1774;" Leake's Memoir of General John Laub, 87 ; Dawson's Park and its l'icinity, 33 ; etc.

2 " The Coffee-house," that place which was so frequently mentioned in the commercial as well as in the political affairs of the City, stood on the southeastern corner of Wall and Water-strects, opposite the "Slip" which bore its name.

Mr. de Lancey, in his Notes on Jones's History (i , 439) says it was on the "sontheast corner of Wall and Pearl Streets ; " but he was certainly in error. Stevens, in his Progress of New York in a Century, 1776-1876, 25, correctly described the site of the old " Merchants' Coffee-honse."

number of that Committee to fifty-one ; and that, the unfranchised masses having been placated by the ad- dition of another of their leaders to the proposed Committee of Correspondence, the entire list of nomi- nees was confirmed, without farther opposition.3

3 Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence ; Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1638, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 26, 1774; Gaine's New - York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1178, NEW-YORK, Monday, May 23, 1774 ; Lieu- tenant governor Colden to Governor Tryon, "SPRING-HILL, 31st May "1774 ; " the same to the Earl of Dartmouth, " NEW-YORK, 1st June 1774;" History of the War in America, (Duhlin : 1779) i., 22; Dunlap's New York, i., 453 ; Hildreth's United States, First Series, iii., 35 ; Bancroft's l'uited Stutes, original edition, vii., 42, 43 ; Frothingham's Rise of the Re- public, 327 ; Bancroft's United States, centenary edition, iv., 327, 328; Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, 22-26; Dawson's Park and its Vicinity, 33.

Notwithstanding the important results which the appointment of thnt Committee of Correspondence produced, it was not even alluded to by Stedman, (History of the American l'ar ;) Mercy Warren, ( History of the American Revolution ;) Morse, (Annals of the American Revolution : ) Pitkin, (History of the United States ;) Lossing, (Seventeen hundred and seventy-si.c; History of the United States, edition of 1837 ; and Field-book of the Revolu- tion ;) and inany others.

Judge Jones, (History of New l'ork, during the Revolutionary War, i., 34) supposed the "Committee was chosen," at the Caucus, at Sam. Fran- cis's; and made no allusion to the Meeting at the Coffee-lionse, where it " was chosen." Doctor Gordon, ( History of American Revolution, Lon- don : 1788, i., 361, 362,) said the Cancns was called by Sears, McDongal, and others of the popular party, so called ; that " the Tories," or gov- ernmental party, opposed them, in the Cancns ; that Sears secured the appointment of a fifty-second member of the Committee ; and that the whole subject was disposed of by the Cancns. He made the minority of the Cancus, the victors; and did not allude to the Meeting at the Coffee-house. Doctor Ramsay, (History of the American Revolution, Lon- don : 1791, i., 114,) said "the Whigs and Tories were so nearly balanced " in New-York, that nothing more was agreed to at the first meeting of " the inhabitants," [after the receipt of the Boston Port-bill] "than a " recommendation to call a Congress," although, in truth, the subject of a Congress was not even allnded to, at either the Caucus or the Coffee- house. "Paul Allen," (History of the American Revolution, i., 186) said, " At New York, there was a considerable struggle between the friends " of Administration and the friends of Liberty ; hut the latter at length "prevailed, by the influence and management of two individnals, who "had, on several occasions, manifested great activity and zeal, in their "opposition to the obnoxious measures of the Ministry," although, in trntil, the friends of the Government took no part whatever in the poli- tics of that particular period ; and the conflict was only between rival factions of the same party of the Opposition to the Government, each contending for the control of that particular party, while both professed to be equally opposed to the Government. It is also true that those to whom this author referred, as the prevailing faction, were the minority, were ont voted and in every other respect were entirely defeated. Grahame, (History of the l'uited States, London : 1836, iv., 349,) said, " At New " York the members and activity of the Tory party restrained the As- " sembly and the people at largo from publicly expressing their senti- " ments with regard to the treatment of Massachusetts ;" although, in truth, the friends of the Home Government were, then, so greatly in the minority that they did nothing whatever to restrain the popular feelings ; while the utterances of both the Committee of Correspondence and the General Assembly were as unequivocally antagonistic to the Home Government's Colonial policy, as anything which appeared else- where. He made no allusion whatever to either the Cancus or the Meeting at the Coffee-house. Ilildretli (History of the United States, First Series, iii., 35) said that the old Committee of the "Sons of Liberty " " was dissolved and a new one elected," without alhiding to either the Canens or tho Meeting at the Coffee-house ; although, in fact, the Com- mittee of Correspondence of an early date had ceased to exist when the Stamp-Act wasrepealed ; and neither that nor any other Committee was alluded to, in the slightest degree, during the proceedings now under consideration ; notwithstanding those who had composed the Committee, in their individual capacities, in many instances, are knowu to have participated in both the Caucus and the Meeting at the Coffee-house. Bancroft (History of the United States, original edition, vii., 41 : the same, centenary edition, iv., 326) made " the old Committee " of "the Sons of

187

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

By the direct action of the body of the inhabitants of the City, thus dnly called, and assembled at the Coffee-house, for that specifie purpose, all the diseord- ant elements of the party of the Opposition to the Home Government, in New York, were seemingly consolidated and placed under the leadership of the Committee of Fifty-one, which was, then and there, appointed for that ostensible purpose ; and those who had taken alarm at the growing andacity of those who were assuming to be the leaders of the unfranchised masses, were gratified with ample evidenee of the faet that the well-considered " art" which those who had planned the Caucus at Sam, Franeis's and the Meet- ing at the Coffee-house had employed, in order to cheek the rising pretensions and power of the working, revolutionary multitude, in political affairs, had been erowned with an abundant sueeess. There had been, indeed, a display of wise caution and great taet, as well as of well-concealed duplieity, in all which had been done by those aristocratie, conservative politi-

" Liberty," "convoke the inhabitants of their City " to the Caucus at Sam. Francis's, although it was called by their aristocratic and conserva- tive rivals in the party of the Opposition, and without any consultation with that Committee, if there was ono, or with those who were in har- mony with it. He said, also, " the Motion prevailed to supersede the " old Committee of Correspondence by a new one of fifty ;" although neither of the three Resolutions of the Caucus contained the slightest allusion to any such supersedure, nor to any other Committee or body or person whatever than to the proposed Committee of fifty, which it nominated. Ile said of the Meeting at the Coffee-house, "and the nom- "ination of the Committee was accepted, even with the addition of Isaac " Low as its Chairman, who was more of a loyalist than a patriot ; " althongli, in fact, Isaac Low's name was on the list which had heen nominated at the Cancus, against which no opposition was made ; and the only " addition " which was made by the Meeting was that of Fran- cis Lewis, whose name had been included on the original list of the minority, and rejected by the Caucus. The Meeting at the Coffee-house made no attempt to supply the Committee of Fifty-one with a Chairman, in the person of Isaac Low, as Bancroft lias stated : Isaac Low was called to that place by the Committee itself, at its first Meeting, on Monday, May 23, as its Minutes abundantly prove. Doctor Sparks, (Life of Gourerneur Morris, i., 22,) merged the doings of the Caucus and the Meeting at the Coffee-house, into one mass; mado Isaac Sears the master spirit of all that was done ; and said " the Committee consisted of "a nearly equal number of both parties, but with a preponderance on " the liberal side; " although the truth was, the friends tho Home Gov- ernment took no part whatever, in either of those meetings; that both were composed of only those who opposed the Home Government ; that the struggle, in each of the two assemblages, was between conflicting factions of the latter party ; that, in both, the faction of the aristocratic conservative element of the party ontvoted and defeated the faction rep- resenting, or pretending to represent, the unfranchised masses ; that the Committee contained a large proportion of those who belonged, at that time, to the aristocratic conservative faction of the party ; and that it is not known, nor is it supposed, that a single person was named on the Committee, who was not, at that time, opposed to tho Coloninl policy of the Home Government. Indeed, as Judge Jones, whose opportunities for ascertaining the exact truth and whose integrity and fearlessness in nttering it no one will serionsly mestion, has emphatically stated, "all parties, denominations, and religions, apprehended, at that time, " that the Colonies labonred under grievances which wanted redressing :" and no one, therefore, opposed any reasonable movement which tended, or appeared to tend, to a peaceful redress of those serious grievances.

It will be seen, from this comparison of the original anthorities with tho use which has been made of them by the several leading writers of history in our country, just how little or how minch reliance can lma placed on what is called " history, " in what relates to less important subjects, while this, which was second to few others, in the history of the Revolution, has been treated with so little of respect and of fidelity to tho truth.

eians ; and, very evidently, they had fairly overeome their plebeian, revolutionary rivals, in an appeal to the body of the inhabitants. With a complete knowl- edge of the small number of those who had previously assumed to represent the masses of the unfranchised inhabitants, and with as complete a knowledge of the general harmlessness of those masses, in the absenee of their self-constituted leaders, the high-toned pro- moters of the unpublished scheme of abridging the political power of the great body of the people had disarmed the former of their animosity, by rendering them harmless, as the helpless minority of the Com- mittee of Fifty-one1-an empty honor with which, however, for the time being, they were evidently satisfied-while the latter were made contented, for a short time, also, by receiving a reeognition of their politieal pretensions, in the privilege which was ex- tended to them of confirming or rejecting the nomi- nations made by the Caucus, among whom, with two or three exceptions, the names of their self-constituted leaders were conspicuously presented. 2

1 Lientenunt-governor Colden to Governor Tryon, "SPRING-HILL 31st " May, 1774 ; " the same to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK June Ist " 1774; " Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary ll'ar, i., 34; Leake's Memoir of General John Lamb, 87 ; Dawson's History of the Park and its Vicinity, 33 ; Bancroft's United States, original edition, vii., 41, 42 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 327 ; etc.

Of the fifty-one members of the Committee, a very great majority were of the aristocratic, conservative, anti revolutionary portions of the inhab- itants. On the fourth of July, when a test question was before it, thirty- eight members being present, only thirteen votes were cast by those who assumed to represent the unfranchised inhabitants ; and in the greater contest, three days afterwards, on Mr. Thurber's Resolution, disavowing the proceedings of the great popular "Meeting in the Fields," over which Alexander McDongal had presided, only nine votes were cast in opposition to the vote of disavowal.

It may also bo stated, in this place, that, notwithstanding none of the fifty-one, at that time, were of the Governmental party, but, on the con- trary, that every one was earnestly opposed to the Colonial policy of the Home Government, twenty-one of the number, at a subsequent period, became acknowledged Loyalists ; that a considerable number took no active part in the proceedings of tho Committee, but could have been relied on, by the aristocratic, conservative leaders, had their presence and their votes been, at any time, needed ; and that a greater number than there were of the last-named class-a working majority of the Commit- tee, indeed-included such as John Alsop, Gabriel 11. Ludlow, John Jay, and James Duane, who invariably acted and voted with the aristocratic, anti-revolutionary portion of the Committee, and, until they became candidates for the Congress, always in opposition to the revolutionary leaders and the revolutionary purposes.

Well might the exiled Judge, Thomas Jones, writing of this Commit- tee, in the light of subsequent events, say, within ten years of its crea- tion, notwithstanding what he had said of the opposition to the Colonial policy of the Home Government, which all of them had presented, " The "majority were real friends to Government." -( History of New York dur- ing the Revolutionary War, i., 34.)

" For the purpose of providing an additional anthority, concerning much that has been stated, in this work, concerning the relations which existed between the confederated " Merchants and Traders " and other high-toned citizens, and the more numerons, but unfranchised, " Inhabi- " tants of the City and County ; " concerning the desire of the tormer to abridge the intluence which had been seenred by the latter, while they were subject to the frequent appeals of the former ; and concerning the formation of the "Committee of Correspondence," since known as the "Committee of Fifty one," for the purpose of recovering, to the confed- erated, conservative " Merchants and Traders " and the Gentry, the con- trol of the political affairs of the City, we invite attention to the follow- ing very important Letter, written by a Westchester-county gentleman, | who, when he could no longer serve the party of the Home Government,

188

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

The Committee which was thus created by the aris- tocratic, anti-revolutionary portion of those who, at that time, were opposing the Colonial policy of the Home Government, was largely intended, as we have shown, to serve as a check on the rising power, in political affairs, of the unfranchised Mechanics and Workingmen of the City of New York, especially of the revolutionary faction of those Working-men, while it would tend, also, to concentrate in "the Merchants "and Traders " and Gentry of the City, thus confed- crated for the exercise of it, all of that political power, especially in matters of national concern, which that City and Province, at that time, could command, without the existence of a thought, among those who had promoted the scheme, if such a thought had any-

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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 45

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